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Yep! She was a 28,000-tonner from the immediate post-war period. There was no general air conditioning (A/C) fitted, nor was there on any BP tanker until the 1960s ( watch someone tell me I'm wrong!). The A/C unit for the officers' smokeroom was a stand-alone unit. I don't know either when BP tankers started to be fitted with a.c. electrics, but for the motorships, I'm pretty sure it was the 'Tree' class, of the early 1960s. The steamers may have been the late 50s. The Eyties certainly had it, and they were 1959 on.

What's that mess at the foot of the mast? I wasn't on deck, but I know of several mates who would have a fit if they saw that!

The wreck at Bandar Mash was an Italian ship no (not one of 'ours', sadly!) . The Crown was at Umm Said. The cause of the explosion was never fully discovered, IIRC, but was not the most likely cause judged to be that there was a build-up of gas behind the midship accommodation on a windless day, and a spark from the officers' smokeroom A/C fan motor set the whole thing off? This was in the days befor closed loading, and leading the tank vents up the foremast; and before Inert Gas Systems were fitted.

BP. About a month off Lagos in the summer of 1976 during the cement crisis; there were. seemingly, crews who spent their entire trips swinging round the hook there at that time. Still, it gave us some practical skills in lifeboat handling! I'll agree with your description of loading terminals up the gulf. Das Island and Umm Said were particularly bad, because you were stuck on the ship. At the latter was the wreck of the ss British Crown to remind you of what could go wrong while you were loading. Similarly at Bandar Mash, of course.

Didn't they just! Which company?

The of the world! Joined my first ship at Ras al Khaimah, bound for Bandar Mash. This is very late July/early August. Second sez to me the following day, (on going down below "Go and help Lecky in the steering flat". So there we were in a steel box, at the top end of the Gulf in August (outside temperature somewhere around 110 degrees F) sliding around in hydraulic oil on the deck, which had leaked from the steering gear. What an introduction to a merchant navy career! Wasn't it renamed Bandar-al-Khomeini after the revolution in 1979?

I remember going to the Rainhll 150 celebration. My memory is that all the exhibits were stabled in the sidings at Bold power station (not far behind the photographer)

3rd carriage LNER and 4th LMS in the last photo?

When I started as a draughtsman, I was told my job was to interpret the engineer's requirements, so that the thing being designed could be manufactured and assembled. There is, to me, no doubt that the engineer will say to the draughtsman at the start of a design "I want this, this and that, using, if possible, these parts; oh, and copy the system from this or that drawing", and then you got on with it.

Having worked as a draffy for 30 years, can I just say that that's quite normal!

Around March the type 2s were "Brushes"; the type 4s were "Duffs"

In at least two ways they were; the first was the brick arch and deflector in the firebox, which enabled locos to burn coal without smoke, rather than using coke. Coal has a higher calorific value than coke. The other was the development of the valve gear that must have been fitted to the vast majority of steam reciprocating engines, worldwide, the so-called Stephenson Link Motion. The Midland also developed the only practical examples of compound locomotives in the UK. On another front, I think they were the first railway company to trial steel rails as opposed to wrought iron.

Are the Hunt and the tanks in the last two photos on the scrap line?

I seem to recall, from reading about the restoration in Steam Railway, weren't the blastpipes built misaligned? So rather than than a poor job at the design stage, it was more at the erection stage. It's the rebuild after restoration that's made her the loco she is now.

I think the LNER inherited the buckeye from the GNR, which had been using it since 1906, when Gresley became C&W Superintendent.

Were the two photos of No. 1870 the same train? Just shows what good-looking locos the original "Clauds" were.

Was that 25 at Ulverston off the road?

Probably been noted elsewhere, but 45717 was a Bank Hall loco. all its life. The service is the Liverpool exchange-York (via the L & Y) express.

Is that the "Scissors Gear" as also applied to the MR '990' class 4-4-0s? (I think I have the class designation correct)

Form 1?

To be fair, BBC Northwest Tonight pushed capacity in their report; with loads of stock video of TPE 170s, Northern Pacers, etc., which they seem to put on every time the railways get a mention.

Eek!

Knew it began with an L

Also the tune for the Luxemburg National Anthem, IIRC

And football referees