HK 67

Thanks, Jeff. Regards Tim.S.

Thanks fromTim.S.

Thanks, Wenlock... Your O gauge is a masterpiece... Regards Tim.S.

Thanks, Mike Regards Tim

Thanks, David...Tim.

Hi Ian, Thanks for your warm Welcome. I went back to visit Barnstaple in the 80s and did some video work of the station and signal box. I interviewed some of the staff that were still left. So, it's possible that your friend is on my film! Hope to hear back from you...Tim

I now live in Beautifull British Columbia. I spent my early years in the colonies, Libia, Cypress, Hong Kong returning to the Uk on leave to visit family in Bristol and Barnstaple. Flying back B.O.A.C. then by train from Paddington to the west. Steam in the early days. The UK was a magical place to me at that time, as everything was British made. Every mode of transport back then had character cars, and buses seemed to have a human face, with their big old style headlights and grills. I loved the place, especially the wonderful characters one would meet back then. By the 70's it all started to change. The railways were being decimated. Transport was foreign made, and yellow lines were everywhere. I decided to leave. I worked in many different countries, eventually settling in Vancouver, BC. Now retired, I have time to model, and I am building somewhat a fine scale model of Barnstaple Junction, the old bridge, and Ilfracombe station. I have many different collections, and one of them is a CPR railway hand car on some track in the garden. Keeps one fit... Tim S. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73897-kowloon-canton-railway-a-proposal/

Hi Keith, Thanks for your reply. Hong Kong was a great place to live, in the 60's, and yes, you are right, there was trouble with the Red Guards at the border. In 1967 they killed 12 Hong Kong police officers and took over their station at the border. Our Gurkhas were sent in to restore order. It did not take long to retake the station. It ended a little messy for the perpetrators…Lots of small bombs were planted that year, and there were riots in Kowloon, and police officers were also killed. In and about the same time my father was there, when at a border fence discussion with six Red Guards, regarding sending work parties to go to no mans land for repairs to the border fence. When a Red Guard thought it would be funny to try and remove the machine gun from one my fathers Gurkha escorts, the second Gurkha with him drew his Kukris and removed the arm of the attacking Red Guard. Arm and gun dropped to the floor…also a little messy! It would be a total dishonour for a Gurkha to be disarmed. The Gurkhas motto “ Better To Die Than Be A Coward “. Two of these Kukris are now on my living room wall. …PS: Keith, not many of us old colonials are around today to tell these stories! Tim.S.

I lived in Fanling New Territories in 1967- 68. My father was attached to a Gurkha regiment out there. Our home was just up the road from the station, I rode the trains regularly and was privileged to know most of the drivers and staff. As they all liked me, I always made them laugh. I was allowed to go where and when I wanted, even ridding on the front of the locos. I never needed a ticket and was never asked for one unless I took the whole trip down to Kowloon. I knew the railway well. Trains were mostly the old type passenger cars, green with black verandas and rotating fans inside the cars. There were lost of pig trains from China, very smelly as they went through. I remember once seeing two steel cars with top hatches put in the back siding full of seawater which was leaking out of the rivet holes. Kids were diving down the hatches pulling out the live fish, big ones at that and then throwing them down to be caught in the baskets below. Lots of good memories from that time. I did start to build a model of the Canton railway but it stopped last year as I am also building a model of Barnstable Junction, the place of my birth. The old Taw Viaduct Bridge and Ilfracombe Station, a 25 feet long, 50 feet in all, and modelling it in fine-scale, so it's lots of work. Here are some of the Kowloon bits of the railway about 1957. The Royal Artillery is being sent up to Low Woo to keep the Red Guards at bay as they always seemed to be causing trouble, and are to this day. Tim.S. Pictures: