roythebus1

Services resumed today, my good friend Calle Strom looking like someone from Thunderbirds with his tram out and about.

Surely the PWMs had mechanical transmission and didn't have a traction motor to de-mesh? As a secondman at Rugby in 1975 a trainee train crew manager by the name of Pipes asked my driver and I to take the 08 to Bletchley for refuelling at 1600. For some reason the signalman point blank refused. Maybe Mr.Pipes hadn't realised that although Bletchly wasn't too far away time-wise on an express, with the 08 at 15 mph he'd be lucky if we got back by the next day! He also failed to take into account the impending evening rush hour on the 2-line sections. Needless to say the move didn't happen.

It's worth looking at the FB group Metropolitan Railway Past and Present, Brian Hardy has recently posted some pics of the Widened Lines and Farringdon sidings with a 6-car red R stock passing through.

Remember the Basillica Fields plan only show the GNR side of the station, it doesn't show the Met Railway "main" (now Circle/H&C) platforms. There was a Met Railway goods depot on the north east (outer rail) side that disappeared under the Vine Street bridge. There's been a couple of pictures of Met electric locos backing wagons into there. Wagons' once "under cover" were shunted by horse to the various sidings under Turnmill Street. One can only speculate on the siding that appears to merge with the "inner rail" line under Vine street. Maybe a left-over from the original Met Railway layout when it was dual-gauge operated by the GWR from opening. Banking locos would be used in either direction, the climb from Farringdon to Snow Hill was quite steep, from 40' below river level to 30' above river level in about half a mile! And towards Kings Cross, the steep curved climb round the Hotel Curve could be "challenging" and would often need a banker. There's been some interesting titbits about that on the Kings Cross loco group on FB.

The Stars on 45 phenomenon was actually started in 1979 with a white-label 12" disco single called "Sounds of the 80's" which included the Beatles medley with the electronic handclap. Due to copyright reasons The Beatles didn't give permission for it to be released, but as I had DeeJay connections I managed to get 5 copies of it. About a year or so later the durch group known as Starsound done their version of the same medley which I must admit is a very good copy sound-wise of the originals. That then set the trend of medleys for the next few years! In fact I played the original 12" disc to a local record shop owner who swore it wasn't The Beatles. Like the man at Decca who turned down said group in 1961, he wasn't interested in buying a couple of my records, now worth "quite a bit" so I believe. Anyway, what's all this got to do with trains??

Yep according to various record collectors sites. There were quite a few TOTP singers who later became famous in their own right. A bit like the Woolworths Embassy records of the 1950s and 60s used many former Big Band singers on their cover versions. I got given a load of mint condition embassy records back in the 1980s and didn't realise the value of them now as I put them in the dustbin!!

Is anyone on here interested in the Gothenberg Tramway system in Sweden? I'm fortunate to have a friend Calle Strom who has been involved with driving the historic trams there for over 30 years. His pal Tony Hultman is now the Fleet Engineer for the museum trams. They are run by Ringlinien, and have almost unlimited running rights over the whole Gothenberg system. I had a visit to Gothenberg back in 1982 and was invited to "have a go" at driving the 1904 car as well as one of the "Zeppelin" bogie cars.

This certainly was to the other local bus drivers who had driven the route before! None of them even knew it used to be a bus garage.

A few of the TOTP LPs fetch a fortune as Reg Dwight from Pinner was the singer on some of them! and a certain Mr.Stewart from the same area on others.

I had one of the very first production Hymeks back in 1967/68 and fitted it with Trix AL1 wheels with rubber tyres. that loco would pull the house down, but of course I had to fit metal wheels and pickups to the trailing bogie. I sold it in the recent past, about 5 years ago, still running well.

Thanks for the additional info, I did a quick internet search and it threw up a load of pictures and some historical stuff. As you say it is the Salford Corporation Tram Depot at Weaste, closed to trams 1947, converted to motor bus then close many years later. Partly demolished courtesy of Adolf, it's now luxury apartments retaining the frontage all tastefully restored.

I've been driving tram replacement buses in Manchester for the last few months (not every week I hasten to add), mostly on the Eccles line from Media city. At Weeste the track has been replaced through the station and yesterday I happened to glance to my left down Hessel Street and noticed some original tram track. There's the "blades" of a set of points leading onto the main New Eccles Road and about 200m of track leading down the cobbled street. I say blades, there's a moveable blade on the left hand rail and a cast fixed blade on the right hand rail, I don't know the term for it! A google street view shows the track continues down the street and curves off to the right into what may well have been a tram depot many years ago. Incidentally, the Wetherspoons pub in Eccles has some intersting pictures of the town showing early tramcars. GSV here: 53.48253, -2.30920

I'd say you're right there David. From what the old steam drivers told me very few were speedo fitted until the mid to late 1950s. Drivers had to use their experience to judge speeds, some used a stop watch and timed between telegraph posts or mileposts which was a bit easier. On the SR the 4SUB units didn't have speedos fitted. I was taught that "series" on the 4SUB would take you up to about 25 mph. However, working one of the old Broad Street units converted to battery locos for the GN electrification, the driver got one up to about 55mph in series on battery power on the Hertford loop. The steam men I worked with at Rugby would tell of working unfitted freights and speeds were not particularly high with the trains being "looped" for hours at a time.

A couple of names there I actually met in real life! G.Platt was one of the lading lights in the Manchester MRC back in the day, I'd met hime a couple of times atKeen House over the years. His son Ron (RTH Platt) was an active member of the MRC when I started going there in the early 1960s as on of the LBSCR 00 gauge layout. He went on to become a railway signalling engineer, maybe Grovenor would know if he's still around? Last time I saw him was at Havenstreet about 20 years ago. The MRC's LBSCR was built to BRMSB standards and a lot of Hornby Dublo stock would run on it without modification, although frowned upon at exhibitions by the layout leaders. the replacement layout New Annington was also built to BRMSB standards except for the branch station which was built to 16.2 gauge by the lat Frank Dyer.

Apart from the unspoken scales of 3.5mm=1ft and 4mm=1ft. It may be that the Model Railway Club library at Keen house may have the original BRMSB books in stock. The problem is most if not all the active members from the 1940s are now no loger with us to offer advice.

MJS was indeed Mike Shepard. He made many locos during his time at KX, and made the patterns for my LT "Scooter" and GS bus kit in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He also made a nice Austin 7 car, I forget what scale, possibly 7mm/ft or bigger. He was at the shop from maybe 1966 in the days when it was 00Scale Models under Keith Dann's management. As may have been mentioned earlier, Keith Dann originally worked from Biggleswade producing one of the first, if not the first fine-scale 00 track system using the right size Bullhead rail with wooden sleepers and punched brass chairs. There was also a self-adhesive ballast and point drawings to go with it. Production was moved to the shop at 14 York Way maybe in 1966. Sadly Keith was killed in a car crash on the A1 at Biggleswade one evening and the shop was taken over by MRAS Ltd. under whose "management" I was employed for a year or so in 1968/69. I suspect the paint job on the 2 locos were indeed done by Brackenborough. I don't remember him signing his paint jobs. I don't recall meeting him, but certainly spoke to him on the phone and posted models for painting every other week.

The DB had ferry wagons that were used for railway spares provision between German and Crewe Works. I've seen photos of them many years ago but couldn't tell you what type they were. They may have been "standard" DB vans but were certainly labelled to work to Crewe Works. Maybe someone else can remember?

I used to "enhance my knowledge" of the Underground in the mid to late 1960s when I should have been going to (bunking off) and witnessed not only the construction of the new Met and Widened Lines tunnels on the new alignment, but the 08 on the loco spur on the "down" Widened Lines. When the line to Holborn Viaduct was closed some time in the late 1960s the LT signals were still lit on the Snow Hill tunnel alignment as it was easier to leave them guarding the trackbed than removing them! they were eventually taken out in the early 1970s when I was a guard on the District. We used to work Saturday and Bank holiday extensions of the Wimbledon-Edgware road services to Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Aldgate. Having recently read a book on London's Main Line Railways during WW2, the Snow Hill line and Widened Lines were extremely busy as one of the cross-London routes. Up to 10 freights an hour would pass through, meaning that passenger services were withdrawn in their entirety and not re-introduced until the advent of Thameslink in the 1980s. I was also fortunate to have worked at Kings Cross as a secondman from 1967 to 1978 and worked trains from the suburbs to Moorgate until closure of the line. The 08 at Farringdon was manned by Hornsey men until that depot closed, when KX men took it over. It was mainly used for banking trains up to Blackfriars, but was sometimes called to bank trains to Kings Cross if one had stalled on Hotel Curve. It was a struggle getting a 31 to lift 6 block-enders away from the curved platform at KX sometimes.

It would not have been possible to get from the Met connection at LS to the ELL at Shorditch without an awful lot of diamond crossings as the ELL was on the other side of the main lines. Would there have been room to put all those crossings in?

Nice to see close-up of one with the trip cock isolating cock shown under the secondman's window. There's been some pics of the early blue Brush 2s on the FB group Real Thing Trainspotting 1948-1968.

And I've recently converted a well-known club layout from EM to 00sf! Wayne's track wasn't available when the conversion started, so all the pointwork is hand-built using Templot. It isn't always as easy as people think converting to a slightly different gauge as the double track distances vary. But I digress.

The trailer coaches fell apart quite easily, it seems the old Kitmaster glue isn't as indestructible as some may think.

I've recently found I've got at least 4 Ks Black Fives in almost finished state! 3 have the later etched chassis fitted with Kean-Portescap motors and romford driving wheels with etched valve gear, the others seem to have the brass chassis fitted with MW005 motors. All seem to be missing a few bits over the years. I'd originally built them for the MRC's old 00 layout in the early 1970s but they "disappeared" when I got married the first time and re-appeared in mum's attic 3 years ago. There's also a Q1 which I started building for someone in 1977 at Kings Cross, but he left the railway and I've not heard of him since then! an Adams radial tank in pieces, and a Beyer-Peacock loco, again missing a few bits. If anyone's interested, send me a pm. I'm getting too old to keep trying to finish these things.

I understand it's taken from the French word for movement.

Thanks, i thought my memory might be playing tricks! We also had one at FP trip cock fitted and had a token catcher on the side.