jonny777

In the 1970s when Travellers Fare sold McKewans Export in cans on buffet cars, I always maintained that the taste of the beer on up ECML trains was superior to that on trains where the buffets had been replenished at Kings Cross. Whether the beer had been brewed in different places, I don't know. Now onto a more intriguing subject... I am not sure why these petrol pumps need warning signs, unless I have missed something.

Summer has returned to North Somerset - hurrah! I wonder if it was last all day? The lurgy, which is officially not covid, certainly has the ability to knock a person back. I ventured outside yesterday afternoon and managed to clear some duckweed from the pond, and clip a few lengthy shoots off a low hedge; and became so exhausted that I had to sit down for half an hour to recover. Oh well, another 10 hours sleep has me feeling better today, but I'm beginning to think I am turning into a dormouse.

Not a scoreline I thought I would see this year.

Sorry but you have completely lost me now........

Imagine the froth if Hornby produced something like that these days.

Anyhow, I have begun the slow process of transcribing the register details onto the 1954 page on my spotting log site. I like to add shed allocations where possible, to give a more complete picture. https://spottinglogs.co.uk/1954-2/ If anyone wishes to have a look, you will need to scroll right down to the bottom of the page for October as everything is in date order. Any comments regarding the entries/workings/destinations would be welcome; as my knowledge of services for anywhere in 1954 is sparse, let alone the specific Hamilton/Uddingston/Motherwell area.

Another dull and misty morning in North Somerset. I hadn't realised that the practice of 'bellowing' was called that. I just assumed it was part of the antisocial behaviour surrounding punk music of the era. It did me a favour though. Fed up of getting anonymous heads and arms in photos of Westerns, I made more journeys up north and saw far more 40s and 24s than I would otherwise have done. Up there, at the time, no one called a class 40 a 'beast' because there were 200 of them, or shouted 'My Lordz' whenever one appeared, because at Preston or Manchester Victoria they would have shouted nothing else and been carried away to the funny farm. However, such is life. Ocado are due soon (SWMBO has yet to realise that I have slowly brought orders forward to the period when she is doing daily yoga upstairs - meaning she does not get to inspect the delivery - Case of cider? Thankyou, and deep into the garage it goes). Edited: to add, I have just had an NHS email to say that my official Covid test is negative.

It is great that one has been preserved.

Who said anything about conspiracy? The camera looks handheld to me, and as I have lived for 35 years within a short distance of Bristol and Avonmouth, both of which are lit up like a Christmas tree after dark, I am well aware of what the night sky might look like in all manner of conditions. I have watched the video a few more times, and my opinions have not changed. (The real conspiracy, on which I make no personal comment, would be that John McAfee had tweeted his intention of releasing all manner of dirt on senior US politicians - via a deadman's switch, which would only activate after his forced demise. His tweet indicated he had 31TB of data on hard drives in his condo near 88th St and Collins Avenue north of Miami. Now guess where the apartments that collapsed happened to be located?).

Railcar.co.uk suggests that the last two were taken out of service in August 1981. https://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-111/operations

You may think that running three different front end varieties of green class 33s is a little too far fetched, especially when you have brush painted the window surrounds of one of your syp models; only to discover your shade of yellow was different to that of your rtr models lower panel and the whole thing looks completely unrealistic. Is it tho' ?

I read a news report about the Miami collapse which said it took place around 1am; and then saw a video of the event which appeared to show quite a light sky with darker cloud shapes. This might be ok if Miami was around 65N at this time of year, but my maps show it on the same latitude as Sudan. The video was reported to be CCTV footage, but seemed to be handheld from the movements of the whole image. Therefore, I now believe nothing I see on the news.

Although some of us may suggest that the BBC News is mostly a work of fiction. No mention on the national news of any explosion/fire in London. Presumably these days, if there are no terrorist connections, or sobbing members of the public, then the BBC are not interested? And even those subjects have to battle with politicians who can't keep their trousers on.

Maybe the 86 had failed and the 304 had dragged the whole train into the platform? (Well I can dream.....)

Thanks again, Jim. This goes a long way to explaining why the box was switched out for such long periods during the day. Looking on the NLS website https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=55.82298&lon=-4.10773&layers=168&right=171 there were loops on either side of the line and junctions to both Haughley and Blantyreferme Collieries.

Thanks Jim. The register just says Uddingston; it doesn't specify a suffix or a junction. However, on Oct 7th between 0613 and 0805 the workings are 0644 from Glasgow, loco 46222; 0709 from Glasgow, loco 70051, 0718 from Maryhill, loco 40152; 0726 to Hamilton Goods, loco 90386; 0734 to Hamilton Goods, loco 57407; 0743 to Motherwell light engine, loco 76002. And then it closed until 4:45 pm.

I am resurrecting this thread purely for selfish reasons; and also because contributors here seem to be well versed in operations to the south of Glasgow. I have recently purchased, online, a 1954 signalbox register for Uddingston. My query centres around the times that the box is operational in early October of that year. It appears to be switched out for much of the day, but is manned between about 5:30am and 8:30; and then again between 4:30 and 6:30pm; in other words for approximate 'rush hours' only. Might there be a reason for this? Did the box control certain crossovers or other turnouts which would only be used during commuter times? Or was there maybe another more subtle reason for the intermittent nature of its usefulness?

I think that might be your lively imagination, as the tour did consist of 6 Mk1 coaches.

This is April 30th 1961, the occasion of the LCGB's 'Solent Limited' railtour. 30117 had charge of the Eastleigh to Newbury section of the tour, which paused at Highclere.

Overcast and misty here in North Somerset. 16mm of rain overnight. Nothing much that I can do here, but watch the garden dry out and wait for the covid test result. At present, I am amusing myself by scanning some John Vaughan b/w negatives acquired from a successful auction bid recently. I love his photos - such great compositions and wonderful quality. Why don't mine ever turn out like that? Anyway the auction terms included copyright to buyer, and so I believe I can post an example here - 47012 passes Pontrilas on May 3rd 1988. I would have loved to have bought more lots, but prices go silly these days; and even more so if the negative strips might include a 1970s shot of a hydraulic loco. And what happens to the negatives? Stuffed away in album sleeves where no one can see them, or cut into single images and sold at a profit on Ebay.

Dull and damp here in North Somerset. Covid test kit arrived around 0845, just as I was administering to my fry-up. I suppose I had better adopt a priority system and eat the breakfast first. The covid test can wait a while - especially as at the priority post box nearest to me the collection is not until 1545 today. I took ages trying to register my test kit online, mainly due to the fact I had not realised the way the barcodes are listed in the booklet is the opposite to how they wanted me to scan them on my laptop. The Post Office delivery label is first, which explains why after several attempts it rejected my test kit barcode as incorrect. Oh well, I have got there in the end. Now all I have to do is stick the swab into my tonsils and ram it up my nose. I will see if I can persuade SWMBO to walk to the post box on my behalf, as I can't shuffle that far without dropping dead from exhaustion which would be somewhat ironic if the test results are negative. I slept for 10 hours last night, and so will probably be ready to go back to bed by midday.

I remember those days so well, and yet many of my visits were 45 years ago now. Only needing 76011 for the set, I went there one Saturday afternoon just to ask the duty foreman if that particular loco was somewhere on the depot. His reply was "dunno", to which I must have looked suitably crestfallen because he added "but if you want to wander around and see if you can find it, then feel free - just let me know when you leave". It wasn't there, but I had a great time just looking for it. (I saw 76011 a few days later at Guide Bridge).

Maybe the 31 thought it could sneak away with its 'swag' of a couple of BGs, a DMU, and a Mk1 compo from the sidings without anyone noticing? Imagine the cliche'd conversation - "Sorry sir, but I am going to have to ask you to accompany me to the station". I'll get me coat..........

Dry with sunny spells in North Somerset. However, I have lost my sense of smell. The cough of recent days is much reduced and my temperature is 36.5C - but not wanting to be irresponsible I have been through the Covid app procedure and they will send me an official test kit. Meanwhile, it is sofa watching Tour de France for me.

The standard of some bathroom fitters is deplorable. (Not all - I hasten to add). A while back we had a continuous leak from the upstairs cistern into the toilet bowl. I couldn't remove the syphon unit so called the local man who came out and pronounced that the whole syphon unit needed replacing, but he had never had experience of our model and so couldn't do it. However, he did show me how easy it was to remove and suggested that I searched for one on Ebay and either fitted it myself or found someone who could do it. At least he didn't charge for his visit. Once he had gone, I removed the syphon unit as he had demonstrated and inspected the seating washer at the bottom next to the pipe to the toilet pan. I found a tiny 'blob' on the washer which appeared to be an imperfection. Using a bit of upside-down thinking I thought I would replace the whole caboodle with the washer the other way around - blob pointing down. Result.? No water leaking into the bowl. It is still there about two years later and the flush gives us no problem at all.