Andy Kirkham

Many thanks to those who proffered suggestions; I have filed away several for future reference - the Freedom of the North West rover does look like a bargain - but in the end I have booked a week in Cromford, Derbyshire, which offers among other attractions: cycling along the Cromford & High Peak and Monsal Trail, Crich tramway museum, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, Peak Rail, The Museum of Making in Derby (has anybody been?), Keddleston Hall, Caulke Abbey, Chatsworth etc. etc. There is a Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket that allows a day's unlimited travel by bus and train in Derbyshire at £6.70 for over-60s like me and my wife, although it will be £13.40 for my son.

When we used to visit Uncle Harry and Auntie Edie in Birmingham, they always used to arrange an interesting outing (in contrast to other relatives who considered sitting round drinking tea and chatting as the pefect culmination of a visit) and the Hilton Valley was a destination on a couple of occasions. The Hilton Valley was built by Michael Lloyd, owner of the F H Lloyd foundry in the Black Country. There seems to have been a fondness for miniature railways among West Midlands industrialists, as there was also the Sutton Partk Line (Tommy Hunt of Hunt Bros, Oldbury) and the Fairbourne (John Wilkins of Servis washing machines). The Hilton Valley had a loco named Francis Henry Lloyd. Sadly, Michael Lloyd died in a hotel fire in Exmouth in 1973. Interesting videos here. It appears that someone was attempting to revive the line.

With locomotives that resembled garden sheds on wheels IIRC. Tantalisingly, there is evidence that some were actually built, but managed to evade photography.

I beg to differ on the geology. There are both Old and New Red Sandstones in South Devon, and the New forms the familiar red cliffs at Dawlish. But I do agree that the cliff looks like limestone and although its hard to be sure at this scale on the map, but it appears that there is a small outcrop of Carboniferous Limestone in the vicinity of Stoneycombe, with New Red Sandstone just to the east. I know what you mean about St Annes Park, but its by no means as bucolic as in the mystery photo. (Please pardon the quality of these, which were a bit ambitious for an Instamatic)

Thanks Duncan, I've just done that.

Does anyone recognise the location of this picture from the Robert Gadsdon collection? His caption places it in the Bristol area, but I don't know anywhere round Bristol that looks like this. To me it looks rather like Devon. The fields on the right look as if they might be that characteristic red colour derived from the Permian sandstone. Stoneycombe came to mind, but I don't think Stoneycombe quarry has a face looming over the railway like that.

It was great to be back at Thornbury for my first post-Pandemic show. Attendance seemed to be good and I hope it lived up to expections enough for Warners to sponsor next year's show. The highlight for me was Pencader with its brass domed locos, its host of panelled coaches with apparently no two alike and painstaking attention to detail seemingly pinning the scene down to a particular year - the ballast freshly renewed on the running lines but stained and weathered on the sidings; the sleeper imprints of recently lifted sidings and the bit of curved retaining wall bearing witness to where once there had been a turntable. Good info and evocative pictures of the real Pancader here http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/pencader/ And a special mention for Habbaniya, Iraq, perhaps easily overlooked and really only just qualifying as a model railway layout rather than a military diorama, but impressive for its painstaking forced perspective.

The name resulted from a public competion. I think it was meant to suggest both the ease of parking (which I believe was originally free) as well as proximity to the the nearby M32 - which was indeed named The Parkway when it first opened - even though the station is not directly served by the M32. The name Parkway as applied to the M32 derives from the Stoke Park estate through which the motorway is built, with the prominent house on the hill which is a landmark for all motorists.

1.Taff Vale, 2.GWR, 3.LNWR, 4.Rhymney, 5.Brecon & Merthyr. But I can't think of the sixth. I'm also wondering what passenger service the Rhymney operated into High Street. Did they have their own Cardiff-Merthyr servoce?

I remember seeing a book by CHE aimed at children. On each page was one of his paintings with a caption in verse. I can partially remember the one for a GER engine: Ask your father whether he knew The engines painted a beautiful blue de dum de dum de dum de dum That ran on the old Great Eastern line.

The Grouping might well have been seen as restricting career opportunities. Numerous CME jobs were chopped. Some, like Beames, accepted lesser posts; Robinson retired; Lawson Billinton left at the age of 40 to become a fruit farmer. I've just been browsing through On Railways, the reminiscences of Dr P. Ransome Wallis. He recalls that, although he was from a family of physicians, he was determined to become a railway engineer; it must have helped that his father knew Nigel Gresley. Although there was a Doncaster apprenticeship open to him, Gresley warned that the forthcoming Grouping meant that there could be no guarantee of a job afterwards, so Ransome Wallis went into medicine after all.

A view of some of the Portishead traffic around 1972. I never did manage to catch a coal train, but not having access to WTTs, I had no way of knowing when they ran. But I learned by observation that there was a reliable Up train mid-afternoon with cement and phosphorus. I was at the Cathedral School and had to endure Saturday morning school, but in compensation we had Thursday afternoons off, which gave me the opportunity to chase this train. Woodpullp. Did these run at fixed times or did it depend on the tides and when the ship docked? Bitumen (?) and cement Cement Cement & phsphorus Cement and phosphorus

Yes it definitely looks too light, whereas Stagecoach seem to have a much better match on their buses A shame because in this video, Martin White the railway's Head of Engineering specifically mentions the trouble he's taken to match the paint with the official Jubilee shade.

If I've ever given any thought to it at all, I guess I've supposed that Algeco's business was Algerian oil, but it seems it's never had anything to do with Algeria. The name comes from "Alliance de Gestion Commerciale" and its logo is "timeless and iconic" according to: https://www.grapheine.com/en/logo-news/algeco-logo-iconic-timeless-brand-identities

I have been volunteering recently in the British Heart Foundation bookshop on Blackboy Hill. It may be of interest to some of you that a large number of railway books has recently been donated and are currently on sale. I should say that there are not all that many specialist or "quality" books, mainly popular photo albums such as Bradford Bartons, The Best of Eric Treacy, Great Western Steam in the West Country etc. But among the more interesting is Essery & Jenkinson's Locomotive Liveries of the LMS which I placed in the window as a lure.

"...and by the early 1900s they had become a mainstay of branch lines and shunting yards from Penzance to Poolewe." Poolewe? Perhaps there is such a thing as Alliterative Licence, akin to Poetic Licence.

There is a memorial in Charfield (Glos) churchyard to the 1928 disaster and, echoing Quintinshill, there are the "Two unknown" - supposed to be children. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/112325449/charfield-train_crash-memorial There appears to be many myths around the "Two Unknown" however, the carpenter who was commissioned by the L.M.S to provide the coffins was interviewed during the 1960's and he had a clear recollection of this incident. Apparently the L.M.S , to save the feelings of the unfortunate victims relatives, provided standard size coffins even though in many cases very little was recovered. The intense fire having burnt out of control for many hours. While two small boxes were also provided for remains that could not be attributed any individual. The ticket collector on the train is reported stating that he saw two children in school uniform on the fated train, however, no children were ever reported missing after the accident. Although some local people say following the accident until the very early 1950's an elderly lady dressed in black made an annual visit to pray at the communal graveside. Also, in Salisbury cathedral, there is a plaque to the victims of the 1906 crash.

An excellent suggestion, but I neglected to mention that Bristol is where I live 🙂 Thanks also to everyone else who has contributed.

And there's a plaque on Larbert station commemorating the Quininshill disaster http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-ftopic2351.html

I recall seeing a plaque at Cheltenham station commemorating the Ladbrook Grove crash: the HST involved in the collision was the 06:03 from Cheltenham, although the majority of the fatalities were in the Paddington-Bedwyn service with which it collided.

Thanks. I was just judging from one of the videos posted here, which didin;t have any DMUs.

The only thing that impairs the realism of Heaton Lodge is the apparent absence of DMUs.

Regrettably decided not to go. The journey by public tranport from Bristol entails two changes of bus with the final leg rather infrequent. Any cancellation due to Covid would wreck the schedule. Don't want to risk getting stranded overnight in Shepton Mallet.

A couple of electric monsters.

And I hope the remaining two don't last much longer as I've always thought they were quite out of character for a british narow gauge line.