Rugd1022

The part you wrote in brackets Mike has reminded me that our newest arrival at Rugby found himself moving here from Peterborough almost by accident a few weeks ago for a similar reason!

Photo c/o Pete Leigh, Preston, 1972...

Photo c/o mark Norrington, Glasgow Queen St, 1982...

Funnily enough someone pointed this out on one of the forums too! Lots of parts sharing in those days, particularly with lights and door fittings. I've just secured some period brown tinted glass to go in the Cooper S from a mate who's had it stashed away for decades, I might be buying the 'Motolux' dash from his barn find Mk1 Cooper S project too, it needs a lot of work but it's do-able and I've found someone who can refurbish it properly for me, it's made by a firm called Northampton Coachbuilders who were based at Westonia Garage on the Wellingborough Road. The car it came out of looks like the proverbial basket case but the restoration is coming along nicely, it's not been on the road since 1973 and said mate has been trying to prise it away from the owner for about twenty years, it's a genuine 1275 S that was built in March '65 but wasn't registered until November '66, probably because it wasn't that highly specced having just a single fuel tank and no oil cooler etc...

Jay Leno does a Marcos GT...

Just before Christmas I was up at Basford Hall waiting for a loco swap in the 'middle' cabin with a few other drivers, I was chatting with a young hipster looking lad who I wrongly assumed was a new graduate driver, he was actually the mentor driver for the forty five year old graduate sitting beside him. It pays not to make assumptions in this job! This morning I cadged a lift from Lawley Street back to Rugby on a light engine driven by an ex-Old Oak colleague, of course within minutes we were chatting about the good old days at 81A and remembered how some of the drivers looked down at us young pups, not believing we were old enough to be on the footplate, never mind driving round the place on our own. On the Summer only Saturday jobs down to the West Country we'd often find ourselves upstairs in the mess room on platform 1 at Exeter St.Davids surrounded by men in their fifties who were still not passed drivers.

More great pics Dave, wonderful stuff. The Brush Type 4 in J3132 looks like 1508 to me, one of the original 'generator' batch with the ETH gubbins mounted below the bufferbeam skirt, not 1523. Loving the fog...!

I don't know which firm the 37 driver will be from but yes, you can have a driver with the correct route knowledge conducting another driver over a route, or part of a route.

Most likely a shunting accident at Old Oak, Acton Yard or on the Park Royal trips whilst being driven from the wrong end. It was a very common cause of collision damage on a lot of the hydraulics back then.

Photo c/o Paul Miller, Laira in September 1976...

James Dean and Marlon Brando have so much to answer for...

Going through some old photo files just now I came across this one of a Mk1 Morris Cooper 1275 S which I took almost ten years ago en route to the annual Mini day at Stanford Hall, the reg' number looked familiar and I realised the car appears in the Brooklands road test book on Coopers, it was upgraded with a Taurus stage 1 tuning kit and featured in an article in 'Car & Car Conversions' in July 1965...

The quick release knobs aren't actually part of the grille David and never came from Benelite, they're separately bought aftermarket items fitted by me. Paddy Hopkirk (amongst others) sold thousands of them in the '60s and '70s. Very handy for those times when you find yourself faffing about with the starter motor, dynamo or alternator!

Yes, 50 006, released in 1980.

Photo c/o Jim Hardwick, taken from the signalbox, 50 007 coming off the Cov branch at Leamington Spa on 20th March 1982... the 'box and the Ford foundry are now gone and the field sidings in the vee of the junction have long since been disconnected from the mainline...

Another genuine Benelite grille but with rectangular lamps, no doubt from a Radford or possibly a Stewart & Ardern converted Minsprint… they even did a 'cyclops' version with a single lamp hole, I've never seen one before... and I'm not sure I want to...!

The one in the photo is a genuine Benelite grille David, but I agree, the smaller spotlamps make it look a bit odd. Benelite made about ten different versions of those grilles in Mk1 and Mk2 form, not all of them had holes for lamps either. Some had eleven slats while some had thirteen. Some had a curved bit on the slat immediately below the bonnet latch opening and some didn't, some had the Benelite badge in the opening and some didn't. Mine has the curved bit on the third slat from the top (you can just make it out in this photo) and doesn't have a badge...

Each to their own Jim, the Benelite grille with integral lamps is a sought after item these days, my Mk2 S still has one on which gives it a bit of a 'Radford' look. Two bolts and it comes off the car easily enough. They were popular (but not cheap) back in the day partly because of fashion but mostly because the original Lucas headlamps were pretty dismal!

Somewhere in British Columbia, a humble Mk2 Mini 850 or 1000 with some tasteful period mods...

Far Far Away - Slade

Watcha Gonna Do About It - The Small Faces...

C7964 with the 08 is an absolute gem Dave

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who (again!)

A'noon all, just dug this out of storage and remembered why it was put there.... there's nowt in it no more...!