Rugd1022

Cardiff Canton in the '70s...

Photo by C.Warmer : dear old 'North Star' at Reading, c.1975, note the lack of double arrow logo...

Photo by Simon Mark : an unidentified example somewhere in the mystic east...

Photo by Joseph Kelly : 08 780 at Reading Depot in October 1976...

Fat finger syndrome strikes again, I'm sure I typed 34 not 35!

Photo by Simon David Cooper : 50 035 at Manc. Vic. on 27th January 1975...

Photo by Andrew Armitage : D5401 being fuelled up at Cricklewood on 6th April 1968...

So much modelling inspiration in one photograph with this one Dave, particularly in the colour palette and weathering on the station building... lovely stuff 😉

The One After 9.09 - ye olde Fabs, who last performed live fifty five years ago today on the roof of Apple Corp HQ in Saville Row...

Bits 'n' bobs...

Old Oak from the air...

A similar thing happened to me on the same line about fifteen years ago, a chap walking his German Shepard lost it on the straight stretch south of Streetly and was wandering about in a right old panic. I was light engine at the time so easily stopped to help him out and report it. We found the dog within a couple of minutes and all was right in the end.

Each episode was allotted two weeks of actual filming, plus the pre and post production processes taking a few more weeks, including Laurie Johnson's recording sessions for the soundtrack, sometimes they had to extend this though and there was actually a lot of overlap between episodes, with two film units working in different locations on the same day. On many occasions Gordon Jackson would be in one place working on one episode, while Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins were elsewhere working on another one. Towards the end of series two Lewis Collins broke his ankle during a weekend parachute jump which put production back by nearly three months, upsetting the schedule somewhat! On several occasions Martin Shaw was hospitalised with injuries acquired while doing his own stunts, which also took time out of the shooting. During series one they were based at Harefield Grove in Middlesex, and during series two at Lee International Studios in Wembley, they tried to keep the locations to within fifteen miles of each, but sometimes had to go further afield, such as Dover, High Wycombe, Gerrards Cross, Marlow etc. Another fly in the ointment was the strikes affecting LWT during 1978 and 1979, which played havoc with the scheduling.

I've been rewatching 'The Professionals' yet again and a particularly favourite episode is 'A Stirring Of Dust' from series two which was filmed in September and October of 1978 and first broadcast on Saturday 25th November 1978. Robert Urquhart plays an aging spy returning to Blighty from Russia to see his daughter before falling off his perch, he arrives at Dover on the ferry then boards a train to Victoria. On Thursday 21st September Urquhart and the second unit film crew took the 08.44 from Victoria to Dover, shot various scenes around the harbour then boarded the 16.00 train back to town, aboard which they shot more footage in a pre-booked second class compartment, and arrived back in London just after 18.00 having had a nice day out at the seaside!

Photo by Tony Hunter : 08 917 at Washwood Heath on 25th June 1981...

These are all from British Railways Staff Magazines of the '50s...

The EE Type 1s photo looks like it could be between Wigston and Kettering, possible candidates which spring to mind are Kilby Bridge Junction, Wistow, Kibworth Beauchamp, Desborough and Glendon & Rushden. Could be wrong though!

Working 6G67 into Small Heath yesterday, including the run round at Tyseley...

Sister ship to the Voight Kampf...? 😉

From the archive of the Birmingham Post & Mail, a locally registered Rover P5B Saloon in Perry Barr in the early '70s...