Simon Lee

Crossing from Hull to Rotterdam last Saturday 3rd June caught these two among others - Aral 1982 Japanese built chemical tanker, cant be many of these left in service heading from King George Dock Hull for Gdansk. By contrast the brand new 2023 built LPG tanker Mirai on Immingham Gas Terminal

Great photo, taken by my brother 🙂

Presume this is the GT3 offer as noted in the thread for the loco. Though having read the first few lines of the email l received, woe is me etc, etc, l thought at first it was that a certain DJ for an ex company had joined KR as press release specialist.

Quick Google shows Black Arrow was Britains first rocket meant to launch satellites. Seems it was authorised in 1964. Just wonder if it was an exhibition coach "selling" the idea to business or the great unwashed. Given that the."Space Race" was quite a topic at the time.

To confuse things, the BR Humber paddle steamer ferry stokehold crews were known as firemen, not stokers.

The Dairycoates breakdown train was a regular fixture of my childhood. We lived adjacent to the High Level line, (close to Chanterlands Ave for any locals) given the amount of freight passing to the docks and industrial areas by the River Hull, its appearance a couple of times a week was quite regular.

Via one of the Great Easten Models pages, tihs link shoudl work Rick Burmingham | Facebook

Read on FB today, that Croppers Models has now closed his shop and is now online only..

Sad news, he was a great supporter of and regular visitor to his local railway the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch.

Not strictly true, the ECML was never proposed for closure. The stopping train service was proposed for withdrawal. Having checked my copy of the report plus that available on the Railway Archive website, neither Berwick on Tweed or Dunbar appear on the "Stations proposed for Closure" list. Likewise neither do Aberystwyth, Llandudno, Holyhead Scarborough. The actual proposed alterations are better seen on the maps that accompanied the report here BRB_Beech001b.pdf (railwaysarchive.co.uk) Worth remembering that, not getting into politics, but, Labour was elected in 1964, with a manifesto promise to reverse the Beeching Report but, best not look at whos signature appeared on most closure authorisations.

Many thanks for your very informative reply. From reading various books it seems the old Sealink and before that BRSISD built quite robust ships, for their ferry services, interesting that Shanklin later went to the Waverley organisation and was wrecked as Prince Ivanhoe, no doubt with a restricited disance from shore certificate, though still carrying 800 people when she grounded. I would guess in Sealink days provision of suitably qualified crew for a passage from Solent to the Humber would be relativley easy given the number of routes and crews availble. Once again thanks for your reply.

Is this a relativly new classification ? Reason l ask is that in the mid late 70s the "Freshwater" came up to Hull to relieve on the Humber ferry service whilst the ancient " Farringford" was on refit. Then later when l worked at Dover one of the Saints called in for shelter en route back from the Tyne after refit, this would be around 92/93.

There was a regular tail load from Doncaster to Hull right up to the early 80s. A van from the Clapham - Leeds parcels was detached at Doncaster, and attached to the 085X DMU to Hull. I have seen a variety of vans on this service, from a Thompson BG, Syphon G through to examples of the numerous 4 wheel Southern stock. Onarrival at Paragon the van was removed by the station pilot an 03. On the coast line to Bridlington, there was occasional tail traffic, usually in connection with PLA traffic, in the week before the schools broke up in July, and heavy mail order traffic pre Christmas. On arrival at Bridlington if the branch tripper, T66, was on hand the loco was used to remove the van if not then there was a convoluted shunt move using the DMU to place the van into the bay platform for off loading.

Indeed and the lack of understanding also spread to other organisations. We had an exercises at Dover involving Kent Fire and Rescue, as there was a high number of retained fire crews in the area. One involved Anti Knock Compound UN1649. At the end of the evening, the Octel rep handed out stickers that wiped out 65% of the East Kent retained force, such was the overlooked/ignored potency of the substance. We never once saw any protests about or any other of the "nasties" we carried.

Class 45 Class 47

My brother thought the same. He started there in 1968 with Ellermans. I think too much of the local distractions were part of the reasons Ellermans decided he wasnt really officer material despite him qualifying, as the saying goes he was invited to "persue other interests"

Working at Dover until the demise of the Train ferry, we had regular visits from assorted protest groups, when the flasks from France and Germany were arriving. BTP and various other interested parties would keep them under survellance starting at Brenley Corner services. Plod were always amused that the protesters hid among the lorries, and would show us a list of the UN numbers of the tankers and drums etc they were close to. The protesters seemed totally oblivious to the potential for serious damage to life and pollution that these substances could cause. As part of the run up to privatisation, we as Freight South and later RFD took on responsibility for loading and unloading at Dungeness. As Mike says the amount of testing before, during, and after any movement takes is phenominal, and the amount of radiation permitted on a wagon or flask is miniscule. IIRC, in the 9 or so years l was involved, there was only 1 flask ever rejected by the power station physicist working with us at the railhead purely due to around a 2cm area of the foot exceeded the allowed reading.

Thank you, Mike, for confirming what l learnt about insurance on a ticket examiners course back in 1975 and suddenly remembered at stupid o'clock this morning ! In the same connection, (from the same course) was it not the case that for a claim to be entertained, there had to be proof ie a ticket, that the injured or deceased had lawful business on railway property ? There was also a "Railway Passengers Insurance Co" which passengers could obtain cover for their journey at the sametime as buying a ticket, and was advertised on a 6inch square white notice in the booking office window. Interesting thing about Eltham, was that the train involved was a charter for the Kentish Town BRSA, though wether the bottles found on the loco were a "gift" from the organisers was never discovered. In the mid late 70s l would often work overtime carriage cleaning at Bridlington on Sundays a regular stream of charters from the West Riding, WMC and collery social clubs would appear, almost all had a makeshift bar set up in the brake area. It was quite the norm for a couple of bottles to be given to each member of traincrew, some refused, some took them for home and no doubt some partook on the way home

As noted, the driver in the Eltham derailment was driving, not the secondman. Driver was killed, the secondman went on to have a long footplate career. They had passed down to Margate, the driver had been partaking of refreshment all afternoon, and encouraged the secondman to partake at Margate. There were bottles on the loco, but one of the C&W lads l worked with at Dover attended, as part of the recovery teams found bottle necks with the caps still in place. As an aside, another former colleague at Dover had just taken duty on his first shift flying solo in South Eastern control, and his first phone call was from a distressed railman at Eltham Well Hall.....

Not at all, my local station Botanic Gardens had a thriving coal merchants which my parents bought their coal from. Another depot, Ella Street coal yard was only 200 yards from our house and was shunted every morning until the early 70s. Interestingly my primary and junior schools both had solid fuel boilers for heating, the 2 weekly bulk deliveries always provided a welcone distraction from lessons.

This page may be of interest https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/cw/moquette/

Sorry cant help but reminded of this from Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights.....

Hamburg school holidays May 15th - May 19th (Pentecost) Lower Saxony - Wolfsburg just 2 odd days in May. NRW - Wuppertal 1 day in May then Summer holidays from late June

Hotels wise, Premier Inn are springing up all over Germany, we stayed in one in Leipzig for 3 nights at the start of December for roughly the same price as a provincial Uk PI. As an alternative Motel One are the same concept and in most cities here, slightly more expensive than Premier Inn. I live just outside Bonn, so feel free to PM me if you need any help or suggestions.

You are indeed correct with Cricklewood. The origins of this train was the Leicester - Scarborough service, with an LM set based at Leicester. After various alterations on the LM it was, for a time a LM set outbased at Nunnery Sidings (Sheffield) Then late 70s/early 80s it became a Cricklewood based set that ran ECS to Luton for the train to start Class 1 from there.