Simon Lee

The "aged" opens are these - https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brferryopen/h2ca96655 Used in whiting traffic from a local chalk quarry, to Aberdeen. The caravans on the left, are actually in the yard of a caravan builder, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

The crew of the loco would be working to a shunters instructions, as he would be in contact via phone the message would be passed via the shunter to the signalmen in Paragon box which is located just behind the photographer.

Only if they have troublesome trucks......

There is anecdotal "evidence" from former colleages that a Tierwag was trialled on the Train Ferry, but not one of these. Never seen a photo, but live in hope as a previous "holy grail" of a Warship on the Admiralty Pier lines turned up after many years of searching .

Borough Green and Wrotham, pronounced "Rootham", when I moved to Kent from Yorkshire it was easy to wind the locals up pronouncing it 'Rotham" One old character driver we had had an verbal spat with bowler hat and brolly commuter when he was berated on the platform at said location for late running. Sydney look the man up and down and came out with "Late ? Your lucky we stop here at all facking hole"

Another talented musician gone - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/23/wilko-johnson-dies-aged-75

7029 Clun Castle possibly ? Went into preservation before the end of BR steam and always seemed to be based at Tyseley.

OP trimmed to keep length down. Replies in bold under pertinent question. Must have been a bit noisy if you were heading to Fort William. I am assuming a 55 or 47 for the engine? 45? Booked a 55 I‘ve had 55 / 47 / 46 on this and later when departure time moved to 2000 It says must not exceed 13 vehicles - what could the 13th vehicle have been and why? Any number of reasons, any type of stock - stock transfer, party booking, predicted high loadings – holidays etc At Edinburgh things get a bit confusing for me. The Fort William portion comes off the front. An RB and BSO are added to the front and a BG to the rear of the Aberdeen portion (the rear BG going to Dundee) - I am assuming a loco change for the Aberdeen portion which leaves at 03.32 - 47 or 40 as it would be 12 carriages? Inwards loco off to Haymarket. Forward loco 40 or 47 The Fort William portion doesn't leave till 04.35 (1T03) but this is where the shunting and marshalling gets to my mind complex. In the PTM it has the following BG } Cambridge to Glasgow ex 13.32 parcels from Liverpool Street TSO (MO) BSK b } Glasgow BCK (TO) BSK c (SX) } Edinburgh to Mallaig SLSTP SLF } Fort William BCK b to 2/6 and from 3/9 c from 4/6 and to 1/9 If have this right in the summer the formation depending on the day of the week is: MO TO MTX SO Loco Loco Loco Loco BG BG BG BG TSO BCK BSK SLSTP BSK BSK SLSTP SLF SLSTP SLSTP SLF BCK SLF SLF BCK BCK BCK Anyone have any idea why monday and tuesday would need a TSO or BCK but not the rest of the week? Royal Navy personnel returning to the Clyde bases after weekend leave. The Monday departure was normally rammed from the Waverley. Would the train engine from Kings X have shunted the carriages for FW into another platform and then the station pilot or Glasgow train engine then added the stock for Glasgow? I assume that the BSK, TSO/BCK, BG could be made up as one in advance. I am assuming that the aim would be to minimise the number of shunting moves/buffering ups, or is that a naive assumption? Normally the station pilot would do the shunts. Any ideas for haulage - 27? 40? 25? 20...? Have had a 40 and 47 at different times between Waverley and Queen Street. It says not to exceed 275 tons but even the 6 carriage formation is listed as only 218? Any ideas as to what and why there might be extra on it? See above, stock moves, additional traffic etc. It arrives at Queen Street and then leaves at 06.00 as 1B07 and with the following formation: Loco CCT } Fort William BCK SLF } Kings Cross - Fort William SLSTP BSK } Edinburgh - Mallaig TSO RB } Glasgow - Mallaig CK BSK So I am assuming that the train arrives in Queen Street, the loco and the BG (ex-Cambridge) and TSO/BCK would be uncoupled. New train engine + CCT drops down and then shunts onto the TSO, RB, CK, BSK which would be in another platform and then the train departs (or would the shunt be done by a station pilot?). Pilot loco normally for shunts Also, the CCT - why a CCT (and not say a GUV or a BG) and would it be a BR Mk1 CCT or could it be an ex-SR/LNER/LMS CCT? Actual or planned loadings, any 4 wheel van could turn up. Considering the formation is 9 coaches - Locos I assume a pair of 24/25/27s? 27’s were staple power Arrives in Fort William and the day coaches depart at 10.45 to Mallaig. So if you had travelled up from London and were heading to Mallaig or beyond you move into the stock - although after 14 hours on a train you'd probably need a compartment with the door shut and the windows open. Loco BSK CK RB TSO BSK A fresh loco or would the Glasgow locos run round and work the train to Mallaig? Fresh loco

Indeed, October next year it is out of ticket, and owners have already stated it will return in BR lined green.

We'll have drowned in the froth from the Bullied Pacific FB groups before that happens...... Think there are several elderly lynch mobs en route to Bridgnorth going by some of the reactions.

One thing I keep waiting for in these announcements is a re run of the Polybulk wagons. IIRC there was only ever one run of these and then they disappeared into the ether. Has the tooling gone missing / damaged ? With the new "full fat" 47375 a run of these would, I would have thought, been a a good seller. I emailed Bachmann a few years back and was told "no plans" Any thoughts or better knowledge? Thanks

That's Fisons Wharf on Dutch river at Goole. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/337418197084641792/

Interesting, seems to be associated with Uni ocean. My dad was with Ellerman City and then Ellerman Wilson back in the 50s dont think he would be too impressed !! Presume they wont be using this one....

5 minutes later its now £24,000........

Most strange feelings today, like many I'm not a royalist be any stretch of the imagination, but today it feels like I've lost a Grandma or elderly aunt. Guess its more the permanence of her always been that is now missing. My only personal memory was as an 11 year old in 1969 the Queen and Phillip came to Hull to open the Queen Elizabeth dock extension. The Britannia was anchored in the Humber, after the official duties were over, the royal party made their way by launch from Corporation pier to the Britannia. My dad and I were stood alone on the river bank near Alexandra dock, as the launch approached we could see Phillip stood watching the riverbank vista, we started waving, to our suprise Phillip waved back then we saw him put his head into the cabin/covered area of the launch, next thing the small figure of the Queen appeared, we carried on waving , Phillip pointed in our direction and they both waved back. My dad was a royalist, being the same age as the Queen was really chuffed to bits, l was impressed as you are at age 11, but l can still remember it as clear as day.

The last 2 9Fs were regulars on the Heysham - Neville Hill tanks usually piloted by a Sulzer Type 2, both succumbed to fairly serious defects with in the space of a week, and remarkably were replaced by 8Fs.

Looks a bit more up market than the Vroon ones I used to see and smell in Oostende in the early 80s.

One of Vroon's new livestock carriers ?

When I was at Dover, we had a lot of Berne gauge wagons arrive on the Trainferry, for forwarding by road from the Admiralty pier to Cheriton for Channel tunnel construction work. IIRC Alleys was the haulier, the most common mishap was the drivers mate, usually looking barely old enough to have left school, dropping a piece of rail usually the bit that was placed on the rail at the start of the ramp onto the trailer, on his own foot or hand and requiring a trip to the local hospital. On one occasion they loaded a large bogie ballast hopper of, l think, Polish origin. Whilst driving down the quayside the wagon hit the bottom of the overhead walkway to the Jetfoil terminal. Apart from a small dent in the walkway and a scratch on the wagon that was about as much jepoardy as we could muster.

So using your theory, after Clapham once the cause of the rogue wire was established that should have been it then ? "Cause found, carry on as normal fellas, whos up for 18hrs next Saturday night ? wait for the next event hopefully night not loose so many next time" I was involved in the aftermath of a collision on the Southern in 89 with two fatalities, yes the cause was soon established, but the culture that enabled the cause to kill those men needed a lot longer to establise and then work towards eliminating. Over the years I have worked with men and women from HMRI, RAIB, Derby Research, various police forces, BTP and civil, at a variety of incidents, I wonder exactly how much experience you have in major incidents on the railway in real life as opposed to making ill informed rants in the middle of the night.

Also Snargate Street runs from Dover town centre to the Western docks, still in existance as part of the A20 between Limekiln roundabout and York Street roundabout. I will ask the question among former ferry colleagues see if they can provide any answer. Snargate village is a very pleasant marsh village about as far removed from the hurley burley of Dover as you can get.

Snargate radio was the Southern and the BR marine departments private radio channel, for passing messages regarding ships departure times, eta, cargo numbers most importantly passenger numbers for boat trains and any extras required, stores or bunker requirements as well as general housekeeping requirements for the ships. Snargate shuffled along until around 1982/83, when in was put out of its misery prior to privatisation. If you watch the DVD "Link Span" you will see the basic system in action on the Harwich route, I believe their call sign was "Marine Harwich" Most messages would be passed in Morse code, though in later years as equipment improved then spoken word messages would be in English. There was no involvement in ships transiting the channel, any monitoring being done by radio stations at North Foreland or Dungeness and when the were involved in working ships the Trinity House pilot station at Folkestone. The main MRCC at Dover and French equivalent CROSSMA Griz Nes only came into existence in the late 70s after the loss of the Texico Carribean, Brandenburg and the Niki in multiple collisions early in 1971. These losses were the start of the channel routing system still in use to this day.

The LDC at Botanic were quite a passive group, in later years they were offered to work through to London but turned this down. BG was a complex depot, being an amalgamation of Dairycoates, Botanic Gardens and with a thread of men who had worked at Springhead. We had drivers, relief drivers, drivers put back and secondmen. Some secondmen were older than some drivers, and there was some longstanding resentment when certain individuals were booked together. The regular docket clerk knew every agreement for every individual but I had to refer to the crib book, an A4 folder with LNER on the cover filled with LDC minutes dating back to the 40s and never rescinded. Sadly that went in the skip when the rosters moved away. I had moved on to Dover by then so was to late to rescue it.

I was a relief drivers docket clerk at Botanic that year, and I cant remember ever having a diagram for BG men for that job. Lots of different depots had their fingers on the Coast line trains Holbeck, Tinsley, York, Doncaster and a few intreped Knottingley men. This resulted from the days when pit clubs ran regular excursions to the coast, often starting from the pit yard its self.

Transfesa's main flows from the Iberian peninsular was oranges both eating and for marmelade, plus the big tennis ball size onions. Both of which have a slow deterioration rate. Transit times were around 4 days origin to terminal, depending Day 1 Depart loading point in Spain en route Hendayne Day 2 Wheelset change /Customs docs Depart Hendayne 1600/1700 Day 3 Arrive Dunkerque 0700 Arrive Dover 1100/1200 Depart Dover 1600/1700 The 2 trunk services from Dover in the afternoon were 6E53 1548 to Tyne, via Hoo, Temple Mills,traffic for LIFT, Offord and Buckden Superior International traffic, Doncaster, Hull, Sheffield Parkway Market traffic, Dringhouses, and Tyne Low Fell Market traffic. 6M94 1652 via WIllesden, to Bescot conveyed traffic for BIFT, Ardwick, MIFT, Spekeland Road. Scottish traffic waited for the next days 6S73 to Mossend. Day 4 Arrive local yard and terminal The majority of the soft fruit, grapes and peaches travelling by rail came from Italy. not sure if it was reiced en route, certainly I never saw any facilities at Dunkerque for icing. There was no traffic in salad vegetables, as by this time the Dutch had largely captured the market, and Channel Islands traffic came via road and the CI ferries.