Simon Lee

Book seems to be out "earlier than expected "according to the newsletter from MDS books I received on Friday. Hopefully Mr Strathwood will be receiving a delivery soon and advise when hes ready lighten your wallet.

Came across Monty's Models last autumn, (named after the owners dog apparently) Then was selling only secondhand railways and some diecast, started as the owners collection plus a relatives collection, some of his prices were a bit optimistic but was open to offers. Seems to be aimed at the non enthusiast market.

At Hull Paragon, we had a rubbish wagon, used to sit on the stops of the short bay platform 10. Iirc, there were 2 wagons of the 5 plank variety working between Paragon and Barlow tip CCE tip near Selby. It was filled with refuse from sweeping the station, and by the labours of the carriage cleaners, plus any old and broken office furniture etc. One of the local trips was booked to collect the loaded wagon and return the empty, on a weekly basis. The wagon transited via Doncaster to connect into a DCE working to Barlow.

It's rare, from a former Controllers point if view we would never phone a driver when his train was reasonably expected to be moving, but send a text requesting "phone Control when safe to do so" Likewise if a driver rang and it was obvious he was moving,, he would be told "ring back when your stationary" and the call terminated. Obviously you can never legislate for friends and family, but normally the professionalism of the driver would influence his behaviour. Your comment about road users made me realise, that, since moving to Germany, l can not actually remember the last time l saw anyone using a handheld mobile whilst driving, maybe a cultural thing or that there are generally more police about and the penalties are more severe ?

Looks like Jack Slee the Hull traction inspector leaning out of the secondmans window, and John Tait, Paragon shunter calling the loco onto the train.

Rob/Mick, Can narrow it down l think to summer 1962. The V2 was reallocated to Doncaster March 1962 (from New England) and withdrawn at Doncaster 1st October 1962. Quite a lucky catch and possibly the last photo of the loco.

The Train ferries were the last civilised way to cross the channel once the mad hubbub of the Calais route I the 80s took off. The St Germain and St Eloi retained a large passenger certificate until 1984 iirc, to cater for the remnants of the Night Ferry service the 2330 ex Dover sailing connected with a 12 car EMU from Victoria. This with the help of the French seamans union ensured a full complement of catering crew on both ships. We would often have a staff non lander both for Duty free and to meet socially with the ferry crew we only saw briefly at each turn round. The St Germain built 1951, was like a mini liner, teak decks, wood paneling in the accomodation, deep leather arm chairs and settees in the lounges. Waiter service in the restaurant. The St Eloi though of more 70s interior, still had a relaxed classy feel to her. The NPC shown in the photos was a further step forward and as noted provided some excellent food both in choice and quality. Though we could have got away without paying, it was a point of principal to make a donation to the French equivalent of the RNLI. She was certainly popular with the lorry drivers, for the relaxed crossing fixing them a break in excess of the tacho requirements, though quite often they would park up at Dover I'd the made too much use of the included help yourself wine and beer bar ! The French end often shunted with the Baldwin A1A A1A 62000 class locos, including 62001 the designated preserved loco which l had the chance to shunt the ferry with. Happy memories of a unique operation l am proud to have been part of.

Indeed, the MN is still often overlooked, when there are programmes or articles about either of the two world wars. As an island nation we ignore the Merchant Navy at our peril. Two books that I have found to give the most graphic description of life at sea in WW2 are "The Real Cruel Sea" by Richard Woodman and "Last Call for HMS Edinburgh" by Frank Pearce, both seem to come with some form of dust that affects the eyes, certainly mone were watering at different times reading both. In WW1 my maternal grandmothers brother was a coastal sailor, he was shipwrecked off the East Coast by a German mine, returning home to Hull in only the clothes he wore, he was accosted by some young "ladies" and berated as a coward and given a white feather. This upset him so much, he immediately signed up for the army and was killed on the second day of the Somme, ge is commemorated in the Thiepval memorial. Fast forward to 1941, my dad and his best friend finished their time at Hull Trinity House nautical school. They had made a pact that they would sail together and were looking for a JS on the pool. Fortunately dad's dad would not sign for him to go deep sea as he was only just coming up to age 14. So dad signed articles as a Humber Pilot service apprentice, and spent his war on the pilot cutter at Spurn. One of the apprentices jobs was at first daylight, go out in the boarding launch looking for shot down aircrew of both sides, the lads got 3d for alive airmen and 6d for dead. Sadly dad's best friend was not so lucky torpedoed on his first trip, he was found dead, in a lifeboat, washed up on the shores of Greenland. Two of my most prized possessions are dads pilot service apprenticeship articles and his WW2 MN brevit.

Harwich International has an evening arrival at 2056 Liverpool Street depart 1932 and morning departure at 0715 Liverpool Street 0845 that are the only through services onto the branch as noted by Stationmaster, after Manningtree the morning departure effectively becomes just another commuter service to town. At the other end of the journey at Hoek van Holland there is no longer a heavy rail connection the line has become part of the extended Rotterdam Metro. The last time I used the service as a foot passenger (2017)there were maximum 30 foot pax, in 1990 when I travelled the boat train as was, had 350 foot pax and a relief was running 20 mins behind us. The DFDS Newcastle - Ijmuiden service is primarily aimed at car and coach traffic, along with the "booze cruise" round trippers, useful revenue during quiet times, as that market has been decimated by Covid there would be little point in running an empty coach from Newcastle to Shields. The same has happened at Hull the dedicated ferry bus from town to the port is cancelled, the mini cruises are only now advertised to start next month. I cant recall any of the Portsmouth Harbour service ever been regarded as boat trains, likewise the Cleethorpes - New Holland Pier services were never regarded as boat trains. The market for cross channel non car passengers has changed out of all recognition in the last 30 years, the advent of the tunnel, low cost airlines and the changing habits of the public at large who now prefer to travel in their own vehicles rather than with large numbers of strangers on a train or transfer bus.

Just shows the extent of effectiveness of the mechanical washing plants, that were designed for coaching stock and therefore missed the bits on locos that curved inwards from the standard Mk1 profile. Sat in the right hand seat, the fitness of the inner mechanicals were of more importance than beake dust, especially the boiler which looks to be in fine order. A former colleague once went to check the boiler on a 55 when a fault light came up, he just got past the engine when it threw a piston, the driver had eased off counted to 30 then to give Paul chance to pass the engine (not that it made much difference you still got deafened regardless) then opened up and bang. Driver stopped in a heap convinced that Paul would be seriously injured or worse fortunately only a change of trousers were required.

Dart Castings/MJT is your friend https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt/1112.php

Anyone else remember "How" on the opposition (ITV) ? They had a section called Rubbish Workshop, cant remember if it was Jack Hargreaves or Fred Dineage who did this section. I was taken with a a working tramway street scene using a matchbox, string, two pencils, a paperclip, and " any long thin box" l was quite proud of my achievement, though the parents were bemused by the the pile of matches on the mantlepiece, and the sudden lack of pencils in the house.

Suggest a Google search should lead you to the Bluebell Railway site, which as a page describing coach seat moquette colours, for LHCS. As stated on the Railcar site, the units were finished with contemporary LHCS material. I believe the Bluebell site is divided into decades, referencing the 60s section should provide you with the information you require.

Try www.railcar.co.uk The section on the 123's gives details if the seat colours. The moquette referred to was green and brownish or red and brownish stripes as per LHCS but, at the time. Can't remember offhand which was which. The colours denoted smoking or non smoking accommodation. Robert Carrolls LHCS Yahoo group has files which may help you further.

Yes that is a through vac pipe. Vac pipes were common, particularly on FS stock into the 80s. Most FS Van's had them and a number of bogie Van's had them. Outside of your area and era, but at Dover, we often had a cobbled together train, of BSK, various loaded Transfesa or Interfrigos plus assorted Van's for brake force as the Interfrigos were piped only and the vac brakes on the Transfesa's were often not working when it came to brake test time. France to a degree and Spain, particularly was a large scale user of vac brakes, phasing them out around the same time as BR.

It would be interesting to see the original notice, that this amended as the vans mentioned were not built and were the first bogie ferry vans introduced on the mainland UK, in 1976 (VTG) and 1977 (Cargowaggon).

Great memories there Rob, Saturday mornings a few years earlier at Walton Street or Woodgates Lane the 110 and 111 dmus from the West Riding were always eagerly awaited inbetween the loco hauled trains on and off the branch.

When I was a TU rep on on the railway, I had an interesting conversation with an HR Manager about the real costs of employing someone. He stated that over and above the headline salary on the payslip, the additional costs to the employer were in the region of 30%. My other half here in Germany is an HRBP for a multi national, she works on the same margin when assessing offers to candidates she interviews. I was reading on Facebook earlier today the usual suspects demanding that we should boycott Hornby until they return manafacturing to the UK. Out of interest I Googled minimum wage China, it appears each province sets its minimum, Shanghai being the highest at approx 400 USD per month. The UK minimum wage is 1300GBP equates to roughly 1700 USD both China and UK figures based on a 40 hour week. Whilst the figures are not an exact numbers, it illustrates I think, exactly why manafacturing will not be returning to the UK anytime soon. Anyone with more accurate figures feel free to post corrections.

Have a look at the railcar site www.railcar.co.uk that explains the original class numbering of each type of car

That sounds like a mis declaration on the customs form CN22 IIRC. I receive a bi monthly CD of merchant shipping data compiled by a friend on a not for profit basis. The last one was returned to him as the form had a couple of figures transposed. He resent it with a full written description, and i received it no problem.

Look on www.zoll.de they have a very clear section, in English on what can be bought into Germany from a non EU state. As the guardians of the border, one would hope they are up to speed on what allowed. There is nothing unexpected on the prohibited list, certainly no mention of models, be it trains, ships, cars, aircraft. Likewise printed material, only the usual dubious magazines (non railway) and anti constitutional books.

Afternoon all, Just to give Rob a breather, here is a photo of 45593 Kolhapur rounding the newly opened Cricket Ground Curve Hull 5th June 1965, with a returning excursion to the West Riding. Photo copyright my brother Stephen Lee

Russ, yes the normal livery ones are the ex second class ones that were used in IIRC the GE boat trains and some Motorail trains ex York. I have an identical photo to the above as I was stood next to David on that day, being former work colleagues and old friends.

Possibly the most familiar enthusiast/basher to be found in the West Midlands the Ged the gentle giant passed away from a heart attack in late September. Tall, with flowing beard and a distintive coat, Ged could, at first sight, present an intimidating figure, but beneath the exterior was a genuinely friendly, kind and helpfull man. No matter if your were an experienced basher or on your first day spotting or bashing Ged had time for everyone. Sharing Gen or advice to newcomers. Likewise to local staff he was always polite and respectful. RIP Ged