Simon Lee

15 hours ago, Market65 said:

Good evening, everyone, and Happy Easter. Well, after a hectic time, I’m back, and have a photo’ by ricsrailpics, on Flickr, of a BR class 5mt, 73141, passing Carnaby, on an excursion, unidentified, in July, 1967. Note the open guards door in the front Mk1 BSO.

 

BR Class 5MT no.73141 passing Carnaby, south of Bridlington. July 1967 by ricsrailpics, on Flickr

 

Best regards,

 

 Rob.

That is actually the return Bridlington - Bradford service 1H92 / 1N92, exceptionally hauled on this date by Patricroft Caprotti fitted Standard 5 73141

Normally this was a Low Moor Black 5 job. The outward working 1H92 was one of the famous 0820 parallel departures from Bradford Exchange.

11 hours ago, Grizz said:

Oh wow, I went there to do my fire training. The trainer was ex fire brigade and a legend. Although these days I suspect he may have been sacked PDQ.
He asked questions about the different colour extinguishers and when my mate gave him the wrong answer he sprayed him in the nuts with a carbon dioxide extinguisher! My poor mate was the shyest and quietest in the group.
On the same day he asked what do you do if you are on board a train and you find an empty extinguisher? A few people answered things like ‘Tell the guard’ or ‘tell the driver’.....he just shouts “no you don’t...you throw it away” and then picked the nearest one and threw it out of the open window into the back yard. 
 

Finally at the end of the training he got someone to light up a tray of diesel using a big heap of old rags and then once it was really burning up, from a safe distance got us to spray it with water. The fire ball went way up in the air and the smoke was incredible, before finally he put it out with foam. 
 

I have been on loads of railway fire courses since then, nothing ever came close to matching that. As a young teenager I thought it was brilliant and as an older geezer I still do.

 

Sorry just noticed that that was off topic.....

Sounds like the old Ashford Fire Instructor we had a very bored young lady on our course, lots of sighing, huffing and puffing, and tutting from her.  She got the CO2 treatment, he stood behind her, waited until her head nodded forward then a quick 5 second blast got her attention. 

He also had a collection of bits from a PW Propane cylinder that had exploded, that brings home why there is always an exclusion zone on any fire involving those. 

19 hours ago, Andy 53B said:

Hi Simon,

 

did you manage to speak to your colleague to see if he managed to salvage any of the station documentation,

 

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy,

Unfortunately he was unable to help, any he had were from the early 60s, I have a couple from 1979/80 but that all we can find at the moment.

16 hours ago, mark54 said:

As it is under the 90MPH lettering, I could guess it stands for Special Maintenance.

Special Maintainance is correct, same markings were seen on some oil box fitted BGs on East Coast diagrams in the 70s.

They are very rare, I helped compile some in the late 70s, and have a couple of odds in the collection. 

They were actually  stencilled and run off on a Roneo machine, photocopies in those days being suprisingly expensive.

Each issue would be maximum of roughly 60/70 copies, so as you say, it would be doubtful if any made it to Kew or the NRM. I will speak to a former colleage who did clear out some of the store rooms when the AMO closed and see if he managed to salvage any.

Just seen this on the BBC website, hopefully smoke/water damage will not cause to many problems, as it appears to be the property adjoining the Emporium.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-55971786

Fortunately casualties seem minimal

20 hours ago, 50A55B said:

Looking at it more closely, it appears to still have at least one roof periscope. Late retention of these seems to have been a peculiarity of the SR.

The majority of the BSKs were low numbered ones, 34624, 34950, 34953 are 3 numbers that spring to mind. 

I guess being captive to the SR they were fairly low profile on the works list for modifications. They were in quite poor external condition, the contrast being most noticeable when the LM sets used to arrive on the Lourdes pilgrimex from Liverpool, sparking clean sets with CW bogies quite a contrast.! 

8 hours ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

Simon - Dover 1981

 

I tried to find the same spot a couple of years ago.

 

 

 

The Military platform was very popular with photographers, more so when the fuel point was built in the late 80s.

15 hours ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

Thank you Simon.

It looks like the BSK features in my picture of 47233 at Faversham in my previous post.

 

Where we you based during this period Simon?

I was at Dover from 1981 until the ferry closed in 1995, and then Dollands until 1999. 

My time at Dover was the best of my railway career, working on a unique operation, and privileged to work with some very great and experienced railway men. 

17 minutes ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

East Kent 73s

 

Sticking with East Kent. Around about 1980.

The first picture was taken at Herne Bay.

 

The second two at Faversham. I am especially interested in the details of the working in the last picture. A 73 used to arrive at Faversham in the morning and shunt a bg or the like about, I have good memories of watching it do it's thing on sunny mornings. Has anyone a few more details of what this was about?

 

 

 

 

 

Also everything covered in that red rust Brake dust is very atmospheric for me.

 

 

This was 5K00, 0852 Dover WD - Faversham via Sittingbourne. It conveyed the BSK that was stabled at Faversham for the 0455 Fav - Dover WD papers, the vans of which were  detached from the Victoria - Ramsgate papers.

When we had ferries of fruit for Woods at Sittingbourne they would be attached to this working, which often led to some bizarre formations as the BSK was vac fitted, and the ferries could be any combination of vac fitted or piped wagons.

The BSK was possibly the most rancid flea infested coach on BR being, regularly changed out for fumigation at New Cross, after the guard and regular passengers usually Sealink or BR complained of bites !

18 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

What happened?

Someone videoing out of a door droplight, had an argument with part of the bridge or nearby structure.

Suffice to say, his day out ended there, as his head parted company with the rest of him.

It was, at the time, touch and go if the rest of the series of trips that summer would continue, however a rapid fitting of door window bars allowed the programme to be completed. 

17 minutes ago, micknich2003 said:

Simon, it was the practice to stable Royal Trains in the Up Loop at Kirkella Cutting.

Did that continue until the through route closed Mick ? My only experience from the 70s was stabling on the Barlow branch.

2 hours ago, Brough Ranger said:

Some time ago, there was discussion around Royal Train visits to Hull. This snippet from the RAF Association magazine hints at an overnight stop by George VI near Willerby (Willoughby). Any detail to add to it?

There was a Royal morale boosting visit in summer 1941 after the intense air raids of earlier in the year, possibly that's what is referred to. There is a YFA video on line that shows the King and Queen in Hull.

The royals also visited Holderness and the coast in 1940, but details are scant

1 hour ago, Philou said:

 

When asked about UK-EU sales, he won't be accepting orders due to the changes in the EU VAT regulations - I'm probably his only customer in the EU!!

 

 

Shame but understandable, after looking at the video l could have been the second EU customer.

Still after discovering Lendons as well, I think a visit to Cardidf is a possibility once some form of normality returns.

Autumn 1974, we received 2 train loads of these wagons at Hull Central Freight depot, conveying condemned fish from Mallaig. 

Apparently one of the Soviet "Klondyker" fish factory ships had an equipment

breakdown and the catch was condemmed, and sold to the Hull Fish Meal company.

The wagons stank to high heaven especially once the sheets were removed.

It's a bit later than your timeframe, but passed through your area. 

That's very nice, reminds me of many thousands of kms spent in them behind classic D&E traction.

I got mine many moons ago, via a Shredded Wheat offer, pretty sure it came in an unmarked box. 

Always seemed a very good model for it's time.

When I dealt with MRL at Merehead one of their Rail ops controllers would often work a Sunday sweeping out wagons that were changing flow or commodity this was up to 5 years ago. 

He had a young family so the chance of any overtime was always welcome.

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

 

• I think it should be £10.

Somebodys splashing out then.........

Suprised no ones mentioned the times in 1975 I think it was, when 790 went mainline. I was on a MGNRS tour, that had 4472 / 61306 / and 790 in various permutations from Carnforth to Ravenglass. 

So a reason to run the loco with blue and grey Mk 1s.

31 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

That's an amazingly high proportion of NPCS - erven allowing for the omission of MU stock. ( Wherein lies another question - How many diesel units would count as BR Mk1 stock ? ..... apart from the diesel electrics, of course. The situation's a LOT clearer with the electrics - but I'm not going to start counting. )

I think as well, you need to think back to how life in general was, certainly in the 60s and 70s, Mail Order shopping, PO mail, Newsprint etc. 

Just looking back, one of my regular spotting trips late 60s early 70s was Hull to Leeds, leaving Hull maybe 20 van's stabled off the morning paper/mail trains. Then at Leeds the PCD usually one or two pilots shuffling around even on a Saturday morning, l guess thinking back, must have been over 100 vans stabled there. Multiply that all over the country, even allowing for and including the ubiquitous SR vans it would soon add up to the thousands.

One other curious flow I recall, usually monthly, was a single BG in one of the Hull docks trips, usually hauled by a WD 2-8-0 , containing sea mail for the Pacific Islands via a Bank Line ship and on occassion newly minted coins for one of the same islands. 

3 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

But that was only a marketing name for the British Railways Board and didn't signify any change in the organisation - other than, arguably, recognition that the 'old' BR image was rather past its sell by date.  

THe OPs question was the more common use of the term BR, so how would you define the date of organisational change ?  Marketing names were more along the lines of Inter City, Freightliner. 

Quick google search reveals a poster on Pintrest that shows British Rail was used officially from 1st January 1965, part of the corporate image project. 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/59672763785538652/

Further more information is on this website -

http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/?LMCL=SGNWVi

HTH

P&O's Pride of Hull suffered engine room fire on passage from Hull to Rotterdam. Europoort. Fortunately the ship was still well within the Humber estuary off Killingholme when the incident occurred.

Fire out and no injuries reported, ship still at anchor waiting for the inbound Pride of Rotterdam to arrive and discharge before moving back to Hull for discharge and then assessments/investigations. 

The Pride of York currently laid up off the reduced Zeebrugge service possibly to be used as a replacement in the interim.

Sadly the local intelligentsia on the local paper Facebook page are screaming Insurance job etc, etc, sadly certain sections of the population seem to sink to new lows of behaviour every day.

Try "Industriebahn" "Werkbahn" as a start, then Industriebahn with any major city name, ie Hamburg, Frankfurt, Köln, etc, etc.

Should throw up some results that will be helpful for you.

Both "Janes" format, but slightly bigger. 

I bought the first one after a 2 minuite browse, such was the quality and previously unpublished photos. Volume 2 I just bought without browsing both excellent publications.