Tankerman

Just a thought, it might be useful to contact the successors to the local town council as they might have some photos or drawings of the motor garage in their archives.

Interesting comment that only 12% of car journeys are for work. Around here I would estimate that the number of cyclists using their cycles for work or other necessary activity is less than 10%, the rest is pleasure riding, but only when it's dry and/or warm.

Me neither, When the last increase in state pensions occurred, although I received it, the tax on one of my company pensions increased, reducing the net payment of that pension.

The DfT is a civil service department so such things are to be expected, just like the MOD who had ships put through expensive refits then sold them very cheaply to foreign navies. The troops who were given the original SA80 to defend themselves in the Gulf War summed up the problem with the name they bestowed on that weapon. They called it the Civil Servant because it didn't work and couldn't be fired.

There was, I'm not sure there still is, a similar situation at Penryn station in Cornwall. Station Road links Treliever Road and Helston Road and was built and owned by the GWR. At each end of Station Road there were gates, permanently open by the time I was old enough to notice them in the mid 1950's, which carried notices to the effect that Station Road was not a public highway and that the GWR owned the road. To maintain their right to bar traffic from it my father told me that the gates were closed at midnight on Christmas Eve and reopened at midnight on Christmas Day.

All of these and many others, have the same reason. Unlike continental Europe and many other countries, engineering skills of whatever discipline and level of qualification, are given a very low rating and virtually no respect in this country. This is clearly shown by the term "Backroom Boys" given to engineers by various levels of management. If this country paid engineers what the legal profession and GPs get paid and vice versa, we wouldn't have the engineering problems we have. This was brought home to me as long ago as 1983 when I stayed with an Italian family in Naples. Their three children were adults, one still being at university, when they showed me the photographs of the two older ones it was obvious that they were very proud of the eldest one. When I asked what he did I was told, again with pride in their voices "He is an Electrical Engineer" on asking what the other one did I was told "Oh he's just a Doctor."

Am I the first the only one who thinks the first two look almost model like?

To paraphrase an old saying, it seems like a loco driver's work is never done.🙂

Given that it was the legal profession it was probably all they needed, as most of them were travelling second class and putting in for first class on their expenses.🙂

I can think of two possible reasons for this. Firstly the lines west of Exeter, including the branches which still retained some goods services, were anything but flat, and secondly the stations in Cornwall were, for a supposedly main line, quite close together. The former obviously required more horsepower for the same weight of train and the second required a reasonably quick acceleration to reduce the time taken between stops. Many years ago now, when I still lived in Cornwall and steam was still in use, I attended a talk by a railwayman who from memory was something to do with locomotive provision at Laira. In the question and answer session after his talk he was asked what locomotive he considered to be the best one for use in Cornwall. His answer was the Granges as due to their smaller wheels and tractive effort they were better at hill climbing and could accelerate the train quicker between stops.

As a serving policeman and if the act of bravery was great enough, would he not have been entitled to the George Medal?

The lineside growth in the modern photo is way more than it was in the 1950's, let alone the 1930's and much more like the second image. I was born in Penryn in 1946 and, despite moving to Stithians in 1952, the local station was my regular haunt on Saturdays until I reached the age of 10 when I was allowed to travel from Penryn to the 'big' station at Truro. The embankments and cuttings were kept clear of trees, IIRC it was part of the lineside gangs duties to remove any saplings on the embankments to prevent the mess visible in the modern photo. Another reason for this was that such growth could possibly damage the wires of the telephone/telegraph system which ran alongside the tracks. Another reason for the lineside growth being restricted was fires being caused by sparks from the loco during the summer. Is the modern photo taken from a bridge on the Falmouth branch? It looks very much like the view from the bridge at Penryn station or the one on Melville Road in Falmouth, both looking towards Falmouth Docks station.

There were also quite a few around Acton, west London. I believe that the original population was formed from those stationed at Northolt airfield. There was also a Polish Information Centre/Bookshop there which is where I first found out about the Katyn massacre where over 25,000 polish officers and intellectuals were murdered by the Russians. I got to know a few of them quite well as I carried out power press inspections at two metal press shops around Acton. I remember asking one of the foremen, who had been conscripted as slave labour by the Germans and lived under the Russians after the war before escaping to the UK. I asked him which of them was the worse, his reply was the Russians, as the Germans only wanted his body, but the Russians wanted his soul.

Re suggestions for locos, I've got both my steel helmet and running shoes on ready for the reactions, how about an Accurascale standard model of a Class 42/43 Warship?

Are you aware of this from 2021? We’re a country that turns a blind eye to the danger caused by pavement parking, but the same can’t be said of our attitudes towards cycling on the footway. And yet, Minister for Cycling Robert Goodwill has this week restated the official line from the Department for Transport (DfT) that cyclists may ride on pavements – on condition they do so considerately. He called on police officers need to exercise discretion following an announcement by the Metropolitan Police that almost 1,000 cyclists had been fined for pavement cycling as part of its Operation Safeway.

I like the name Lycra Pilots, it's very appropriate for the way the lycra wearing entitled idiots, on their very expensive cycles and obviously cycling as a hobby, totally ignore the special cycle lanes provided, cycle at speeds above the speed limit and straight line roundabouts causing drivers to have to emergency brake. I used to visit Guernsey once or twice a year and the friend I was visiting told me that the cyclists there were known as MAMIL'S - Middle Aged Men In Lycra.

Penryn on the Falmouth branch also had a concrete section which sloped toward the centre of the track and an open gulley to take the waste water from washing down the dock. By the time Ifirst saw it, mid 1960's, it was out of use for cattle but was used to load horses during the summer time.

Very interesting sets of postings on the various main engines. I was a single handed Lecky with Trident Tankers/P&O Bulk in the 1960's and 70"s and spent more of my time on steamships than motor ships. The motor ships involved far more work on the instrumentation because of the amount of vibration from the main and auxiliary engines. The performance of the engines not only varied by designer, but also who actually built, manufactured, the engine. I sailed on three B&W engined ships. The first was a Kincaid 7 cyl. unit and was a nightmare, it had so many cooling water leaks that the Second Engineer could never clear then all and the vibration caused the scavenge temperature sensors to last not much more than a month. This meant that I got literally covered in oily crap, which took a long shower to get rid of, after replacing them at both the loading and discharge ports. The second was a Hitachi 7 cyl., which wasn't as bad as the first one, however the electro/pneumatic valves on the control air system were very susceptible to moisture in the control air and had to be stripped and cleaned at regular intervals. The third one was a B&W built one and it ran like a sewing machine.

It is the Uganda, as the photo was taken in the August of 1982 she could well have been alongside having all the equipment added for use as a hospital ship being removed for return to her owners.

My understanding is that because the main engine was placed amidships and too few intermediate shaft bearings were fitted, the propellor shaft vibrated excessively, either because it twisted too much between the intermediate bearings or developed harmonic vibrations along its length.

Yes it's a joke, but given the quality of our present MP's, of all political parties, it wouldn't surprise me if it actually happened in real life.

Penryn is the same, the buildings are accommodation for students at the Exeter University campus at Tremough just outside Penryn.

I was slightly better off when I started as an electrical apprentice at the local dockyard in 1962, £3 - 38 for a 40 hour week.

Living near Wokingham I am not surprised at this, a lot of the drivers both male and female, doing the afternoon school runs appear to think that their journey, both with and without their children, can be completed in a time equal to that possible when the roads are clear of other traffic. Jumping red traffic lights is so common that it seems routine and priority at a roundabout is automatically theirs despite the rule being priority from the right. Incidentally you mention it was a white car, I have noticed that white cars seem to be the worst offenders.