RMweb Gold Ian Hargrave Posted September 1, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 1, 2014 There is a showing of the 1973 John Betjemen documentary "Metroland" on BBC 4 at 10:00 pm this evening. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Davis Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Just set the recorder, thanks for posting this, I would have missed it otherwise. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ian Hargrave Posted September 1, 2014 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 1, 2014 Just set the recorder, thanks for posting this, I would have missed it otherwise. Tony No worries...I've just set mine too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted September 1, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 1, 2014 I'm watching it at the moment, its 42 years since it was made! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 1, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 1, 2014 I'm watching it at the moment, its 42 years since it was made! Yes indeed - but I was still sitting there occasionally telling Mrs Stationmaster what was coming next Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Bigcheeseplant Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 I wonder if the organ is still around! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 75C Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Thanks - I'll need to catch that on iPlayer... I never tire of watching it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted September 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 2, 2014 I intended to watch this some weeks back - and found the DVD was not in its oyster. It'll turn up, no doubt. Anoraks to note : In the car-wash scene, the original had Two-Way Family Favourites playing the Osmonds. By the time of the DVD release, this had had to be substituted by some less prominent recording, no doubt due to copyright issues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 I intended to watch this some weeks back - and found the DVD was not in its oyster. It'll turn up, no doubt. Anoraks to note : In the car-wash scene, the original had Two-Way Family Favourites playing the Osmonds. By the time of the DVD release, this had had to be substituted by some less prominent recording, no doubt due to copyright issues. The car wash scene was the scary part. Washing a Marina? Did anyone ever actually wash a Marina? Can I handle the fact that I (ulp!) once owned one? My daughter lived in Wembley Park until recently. That area doesn't now look like it did in "Metroland". Interesting that Wembley stadium (the original) was the site of an abandoned attempt to build an Eiffel Tower equivalent. Think Edward Watkin was behind the Great Central railway - and presumably involved with the Metropolitan as well? Great program, nice seeing JB in full swing again, thanks for heads up on this. Silver Met stock takes you back as well, however the new last year stock that is open end to end and has air con is rather good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 75C Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 I think washing a Marina was a perfectly acceptable pastime and one of which to be proud. My Dad owned an Austin Princess and then an Allegro and never felt the need to wear a bag over his head washing those. He did eventually come to his senses (in my humble opinion) and buy a Mk3 Cortina... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Davis Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 When my dad worked at London Weekend Television (the studio was at Wembley Park) he took me round what remained of the Empire Exhibition site. There were some parts of the continuous railway there and it was interesting to me to see the railway on the programme last night. I was also hoping to see more of the North end of the met line having worked there. One of my colleagues owned a Marina, it was a horrible dun colour. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 2, 2014 I wonder if the organ is still around! I can't get completely up to date on it David but Len Rawle (now MBE), the bloke who built his house around it, was still going in 2012/13 and still restoring and playing Wurlitzer organs so I presume he still has it. If he's still going he would be 76 years old this year. ON another point Sir Edward Watkin was involved wit the Great Central, the Metropolitan, and the SE&CT and he really did have an ambition to get a Channel Tunnel built and run trains through from Manchester to Paris. I'm not sure how much of the old Empire Exhibition site is still there - I had a wander round much of the area on my way to the Model Engineer Exhibition c.1977 and quite a few of the buildings still existed then but weren't in briliant condition. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 I'm watching it at the moment, its 42 years since it was made! They used to make great programs back then. I moved to Harrow in 1976 (actually Northwick Park) but confusingly my local station was Preston Road around which many of the outside scenes of Fawlty Towers were filmed. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted September 3, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 3, 2014 They used to make great programs back then. I moved to Harrow in 1976 (actually Northwick Park) but confusingly my local station was Preston Road around which many of the outside scenes of Fawlty Towers were filmed. Best, Pete. A lot of 60's and 70's TV was filmed in the area. I had a girlfriend who was born and brought up in the area and if we watched programs such as The Avengers she was able to name the streets and places where the 'action' took place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 The odd thing is Phil that when I moved there I always thought that the Preston Road shops had a seaside feel... Then I see the local Greek restaurant converted over night in a French one (when Basil decided on Gourmet Evenings and his Chef ended up drunk on the floor and he had to get food from somewhere else) one of the other scenes from that episode was filmed at the end of my road when Basil attacked his recalcitrant 1100 with a handy tree branch... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CathcartCircle Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Lots of John Betjeman stuff on the BBC I-Player at the moment including his wee tour of the SDJR , cracking stuff! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Lots of John Betjeman stuff on the BBC I-Player at the moment including his wee tour of the SDJR , cracking stuff! Cracking stuff indeed, found I've got "Branchline Railway" (the sdjr one) on a video, with an introduction by Michael Palin. Going to try and watch that over the weekend. I have a feeling I once watched a John Betjeman program on north Norfolk which included some branches with early dmus but can't find a trace of it. Anyone else remember this? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium drjcontroller Posted September 5, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 5, 2014 Yes, IIRC it featured a journey from Kings Lynn to Hunstanton on a Derby LW. Douglas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Yes, IIRC it featured a journey from Kings Lynn to Hunstanton on a Derby LW. Douglas Thanks for that, thought I'd seen something like it. I'll have to check further into the pile of old videos. cheers, Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 75C Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Thanks for that, thought I'd seen something like it. I'll have to check further into the pile of old videos. cheers, Bill There are clips of the Hunstanton journey on YouTube, but I think the programme that featured that journey was called simply "John Betjeman Goes By Train" from 1961: http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/76 Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 There are clips of the Hunstanton journey on YouTube, but I think the programme that featured that journey was called simply "John Betjeman Goes By Train" from 1961: http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/76 Pete. Thanks Pete and drjcontroller, the film is a real gem. I've visited that area quite a lot over the years, mainly due to another interest being bird watching - Snettisham is a good place for seeing waders coming in over the Wash. Hadn't realised that there was an engine shed there - think some of the station at least is still there as private property. There was a branch to Wells from Heacham which would have been wonderful to have been able to travel over, perhaps the shed was for that. Here are a couple of pics of Wolferton station as it is now (taken earlier this year). I think there was a museum there once - perhaps in the signal box? But not now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engineer_London Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 From post 13 "I'm not sure how much of the old Empire Exhibition site is still there" Within the last year or two, the last parts of the well-known ferro-concrete buidings of the Wembley Exhibition have been removed and all that remains on the site is foundation work indicating where some walls used to be. However, the Wembley History Society lobbied well to save one of the small lion-head details from the last building. Recently, this has been placed with an explanatory plaque on a pedestal in a grassed public area, effectively a large traffic island, on Wembley Hill Road, just opposite the former Exhibition site. The less-iconic buildings of the 1924-5 Exhibition have left their mark on other parts of the Wembley site. Many less glamorous buildings were provided as exhibition halls, restaurants or canteens on the northern and eastern periphery of the site, and tended to be steel-framed multi-bay structures rather like the warehouse buildings found in large military stores depots. For the Exhibition, these buildings were clad with painted hoardings that hid prosaic walls and ridged roofing. During my continuing research on the Neverstop Railway within the exhibition, and with the aid of the Wembley History Society, modern satellite maps and ‘Britain from Above’ images, I’ve noticed that a handful of buildings standing today have used exactly the same foundation footprint as structures from the 1920s, no radical re-siting in intervening years, and it is just possible that some of the original structural steelwork might have been re-used in one or two of these. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CathcartCircle Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Here are a couple of pics of Wolferton station as it is now (taken earlier this year). I think there was a museum there once - perhaps in the signal box? But not now. It's great that Wolferton station has been preserved albeit as a private residence however it'd look much better with trains running through it, even the DMU that Betjeman was travelling on! That being said I'd love to live there! lol! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
railroadbill Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Here are a couple of pics of Wolferton station as it is now (taken earlier this year). I think there was a museum there once - perhaps in the signal box? But not now. It's great that Wolferton station has been preserved albeit as a private residence however it'd look much better with trains running through it, even the DMU that Betjeman was travelling on! That being said I'd love to live there! lol! There's a bit about the history of the station here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolferton_railway_station I though the site would be owned by the Crown estates as part of Sandringham but apparently not. There's another site here, but not that comprehensive. http://www.wolfertonroyalstation.co.uk/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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