Great Western Coffee Shop

Current changes in lifestyle have given me a little time to browse and sort through some old material ... sharing today a picture from the summer 50 years ago.    What pictures / memories do you have from the summer of 1970 or thereabouts (with apologies to all our younger members who were just a twinkle in their mother's eye at that point!)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/50yearsago.jpg)

August 1970, holiday on the Isle of Wight and being very surprised at seeing London Underground stock on approach to Ryde Pier from the Portsmouth ferry. We'd only moved to Bristol the previous October from our London home on the east of the Central Line. It somewhat distracted my attention from the considerable number of hairy people heading to the other side of the island for some sort of popular beat combo music gathering!

Not the summer of 1970 but the Spring or thereabouts, for some reason now lost in the depths of time I took myself off to Keynsham (that's K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M for my older readers :) ) to take some shots of everyday railway life at the time. Here are a couple of examples, the first of which would be no good at all in a location quiz!



Here is one of the daily "Frys train" waiting to get back on the main line. The area upon which it is standing is of course now the station car park:


There are plenty of shots of mine from the greater Bristol area in the 60s and 70s here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/albums/72157652309656301

Would that be Keynsham as made famous by an advert on Radio Luxembourg? No I can't remember what the advert was for.

The Horace Batchelor Infradraw method which he claimed would make you money on the pools. I wonder if anyone ever used it and made money - other than Horace of course

Waz just coming up to 11 years old, the daunting prospect of the 11 plus and changing schools. 

I had my 18th birthday that summer and escaped home in London to go to university in Cardiff in September. I seem to have been living towards the west side of the UK ever since!

I was studying ecology at Durham with Dave Bellamy as my tutor. We were on a field course in the Highlands. On our return I managed to persuade the rest to drop me off at Inverness station so I could travel the Highland main line to Perth, where I was picked up again.

Where is that, Graham?

It's Minehead, August 1970.

Final day of operation - 2nd January 1971.

Prey not, but could be the scene in January 2021, well looks like diesel will be cheap then.

I had just finished primary school. Vague memories of a school rail journey to Slough for the long-gone Windsor Safari Park. One of few sightings of a class 22 in service and actually doing something.

Probably the same year: the first experience of a mystery excursion. South Wales to Dover for £1 or thereabouts (adult). Fascinated by the journey around south London at a time when green-paint was still around (as were 4-SUBs and 2-BILs). Out via Maidstone. Can't remember anything about Dover, except a long wait on Priory station for the return. Someone was having trouble getting our train out of the carriage sidings, it was said. Train was re-routed via Tonbridge to make up some time. Class 47 as was almost universal for these excursions - and Mk1 stock.

I know what you mean.  Though a six carriage routine service arriving from Taunton, with regular users (clearly getting ready to open the doors as soon as the are able) on their daily journey has its attractions.

In Celle in West Germany with 94 Locating Regiment Royal Artillery. Largest Artillery Regiment, but no guns!

94 has gone, was the successor to a line of Artillery Survey Regiments. Army has left Celle, Taunton Barracks or Heide Kaserne now local council offices. http://baor-locations.org/TauntonBarracks.aspx.html (http://baor-locations.org/TauntonBarracks.aspx.html) An old "Kaiser" era barracks. Far better tahn my other posting to Germany which was a Hitler (SS) era barracks.

Well, there's another coincidence. Having started work for MESL on target scoring radars (hence the need to go to ranges such as Cold Meece, Shoeburyness, Benbecula etc. to shoot things close to the kit), the next bright idea was updating the RA's gun sound ranging. We didn't get far with that one, but when I mentioned it to Dad he said "oh yes, I did that during the war". I should have guessed, as I knew he was an RA signaller - though I don't think it was much used in the Burma campaign.

The delights (?) of sound ranging. Fascinating subject. I worked with a Meteorological Troop. The Sound Ranging Troop were still using line connections to the microphones. Used to tear round the ranges in Land-Rovers known as fire-engines reeling out miles of telephone cable, which I am pretty sure was never picked up again. Always remember the microphone traces recorded on Teledeltos paper (you always get a bit of technological history on the forum!). I don't know if they ever got round to implementing connecting the microphones by radio, which Professor Bragg had been pushing since WWII. Bragg had been a sound ranger in WWI.

I think SR was used in Burma, any details will be found in:
https://www.amazon.com/Larkhills-Wartime-Locators-Artillery-Survey/dp/1844155145 (https://www.amazon.com/Larkhills-Wartime-Locators-Artillery-Survey/dp/1844155145)

The Spring of 1970 I was coming to the end of my time as a very junior Articled Clerk. We had a client that built bridges based in Darlington and had a construction company at Bentley, outside Doncaster, and another client making machinery for textile manufacture, in Belfast. So, consulting with my slavishly comprehensive Travel Record, I had numerous trips between Kings Cross and Doncaster or Darlington (Down on the Sunday evening slow train at 820pm, and up on a Friday afternoon taking tea on an up Scottish express. Great Luxury.

In amongst these weeks were four weeks in Belfast, probably travelling on a Vickers Vanguard of BEA. I occasionally used a BCal BAC1-11 to Gatwick, which was very exotic.But not, apparently in 1970.

Summer holiday would have been spent in Alderney travelling on a Dove (My last trip on a Rapide being in about 1958)

Great memories.

In 1970 I was sent to the Liverpool Division to gain some operating experience.  The Divisional Manager was the legendary R H N (Dick) Hardy, who was keen on training, so he sent for me to check on progress etc rather more frequently than I was expecting (or wanted!).  In those days there were still pre-Grouping traditions, so you claimed to be either CLC (Cheshire Lines Committee) or Lancy (Lancashire & Yorkshire) men.

I was sent to Edge Hill Traincrew Depot for a while, and with my footplate pass did all the local Trip workings – they were called “Targets” up there.  In those days once the Target loco left the depot no-one knew quite where they were – hence the rhyme I still remember – Target One has gone, Target Two has gone to Crewe, Target Four is on the floor etc.

I did all the Target workings down to the docks, Alexandra, Huskisson, Canada etc.  I remember being allowed to sit at the controls and driving a quite long train of loose-coupled wagons past the start of a downhill gradient through Knotty Ash (in those days closely identified with Ken Dodd), with the increasingly nervous Driver sitting beside me saying “Get hold of them, GET HOLD OF THEM!”.

I was also in the cab of (I think) a Class 25 on a special trip down Waterloo Tunnel to Riverside, it was a steep and damp tunnel and the Driver said in steam days they would be slipping and sliding and would sometimes put a shovel out to touch the side of the tunnel to know how fast (and in what direction) they were moving. 

Had a great time in Liverpool, very friendly people, and in those days lots of interesting railways to explore.