1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18 and 19. (I know. Don’t blame Tris. WordPress refused to allow him to put a number on the pic No 18. By Order. Signed Munguin.)20.
What a nightmare. They seem to have changed the method for uploading AGAIN! Still we got there, despite them.
No. 8 – I think that’s my auntie Mees (Millicent) in the bed there. She moved to Manchester with my Polish uncle after WWII when he got a job with GEC in Trafford Park. I don’t know for sure because my auntie mentioned she’d been photographed in hospital back then with bigwigs but didn’t have a copy of the photo to show me. It certainly looks like her.
I wish. Too late now, I’m afraid. If I could find which newspaper or newspapers that photo was in, that would help, I suppose, but if there’s any mention of that anywhere that I’ve seen.
The problem is, Tris, that there is a period in history, known as the Dark Ages, before the Interwebs came into being as a gift from Prometheus Gore or someone, neither of whom had anything to do with methane, except maybe. The lives of people then are lost in the mists of time, invisible to even the most advanced and erudite of contemporary googlers…
The prices were on the products due to Retail Price Maintenance. RPM is where a supplier and a retailer agree that the retailer will not resell the supplier’s products below a specified price. That was the price to be paid in every shop you went to. That was one reason why there were corner shops everywhere up to the 1960’s. Once RPM was abolished by the Retail Prices Act of 1964 you had the arrival of supermarket chains that would undercut a lot of the corner shop prices.
Arthur Askey’s opening greeting of “hello, playmates” might perhaps sound a bit sus with child audiences in terms of modern sensibilities, but only thing I have against him is not finding him funny.
Pic 1 is a Scammell Scarab, first produced in 1948. The Mechanical Horse was a different pre-war design. The Scarabs were remarkably manoeuvrable thanks to their single front wheel and could easily make their way through the narrow streets and lanes of the old town centres – much more so than modern lorries.
They were also surprisingly stable, owing to a low centre of gravity.
Not very powerful, with only a 2.1 litre side-valve engine, but they didn’t need to be as they were seldom seen out of town.
I’ve still got a stapler I bought when I was starting up the training business and getting all my stationeries ordered., it has Woolworths on the side of it. Ah, nostalgia.😀
Munguin has a little pal called Prince Woolie the Penguin, bought on the last day of the Lochee store being open, sitting all alone and unwanted. He has a Woolies label.
I’ll see if I can put up a picture of him tomorrow on Soppy Sunday (what is more soppy than that?)
Obviously Dave beats me here by about 12 hours (!) but the distinctive arched windows on the first floor give it away.
Opened in 1926 this photo seems to date from the 1930’s, still with original ‘6d’ signage.
I remember they had screens behind them (the arched windows) so you couldn’t actually see out (or I was too small..). The store always seemed busy, the counters stuffed with goods which people just rummaged through. Wouldn’t work today I suppose. The latter incarnation (once bought out by UK management) was rather different.
Allegedly** as late as 1985 Aberdeen Woolworths was the most profitable store in the company, yet it closed just 5 years later??? My recollection is that even back in the sixties it seemed down-at-heel… the wooden floors in particular looked very scuffed and worn. Goodness knows why I would remember that.
** I should acknowledge the always informative ‘Doric Columns’ for this information.
There’s no chance of me going in while it’s a McDonalds but I remember the staircase at the back that led down to the Green. I wonder if the public still have access.
Pic 1 is a Scammell Horse, 3-wheeled tractor unit, much used by British Railways. I can just remember them when A wor no but a lad. Pic 3 People going to bed on an airy-plane! 1950s? Pic 16 – Adam as in Adam and the Ants, 1980s – ‘Stand and Deliver’, etc. Pic 19 – a hill climbing special. I remember (just) when I was a boy you could sometimes see hill-climbs on Grandstand on BBC on Saturday afternoons. Sometimes you could also see moto-cross and scrambling. Of course that was in the days when sport didn’t automatically mean fitba’ – played by numpties, watched by eejits. Ou sont les neiges d’antan? (literary reference)
Les neiges d’antan, ce sont les choses d’autrefois, que certains appellent les «vieilles lunes». On les évoque aujourd’hui avec regret, à cause du vers célèbre de François Villon qui a perpétué la locution: «Que ce refrain ne vous remaine: Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?»
it wouldn’t be the Bugatti Hill Climb at Prescott Hill Cheltenham?
Went once about half a century ago with my spouse (now ex).
Once was enough, the gasoline smell made me nauseous – green at the gills- within about an hour of arriving.
No. 19 is a Caterham 7, a historic trials machine.
Trials events are off-road events, very different from tarmac hill climbs.
In a trials event the competitor attempts to climb a precipitous grassy or earthen hill without stopping or hitting a course marker. The Section may include twists and turns & the driver may be required to stop and restart on a particularly steep section, then successfully continue to climb the hill.
The passenger (or “bouncer”) uses his weight to provide adhesion, i.e. to ‘bounce’ the machine up an impossible (to most people) slope..
Well, only in the sense that Caterham purchased the rights to the Lotus 7 in 1973 so they could make the cars themselves under their own name. So every ‘Lotus 7’ produced since 1973 is actually a ‘Caterham 7’.
The Lotus 7 was the ultimate ‘hot’ kit car, produced as a kit to avoid Purchase Tax . (no purchase tax on kits!) Once the UK joined the EEC and VAT replaced Purchase Tax the cost benefit of kits was lost. In any case Lotus were moving up-market, transformed into a maker of expensive high performance cars. Kit production stopped..
The model Caterham produced was based on the original Series 3, dating from 1968/9. It did use a Cosworth tuned Ford (Cortina) engine but the only connection with an Austin 7 is a shared digit.
On slightly different loan word subject, remember Alexander Armstrong wondering aloud on Pointless what French called mangetout. Pois gourmand actually, so we have ” borrowed” a term the French don’t appear to use. Does this make it franglais?
Also had young French woman at function asking what was meant by Coupe St Jacques.
My late father in law always maintained thar macaroni is a Scottish dish….and used that guid auld scots word buckshee …derived from Hindustani.
Persian, actually. A corruption of ‘baksheesh’ from the original Persian ‘baksidan’- give. It was used for a tip or alms, but gradually developed into bribe in one sense – certainly in Arabia – or simply ‘free, gratis’ in another common usage.
I think it’s just “double borrowing”, Tris. English is full of the things, e.g. foil and folio. None of this is hardly surprising given that English is the poster child for linguistic bastardy. With its sources in both Romance and Germanic languages, it’s originally a creole, in my opinion. Dunno if any of the Authorities agree with me, though.
Between Scots and English, there are some false friends (maybe a proper Scots speaker among Munguinites can think of a good example?) caused by Scots importing words from, say, Latin or French at different times and with somewhat different meanings.
A joke among language nerds such as myself is that English doesn’t just borrow words (insatiably) from unsuspecting foreign languages, it drags them down dark alleys, beats them up and shakes them down for loose grammar.
I remember my dad using the expression for free stuff, or stuff not being used and available for liberation. He was ground crew RAF. Senior Arcraftman on Hurricanes.
My dad was in India and Burma during the war. I remember as a kid he had retained the Hindustani phrase book issued to the troops. Unfortunately it disappeared from the house.
He did bring out a few words and phrases on occasion, like dekko. That is the name of the magazine of the Burma Star association. There can’t be many readers left.
When I was younger I used to do some work with Burma Star Association.
We’d put on entertainment for them.
They were, as far as I can remember, great people. The Chairman was a great character, with very little good to say about Britain after what they were promised and how little of it was actually delivered.
More in that vein is tickety-boo – from the Hindi “ṭhik hai, babu” roughly equivalent to “All OK, sir,” Then there’s Blighty, of course. That derives from the Hindi for a wound. Bad enough and you were repatriated. You caught a ‘blaiti’ I think it was. Eventually the wound equated to the country and ”he’s gone Blighty.” The name sticks but the wound is forgotten.
Another is dum-dum as in expanding bullet. Originally made for British troops in a factory in India in a place called Dum Dum. More Empire legacy to global peace and contentment.
All I can add is that “toodaloo” apparently came back with Brits returning from France where they had heard “a` tout a` l’heure”.. a now rather outdated way of saying… see ya later.
Likewise with the gourmand peas – and better still, the origin of
toodleoo/toodaloo the noo as a farewell is new to me. Love it. Good trade. Best known of the wartime French appropriations is probably plonk – from vin blanc. In my Gaelic-speaking island childhood, ‘imshi’ was commonly used for bugger off, get out of my way, make yourself scarce etc.
Only half a lifetime later, living and working in Arabia, did I discover that it’s an Arabic word – used as often there as it was in my Hebridean youth. Arab friends were amazed that I knew the word and delighted by the story of how it must have been brought back to Scotland by Highland Division soldiers probably serving in Egypt or North Africa. Much the same with baksheesh, I’d think, where this digression began..
Indeed, Conan. Close relatives of the MacAroons whose bars were so popular. Also related to the song Eileen Aroon, written in dedication to the favourite posture of cooncil werkers of the time. That may still be the case, but I’ve been away a long time and I’m not sure if there are any cooncil werkers left.
Sure is, and still would be but for the dreaded virus.
Carse of cambus, near Doune. https://www.dounehillclimb.co.uk/
Organised by Lothian Car Club and only Scottish round of the UK Hill Climb Championship
There are also events held at Fintray, near Dyce, organised by Grampian Car Club.
I attended once, many moons ago, but they still run them although cancelled this year for obvious reason…
Well, erm, it’s different and actually, not that bad.
Put some wax on the trax and slide on onta here
Hane hane hane hane hane
Hatchets in the corner ears to the ground
Improve to the groove get down to the sound
Buttons and bows and bleu blanc rouge
All things lively must be used
Liberte, egalite, au jour d’hui see’est tres tres tres
Voici l’opportunite nous incroyables
I got the moves they got the grooves
Summoned the gods and they all approved
Bad vibes akimbo on the shelf
Bit of a rap thing going for myself
This gold on the teeth’s no sense at all
It only matters when it’s on the wall
I’m standing here with my four men
Let’s start that rapping thing again:
Marco, merrick, terry lee, gary tibbs and yours truly
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
I have the mouth
So tired of anarchists looking at me
Don’t need their credibility
“Destroy, ” they say, “defy! Condemn! ”
As long as you don’t destroy them
With twenty years of drugs and drink
I thought the time had come to think
About standing up and saying that
It’s tragedy and such old hat
I’m standing here with my four men
Let’s start that rapping thing again:
(I got) marco, merrick, terry lee, gary tibbs and yours truly
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
I have the mouth
These happy feet are all we need
Summoned the gods and they all agreed
These feet won’t stop they’re in such a hurry
I knock it on the head and I go for a curry
Staying sober can be neat
Get drunk on these here happy feet
Keep on trying to pin me down
“Why a title for your sound? ”
I’m standing here with my four men
Let’s do this rapping thing again:
I got marco, merrick, terry lee, gary tibbs and yours truly
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth. ..
And I have the mouth
And you have the mouth
And they got the mouth
Perhaps, next to Boom Bangabang, not Lulu’s proudest moment.
It’s more kerrazy written down. I can imagine everyone telling Adam Ant that this is nonsense but he went ahead and did it anyway and convinced everyone else to go along with it.
PS: I’d been going to say that Lulu looked out of place with a far younger Adam Ant, but I just read his Wiki page, and he’s only 6 years younger than her.
Thanks for the translation, Tris. I had no idea what language he/they were using, even if the translation still doesn’t make much sense. Not bad for overall noise though. Never heard it before so I think this must date from my Africa period when there was no TV and only BBC world service on the wireless for access to UK culture of the time. Not the kind of ‘music’ you’d hear there. Hence the black holes in my knowledge of TV programmes and participants from that era, movies, pop stars, groups etc.
Huge handicap at pub quizzes but so far not a knowledge gap I’ve felt urgently inclined to fill. Not even done with LMS engine numbers yet.
I often wondered if Bob Jones of eponymous “university” ever awarded himself an honorary degree to become Bob Jones PH.D Bob Jones. Or perhaps Bob Jones PH.D of That Ilk ……
My favourite fake Dr is Gillian Mckeith. She was a truly heroic fake. She claimed to have met Linus Pauling when she lived in the US but her stay in the US was long after his death. She also claimed we should eat seeds because seeds contain all the energy of a tree. Throw another sunflower seed on the fire and bask in the glow.
She musta known some energetic trees. I wish I could convince the trees in Munguin’s grounds to be a little more energetic and sweep up leaves and maybe paint the shed…
Is she a relation to Trump? He gets history all out of shape and time.
Ian “No Popery” Paisley was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity from the independent, but fundamentalist right-wing Christian, Bob Jones University of Greenville, South Carolina. Oddly enough, it’s an accredited “college” and accepted as such by the United States Department of Education and the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation, through the regional Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which is based in Decatur, Georgia (Atlanta, basically). However, unlike in most other countries, in the USA the accreditation organizations, including SACS and CHEA, are non-governmental, supposedly independent bodies, which I suspect means that they can be bought.
Strange to relate, I find it rather difficult to imagine that the Bob Jones University would be accredited – recognized – if it were operating in the UK. Here’s a page giving the recognized (i.e., degree-awarding) institutions in the UK, which told me at least a couple of things I didn’t know: https://is.gd/lNIIqR.
Diagnosis: Deluded conspiracy theorist whose ideas may have caused quite a bit of harm, but whose efforts may, in the long run, also have contributed to greater awareness of misinformation on the internet (though that hypothesis may be way too optimistic)
Thought No 4 would be easy, withe engine number so clearly visible. No idea about the ‘…TOWN FORGE ‘ sign but my old Observer’s book would quickly identify the engine and that might give a lead. Not so. Numbers beginning 45 not listed. Maybe scrapped before 1960 publication, or part of British Railways re-numbering, as often happened.
That prompted a wee bit of Google research, always an entertaining pastime, but only added to the mystery. The engine is an LMS Black 5 class, 4-6-0, Stanier designed, and worked out of Shed 16B – Kirkby/Annesley. But it only went out of service in 1965, so why not in Observer book? If we have a Munguinite train anorak to match Roddy with buses, I’m sure an explanation will soon be forthcoming.
45334 is listed as an active locomotive in the Ian Allen, Summer 1962 edition of British Railway Locomotives. Sadly, the entry is not underlined so I never saw it.
And there will be true train spotters who can give you chapter and verse on it. I admire them somewhat more than the Conservative and Unionist Party, but that’s just me.
Thank you, Douglas. I was an ardent train-spotter in my youth -hence the 1960 Observer’s Book that I’ve still got – but never any sympathy or affiliation with the other lot you mentioned. Like the book retention in reverse – contempt, disgust, and repugnance.
I thought John Maclay, then Secretary of State for Scotland, was the epitome of Tory disregard for Scotland, but in retrospect he was just like the Black 5 class – an outdated product past its best. And like the railways, his successors have not been any great improvement.
Well, I take it, that, you too are a fan of universal electrification? It would be interesting to compare Scotland and it’s Scandinavian friends on route mileage electrified or not.
I’ll away. perhaps for a very long time, why I try to research this.
According to my ancient copy of the Ian Allan Locoshed book which recorded shed locations as at 6/10/1951 45334 was shedded at 64A Edinburgh St Margaret’s on that date.
Flook – cartoon creation of Trog, alias Wally Fawkes, also a wonderful clarinettist in Humphrey Lyttleton’s 50’s band.
Had a wonderful 78 of him playing East Coast Trot, he and Humph with rhythm section. It got half broken, the crack only affecting half the disc, but continued to have occasional listen, crack and all. Then it came out on CD – but now almost miss the thump at every revolution. Btw, disc bought for 6d in “Candy” Deuchar’s in Perth. Still think of it as best traditional jazz record ever made in Britain.
Used to fall with glee on any Parlophone 78’s with those labels, issues encompassing whole range of jazz styles from big band swing to traditional to bop. And all bought for pennies in Candy’s.
Scarabs are a mesmerizingly diverse family of beetle found in every part of the world except in the oceans and on Antarctica. There are about 30,000 scarab species comprising about 10 percent of all known beetles.
No. 4, I’m pretty sure that’s the Dennystown Forge at Dalreoch, the west end of Dumbarton, the loco appears to be on the line to Balloch, No.11, I think that is also Dumbarton, fairly sure the background shows part of Ballantynes distillery as was this would make it around Dumbarton East. I think.
Well done, Ian. Both photos are of Dalreoch and show work on the electrification of the North Clyde Line, 1960. In pic 11 you can see the station footbridge. In the distance, on the left, you can just make out Dumbuck Hill.
Downhill most of the way. My pal who used to work in BR told me they released the brake at Airdrie( driver in cab obviously) and the train rolled all the way to Charring Cross tunnell with no power applied at all. Not sure whether it is true or a myth.
In the aviation world the word is now “disembark” which sounds like it comes from the maritime world. It’s maybe “get off” now on the railway but that can have another connotation …
And the Tennessee River Valley Authority. People far too often – and I’m thinking people with a certain type of mindset that thinks that all public expenditure and all taxation is taking money out of the pockets of the deserving rich and throwing it into a black hole – think that there is no such thing as the multiplier effect (here’s the Investopedia article on the subject: https://archive.vn/DCeob).
From the rail decarbonization document which Douglas so kindly posted – thanks, Douglas, I’ve been looking for that – there’s a paragraph in the ministerial intro which I think is worth highlighting:
“This plan builds on our substantial recent electrification programme and since the
recent devolution – at my request – of Network Rail’s planning and development
functions to Scotland, I am pleased that Network Rail, after a two-year hiatus, is now
refocused on a rolling programme of electrification. New dynamic management
directly aligned to Scottish Government priorities is now making a positive difference.”
I think we can take it that if Network Rail’s planning and development functions had already been devolved to Scotland, there would have been no two-year hiatus, and the electrification programme would already have been rolling along at a satisfactory rate: if we can build a bridge over the Forth on time and budget, we can certainly electrify a railway without outside assistance.
You can see from the report which Douglas posted that some lines – to Oban, Mallaig, Kyle of Lochalsh, Wick/Thurso – are not slated for full electrification / marked as “alternative traction”. We can hope that the sums for the costs of electrification have been done correctly and taking everything into account, and that they will be kept under review in the light of independent Scotland’s circumstances: after all, the Norwegians are making investments in road tunnels and the like which may not be justifiable on purely economic grounds.
Here’s a couple of articles about battery-operated trains for such Munguinites as are interested: “Stadler gets first order for Akku battery-powered trains”, https://is.gd/zIbkTp; and “Battery Powered Trains will be 35% Cheaper Than Hydrogen, Study Concludes”, https://archive.vn/dTBzx/.
I can only imagine that the 2 year hiatus was something to do with the transfers of powers, the taking on of staff and the planning of that staff as to how to move forward.
Which is pretty much to say, Tris, that there was never any reason not to devolve Network Rail strategy / planning to us in the first place. The decision not to was, like so many others, indefensible.
I couldn’t understand why they trusted us to run the trains, but not look after the infrastructure… unless of course, it was a clever plan to ensure that our railways would never been FAR superior to theirs, just superior.
After four years it was withdrawn from passenger use but taken on by the Railway Technical Centre at Derby for use in automatic train operation tests. It is now preserved, on the restored section of Deeside track at Milton of Crathes.
Yeah. It’s bloody infuriating. Once they started electrifying the railways back in the ’60s (and even earlier), they should just have kept on going until the job was done. It’s so typically and Britannically bloody-minded and short-sighted: get a team and a project and a supply chain all set up, do a major project so that by the end of it you have some institutional memory and people have got really good at their jobs, and then – the project ends and it all comes to a grinding halt, and when you start thinking about doing more of it, several years down the road when it’s all just a distant memory, it’s all been disbanded, the expertise and the experience have all moved on to greener pasture, or ended up on the dole.
I’m not saying that certain companies should be given monopolies in perpetuity, because that’s generally not a particularly good idea, but the modus operandi of the current Westminster regime seem to be to give contracts to friends, family and old school ties with no plant or experience, and now we’ve got the Brexit all those grasping sociopathic types wanted, who the F cares about European purchasing / tendering / competition rules when you can have your friends, your cronies and yourself become rich, rich, rich, and laugh all the way to the Cayman Islands.
I look forward to living in a country where, someday, there’s some long-range, strategic planning of all kinds, in which employees are treated like actual human beings and not just factors of production, and we no longer allow ourselves to be fobbed off with the shoddy and the substandard.
Well, we’d need to get rid of Dominic, Ed. It’s him and his buddy Liz who hand out contracts to their mates. God knows who Grayling used to hand them out to. Surely he doesn’t have mates?
Thank you, Douglas! I don’t think I’m cut out for political office, though, as well as being far too decrepit these days. I’d have loved to be Scotland’s first United Nations Permanent Representative, though, which is ambassadorial level – but who am I trying to kid…
A final word of appreciation for those Leyland buses, which I always thought have a lovely engine/ transmission sound – perhaps because of the separation between engine and passenger space. The bus in the picture is a late survivor because the regional variations in Alexander livery didn’t come in till 60’s by which underfloor engines/ forward control had become the norm.
Some of these buses were converted to one man operation with an ingenious set of levers – I thought it would have been less hassle to buy new buses.
No 14 is a bus, to be precise a Northern Scottish Leyland Tiger PS1 from 1947 with Alexander bodywork.
(Thus outwardly identical to the SMT photo you featured a couple of weeks ago which *I thought* was probably AWG 623 – an AEC Regal with the same body type… )
Route 005 was the longest in Northern Scottish territory, running from Aberdeen to Elgin/Inverness via Banff and Buckie, with lots of short workings in between..
This photo of course was taken long after the bus passed into preservation, in 2000.
The obscure ones are more fun to search out, but preserved vehicles nowadays are so well documented (and the internet makes information so easily accessible) that they’re all almost instantly identifiable. A new discovery would raise a storm! There’s nowhere to hide.
I have my own bus library going back decades, mainly Scottish Independents and Municipalities, and a number of PSV Circle publications, fleet lists etc., Mind, I do prefer vehicles from the North East!! ( I notice you don’t do any Dundee buses.?)
Restoring and maintaining a vintage bus is a huge undertaking both emotionally and financially, people literally devote their lives to it. They’re the real anoraks. It’s weird, in a way, yet admirable. There’s something awesome about a beautifully restored machine which is even older than me.
In a normal year I would attend all sorts of open days, running days (when the oldies take to the roads). Anorak paradise! I’m far from alone . .. and all wiped out by Covid19. .
I don’t think there is anything wrong with being seriously engaged in anything… trains, buses, farm vehicles… why not. If it consumes you, why would you not do it.
I’ve been to the Fife bus museum and had a great day there, riding on the old buses and an old train.
Loads of guys working there, having a great time and making friends restoring old vehicles. What on earth would be wrong with that?
No indeed, absolutely nothing. In my experience the people working there will happily to give of their time in showing you around and explaining what they do.
I visited Grampian Transport Museum (Alford) last summer. The buses are not strictly part of the main museum being kept in a separate shed a couple of hundred yards down the road.
No matter, i was told to just go down and knock on the back door…
Sure enough, two hours later I’d had the benefit of a personalised in-depth guide to the history and restoration of every vehicle in the building…
Lovely people, and worth a serious donation.
Castrol R had as a base oil Castor Oil, hence the smell.
Used as a lubricant in early aircraft engines, reports that pilots in WW1 never had constipation.
Surprised that no body recocnised the crew of the hill climber Austin Seven based.
It is presumed to be Graeme Hill and Colin Chapman, comments welcome.
Driver bears a passing resemblance to a youthful Graham Hill, but Hill split with Chapman in 1970 and was killed in 1975.
Theoretically possible but very unlikely, IMO.
🙂
In the cold light of day I’m less sure.
I don’t know if Graham Hill ever went trialling but it is possible he did in the early pre-F1 days. Enlarging the image there is a definite resemblance to a young Hill.
Chapman started off building home-made specials as a hobby and Hill had an early association with Chapman as a mechanic . If the image dates to the mid-fifties (earlier than I thought) I think it could be them.
The image appears in various places with different attributions, an Aussie website has it as Hill and Chapman in a Cannon 1172.
Note to self – stick to buses, you know where you are with a bus (and don’t post comments under the influence of alcohol!)
Excellent lubricant for high performance engines, resists film breakdown.
The oil produces a smell in the exhaust gas as it burns.
Lubricates all sorts.
Never seen a 4 wheel Scarab, the 3 wheel versions can turn the front wheel to 90 degrees each side sohave a very tight turning circle.
Hate to disagree with the mighty Google, but there’s no way that’s a Ford Edsel, Tris – nothing like it. I think this link will show that it’s a Fairlane.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
No 18
Who’s that standing beside Beryl Reid?
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Des O’Connor?
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His name is Jack Tripp. He and Beryl Reid did pantomime together.
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Ah, thanks Marcia. I thought he looked like Des O’Connor.
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15 – I wish they were still 6d.
13 – Right wing chappie Arthur Askey.
11 – Looks like the electrification of the line to Southend in 1957
9 – looks like a gas fridge.
7 – Bournvita – No need to add sugar – very sweet.
3 – American Sleeper Train.
1 – Parcel van of British Railways when most parcels went by train and not the Post Office.
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8 – The first day of the National Health Service 15th July 1948 at the Park Hospital Manchester.
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Marvellous achievement of the Labour Government of Mr Attlee. I wonder what he’d think of the current shower.
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No. 8 – I think that’s my auntie Mees (Millicent) in the bed there. She moved to Manchester with my Polish uncle after WWII when he got a job with GEC in Trafford Park. I don’t know for sure because my auntie mentioned she’d been photographed in hospital back then with bigwigs but didn’t have a copy of the photo to show me. It certainly looks like her.
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Wow… amazing, Ed.
Can you check up with anyone?
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I wish. Too late now, I’m afraid. If I could find which newspaper or newspapers that photo was in, that would help, I suppose, but if there’s any mention of that anywhere that I’ve seen.
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I can’t find its origins, but you may, with your peerless Googling skills…
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The problem is, Tris, that there is a period in history, known as the Dark Ages, before the Interwebs came into being as a gift from Prometheus Gore or someone, neither of whom had anything to do with methane, except maybe. The lives of people then are lost in the mists of time, invisible to even the most advanced and erudite of contemporary googlers…
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Oh! Bother, said Pooh (and Tris, in harmony)!
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I see they are scared to put the price on them now. £1.50?
I didn’t know he was right-wing… Still, he was as funny as measles, so I guess it figures.
Thanks for the video.
Seems really dangerous to have a three-wheeled truck…
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The prices were on the products due to Retail Price Maintenance. RPM is where a supplier and a retailer agree that the retailer will not resell the supplier’s products below a specified price. That was the price to be paid in every shop you went to. That was one reason why there were corner shops everywhere up to the 1960’s. Once RPM was abolished by the Retail Prices Act of 1964 you had the arrival of supermarket chains that would undercut a lot of the corner shop prices.
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Ah. I wondered why they had stopped putting prices on things. Thanks, Marcia
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Arthur Askey’s opening greeting of “hello, playmates” might perhaps sound a bit sus with child audiences in terms of modern sensibilities, but only thing I have against him is not finding him funny.
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LOL. He was from the days before everyone imagined the worst of “stars”.
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1 They were known as Mechanical Horses.
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They also made a 4 wheel version, the Scarab 4
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http://www.historicroadways.co.uk/scammell-scarab-4.html
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Interesting. It seems that they were less than a success.
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Would be a lot safer, I’d have thought, with a heavy load, Gerry.
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LOL, Gus. I suppose that’s what they were. Previously things would have been delivered by horse and cart.
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Pic 1 is a Scammell Scarab, first produced in 1948. The Mechanical Horse was a different pre-war design. The Scarabs were remarkably manoeuvrable thanks to their single front wheel and could easily make their way through the narrow streets and lanes of the old town centres – much more so than modern lorries.
They were also surprisingly stable, owing to a low centre of gravity.
Not very powerful, with only a 2.1 litre side-valve engine, but they didn’t need to be as they were seldom seen out of town.
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Thanks, Morego.
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I can remember back in the 50s some of the Edinburgh breweries used earlier versions to transport the draff.
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Gus: Given the maneuverability, they’d have been good delivery vehicles in narrow streets.
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17 is big Woolies in Union Street, Aberdeen. Now a McDonalds.
https://www.google.com/maps/@57.1463967,-2.0993484,3a,75y,159.72h,90.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syEDGEcBdGJKgS4eLcRfAhw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Little Woolies was in George Street.
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Wish it was still Woolies. Must be about 10 years ago that crashed and burnt. There were some good bargains!
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I’ve still got a stapler I bought when I was starting up the training business and getting all my stationeries ordered., it has Woolworths on the side of it. Ah, nostalgia.😀
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Munguin has a little pal called Prince Woolie the Penguin, bought on the last day of the Lochee store being open, sitting all alone and unwanted. He has a Woolies label.
I’ll see if I can put up a picture of him tomorrow on Soppy Sunday (what is more soppy than that?)
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Obviously Dave beats me here by about 12 hours (!) but the distinctive arched windows on the first floor give it away.
Opened in 1926 this photo seems to date from the 1930’s, still with original ‘6d’ signage.
I remember they had screens behind them (the arched windows) so you couldn’t actually see out (or I was too small..). The store always seemed busy, the counters stuffed with goods which people just rummaged through. Wouldn’t work today I suppose. The latter incarnation (once bought out by UK management) was rather different.
Allegedly** as late as 1985 Aberdeen Woolworths was the most profitable store in the company, yet it closed just 5 years later??? My recollection is that even back in the sixties it seemed down-at-heel… the wooden floors in particular looked very scuffed and worn. Goodness knows why I would remember that.
** I should acknowledge the always informative ‘Doric Columns’ for this information.
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There’s no chance of me going in while it’s a McDonalds but I remember the staircase at the back that led down to the Green. I wonder if the public still have access.
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LOL I’d not go into a McD’s at the moment. Must be a nightmare trying to keep people at a distance.
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I guess it was a cheap shop. They probably didn’t have the money to do it up… and what would be the point? The customer wasn’t expecting Harrods.
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Pic 1 is a Scammell Horse, 3-wheeled tractor unit, much used by British Railways. I can just remember them when A wor no but a lad. Pic 3 People going to bed on an airy-plane! 1950s? Pic 16 – Adam as in Adam and the Ants, 1980s – ‘Stand and Deliver’, etc. Pic 19 – a hill climbing special. I remember (just) when I was a boy you could sometimes see hill-climbs on Grandstand on BBC on Saturday afternoons. Sometimes you could also see moto-cross and scrambling. Of course that was in the days when sport didn’t automatically mean fitba’ – played by numpties, watched by eejits. Ou sont les neiges d’antan? (literary reference)
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The good old bad old days, Andi.
Les neiges d’antan, ce sont les choses d’autrefois, que certains appellent les «vieilles lunes». On les évoque aujourd’hui avec regret, à cause du vers célèbre de François Villon qui a perpétué la locution: «Que ce refrain ne vous remaine: Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?»
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Pic 19, hill-climbs.
Once upon a time, a long time ago (Sixties??), my Dad took me to the Rest and Be Thankful.
I can still remember the smell of the racing-car fuel.
What was it called? Caster oil ??? Castrol GT-X ???
Also, there was another hill-climb venue in SW England.
Remind me, someone. Name forgotten,
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Shelshley Walsh, DonDon? It was on TV sometimes.
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Probably, andimac, but the name doesn’t ring a bell.
I’ll have to ask my Dad.
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Castrol
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CastrolR
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Horrible smell. Reminds me of Munguin’s mower.
I bet someone has that name, DonDon.
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it wouldn’t be the Bugatti Hill Climb at Prescott Hill Cheltenham?
Went once about half a century ago with my spouse (now ex).
Once was enough, the gasoline smell made me nauseous – green at the gills- within about an hour of arriving.
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Yeah, Brenda, seems to me a very smelly sport.
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No. 19 is a Caterham 7, a historic trials machine.
Trials events are off-road events, very different from tarmac hill climbs.
In a trials event the competitor attempts to climb a precipitous grassy or earthen hill without stopping or hitting a course marker. The Section may include twists and turns & the driver may be required to stop and restart on a particularly steep section, then successfully continue to climb the hill.
The passenger (or “bouncer”) uses his weight to provide adhesion, i.e. to ‘bounce’ the machine up an impossible (to most people) slope..
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Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me, Roddy… but hey, I’m a lazy bones! To each thier own.
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Is it not an early Lotus, rather than a Caterham? Would be either Austin 7 or Ford Anglia/Prefect based.
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I’m staying quiet, Derek… I been wrong too many times today! To be fair I claim no knowledge of cars…
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Well, only in the sense that Caterham purchased the rights to the Lotus 7 in 1973 so they could make the cars themselves under their own name. So every ‘Lotus 7’ produced since 1973 is actually a ‘Caterham 7’.
The Lotus 7 was the ultimate ‘hot’ kit car, produced as a kit to avoid Purchase Tax . (no purchase tax on kits!) Once the UK joined the EEC and VAT replaced Purchase Tax the cost benefit of kits was lost. In any case Lotus were moving up-market, transformed into a maker of expensive high performance cars. Kit production stopped..
The model Caterham produced was based on the original Series 3, dating from 1968/9. It did use a Cosworth tuned Ford (Cortina) engine but the only connection with an Austin 7 is a shared digit.
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Unlike the Inuit languages, English has at least forty words for “snow”.
Mind you, most of them are loan words from other languages (including French).
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On slightly different loan word subject, remember Alexander Armstrong wondering aloud on Pointless what French called mangetout. Pois gourmand actually, so we have ” borrowed” a term the French don’t appear to use. Does this make it franglais?
Also had young French woman at function asking what was meant by Coupe St Jacques.
My late father in law always maintained thar macaroni is a Scottish dish….and used that guid auld scots word buckshee …derived from Hindustani.
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Cairnallochy, I sometimes use ‘buckshee’, as did my Dad. I’d no idea it was of Hindustani origin.
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Persian, actually. A corruption of ‘baksheesh’ from the original Persian ‘baksidan’- give. It was used for a tip or alms, but gradually developed into bribe in one sense – certainly in Arabia – or simply ‘free, gratis’ in another common usage.
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Another lesson I learned today…
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My source an old India hand so it came to him already borrowed once before English. Wonder if there’s a word for that ?
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Almost undoubtedly… and probably Ed knows it.
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I think it’s just “double borrowing”, Tris. English is full of the things, e.g. foil and folio. None of this is hardly surprising given that English is the poster child for linguistic bastardy. With its sources in both Romance and Germanic languages, it’s originally a creole, in my opinion. Dunno if any of the Authorities agree with me, though.
Between Scots and English, there are some false friends (maybe a proper Scots speaker among Munguinites can think of a good example?) caused by Scots importing words from, say, Latin or French at different times and with somewhat different meanings.
A joke among language nerds such as myself is that English doesn’t just borrow words (insatiably) from unsuspecting foreign languages, it drags them down dark alleys, beats them up and shakes them down for loose grammar.
Compare “borrowing” to “cognate”: https://is.gd/x5pzFP.
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I like that language nerd joke, Ed.
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Double-dipping?
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I remember my dad using the expression for free stuff, or stuff not being used and available for liberation. He was ground crew RAF. Senior Arcraftman on Hurricanes.
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So was my Dad.
Always said the Spitfire had more appeal but the Hurricane was the Gerry killer
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It is said that there are few languages in the world that English doesn’t borrow from. From Igloo to Bungalow.
I recently watched the entire “It ain’t half hot, mum”, helping to amuse my mum as she became housebound.
I had no idea that doolally was actually a real British transit camp, presumably where a fair number of people went off the rails…
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My dad was in India and Burma during the war. I remember as a kid he had retained the Hindustani phrase book issued to the troops. Unfortunately it disappeared from the house.
He did bring out a few words and phrases on occasion, like dekko. That is the name of the magazine of the Burma Star association. There can’t be many readers left.
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No, there can’t be.
When I was younger I used to do some work with Burma Star Association.
We’d put on entertainment for them.
They were, as far as I can remember, great people. The Chairman was a great character, with very little good to say about Britain after what they were promised and how little of it was actually delivered.
Interesting man, Jock. Opened my eyes.
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Even Army slang had its synonyms.
Another word for dekko is shufti.
I remember in the glassworks a veteran of the Far East speaking Urdu to the Pakistani women.
Or trying to.
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Well, Dondon, at least he made an attempt.
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More in that vein is tickety-boo – from the Hindi “ṭhik hai, babu” roughly equivalent to “All OK, sir,” Then there’s Blighty, of course. That derives from the Hindi for a wound. Bad enough and you were repatriated. You caught a ‘blaiti’ I think it was. Eventually the wound equated to the country and ”he’s gone Blighty.” The name sticks but the wound is forgotten.
Another is dum-dum as in expanding bullet. Originally made for British troops in a factory in India in a place called Dum Dum. More Empire legacy to global peace and contentment.
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Fascinating John.
All I can add is that “toodaloo” apparently came back with Brits returning from France where they had heard “a` tout a` l’heure”.. a now rather outdated way of saying… see ya later.
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Cheap wine – plonk – is another one from the First World War.
From the French vin blanc.
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Didn’t know that, DonDon.
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LOL.
I’d often heard my dad say “C’est la vie; c’est la guerre”, and I used it too, but when I used it in France, they looked at me a bit odd.
I didn’t know about the gourmand peas!
School Day without virus risk!
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Likewise with the gourmand peas – and better still, the origin of
toodleoo/toodaloo the noo as a farewell is new to me. Love it. Good trade. Best known of the wartime French appropriations is probably plonk – from vin blanc. In my Gaelic-speaking island childhood, ‘imshi’ was commonly used for bugger off, get out of my way, make yourself scarce etc.
Only half a lifetime later, living and working in Arabia, did I discover that it’s an Arabic word – used as often there as it was in my Hebridean youth. Arab friends were amazed that I knew the word and delighted by the story of how it must have been brought back to Scotland by Highland Division soldiers probably serving in Egypt or North Africa. Much the same with baksheesh, I’d think, where this digression began..
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Good digression though, huh?
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Excellent digression, and really up the alley of a linguistics nerd with a dilettante, butterfly mind like mine.
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MacCaroni surely?
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Indeed, Conan. Close relatives of the MacAroons whose bars were so popular. Also related to the song Eileen Aroon, written in dedication to the favourite posture of cooncil werkers of the time. That may still be the case, but I’ve been away a long time and I’m not sure if there are any cooncil werkers left.
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LOL… not many, John.
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LOL, Conan.
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Pic 19 Was there not an annual hill climb event at Doune?
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Richard, I think you might be right. The road over the Hill of Rhu (spelling?) would be steep enough.
However, it is odd that I have no memory of it, while I do remember neing at Rest and Be Thankful, and Shelshley Walsh.
I’ll ask my Dad about Doune, he’ll know for sure.
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Sure is, and still would be but for the dreaded virus.
Carse of cambus, near Doune.
https://www.dounehillclimb.co.uk/
Organised by Lothian Car Club and only Scottish round of the UK Hill Climb Championship
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There are also events held at Fintray, near Dyce, organised by Grampian Car Club.
I attended once, many moons ago, but they still run them although cancelled this year for obvious reason…
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After a failed suicide attempt, Stuart Goddard woke up in hospital and declared Stuart Goddard dead and Adam Ant alive.
It’s hard to imagine an era when something as strange as this was in the pop charts. Watch out for Marie Lawrie:
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Yeah…
Well, erm, it’s different and actually, not that bad.
Put some wax on the trax and slide on onta here
Hane hane hane hane hane
Hatchets in the corner ears to the ground
Improve to the groove get down to the sound
Buttons and bows and bleu blanc rouge
All things lively must be used
Liberte, egalite, au jour d’hui see’est tres tres tres
Voici l’opportunite nous incroyables
I got the moves they got the grooves
Summoned the gods and they all approved
Bad vibes akimbo on the shelf
Bit of a rap thing going for myself
This gold on the teeth’s no sense at all
It only matters when it’s on the wall
I’m standing here with my four men
Let’s start that rapping thing again:
Marco, merrick, terry lee, gary tibbs and yours truly
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
I have the mouth
So tired of anarchists looking at me
Don’t need their credibility
“Destroy, ” they say, “defy! Condemn! ”
As long as you don’t destroy them
With twenty years of drugs and drink
I thought the time had come to think
About standing up and saying that
It’s tragedy and such old hat
I’m standing here with my four men
Let’s start that rapping thing again:
(I got) marco, merrick, terry lee, gary tibbs and yours truly
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth
I have the mouth
These happy feet are all we need
Summoned the gods and they all agreed
These feet won’t stop they’re in such a hurry
I knock it on the head and I go for a curry
Staying sober can be neat
Get drunk on these here happy feet
Keep on trying to pin me down
“Why a title for your sound? ”
I’m standing here with my four men
Let’s do this rapping thing again:
I got marco, merrick, terry lee, gary tibbs and yours truly
In the naughty north and in the sexy south
We’re all singing I have the mouth. ..
And I have the mouth
And you have the mouth
And they got the mouth
Perhaps, next to Boom Bangabang, not Lulu’s proudest moment.
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It’s more kerrazy written down. I can imagine everyone telling Adam Ant that this is nonsense but he went ahead and did it anyway and convinced everyone else to go along with it.
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Yeah, I can’t really understand it.
Even the French bit is double dutch!
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PS: I’d been going to say that Lulu looked out of place with a far younger Adam Ant, but I just read his Wiki page, and he’s only 6 years younger than her.
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Wow. I would never have guessed that.
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True. He looks like a lad, which he wasn’t, and she looks like a middle-aged woman, which she was.
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Thanks for the translation, Tris. I had no idea what language he/they were using, even if the translation still doesn’t make much sense. Not bad for overall noise though. Never heard it before so I think this must date from my Africa period when there was no TV and only BBC world service on the wireless for access to UK culture of the time. Not the kind of ‘music’ you’d hear there. Hence the black holes in my knowledge of TV programmes and participants from that era, movies, pop stars, groups etc.
Huge handicap at pub quizzes but so far not a knowledge gap I’ve felt urgently inclined to fill. Not even done with LMS engine numbers yet.
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LOL…
Well, maybe you didn’t miss much, John… but there was some good music.
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Heres an article that questions everything about Covid19 from a medical viewpoint.
https://rense.com/general96/proof-covid-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless.php
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Well we must consider every possibility.
No one REALLY knows enough yet.
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Written by “Dr ” Betty Martini. I’m afraid this is fake science written by a fake scientist.
https://americanloons.blogspot.com/2014/02/919-betty-martini.html
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Oh lordy, another one with an honourary doctorate awarded by a religious university.
Reminds me of dear old Rev, Dr Paisley (who, as I recall was actually neither).
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I often wondered if Bob Jones of eponymous “university” ever awarded himself an honorary degree to become Bob Jones PH.D Bob Jones. Or perhaps Bob Jones PH.D of That Ilk ……
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Bit like the university of Antarctica, where Munguin holds an honourary chair in everything.
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My favourite fake Dr is Gillian Mckeith. She was a truly heroic fake. She claimed to have met Linus Pauling when she lived in the US but her stay in the US was long after his death. She also claimed we should eat seeds because seeds contain all the energy of a tree. Throw another sunflower seed on the fire and bask in the glow.
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She musta known some energetic trees. I wish I could convince the trees in Munguin’s grounds to be a little more energetic and sweep up leaves and maybe paint the shed…
Is she a relation to Trump? He gets history all out of shape and time.
Didn’t he have the airforce in the Civil War?
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I think he did have the air force in the Civil War.
I don’t know what happened to Gillian Mckeith. I’m sure she’ll have a corner of the internet where she sells implausibly energetic seeds for money.
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Ian “No Popery” Paisley was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity from the independent, but fundamentalist right-wing Christian, Bob Jones University of Greenville, South Carolina. Oddly enough, it’s an accredited “college” and accepted as such by the United States Department of Education and the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation, through the regional Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which is based in Decatur, Georgia (Atlanta, basically). However, unlike in most other countries, in the USA the accreditation organizations, including SACS and CHEA, are non-governmental, supposedly independent bodies, which I suspect means that they can be bought.
Strange to relate, I find it rather difficult to imagine that the Bob Jones University would be accredited – recognized – if it were operating in the UK. Here’s a page giving the recognized (i.e., degree-awarding) institutions in the UK, which told me at least a couple of things I didn’t know: https://is.gd/lNIIqR.
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I liked the summation:
Diagnosis: Deluded conspiracy theorist whose ideas may have caused quite a bit of harm, but whose efforts may, in the long run, also have contributed to greater awareness of misinformation on the internet (though that hypothesis may be way too optimistic)
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Thought No 4 would be easy, withe engine number so clearly visible. No idea about the ‘…TOWN FORGE ‘ sign but my old Observer’s book would quickly identify the engine and that might give a lead. Not so. Numbers beginning 45 not listed. Maybe scrapped before 1960 publication, or part of British Railways re-numbering, as often happened.
That prompted a wee bit of Google research, always an entertaining pastime, but only added to the mystery. The engine is an LMS Black 5 class, 4-6-0, Stanier designed, and worked out of Shed 16B – Kirkby/Annesley. But it only went out of service in 1965, so why not in Observer book? If we have a Munguinite train anorak to match Roddy with buses, I’m sure an explanation will soon be forthcoming.
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There’s a call to arms…
Step forward Munguin’s train expert.
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Well, even I identified it as a Black 5.
45334 is listed as an active locomotive in the Ian Allen, Summer 1962 edition of British Railway Locomotives. Sadly, the entry is not underlined so I never saw it.
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And there will be true train spotters who can give you chapter and verse on it. I admire them somewhat more than the Conservative and Unionist Party, but that’s just me.
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LOL. Nothing wrong with being a trainspotter.
My brother and I did plane spotting when we were kids.
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Thank you, Douglas. I was an ardent train-spotter in my youth -hence the 1960 Observer’s Book that I’ve still got – but never any sympathy or affiliation with the other lot you mentioned. Like the book retention in reverse – contempt, disgust, and repugnance.
I thought John Maclay, then Secretary of State for Scotland, was the epitome of Tory disregard for Scotland, but in retrospect he was just like the Black 5 class – an outdated product past its best. And like the railways, his successors have not been any great improvement.
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LOL, you are right there, John… and they seem to get worse. I mean Muddle was bad, but Whatsit is just hilarious.
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Well, I take it, that, you too are a fan of universal electrification? It would be interesting to compare Scotland and it’s Scandinavian friends on route mileage electrified or not.
I’ll away. perhaps for a very long time, why I try to research this.
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You’re right there. All lines should be electric if possible. Far cleaner.
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Aww… well you have now, Douglas.
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According to my ancient copy of the Ian Allan Locoshed book which recorded shed locations as at 6/10/1951 45334 was shedded at 64A Edinburgh St Margaret’s on that date.
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Good research there, Gus.
I never cease to marvel at how much research goes into AOYs from Munguinites!
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Flook – cartoon creation of Trog, alias Wally Fawkes, also a wonderful clarinettist in Humphrey Lyttleton’s 50’s band.
Had a wonderful 78 of him playing East Coast Trot, he and Humph with rhythm section. It got half broken, the crack only affecting half the disc, but continued to have occasional listen, crack and all. Then it came out on CD – but now almost miss the thump at every revolution. Btw, disc bought for 6d in “Candy” Deuchar’s in Perth. Still think of it as best traditional jazz record ever made in Britain.
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There you go… on disc without the crack.
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Used to fall with glee on any Parlophone 78’s with those labels, issues encompassing whole range of jazz styles from big band swing to traditional to bop. And all bought for pennies in Candy’s.
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1) Scammel Scarab.
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Thanks, Jimmy.
I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scammell_Scarab
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Was a scarab by any chance a type of beetle ?
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Indeed:
Scarabs are a mesmerizingly diverse family of beetle found in every part of the world except in the oceans and on Antarctica. There are about 30,000 scarab species comprising about 10 percent of all known beetles.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/scarabs/#:~:text=Scarabs%20are%20a%20mesmerizingly%20diverse,is%20a%20type%20of%20scarab.
We should have one tomorrow, whatcha think?
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Would I be right in thinking Dinky or summat made that as a model?
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http://www.nigelg.info/diecast/detail.php?ID=1391
Matchbox maybe?
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No. 4, I’m pretty sure that’s the Dennystown Forge at Dalreoch, the west end of Dumbarton, the loco appears to be on the line to Balloch, No.11, I think that is also Dumbarton, fairly sure the background shows part of Ballantynes distillery as was this would make it around Dumbarton East. I think.
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Well done, Ian. Both photos are of Dalreoch and show work on the electrification of the North Clyde Line, 1960. In pic 11 you can see the station footbridge. In the distance, on the left, you can just make out Dumbuck Hill.
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I was only a few hundred mile out. Here is some footage of the “Blue Trains”.
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Downhill most of the way. My pal who used to work in BR told me they released the brake at Airdrie( driver in cab obviously) and the train rolled all the way to Charring Cross tunnell with no power applied at all. Not sure whether it is true or a myth.
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Great video, Marcia…even if the commentary was a bit “stilted”… 🙂
Does anyone ever say “alight” now?
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Aye, Tris – in Glesca when a smoker says, “Hey, pal, Ah’ve nae matches, gonnae geez alight?” 🤪
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LOL Andi!
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In the aviation world the word is now “disembark” which sounds like it comes from the maritime world. It’s maybe “get off” now on the railway but that can have another connotation …
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LOL yes, Dave.
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Gosh, brings back memories, Dave.
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That must have caused some disruption.
60 years later, there is still no electrification north of the central belt.
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But there appears to be a plan!
Click to access rail-services-decarbonisation-action-plan.pdf
What do you mean get it done yesterday!
Sometimes you are annoyingly right.
It is ridiculous that we cannot connect to either Aberdeen or Inverness without using fossil fuels.
Just as an afterthought, wouldn’t a project like that be a Scottish equivalent of the Hoover Dam? Y’know, giving people work and in a noble cause?
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Apologies, I didn’t intend to give your dear readers the whole frigging document.
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I wish they’d get on with it.
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And the Tennessee River Valley Authority. People far too often – and I’m thinking people with a certain type of mindset that thinks that all public expenditure and all taxation is taking money out of the pockets of the deserving rich and throwing it into a black hole – think that there is no such thing as the multiplier effect (here’s the Investopedia article on the subject: https://archive.vn/DCeob).
From the rail decarbonization document which Douglas so kindly posted – thanks, Douglas, I’ve been looking for that – there’s a paragraph in the ministerial intro which I think is worth highlighting:
“This plan builds on our substantial recent electrification programme and since the
recent devolution – at my request – of Network Rail’s planning and development
functions to Scotland, I am pleased that Network Rail, after a two-year hiatus, is now
refocused on a rolling programme of electrification. New dynamic management
directly aligned to Scottish Government priorities is now making a positive difference.”
I think we can take it that if Network Rail’s planning and development functions had already been devolved to Scotland, there would have been no two-year hiatus, and the electrification programme would already have been rolling along at a satisfactory rate: if we can build a bridge over the Forth on time and budget, we can certainly electrify a railway without outside assistance.
You can see from the report which Douglas posted that some lines – to Oban, Mallaig, Kyle of Lochalsh, Wick/Thurso – are not slated for full electrification / marked as “alternative traction”. We can hope that the sums for the costs of electrification have been done correctly and taking everything into account, and that they will be kept under review in the light of independent Scotland’s circumstances: after all, the Norwegians are making investments in road tunnels and the like which may not be justifiable on purely economic grounds.
Here’s a couple of articles about battery-operated trains for such Munguinites as are interested: “Stadler gets first order for Akku battery-powered trains”, https://is.gd/zIbkTp; and “Battery Powered Trains will be 35% Cheaper Than Hydrogen, Study Concludes”, https://archive.vn/dTBzx/.
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Sorry, people, I’m hogging the bandwidth again – and that post above should be further down.
You don’t think it could be because of WordPress, Tris? Surely not.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Ed.
WordPress would never mess us about.
The very thought. Deary deary tut!
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I can only imagine that the 2 year hiatus was something to do with the transfers of powers, the taking on of staff and the planning of that staff as to how to move forward.
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Which is pretty much to say, Tris, that there was never any reason not to devolve Network Rail strategy / planning to us in the first place. The decision not to was, like so many others, indefensible.
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I couldn’t understand why they trusted us to run the trains, but not look after the infrastructure… unless of course, it was a clever plan to ensure that our railways would never been FAR superior to theirs, just superior.
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Huh! There were experiments with battery operation on the Deeside line in the late ’50s. Ahead of the game as usual!
There’s a summary here: –
https://railcar.co.uk/type/battery-multiple-unit/
After four years it was withdrawn from passenger use but taken on by the Railway Technical Centre at Derby for use in automatic train operation tests. It is now preserved, on the restored section of Deeside track at Milton of Crathes.
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1958. That was ahead of its time!
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Something else I didn’t know! Thanks, Roddy.
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Yeah. It’s bloody infuriating. Once they started electrifying the railways back in the ’60s (and even earlier), they should just have kept on going until the job was done. It’s so typically and Britannically bloody-minded and short-sighted: get a team and a project and a supply chain all set up, do a major project so that by the end of it you have some institutional memory and people have got really good at their jobs, and then – the project ends and it all comes to a grinding halt, and when you start thinking about doing more of it, several years down the road when it’s all just a distant memory, it’s all been disbanded, the expertise and the experience have all moved on to greener pasture, or ended up on the dole.
I’m not saying that certain companies should be given monopolies in perpetuity, because that’s generally not a particularly good idea, but the modus operandi of the current Westminster regime seem to be to give contracts to friends, family and old school ties with no plant or experience, and now we’ve got the Brexit all those grasping sociopathic types wanted, who the F cares about European purchasing / tendering / competition rules when you can have your friends, your cronies and yourself become rich, rich, rich, and laugh all the way to the Cayman Islands.
I look forward to living in a country where, someday, there’s some long-range, strategic planning of all kinds, in which employees are treated like actual human beings and not just factors of production, and we no longer allow ourselves to be fobbed off with the shoddy and the substandard.
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Well, we’d need to get rid of Dominic, Ed. It’s him and his buddy Liz who hand out contracts to their mates. God knows who Grayling used to hand them out to. Surely he doesn’t have mates?
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Yup. That is why I want independence.
You make the case. How come we are only at 55%?
eddjasfreeman. if you ever want to stand, I’m with you.
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Thank you, Douglas! I don’t think I’m cut out for political office, though, as well as being far too decrepit these days. I’d have loved to be Scotland’s first United Nations Permanent Representative, though, which is ambassadorial level – but who am I trying to kid…
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I suspect you would make a splendid PR, Ed.
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Good deductions, Ian. I see ,Andi has already congratulated you…
I was sure someone would know. They always do.
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A final word of appreciation for those Leyland buses, which I always thought have a lovely engine/ transmission sound – perhaps because of the separation between engine and passenger space. The bus in the picture is a late survivor because the regional variations in Alexander livery didn’t come in till 60’s by which underfloor engines/ forward control had become the norm.
Some of these buses were converted to one man operation with an ingenious set of levers – I thought it would have been less hassle to buy new buses.
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I imagine new buses are hellishly expensive, Cairnallochy
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No 14 is a bus, to be precise a Northern Scottish Leyland Tiger PS1 from 1947 with Alexander bodywork.
(Thus outwardly identical to the SMT photo you featured a couple of weeks ago which *I thought* was probably AWG 623 – an AEC Regal with the same body type… )
Route 005 was the longest in Northern Scottish territory, running from Aberdeen to Elgin/Inverness via Banff and Buckie, with lots of short workings in between..
This photo of course was taken long after the bus passed into preservation, in 2000.
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Thank you, Roddy.
I’ve never managed to find one you didn’t know, have I?
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I live in hope. 🙂
The obscure ones are more fun to search out, but preserved vehicles nowadays are so well documented (and the internet makes information so easily accessible) that they’re all almost instantly identifiable. A new discovery would raise a storm! There’s nowhere to hide.
I have my own bus library going back decades, mainly Scottish Independents and Municipalities, and a number of PSV Circle publications, fleet lists etc., Mind, I do prefer vehicles from the North East!! ( I notice you don’t do any Dundee buses.?)
Restoring and maintaining a vintage bus is a huge undertaking both emotionally and financially, people literally devote their lives to it. They’re the real anoraks. It’s weird, in a way, yet admirable. There’s something awesome about a beautifully restored machine which is even older than me.
In a normal year I would attend all sorts of open days, running days (when the oldies take to the roads). Anorak paradise! I’m far from alone . .. and all wiped out by Covid19. .
One sad anorak 😦
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I don’t think there is anything wrong with being seriously engaged in anything… trains, buses, farm vehicles… why not. If it consumes you, why would you not do it.
I’ve been to the Fife bus museum and had a great day there, riding on the old buses and an old train.
Loads of guys working there, having a great time and making friends restoring old vehicles. What on earth would be wrong with that?
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No indeed, absolutely nothing. In my experience the people working there will happily to give of their time in showing you around and explaining what they do.
I visited Grampian Transport Museum (Alford) last summer. The buses are not strictly part of the main museum being kept in a separate shed a couple of hundred yards down the road.
No matter, i was told to just go down and knock on the back door…
Sure enough, two hours later I’d had the benefit of a personalised in-depth guide to the history and restoration of every vehicle in the building…
Lovely people, and worth a serious donation.
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Brilliant, Roddy… and of course they enjoy sharing their knowledge with other enthusiasts.
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Love the taps. I’d have those on my bath any day. If I had a bath that is. Showers are too handy.
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From the 1930s, I’m told.
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Castrol R had as a base oil Castor Oil, hence the smell.
Used as a lubricant in early aircraft engines, reports that pilots in WW1 never had constipation.
Surprised that no body recocnised the crew of the hill climber Austin Seven based.
It is presumed to be Graeme Hill and Colin Chapman, comments welcome.
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LOL… well, it was good for something, I guess.
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I think you’re right; Hill driving and Chapman as bouncer, which convinces me further that it’s an early Lotus.
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Driver bears a passing resemblance to a youthful Graham Hill, but Hill split with Chapman in 1970 and was killed in 1975.
Theoretically possible but very unlikely, IMO.
🙂
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In the cold light of day I’m less sure.
I don’t know if Graham Hill ever went trialling but it is possible he did in the early pre-F1 days. Enlarging the image there is a definite resemblance to a young Hill.
Chapman started off building home-made specials as a hobby and Hill had an early association with Chapman as a mechanic . If the image dates to the mid-fifties (earlier than I thought) I think it could be them.
The image appears in various places with different attributions, an Aussie website has it as Hill and Chapman in a Cannon 1172.
Note to self – stick to buses, you know where you are with a bus (and don’t post comments under the influence of alcohol!)
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LOL @ Roddy the Hangover!
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Excellent lubricant for high performance engines, resists film breakdown.
The oil produces a smell in the exhaust gas as it burns.
Lubricates all sorts.
Never seen a 4 wheel Scarab, the 3 wheel versions can turn the front wheel to 90 degrees each side sohave a very tight turning circle.
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Is pic 6 a Ford Fairlane convertible, late 1950s? They don’t make them like that anymore – I sometimes wonder, though, why they ever did.
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Google says its a :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel_Pacer
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Hate to disagree with the mighty Google, but there’s no way that’s a Ford Edsel, Tris – nothing like it. I think this link will show that it’s a Fairlane.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0117-273395/1959-ford-fairlane-500-galaxie-sunliner/
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I agree; Edsels don’t have a “Fairlane” badge on the rear wing. I think it’s a Skyliner, too; the one with the mechanically retracting roof.
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Fair enough, Andi. It appears that Mr G doesn’t know everything!!!
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