|
Ian King |
The carrier bag used by Room 84 staff
during late nights was labelled: -
17 45 5Z01 Empties Room 84 to Dingwall Road Fish Depot
17 55 6Z01 Loaded Dingwall Road Fish Depot to Room 84
The fish depot was the nearest chippy to Essex House. |
|
Ian King |
Maurice Turner owned, amongst others, the
STN showing the journey of William the Conqueror on the BUA "Silver
Arrow" flight from Normandy! |
|
Bob Parsons |
6PUL unit 3041 had one motor coach with
straight sides (unlike the others which followed the normal Maunsell
profile. This was known to the office as the Deutch
Bundesbahn motor coach as it looked similar to German multiple units of
the time. It was very rough riding on two motor bogies and
one could sense (or smell) the passengers' apprehension as the 16.45
Victoria to Ore sped across the Ouse Valley viaduct towards Copyhold
Junction (very often at slightly higher than line speed).
Crossing the Up Horsted Keynes line followed by the points leading to
the down loop gave a double kick to both motor bogies.
Passengers would brace themselves by holding on to the seat
cushions. The sense of calm on arrival at Haywards Heath was
measurable. |
|
Simon Fleming |
For those who thought that the question of
the UK's entry to the single currency had not yet been decided, think
again. The allocation of prefixes to Euro bank notes include
the letter J for those printed in the United Kingdom. (Why J is not
clear.) |
|
Mick Donovan |
The 11 57 Norwood Down Yard to Chiasso
ferry vans (passing East Croydon at 12/01) was very often hauled by
Crompton 33033 "Palindrome". |
|
Simon Fleming |
In 1964 British Railways had a "Veterinary
Surgeon and Horse Superintendent" named
Eric B. Ince located at
Bricklayers Arms. |
|
Bob Parsons |
The key train in the morning peak was the
06.30 Ore to Victoria - formed of 12LAV. If this train ran
late - the whole morning peak following it would run late.
Now LAVs were not the most sprightly units around but when paired with
Driver Hobden it was lethal. LAVs did not have tachometers
so the driver had to guess the speed of his train. Driver
Hobden made doubly sure that coming round the 20mph curve at Keymer
Junction was never at 20mph - more like 5mph. The only thing
that could be worse was if one of the units was 2926 (almost legendary)
when not only would time be lost at every speed restriction but passage
between them would be casual as well. |
|
Simon Fleming |
Bexhill (Central) station's telephone
number from (at least) 1912 was 15. It only changed after 60
years when automation required additional digits - making it
210015. Just in case you try to dial it, the number has now
been withdrawn. |
