Bystander

Lovely model - thanks for the photos. Amazing how it steams with no coal in the tender! Like the C Class on the birdcage set as well!

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/cw_news/gwr87782_restoration.html and http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pic2/wagons/gwr87782.html

Sorry for being a pedant - thanks for posting such an interesting batch of photos. As a small contribution this NG flat wagon from the Woolwich Arsenal system is is in the Narrow Gauge Museam in Towyn. I am also aware of an ex- London Chatham & Dover Railway four wheel First that is a Quainton Road that came for the Woolwich Arsenal system, but there must be more... ideas?

Thanks for these facinating photos. They look like 1894-99 South Eastern Railway coaches in the top photo, but although this was the local railway I would have thought that these are internal user coaches as, as far as I am aware, the later four wheel SER coaches only ran in close-coupled sets with "birdcage" brakes, so these presumably have been fitted with long buffers and conventional couplings. Looks like a five compartment third on the front. If I might be a pedant the first railway in London was the London & Grenwich opened in 1838, but part opened between Spa Road (as you correctly state) and Deptford on 13 December 1836. However, the extension to Woolwich and Dartford came much later (1878).

I believe that it is builder's photo of a prototype/first built example of the standard MoS Class A tank wagon (my memory says 1942, but might well be at fault). Charles Roberts were the key builder I think, although your photo shows a Midland RC&W example. You are quite correct in saying that normal production examples (and probably this one after the official photos were taken) were painted in a far more discrete manner. Rather than relying on my memory there was a very good article on MoS tank wagons in either Backtrack or Modellers Backtrack about 15 years ago. Sorry I have far too much on at the moment to search this out - maybe somebody else could help?

As a first port of call I would suggest the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/collections/by-type/ship-plans/. I belive that there have been several books on the subject published (none of which I own, so I cannot make any recommendations I am afraid).

I believe that it is just the address of the registered owner of the wagon, which would have had to be registered as a private owner wagon to operate on the railway network, in this case a Class A tank wagon.

Thanks what interesting photos!

Thanks for a facinating account. The Longmoor Military Railway shut in 1969, after an abortive attempt to set it up as preservation center for railways and vehicles, which was frustrated by a local residents group, opposed to the plans, purchasing the critical sections of the alignment at an auction.

Thank Hanno that is very kind. Hopefully I will find an odd half hour to post the last few photos shortly.

It is quite easy to recognise a Merchant Navy from a Bullied Light Pacific at any distance - a Merchant Navy is noticably more massive and 'square shouldered'. The BoB and WC Classes are one and the same, the distiction being purely for publicity purposes, the allocation of blocks of BoB and WC names was fairly promiscuous throughout the run of the build. So I think that your remark is unfair! It is even easier to tell a rebuild from an unrebuilt! Pre-rebuilding it was also quite easy to tell the various blocks of MN class apart from a good distance - the first 4 had 'pinched in' front ends, as did to a lesser extent the the next six, while the final ten had a quite different tender (before they started to get mixed up). Whereas as a friend of mine says the GW only ever built two classes of locos: tender engines and tank engines - although I think that he is being a little unfair, after all they built pannier tanks and prairies!

Just been looking at some engravings of Trafalgar in a book. Yes all vessels seem to have been flying the white Ensign from the stern; however quite a variety of flags seem to have been flown from the masthead including a few Union Jacks, the Cross of St George (rather more frequently) and pennants. I guess that it was an issue of sticking a flag wherever possible, so that the colours were still flying after flags had been shot away. I also thought that I ought to look at the dismasted Belisle at the end of battle as it took a lot of punishment and reports talk about several sets of colours being shot away and the colours finally being nailed to the stump of the mainmast, sure enough this final set of colours is a Union Jack.

Unfortunately I managed to lose the digital camera with photos that I had of it in steam on the demonstation line at Didcot in the summer. But how many surviving standard gauge engines served in France in WW1, I can think of the E4 and two of the P class locos on the Bluebell, did the NRM's Dean Goods serve in France? Any others?

In my opinion, a lot of this comes down to the direction of industrial strategy in the war economy. I would argue that Britain led the world in tank design going into WW2 and again after the war, it was unfortunate that British tank fell to such a dire state between the Matilda 2 and the Centurion, just when it was most needed. Brilliant designers and innovative companies are a finite resource and a huge industrial effort went into things like the bomber offensive, which inevitably deflected resources from elsewhere. A lot of British tank design was farmed out to the British motor industry, and when one sees how poorly for example the Morris motor company designed and constructed cars, it is not surprising that their tank designs were appalling too. Designers of unreliable 'sit up and beg' cars became designers of unreliable 'sit up and beg' tanks, where design features such as a sloping glacis or elimination of shot traps were unheard of, and diesel engines were abandoned in new designs. The converse of course is true of Russia, which devoted considerable genius and engineering resources to tank design from the immediate run up to the war onwards, and were rewarded with the T-34 - a tank that shows how outmoded British tank design had become by 1941-43. The enforced use of the Sherman, because we couuld not build enough of anything better, is testomony to how far behind Britain had fallen. It is a pity that Britain did not build the T-34 (or indeed the KV1), given that the Russians were quite keen and supplied at least one example to Britain for evaluation. It is interesting to speculate how we might have done in NW Europe, etc had we been able to field a decent quantity of T-34s, instead of the inferior and polyglot collection of tanks fielded.

I believe that both wheels would have been spoked wheels, streamlined by the addition of fabric covers. What has probably happened is that the fabric cover has been torn off the far wheel by a flailing punctured tyre. Possibly during the original forced landing or possibly by some un-sympathetic towing.

Sorry I was going by my father's comment that "aerial poles were stored in racks on the side" (Post No 5). Uniform is an interesting point, while obviously the army was very strict on maintenance of particular uniform standards. There do seem to have been small ways in which variance was tollerated: I remember my father telling me that ties were quite a dark khaki as issued, but there was a craze to make them as light as possible and they used to scrub them with toothpaste to achieve this, and that it was a slow process with ties being progressivly lightened with many toothpaste scrubs.

Three more tonight: The first is I presume the Brigadier's Jeep. It also seems to show the stored aerial poles on the side of the adjacent LCV, and the furled pent house. (Driving the Jeep must have been exciting in the wet on those tyres!) The second is inscribed on the reverse: "The battery charging waggon showing 6kW Coventry Climax generator + some 6V 170AH batteries." The third shows 'his' White Scout Car again and is titled: "Stop for a rest on the Autobahn. In the front row 'Nig-Nog' Elliot, Priest, + Bottomly, + in the back row Nig-Nog_? Scotch guy in Bde + of course Taylor."

Thanks for the kind words - my father was a very tallented man, excelling at just about everything he did. It is a pleasure to share them with you - it is better that they get appreciated rather then being locked away in a dusty album, not looked at from one year to the next. It is also very interesting to me to find out some more about them from the experts on this forum - thanks for all of the additional information - some more please! I still have a few more that might be of interest to you (most of the pictures are just groups of soldiers, which I don't think that there is much merit in posting on this forum). Do you want the one of (what I presume to be) the Brigadier's Jeep next?

A little more time to post a few more - not very far to go now. The first is entitled "The Three Stooges take on a ghost-like appearance. Mar '52". Dad was trying out the double exposure facility on his camera (the only time that he ever used it) to create an arty effect against the side of 'his' White scout car. The second one of this vehicle is uncaptioned. The third one is a bit different: it just says: "Alsop -3, Adams 3". Presumably the number of prints that they ordered each. Can anyone tell me anything about the tractor - what was it and what was its function? I note that the lorry behind has been damaged - is the tractor's function to shunt dead vehicles around? I also see that the tractor's radiator has had a hard time! Is that Fordson stamped on the side of the radiator?

Sorry still quite busy - just one tonight to keep things moving. Inscribed on rear: "Sciving round the CW waggon on Rheinsehlar. Price leaning on rad Story (Dvr) laying on bonnet with bullet-holed German helmet. Jack Drum + his sigs dvr from 1st Tanks Harry Wild + Jack Taylor the CW merchants in front".

I am told that a stainless front pipe on a Golf is very noisy - I have a tuned Mk2 GTI with a bespoke stainless system, when TSR did the mechanicals for me they advised me against their own tuned stainless front pipe in favour of a standard pipe off a late Mk2.

I thought (and I might be wrong) that it is Mephisto that is the empty shell and not as Tim says the Munster replica.

My apologies for the long interval between posts - a combination of the pressures of work and a family holiday. Herewith are a few of the photos that are loose in the front of my father's album, I believe that these were taken with his first camera, and in the case of the barrack room shot by someone else. The first is inscribed on the reverse: "Sigman Stacey & Myself in front of an L.C.V. It has the pent house up which is a steel framed tent which fixes on the side". The second is inscribed: "Myself on Bed in Barrack Room", and then in a later comment added below "Bad Lippspringer early on". The note on the back of the third is: "Me leaning out of the L.C.V window with mike in hand & 'phones on". The fourth I have already reproduced on another thread, but I attach a higher resolution version herewith and also becasue it is the only photo showing tanks. The note on the reverse is reproduced as the fifth picture. Note we have already established that all of the tanks are actually Comets. It is unfortunate that Dad did not take a photo of the Brigadier’s tank - he described it to me as a special Centurion with extra radio equipment fitted, unfortunately his description of the radio equipment in it went over my head at the time. I remember him saying that it did 4 gallons to the mile on Luneburg Heath, and also remember him telling me a story about when a suspension unit failed and they were stranded. I don't think that he travelled a lot in this - I remember him describing travlling in the Commader's seat (presumably because this was the easiest place to stick a supernumerary?). I certainly never heard him talk about the gun being fired, but I presume that he must have sat in the loader's seat for parades, etc when the Brigadier was aboard?

Thanks Hanno, although in my father's commentary he said that LCV was an anotation for "Light Command Vehicle". Like you though I am puzzed what TEDV stands for and how it differs from a LCV - I note that it had louvres in the side and was wondering if it was some kind of diesel generating vehicle, but hopefully someone knows! It is facinating getting the low down from the experts on this site to piece the jigsaw of his army experiences together. Are there any surviving LCVs or command White Scout cars left? Hopefully I will be able to post some more photos on Sunday evening.

Just time to post one tonight - a photo of the White Scout Car under camoflage, which I think was taken in the same place as the photo of it bogged down at the start of this thread, but presumably shortly before! There is no annotation on the reverse of the print in this case. I remember Dad telling me that they would camoflage themselves and the RAF would then drop photos to them showing how they looked from the air. But the giveaway was always the mass of vehicle tracks heading for the wood in which they were hiding, which was blindingly obvious from the air! I also recall another of his stories about seeing a Vampire crash site - it had run into some conifers and cut very neatly and increasingly deeply into the tops of the trees for about 200 yards before ending in a fireball that burnt out an area of wood. Looking for the pilot not much was left -the largest bit found being a bit of foot inside a flying boot.