Another Mono Monday

 Monochrome Monday 

A blustery stormy day in the early 1960s as a BR Std Class 3 tanks departs Combwich with the 10.05 Combwich to Templecombe service via Highbridge. 

There are few passengers these days, with the Hawksworth brake compo being more than adequate. However the bogie parcels van is always full of churns of milk for processing at the Bason Bridge creamery. And of course there is always moonshine, much of it hidden in children’s plastic toys, rubber ducks, footballs and the occasional milk churn to avoid detection. 

Life was so much more fun in the olden days, especially if a milk churn of moonshine ended up at the creamery by mistake. 

~~~🧀~~~

Top up the colour meter for tomorrow’s post www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

The Wheeltappers & Shunters Club

Saturday morning on Combwich shed, as ‘248 simmers next to the water tower. Over by the signalbox, linesmen Monty and Don are having a discussion about home-grown spring onions before discussing the state of the loo, which today is in an even more perilous state than normal. 

The reason being that at the local Wheeltappers & Shunters Club last night it was the annual pickled winkles championship, the winner imbibing the greatest volume washed down by pints of entire stout and moonshine chasers. The loo here being on the unofficial route back into Combwich from the club, for the effects of imbibing such a mix tends to manifest with 25 minutes of consumption and always after the club shuts. 

~~~👀~~~

Bleach fund, can you help? www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

The Flying Scotsman

 Today we have an photo from my time machine as 4472 ‘The Flying Scotsman’, on The Blackmore Vale Express aka The Sherborne Lunch Express, thunders out of Salisbury on the 7th of June 1987 with a fine display of clag, something which will almost certainly create nightmares for the more neurotic climate alarmist. 

I remember the bridge, ‘Skew Bridge’ on the western side of Salisbury was rather busy that day, with dozens of squealing gricers including me, pointing their cameras at the spectacle. Being a poser, I had two Rolleicord cameras mounted on a bracket (basically a strip of aluminium with a 1/4inch hole at either end to bolt the cameras in place), one with Ektachrome 100 and this one with good old Kodak Tri-X, thus allowing a simultaneous colour and B&W exposure. 

Looking to the right of the train, railway allotments were still a thing back in the 1980s, but sadly they’re very much a thing of the past if you pop this view into Google Street View. I presume down to health and safety, but I’m sure more injuries occurred due to over enthusiastic use of a fork or pruning secateurs than unwittingly wandering on to the track in front of the 11.00 Waterloo to Exeter, but I’m happy to admit that I know nothing… 

~~~👀~~~

This is thirsty work, refreshments always help www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Eye Test

Tap to enlarge 

Occasionally at the colliery, under the watchful eye of Barry Bullhead from the Ministry of Misery, failed optician Pointy Pellegrino performs eye tests using whatever there is to hand on unsuspecting employees of the railway. 

Today, Fred the Flag is having a random eye test as Pointy Pellegrino points at a suitable subject with plenty of lettering and numbers, “Eh Fred, what letter is the second letter in from the left that looks like an ‘E’? And next, what is the letter that looks like a ‘Y’ on the right?” …. And so it goes on..

Needless to say, Fred the Flag, even though he’s colour blind and boss-eyed scores 100% as he correctly identifies every letter and number. This suits Barry Bullhead, for it confirms to those above him that everyone is happy, and has perfect eyesight under his watch, which means that he’ll get another bonus for outstanding services to The Ministry. He might even get an CBE in due course as he slowly gets his feet into the cat little tray of The Establishment. 

Alas poor old Pointy Pellegrino will be forgotten in time, and just have to settle for pointing out the obvious. Hey Ho. 

~~~👀~~~

My tip jar for outstanding services to nonsense www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Waving Wednesday

Click to zoom in 

Waving Wednesday 

It’s Wednesday morning at Catcott, as the morning pick up goods collects an empty mineral wagon from the small goods yard. 

Standing on the bridge, Waving Willy waves over at his brother Waving Waving Wally who is driving the steam lorry over there in the distance beyond the ground frame (you can just see Wally in the cab). Like Willy, Wally also waves all the time, even in his sleep by all accounts. This can make for driving the steam lorry quite a challenge, it requiring at least two hands, sometimes three to keep it going in a straight line. But Wally manages to steer and even stoke the fire with just one hand. Champion. 

Driver and part time thespian at the local amateur dramatics society, Blessed Brian booms over to Willy from the locomotive, “hello dear boy, lovely to see you”, as he presumes Waving Willy’s wave is for him rather than Waving Wally on the steam lorry. But that’s okay, because Willy has enough waves for everyone. And Blessed Brian loves any excuse to boom with his deep baritone voice. 

Meanwhile Bob Geeza cat waves his long bushy tail in response to all the waving. Such a clever cat. 

~~~👋~~~

If you like a good wave www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3 really helps to keep these posts regular.

 

Front Ends Friday

It’s ‘Front Ends Friday’, for we have not one, but two front ends!

It would appear that Shrewsbury engine shed’s ’Coal Tank’ is on the wander again, suggesting some inch high mischievous activities are afoot. You’ll note that the little people are nowhere to be seen, probably to avoid incriminating themselves. Or simply more likely that they’re in the pub behind the engine having a liquid breakfast of beer and sloppy porridge made with moonshine. 

And of course over to the right, that our regular Peter and his Peckett over there on the right, though Peter cannot be seen. 

~~~🥳~~~

You can fuel the mischievousness here www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

20 Foot High Snowy Arctic Storm of Doom

It’s a cold blustery morning at Fountain Colliery with showers of snow, hail and sleet making the morning shift a little unpleasant for those outside. But Hector Hi-Vis is a hardy soul, remembering the winter of 1962-63 at the beginning of his railway career trying to keep the trains running. He mutters to himself thinking how the lunchtime news will report the winter weather even the snow isn’t settling “20 foot high snowy arctic storm of doom my arse”. 

‘Celebrity’ Class 20 No 20064 ‘River Sheaf’ arrives with a rake of ballast hoppers from the quarry at Tintern, for the track serving the colliery isn’t the best and not helped by recent storms and floods washing the ballast away in places. 

Meanwhile Harry the Hammer - you can just make him out next the red and yellow oil barrel, lurks with his hammer secretly hoping the point lever will be stuck or that one of the wagons has a sticking brake shoe. As usual it’s almost the end of Harry’s shift, as it always is, and as soon as he’s wielded his hammer he’ll be off to the Miners Arms in the distance for a brew or five with a packet of salty pork scratchings in front of the warming fire in the lounge bar. Bliss. 

~~~🌨~~~

You can buy Harry a pint here, because where would we be without Harry and his trusty hammer? www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Monochrome Monday

Monday morning, and there’s a problem with the point which takes the line up in to the colliery on the right. Mouldy Malc, Hyperactive Hans and Deliberation Dave discuss on what to do. 

Mouldy Malc is happy to do nothing, for that’s his specialty, Hyperactive Hans is all for jamming it in the right direction with an old rail-chair, whilst Deliberation Dave deliberates over the options presented to him. Going to pub is not an option, for it does open for another four hours. 

There is no colour option with this photo for it was taken on B&W film, home processed Ilford FP4 on a Nikkormat FT2. 

~~~👀~~~

Buy some colour tokens for tomorrow’s post www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Far Out Friday (man)

 Far Out Friday (man) 

Over there in the distance, as usual the local bus service is late, and is unable to be the other side of the crossing to coincide with the arrival of the 11.43 Evercreech to Highbridge service. Not that it is timetabled to anyway, because things are made as difficult for the passenger as possible to justify the removal of bus and rail services to please the beancounters in that there London. 

That’s Cecil Fish-Finger’s Morris 8 Series E parked next to the good shed. Very little in the way of goods are handled at Catcott these days, so it’s become a popular hang-out for Morris 8 owners, Cecil being the first to arrive on the scene. 

Nobody, whilst they have heard about this ‘hanging out’ thing, really knows what goes on in the goods shed, but occasionally jingly-jangly music, rattling bells and cracking of willow sticks can be heard from within suggesting the Morris owners are having some kind of dance or possibly pagan ritual. But the Somerset Levels are an ancient mystical place, which until only a few hundred years ago was under water, many of the locals still having gills and occasionally webbed feet to link them to their recent aquatic past, so anything is possible. 

~~~👀~~~

If you enjoy these posts, every little helps www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Foggy Thursday

 Foggy Thursday

Boatman Bruce Bottlenose careful eases his fully loaded narrowboat away from the wharf with a fresh load of coal. The load here heading for the canal water pumping station further up the valley. He does this trip twice a month, and always quite enjoys it because there are only 2 locks during the 5 mile trip. The Aqueduct Inn is right next to the pumping station, so that will almost certainly be visited on the journey, another reason for enjoying this run. 

Wifelet (he has several) Mavis Bottlenose is in the boatman’s cabin making tea and bacon butties. Something that will go down well on this chilly damp morning I’m sure. 

Peter Peckett and his trusty loco has just arrived to collect the empty wagons to take them back to the colliery. Part of the siding slopes down to the wharf, so there might be a little slippage as the tiny loco wheels struggle to grip the greasy wet rails. 

The ominous looking Standard Flying 12 has been parked on the wharf all night, but no one knows who owns it. Rumour has it some men from The Ministry are snooping about. They tend to be in camouflage, so are tricky to spot unless they move. Three of them are in this shot disguised as inanimate objects. Can you spot any of them? 

~~~👀~~~

Buy some tokens to ensure future posts www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Where’s All the Colour Gone Wednesday…..

Where’s All the Colour Gone Wednesday…..

The morning goods trundles through Catcott Crossing with a brake van immediately behind the engine. Clive can be seen on the veranda keeping guard over a stash of moonshine on the go within which needs to be finished and all bottled up by the time the trains gets to Highbridge Wharf. 

But fear not nervous ones, there is a brake van on the other end of the 12 wagon train (it’s out of frame beyond the tree should any clever clogs comment), the consist today being coal, fertiliser, Clark’s shoes from nearby Street, beer from Burton, pickled gherkins, bagged brewing malt & hops, atonal apples, amplified heat and pressed rat's collection of doglegs and feet. Gosh there could be lyrics for a song in this plentiful load. 

Waving Willy is waving at his runner beans trying to get the colour back into them, for they were definitely green yesterday when he last watered them. But is looks like someone has poached the colour today, possibly due to a pigment shortage at the rainbow factory in nearby Glastonbury which produces delightful radiant aerial colour displays for use on showery sunny days. 

Tech. Nikkormat FT2, 55mm Micro Nikkor, Ilford FP4. 

~~~🤔~~~

Buy some colour here for future posts www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Tuesday Twaddle

Tuesday Twaddle 

It’s 2049 and everything is driverless. Even the passengers are passengerless because nobody will have the need or allowed to go anywhere, because everything will use screens, holographic and implanted miniature displays behind the retina. Even going to the toilet will be done via an app and performed virtually. 

But retro will of course be very much a thing, as it’s always been, apart from between 1955 and 1975 when everything old was destroyed. The battery powered bus here is powered by batteries and is based on a vintage design to appeal to the hipsters of 2049. Note it has a face to make it appear more friendly. The doors however do not open, because of course there are no passengers. 

Batteries will be pretty old tech 25 years from now, for most items will be powered by nonsense which is indeed plentiful and easy to harness with minimal effort. But there will be enthusiasts harking back to the era of queuing for 3 hours so they could continue their journeys for another 25 miles before queuing again. 

This is just one possible outlook for 25 years from now, but how do you think things might be? Preferably the more ridiculous of course, and nothing too serious, even if you might be reading this killing time waiting to charge your EV at Tebay Services on the M6 and twitching after your 8th coffee of the day. 

~~~🤔~~~

You can fuel the nonsense here, no charging point required…www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Victorian Values

Barry Bullhead, the hard nosed utterly charmless man from The Ministry of Misery doesn’t have any true friends. That’s him standing by the crossing gates watching the local service trundle past. He’s always struggled with relationships, most likely not helped by a harsh upbringing due to his parent’s Victorian values which revolved around lack of empathy and any kind of love. For that’s the way his parents were raised as well. 

Beryl hops out of her supercharged Austin 7 and ponders on whether she should ask Barry if he’d like to have Christmas at hers, nothing saucy mind, I know what you smutty lot are thinking. But then thinks better of things, hops back into her car and drives off as soon as the gates open, the narrow wheels of her tiny car making light work cutting through the wet snow.

Meanwhile, Barry wanders back to his large cold empty house on the hill and opens the single malt… 🥃

Christmas Eve

Back in the olden days, fans of railways on the brink of closure copied The Titfield Thunderbolt film to save their line, but soon discovered just how impractical high maintenance open cabbed ancient museum locomotives could be outside the summer months. Getting parts was also an issue with demand outstripping an almost nonexistent supply, so dubious bodges were frequently used to keep things operational. 

With the British Railways Modernisation Plan of the mid-1950s, there suddenly became a surplus of more modern locomotives available, most with enclosed cabs and that all important plentiful supply of parts, many almost brand new in many cases. 

Waving Willy has managed to cop himself a bargain for the price of a round of drinks from his local secondhand railway dealer who just so happens to be Terry Tuttle-Thomas-Smythe. So now now he’s the proud owner of his very own Titfield Thunderbolt inspired train. 

Hopefully he’ll be able to keep it running, because it will almost certainly be a money pit, for running and maintaining vintage locos and trains is rather like running a classic car, for you need deep pockets, skills and unlimited hours to work on them (known from first hand experience of having a couple of vintage MG cars back in the day). 

~~~🎄~~~

Vintage train maintenance fund…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

A Sporting Night With Wasps & Hedgehogs

Lit by un unusually bright waxing gibbous, here we are around ‘closing time’ at The Royal Oak. Being the last Saturday night before Christmas, it’s been an unusually busy night with the final ladies’ wasp chewing competition of the year. Always a popular event with the more rowdy types off the local estate competing against the local landowning toffs who learned wasp chewing skills at Swiss finishing school.

The extension to the right of the pub is the skittle alley, and again it’s been a busy night with young farming types apparently using hedgehogs instead of balls and beer bottles for skittles. Youth eh? 

And in contrast in the lounge bar, it’s been the annual get-together of the local railway nerds. They’ve been sharing sticky photographs of their trainspotting exploits over the last year or so. They also brought toy trains and thermos flasks to show off to their fellow like-minded souls. Very little beer is drunk, just tea, milk, warm flat lemonade and the occasional half pint of shandy for the more rebellious. 

The Morris 8 Series E, the local taxi, has arrived to collect Beryl, our favourite geriatric reveller. She will have spent most of her time egging on the wasp chewers shouting “go girl, fight fight!”. But with the impending lock-in, the taxi might be better to pick Beryl up at 6am when the landlord throws everyone out.

~~~🎄~~~

Go on, you know you want to…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

‘20 Foot Deep Arctic Storm of Doom’

The 22nd of December in the land of the inch high, and there’s been a light dusting of snow overnight, the miniature media reporting it as a 20ft deep arctic storm of doom laced with plague spores and that we should never go outside ever again. Ever. 

Beryl looks over at the simmering locomotive, the fake snow not melting on the hot and sweaty engine, because fake snow is rather like that, especially when it’s something sourced from the pantry and probably more at home in a pastry or used for indigestion. 

A Christmas tree has appeared as well, the local pipe cleaning factory donating a suitable specimen which has been expertly decorated by my wife using what looks like chopped up shiny sweet wrappers. She has more patience than me. 

~~~🎄~~~

Go on, you know you want to…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Bugger Bognor

It’s the winter solstice at Polbrook Gurney Colliery, though this year it’s actually 3.27am tomorrow in the UK, but we won’t let that spoil the yarn for the sake of a few hours. 

It’s another damp dull morning as Ted prepares to change the point. He’s from Newcastle by the way, that’s why he’s not wearing a coat. Nobody in the North East wears a coat because they’ve not yet been invented, and anyway, they’re tough up there. It’s the Viking blood by all accounts. 

Colin and Deliberation Dave over in the distance are discussing the fact that today is the shortest day (almost), and that from now on the nights will be getting shorter. But Dave is still apprehensive as to whether the days will ever get longer, for they didn’t last year. 

Ted might to travel to Bognor after Christmas for a short break at Butlins, for it’s apparently quite nice this time of year, but then mutters “bugger Bognor, I’ll go to Saltburn on the Sea, money saved on a poxey namby pamby coat worn only by southerners can be spent on brown ale instead”. 

~~~👀~~~

Enjoyed this post? Go on, you know you want to…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Copper Slip & Cream Cheese

From the warmth of his cab, Peter Peckett gazes over at Milky Malcolm’s delivery van which appears to be stranded on the crossing after stalling it and failing to get it going again. Luckily it’s only a siding, but still never the less a hazard. 

Milky has dashed into the pub to get some help, for this old van is quite heavy with a several gallons of milk, truckles of cheese and quite likely jars of illicit booze. 

Malcolm should know better than to use the heater the van, it was an optional extra, but in cold weather the dynamo struggles to keep up, especially if the windscreen wipers are on as well as the heater (but of course the heater is just hot air off the engine, but never lets facts get in the way of a good yarn). He’s also installed a refrigerator unit, though quite why he needs it this time of year I’ve no idea. 

Hopefully a jump start will get it going, as well as a checking and cleaning of the battery terminals. For Malcolm really should have used copper slip grease instead of cream cheese to stop them oxidising.

~~~⛄️~~~

Enjoyed this post? Go on, you know you want to…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Fish Guts and Moonshine

Saturday morning on the wharf at Combwich and it’s the first day of the new tourist passenger service on the narrow gauge line which is usually used for transporting fish and winkles between the boats and gutting sheds before heading for that there London by train. 

But the fishermen who curiously look rather like Waving Wayne and Gaylord Grip and other regulars (it’s the inbreeding don’t you know) aren’t too impressed, for the passenger train will almost certainly get in the way of the fishy operations. 

However a crate of moonshine has appeared next to the engine, so it’s likely some deal will be struck, and most likely a compromise which will allow the fish and winkles to be transported and sold on the train in addition of going to market. Though in the summertime, the fishy aroma might put off any potential tourist trade. But of course we must remember that in olden times, people only bathed once year and didn’t use deodorant, so it probably won’t be an issue. 

To this day, many toy train and bus fanciers still abide with this hygiene regime, the money being saved on such allowing the purchase of more DCC sound fitted Class 37s. 

~~~👀~~~

Enjoyed this post? Go on, you know you want to…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Big Brother is Watching You

In Little England, much like the full sized one, they’re obsessed with camera surveillance and enforcement, mostly as a means of making money. The set up here being used to recorded trespassing on the railway. The inch high, whilst they’ve been able to shrink most things down have struggled to do this with a camera. Another problem is getting the film processed in that they have to use a swimming pool after dark to develop the negatives in. 

Clive and Deliberation Dave standing up on the roof, and Peter Peckett in the cab of the loco to the right, look on in amusement as PCs Mouldy & Scullery try and direct the camera in the direction of Terry Tuttle-Thomas-Smythe who in standing in the ‘4 foot’, or more accurately, the ‘16.5mm’. 

And of course, our favourite waver, Waving Wayne, is assisting with a good wave, for that’s what he does best. 

~~~👀~~~

Help design a fully working tiny camera the inch high can use …  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Seized Brake Shoes & The Vegetarian Option

 A murky November morning at the colliery. High-Vis Harold and Harry the Hammer are investigating a wagon with seized wheels which is straddling a point on the entry to the siding which serves the loading screen. 

A quick tap of Harry’s hammer will sort things out for sure. It will only take a second of two, it most likely being a frozen brake shoe and easily sorted with his hammer. And of course it’s almost the end of Harry’s shift, it always is. 

Over at the Miners Arms in the distance, breakfast is underway for the guests. The pub speciality, ‘The Full Forest of Dean’ will consist of anything that can be made from wild boar, and only limited by imagination. The vegetarian option will be porridge oats soaked in boar’s blood and fried in lard. Things were simpler in the olden days. 

~~~🐗~~~

These posts are helped with lubrication …  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

A Digital 1950s Zeiss Nettar!

On Mondays (and all other days as well), Driver Double Denim Dancing Dando, known to his pals as ‘DDDDD’ loves to have a shimmy. And being Mid-Somerset Tap Dancing Championships winner 1956-1964, he definitely knows his stuff. 

‘DDDDD’ has discovered that the roof of former NCB loco ‘Radstock’ makes a most wonderful clattering sound with his tap-dancing shoes on the tin roof. But he’s finding it hard going today, not because of his tender 78 years, but because his fireman magnetised the metal soles of his shoes when he was having a mid-morning snooze between shunting turns. 

But the bonus now is that ‘DDDDD’ can climb up the side of the engine onto the roof like Spider-Man does the Empire State Building. And of course Bob Geeza Cat is most impressed, thinking that ‘DDDDD’ has real ‘rizz’ as the da kidz say. 

Today’s pic was taken with my 1950s Zeiss Nettar folding bellows camera. I locked the shutter open, and held my mirrorless Nikon (without a lens) up against the rear of the Zeiss with the back open, it effectively becoming a digital back. It probably won’t be a regular set up, I usually load the Zeiss with film, but it’s fun to experiment. 

~~~🕺~~~

An experimental mind requires constant lubrication, please help…  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

 

Angry Hubert

Hubert the conversational Latin speaking shunting horse is normally a placid soul. But today he’s more than a little upset due to the dockland authorities wanting to pension him off and replace him with a diesel engine, and a smug blue one at that. Never trust a smug blue engine, but at least this one doesn’t have a face. But there is a rumour he wears one at weekends to scare children and also adults.

A few of you have missed Bob Geeza Cat, who is reputed to be half fox, and even he is rather taken back, but fully understands Hubert’s angst. And of course Bob is perfectly positioned to aid the composition of the photo here, because that’s what he does best. 

Local ‘businessman’ Terry Tuttle-Thomas-Smythe standing in his usual ‘look no hands’ pose quite likely has something to do with the engine’s appearance. However, I have a feeling that the Signalling & Telecommunications Department workshops in Reading where the locomotive is based are unaware that they are missing their loco. 

And Wayne, he’s just waving as usual for no apparent reason.

~~~🐴~~~

Enjoyed this post? …  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

The Dusting of White Powder

In the flatlands of northeast Cambridgeshire at Windmill sidings there’s been a bit of snow overnight. Part time Morris dancers, Cyril and Edgar, enjoy the warmth of their engine as they potter about pushing wagons full of Brussels sprouts here and there, and sometimes there and here. 

The ancient windmill which hasn’t been used for at least 200 years is lovingly maintained by the locals, alas not in working order, for it is far too close to the railway. But because this is the remote Fenlands of East Anglia it is regularly used for all sorts of pagan rituals, many involving naked antics, green dye, scary dancing with jingle bells attached to bodily extremities. And of course huge amounts of cider and ale. Remember, what happens in the Fens, stays in the Fens. 

~~~🔔~~~

Enjoyed this post? …  www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3