Picture(s) of the day....

[white exec]

Pic #9, Derek . . . an RM ?

[NewcastleFalcon]

an orchid

and a couple of bricks
(Ashington Coal Company Ltd)

Great day!

Not Northumberland's most scenic beach, but interesting. Lynemouth had for many years an aluminium plant operated by Alcan, together with its own power station, right on the coast, as well as nearby mining activity at Ellington and Lynemouth.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Military Orchid IIRC.
We used to pick bilberries on Waldridge Fell, near Chester Le Street and discovered them there, took ages to find what they were, pre-Internet.

[Peter.N.]

My mother in law came from Hetton Le Hole and the row of pit cottages at Beamish came from her village, could even be one she grew up in.

Peter

[Stonehopper]

They were fine looking engines.
I started that in the early seventies, put it away unfinished for over twenty years (as you do), then rediscovered it and finished it off (if ever such things are 'finished'!) some time in the late nineties.

It was in this issue (which I still have - shock horror).

[Stonehopper]

Pic #9, Derek . . . an RM ?

Wash your mouth out!

The far superior RT . . . RM interior is wider with a central heating control and the handbrake lever on the RM is on the left of the drivers seat.

[mickthemaverick]

Oh the difference an 'e' makes!!

Lynemouth

Lynmouth

[myglaren]

My mother in law came from Hetton Le Hole and the row of pit cottages at Beamish came from her village, could even be one she grew up in.

Peter

I used to work in the Shotton Colliery Industrial Estate and rather thanjoin the nutters on the A19 would drive the scenic route that passed through Hetton Le Hole. More relaxed and actually quicker except in snow, when the A19ers would all drive at 40 mph in the inner lane and leave the outer lane virgin snow, that the Volvo I had at the time used to laugh at.

I have an alcohol thermometer in the garden, slightly misleading as it gets full sun at least part of the time.
I mentioned to my son that it had been 34 Celciouses one day in February, while I was painting the fence.
He was very dismissive and I was a bit sceptical too.
I put the probe of a digital thermometer adjacent to the alco one and they track one another perfectly - there is usually a slight difference due to their reaction times but always very close if not exactly the same.
It was 43? a couple of times last week. These were over the past couple of days. The day with the highest temperature followed the night with the lowest.

The ones on the north side of the house tell a very different tale.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Big money required for the clear up at Lynemouth beach, but it is starting with an initial £4.5Million scheme. Upwards from Lynemouth a couple of miles Cresswell and Druridge bay to Berwick, and downwards a couple of miles from Newbiggen to Tynemouth, the Coast is pristine.

Very much a welcome clean up, of really the only relic of industrial, mining, and domestic waste historic dumping on the entire coast North of the Tyne to the Tweed. Many of the Durham Coast beaches were blighted with dumped Colliery waste as can be vividly seen in Get Carter , but have recovered. Every chance that within a few years the beach will reflect its close neighbours at Druridge Bay.

https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2021 ... on-cleanup

Cliffs and sea looking the other way!

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I recall that they had to have a clean up of a different kind at Lynmouth.

https://visitlyntonandlynmouth.com/hist ... disaster/

[Peter.N.]

We visited Lynmouth that year and I have some photo's of heavy machinery clearing the river bed. I will try to find them - sometime this year.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

In April/May 2011 an unexpected train spotting treat. Deltic Royal Scots Grey on hire doing the short North Blyth to Lynemouth Alcan Smelter run with the ore train. The smelter closed in 2012.

Leaving North Blyth for Lynemouth

Regards Neil

[white exec]

Pic #9, Derek . . . an RM ?

Wash your mouth out!

The far superior RT . . . RM interior is wider with a central heating control and the handbrake lever on the RM is on the left of the drivers seat.

Aww, Derek... You're quite right of course. I sat looking at that and wondered about the centre-front heater column for the RM.....and the slot for the destination/service board (which RM didn't have). Nearly edited my post, then got sidetracked. Not good enough!

Used to travel from W.Ealing to Ealing Bdy on 607 Trolley, then 207 RM, every school day. RT around as well (route 65 locally), although we went (at Hanwell Garage) from some the last of the Trolleys straight to RM. For the changeover, most of the late Q1-type (wide bodied) Trolleys were hiked out of service and sold off to Spain (and S.Africa?), and some very old stock (1930s?) temporarily put in their place.

My step son started with LT as an RM driver, and is now an area traffic controller for one of the contracted companies. He recalls both being continually deafened, frozen to death in winter, and baked in summer, by the lack of driver comfort in RM, let alone the lack of power steering on most of them.

A school chum had a dad who worked for AEC in Southall, where RMs were put together and tested. Paul, aged 14 at the time, spent an Easter holiday shadowing his dad at the Works. He got to take the wheel of an RM on AEC's small skidpan, apparently... .

As a kid, I used to watch RT's being tilt tested at Chiswick Works. I think they had to withstand 30°.

Trolleybus, RT, RF, RLH, GS - all lovely childhood memories.

[Stonehopper]

Indeed. The Road I lived out my childhood in had Trolleybuses parked at one end as it was a terminus for the 625. I have a group of images I took of the gang deployed to cut down the traction poles that carried the wires.

Trolleys were fast! Dad worked at London Zoo, and on the rare days I was allowed to accompany him to work, we would wait on Spouters Corner (Wood Green) for a 629. Quite often a 29 would draw onto the stop (RT or RTL), but Dad was watching for a trolley pulling out from the depot on Jolly Butchers Hill. If he spotted one, we let the 29 go in favour of the Trolley. It wouldn't be long before it had caught and passed the 29, getting us to Camden town almost 10 minutes quicker - time to grab a 'dog roll' and Seven-up from the cafe in Parkway!

A little bit of local history with the aid of Hugh Flouch and various commenters:

https://harringayonline.com/forum/topic ... fharringay&

[NewcastleFalcon]

Todays video button press, thought I would get some decent still snapshots of the Flying Scotsman as it flashed past Dam Dykes Level Crossing this afternoon. Yes not the best but a nice if brief encounter.

60103 Flying Scotsman Sunny Northumberland

Its up in Edinburgh right now, and doing three trips around Fife tomorrow Friday 25th June 2021

It is due to take part in three circular routes of Fife tomorrow. As part of its three circuits, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, the locomotive will head into Fife and make its way along the coast towards Kirkcaldy, back to Edinburgh. The morning train for the Fife Circular will depart from Edinburgh at 9.44am and return at 12.41am. The afternoon one will depart from Edinburgh from 2.14pm and return at 4.38pm. The evening service will leave Edinburgh at 7.05pm and return at 9.56pm.

REgards Neil