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Yes, I'm afraid there were some pretty badly built cars around in the 1960s. I bought a brand new Ford Cortina 1600 Super (SRF 184G) back in 1968, painted in metallic "silver fox". Sadly the fox proved too slippery, because the paint all started to flake off (I think that was the wording I...

Hi Richard It was taken at Carrog station on the Llangollen steam railway, lovely spot. I am in regular touch with a former footplateman who used to work out of Aberystwyth on these "Manor" class locomotives. So glad that so many of these excellent engines have been preserved so that we can...

Hi oldbrit I'm very proud of the fact that my late uncle, Tom Dilkes (RIP) won the Scarborough road race back in the 1930s. I still have an Imperial Petrel cycle built, I believe, in Sparkbrook in the 30s and owned by him. Very light frame; so light, in fact that the tubes were very easily...

Big boys are often quoted as being the world's largest steam locos; it's a fact that they are the only 4-8-8-4s ever built, but they are not (a) the longest, that was a PRR S1 at over 140 ft, (b) the heaviest, that was an Erie 2-8-8-8-2, (c) the highest tractive effort, that was a Virginian XA...

Fascinated also by the report about Mrs Ethel Denley. If I read this correctly, she would have been the elder sister of Bertram Goodman, whose daughter I knew. So sad that the British motorcycle industry went downhill so quickly.

Just remembered that Anne's name is Frampton. According to t'internet the Velocette preservation movement is quite active in Australia.

Yes the building had the name in large letters:- Taylor and Challen Ltd. It was the backdrop to many a picture of trains entering Snow Hill from the north. Terry D

The Velocette business was run by a Bertram Goodman, descendant of the original founder and the business was still active in 1970, when I dated his daughter Anne for a while. She was a regular rider of a Velocette machine at the time. I understand she later emigrated to Australia and married...

It's a sad fact that this very locomotive was the first of its class of 35 to be scrapped. It was destroyed by a Nazi air raid on York in 1942. Its name was transferred to one of the other locos, becoming no. 60006 and continued in service well into the 60s.

Sorry Bob, but that loco is red, not blue and it is 6229 Duchess of Hamilton which has been renumbered & renamed 6220 Coronation. (6229 was in better condition than 6220, which was blue and masqueraded as 6229 for a time). It is being loaded aboard the Christen Smith heavy lift ship Belpamela...

I too would like to know more of the history of AA units around Birmingham. My father joined the TA in about 1938 and served in the 69th. He used to refer to P & Q sites by their names "Pip site" and "Queen site", the latter, I think, at Swanshurst park. I used to own his regimental ashtray with...

Many thanks to Radiorails for his very learned discourse on the vehicle. I got to know this area in 1954-5 because the 132 service came through here on its way to Birmingham (usually a BMMO LD8) on its way to Birmingham. Leaving Hagley Rd, it turned the corner into the strangely named street...

Delightful cars! My dad bought one shortly after we left Yardley Wood to go and live in Kidderminster. It came from Bryant's garage in central Birmingham; it was grey and the reg was LNP 19. He kept it for over 8 years and was the first car I drove (illegally). My uncle warned him they were a...

That seems pretty conclusive! Well done, Alan

If the registration is YPT, then it's a Durham reg. This would fit in with it being a Northern General vehicle; they had quite a number of Routemasters, and it does look like one of those.

It's surprising that there haven't been more comments on the old school. I was there between 1951-54 (when we moved away) and I have fond memories of the place. Our headteacher was a Miss Messer, and they were all female members of staff. My favourite was Miss Sheffield and I recall there was a...