Prototype Tim Mills' Photos

[Barry37]

I concur with the car makes and think the second one in the queue behind thevA40 is likely a Morris minor traveller, as Dame Edna had it “a half-timbered car”, but the first one, whose grille is visible through the windows of the A40 has me puzzling. I have the feeling that it’s another Vauxhall, though maybe a Ford, but in either case it’s white with a brown vinyl roof, which I think was a later fashion.

A quick check on Google suggests the vinyl roof fashion was led in 1967 by a couple of Ford 1600 models, although originally much older.

I remember that from Dame Edna's Stratford on Avon travelogue, for a late-night BBC2 show, possibly the Friday edition of Late Night Line-up (early 70s?).

 

[David B]

If the photo of Port Line at Vauxhall is indeed from 1964, the coach immediately behind it would have entered service no more than a few months earlier at the latest, being one of the first batch of Mk2 FKs (the ones turned out in lined maroon and SR green with Mk1 style two piece sliding vents in the main saloon windows and Mk1 style corridor connection faceplates). Michael Harris shows the order for these coaches being completed in August 1964, with the green SR batch being produced towards the end of production.

 

[Osgood]

... the second one in the queue behind the A40 is likely a Morris minor traveller, as Dame Edna had it “a half-timbered car”, ...

Agree.

I was test drilling an old sand quarry that had been filled with ostensibly inert fill, with a view to logging the depth of fill to enable the length of piled foundations for housing to be determined (to reach the base of the pit).

I was 50m from the boundary with the 8" dia. auger maybe 8m down, when the drill string suddenly went into freefall for a metre.
Something made me turn around, and I saw an old boy with a flat cap was leaning on his garden fence puffing at his pipe and watching me.
He caught my eye and waved so I wandered over for a chat.
In the course of conversation I explained I had come across a 3ft void about 25ft down (no metres in those parts), to which he replied:

"Ah, that'll be Johnny Beck's Morris Traveller - I helped him push it in there and I thought to myself 'You're right on top of it'"

 

[simond]

no metres in those parts

so not a 200mm auger then

 

[AndyB]

However the third engine in the group is "Victory".

Burrell 7nhp single cylinder double-geared unsprung traction engine, works number 3068 built July 1909. Reg AH5978.
I don't have any details of its working life. In preservation it was in the Leamington Spa area in the mid 1980s, moving to Lymington (Hants) and then latterly to Redditch.

 

[AndyB]

The one nearest the camera is a Fowler and looks like a road locomotive, having belly tanks and a half-canopy, but has a spoked flywheel.

Amendment to previous comment - it is a traction engine with a half-canopy, not a road loco which typically has a solid flywheel and motion covers. I've not managed to narrow down an identity yet.

 

[oldravendale]

Considering the lack of evidence in that photo, Andy @AndyB that is a very helpful identification. As Graham @Dog Star said previously, if we could identify the rally by way of a programme doubtless a lot more would be revealed. Thanks also for your most recent info.

Thank you Tim @Tim Birch and Paul @hrmspaul for the proper identification of that shot of York together with the further input from Ian @Ian@StEnochs, Simon T and Simon D, Barry @Barry37 and Tony @Osgood.

Your advice about the Port Line photo is valued as well, David @David B I'm always a little cautious with the dates on the photos as you'll be aware but just maybe in this case it all falls conveiently in to place.

Although we've been here before I'm quite excited by these photos as I visited the Bowaters Railway shortly before it closed. So a series here of the Bowaters Paper Mill Railway at Sittngbourne. The first two photos are of ex-SECR P Class BR 31178 but here as Pioneer II at Ridham Docks in 1966. Happily the loco was preserved after industrial use and is now famously on the Bluebell Railway. See 31178 (SECR 178, SR A178, SR 1178, BR 31178 & Bowaters Pioneer II)





img348 and 501 are of “Superior” a 2 ft 6 in gauge 0-6-2T built by Kerr, Stuart & Co. (works number 4034) in 1920 for Bowaters Sittingbourne. These photos are dated 1966 and were taken at Bowaters. This is one of the locomotives which migrated to the Great Whipsnade Railway when the Bowaters system closed.





This is img494 and features “Premier”, a Kerr, Stuart Brazil Class 0-4-2ST of 1905 on the Bowaters Railway System in 1966. This loco remains on the S & KLR.



Chevallier in img495, 499 and 500 is a Manning Wardle 0-6-2T No 1877 of 1915 which originally came from the Chattenden and Upnor Railway and was sold to Bowaters Paper Mills in 1950 and is shown here in 1966. It was another loco which went to Whipsnade. It then moved to the Welshpool and Llanfair before going to the Flour Mills Works at Bream in Gloucestershire. Unexpectedly the loco then went to Romania but returned to Welshpool in 2025.







Conqueror is here at Bowaters in img496 and 497. It’s a Bagnall 0-6-2T, works No 2192, of 1922. The photo is in 1966. Following closure of the railway in 1969 the loco went to Whipsnade then went to the Vale of Rheidol railway by way of Peter Rampton’s collection and from the VoR has been transferred to the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway.





img502 is of “Melior”, another Brazil Class 0-4-2ST of 1924, works number 4219 by Kerr, Stuart & Co. This loco was retained by the S & KLR when the Bowaters system closed.



Brian

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

And just up Blossom St the much missed Brigantes. The land lord has yet to find anyone who will pay their inflated rent.

Brigantes didn’t open until after the Punch Bowl had become a Wetherspoons. Much missed as none of the other pubs on Micklegate does the same ale variety and quality food.

It is not unusual for landlords to increase their rent and find their asset sitting empty. There are quite a few premises, not all pubs, around my neck of the woods like that. One wonders at the economics of no income versus some income!

 

[David B]

The dome on that tiny little P Class brings back memories of having to polish not just one, but two of the darn things one wet morning at Boston Lodge….they are a whole lot bigger when you are close enough to see your reflection in them. I have never used so much Brasso before or since. Mind you, if the FR decides to restore Earl of Merioneth, I’d leap at the chance to do it all over again.

 

[Brian McKenzie]

so not a 200mm auger then

The 8" auger was likely 200mm by the time it got down to 25m 82ft