Page 1 EDITOR : Gordon Bruce, 2 Sawyers Close, Costessey, NORWICH NR5 0SR (Tel. 01603 747256) DISTRIBUTION : Graham Smith, 7 Caistor Lane, Poringland, NORWICH NR14 7QT (Tel. 01508 492096) NEWSLETTER Vol 43 No 2 FEBRUARY 1997 12345678901234567890 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS March 6 - “Bohemian Rhapsody In Blue” - Chris King & Paul Hudson. March 20 - Bring your own photos etc for projection on the Society’s new Epidioscope. April 3 - Annual General Meeting, followed by a chance to look at archive photographs in the Society’s collection. April 17 - To be announced All Meetings at Ipswich Road On behalf of the Society, may I say a sincere thank you to all those involved with the Open Day on January 18th, for making it such a resounding success. It would be impossible to thank all those responsible in the space available, but particular thanks must go to Mike Fordham for organising the event, David Pearce for his hard work in the Photographic Competition, Peter Knights for looking after the Raffle, and last - but certainly not least - to the ladies in the kitchen for providing the food and keeping your Editor’s not inconsiderable collection of railway mugs filled with coffee and tea!! - Ed. (See also letter on page 5) In this issue Meeting Reports with Mike Handscomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Goods Traffic on the Eastern Counties Railway (Part 3) Richard Joby concludes . . . . . 3 A 1902 M&GN Record Book David Wright finds an archive gem . 6 A Day Out In France Trainspotting, Euro-style . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Apprentice Enthusiast Peter Knights on holiday in Italy . . . . . 9
Page 2 T o me railway signalling is fascinating, but hard to get to grips with - do others feel the same? Some of the mysteries were revealed by our speaker Roger Kingstone, who took us from the early crude timeinterval system operated by ‘bobbies’ to the latest electronic controls. There is, apparently, no definitive history : the Institution of Railway Signalling Engineers merged with the Institute of Electrical Engineers and a lot of early records have been lost. Important milestones included the first semaphore signal (New Cross, on the London & Croydon), the first interlocked frame (Kentish Town, 1860) and the first indication of space, rather than time, between trains (Cooke & Wheatstone’s telegraph instrument for the GWR, 1839). As Tom Rolt’s excellent book Red For Danger makes only too clear, important changes in signalling practice were usually brought in after accidents. After the Abbots Ripton disaster of 1876, where frozen snow had secured the signal arm in the ‘clear’ position, signals had to show ‘danger’ as their normal indication. The GNR also realised the inherent danger of slotted post signals and replaced them with the somersault type. Similarly, a rear-end smash at Welwyn in 1935 had far-reaching effects on track circuiting - after that, once ‘Line Clear’ had been communicated to the box in the rear, it could not be given again before the appropriate track circuit had been occupied and cleared. To illustrate his talk Roger produced some attractive items, including a GER Tyers ‘flap’ block instrument once used at Westerfield and a framed signalbox diagram from Cockfield dating from 1892. Bringing the story right up to date he told us of a recent visit to the state-of-the-art integrated electronic control centre at Upminster, where just four people look after the whole of the LT&S line. Roger wasn’t sure whether the disparaging title of the talk referred to him or the audience - after a most enlightening evening we could assure him that it certainly wasn’t the former! A MUG’S GUIDE TO SIGNALLING Meeting Report by Mike Handscomb S even members entertained us with a batch of slides old and new. The newly-imposed limit of ’20 slides each’ certainly made for a more balanced evening, and Richard Adderson managed to turn this into a positive advantage (see below). Had three members not taken identical slides on their recent crossChannel trip, the evening would have been even more varied! Subjects were : • Trains and trams in Amsterdam, and a recently-built but so far unused tramway in Issy, France (Mike Fordham) • a mixed bag of vintage pictures, including LMS turbomotive no 6202 (later to be involved in the 1952 Harrow accident), London sheds of the LMS in the 1950s, the pre-1850 route to York via Rugby and an 1842 Norwich to Yarmouth steamer service (Richard Joby) • twenty slides progressing visually from 1 to 20 - we began with GNR Stirling Single No 1 at Loughborough and finished with a pair of Class 20s leaving Norwich, on the way glimpsing such delights as a work-stained 4-COR at Reading, RHDR Pacific Typhoon (no 7) and San Francisco cable-car no 15 (Richard Adderson) • a summer journey on preserved Class 306 emu no 17, and scenes on the Foxfield and Churnet Valley railways (Graham (Continued on page 6) Members’ Slide Evening
Page 3 Other services also left a great deal to be desired, as the 1858 tabulation (foot of page) of late-running goods trains indicates. By the mid-1850s receipts for goods traffic started to overhaul those from passenger traffic on the whole now unified system : Maintenance for the growing stock of goods wagons and locomotives was transferred to Romford and concentrated on Stratford from 1848. The changeover had been completed amid rapid growth by 1851, when : “The extent of the works may be imagined from the fact that the operations of the line are carried on by 203 engines; 164 first class, 154 second class and 164 third class carriages; 241 horse boxes, carriage trucks and luggage vans; 2,151 goods waggons, 679 sheep and cattle wagons, 802 trucks, and 49 breaks; all of which require periodical repairs. The engines alone, consisting, as each of them does of 5,416 distinct pieces, which have to be fitted with an accuracy as though for a watch - employ a great number of hands to keep in repair. In connection with these facts we mention that in the half-year ending Jan 4 1851, the total number of miles run by engines on this line was 1,249,747; on that assumption of coke was equal to about 4½d per mile, and that the average cost of a train per mile was 1s 5d.” (ECR Guide) The 3261 goods vehicles of 1851 had increased to over 7000 by 1862, thanks to adding EUR and EAR stock as well as newly-built vehicles to the earlier total. East Anglia had long been the larder of London. This position was reinforced by the railways, as a contemporary account of seasonal gluttony indicates : “As affording an illustration of the enormous traffic on this line, at Christmas time, we give the following statistics of the holiday fare arriving in London from the 17th to the 25th Passengers £233,233 Parcels & Horses £17,382 Goods etc incl. Coal & cartage £242,268 Cattle £45,366 Mails £9,282 Lowestoft Harbour dues £3,223 Date Service Time lost, hrs/mins Reason 3 August Norwich - London 3.30 Engine short of steam 3 August Norwich - London 4.30 Engine failed 2 August Norwich - London 2.15 Engine short of steam 6 August Norwich - London 2.00 Engine short of steam 9 August Norwich - London 1.20 Engine failed 18 August Peterborough - London 1.50 Engine on special train failed 21 August Norwich - London 1.50 Waiting for engine 21 August Peterborough - London 3.00 Engine failed at Chatteris 21 August Peterborough - St Ives 2.45 Engine taken to work passenger train 22 August Norwich - London 2.05 Slow travelling 23 August Norwich - London 2.50 Waiting for engine 23 August Norwich - London 3.30 Burst tube 25 August Norwich - London 3.40 Engine failed 27 August Norwich - London 3.25 Engine failed 27 August Norwich - London 3.00 Changed engine with fish train whose engine had failed 28 August Norwich - London 1.35 Diverted train 31 August Norwich - London 7.50 Engine taken to work fish train 3 September Norwich - London 2.50 Engine unable to take train up Chesterford bank GOODS TRAFFIC ON THE EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY FROM 1839 (Part 3) Richard Joby
Page 4 December 1850, both inclusive : grain 45,643 sacks; cattle-beasts 500, sheep 8,270, pigs 366. Other produce - dead meat 308 tons; poultry 246 tons; fish 188 tons; oysters 26 tons; beer 665 tons; bread 81 cwt; milk 68,530 quarts. The Christmas presents and parcels to and from London during the same period were - turkeys, 999; barrels of oysters, 2,065; packages of game, 251; miscellaneous packages not specified, 23,599. Total - 26,914, besides the numerous packages brought by passengers. “At Stratford and out-stations there are employed - 20 clerks, 170 smiths, 224 fitters, 67 joiners, 61 painters, 72 coachmakers, and 192 drivers; making a total, with labourers, etc, of 1,068 receiving wages to the amount of £1,321 weekly. Number of engines in steam daily, 75. Miles per week, 46,500. “The great supplies of cattle from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, come by the Eastern Counties Railway, the average time of the transit from Norwich to London (120 miles) being seven hours. ‘The extent to which railway carriage is now employed in the transit of livestock may be appreciated’, say the Commissioners, ‘from the facts given in evidence before us by the traffic manager of the Eastern Counties Railway, that the stock carried on that line in the year 1849, amounted to 57,300 oxen, 275,000 sheep, and 15,000 pigs and calves.’ The traffic manager states that the great landing place of their line for livestock is Tottenham, six miles from London, from whence they are walked to the ‘lairs’. There they rest for about twenty-four hours, and are then taken to Smithfield at a very early hour on Monday morning, so that they may get into the market by two or three o’clock. The dead meat comes to the goods station in London, from whence it is removed to Newgate and Leadenhall Markets by vans or wagons and ‘pitched’ at the various salesmen’s stalls. The delivery commences on the arrival of the first train at one o’clock in the morning, and the servants of the company continue to pitch the meat until six or seven o’clock. The object is to get the meat on the standing at five o’clock at the latest and as much earlier as possible. In the country the Company find what are called hampers, or peds, and cloths : and small butchers are induced to hire them, who make it quite a business to feed a little stock in the country and send it up to London, paying a moderate rate for using the peds. They could not afford to find peds themselves, for in the event of loss it would be more than equal to any little profit that could be obtained on the sale of the meat. The consequence has been that by the construction of the railway through those producing districts, men in the country are enabled to connect themselves with the London meat market. Formerly they were completely shut out by expensive road conveyances; they wanted cheaper communication. The establishment of railways has benefited them much, and their trade is bringing an enormous increase of traffic to the line. Great quantities of lean stock for the last three years have been coming out of Scotland, and going across the grazing districs of Norfolk to be fattened. The Eastern Counties Railway have had that traffic now for about three years, in connection with the London & North Western Company, and every year they find it increasing almost twofold.” (W Johnson. England As It Is, Political, Social and Industrial, in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century.) Goods sheds, cranes and turnplates were an integral part of the design of the 1845 main line construction from Norwich to Bishop’s Stortford and also on subsequent lines. Bramah & Robinson (of flush toilet fame) contracted to supply turnplates at £18 per ton in cast iron and £40 per ton in wrought iron which was less liable to fracture. These small turnplates were essential for manoeuvring the minuscule locomotives and carriages of the period in the cramped purlieus of terminal stations and warehouses. Wagons were mostly of five to seven tons capacity. Rounded ends, capable of being sheeted with the aid of a supporting girder, were the most common wagons on the ECR. There were special locked box wagons for valuable goods, and as already noted, hundreds if livestock wagons. Trains were limited to about 200 tons, both on account of locomotive power and of the weak coupling chains of the period. These were frequently backed up by an additional pair of chains between each wagon. No continuous brakes were in use during the period under review. The goods traffic of the early days grew at a rate that amazed contemporaries, but, that said, the quantities and the wagon capacity of 1862 were but a tenth of that available by the turn of the Overleaf : GER Brick Lane Wagon Hoist, 1856
Page 5 century. As traffic to London grew, so the capacity of the goods stations had to be expanded. At Brick Lane wagon hoists were built in the 1850s to allow wagons to be dealt with at different levels (see illustration). Devonshire Street Yard was started, approached by a very steep ramp from the main line on the viaduct. It also provided interchange facilities with the Regent’s Canal at ground level. (Concluded) ECR Standard 7-ton Wagon, 1862 Letter to the Editor I cannot recall ever seeing any “Letters to the Editor” in the Norfolk Railway Society’s Newsletter. However, I felt I must write to say how much I appreciated the Open Day on Saturday 18th January, and to offer my congratulations and warmest thanks to everybody - the Society’s officers, the Committee, the members and the ladies - who did so much to make the event such an enjoyable occasion. It was good to be able to share other members’ interests, and I am sure that everyone who was there was pleased to see the many models and other collections, the photographs, the slides and the videos. The refreshments were generous and delicious, and the opportunity to chat informally to others made the day a happy social occasion. I hope that some of the visitors who came will be encouraged to join the Norfolk Railway Society, and that Open Days will become a regular
Page 6 A 1902 Midland & Great Northern Railways Joint Committee Record Book David Wright discovers a gem from the turn of the century R ailwayana is collected . . . . . but it’s even more interesting if it is ‘dug out’. For example, an M&GN record-book of 1902 was ‘rescued’ from Hellesdon M&GN Railway Station shortly before it was demolished (about 1970-1973) and presented to the NRS Archives in 1996. Specially worthy of note are : • A fine M&GN label (in gothic print) on the cover. The label was printed in London, even though the M&GN was the one railway that didn’t go to London. • The heading (just readable) on the label is “VEGETABLES”, and the whole book records every detail of bun [bundles?] of boxes, ‘flats’, ‘lids’, ‘strikes’, ‘emp hmp’ [empty hampers?], ‘colls’ [collections of . . .]. • It shows the massive trade with the Midlands and North of England by rail (all in 1902), mainly to Manchester, but also to Sheffield, Leicester, Shrewsbury, Coventry, Halifax, Leeds, Bradford, B’gham [Birmingham], Nott [Nottingham], Wakefield, Hunslet and Settle, and even to Glasgow and Merthyr Tydfil! There were very few local items, but I spotted Melton Constable, Thursford, Massingham and Kings Lynn. Were these empty bundles of ‘vegetable boxes’ and ‘flats’ being returned to Norfolk growers? The gap of several days before delivery would suggest this to be the case. This is a less well-known trade than the ‘coal, fish and holidaymakers’ that are well known, and an aspect of the great benefits that railways brought to the UK 100 years ago. Kenworthy) • an amazing system of sugar-cane lines in Fiji, with locomotives built by Simplex of Bedford (David Wright) • modern and preserved traction in Italy (Peter Knights) • Channel Tunnel shots soon after the disastrous fire, a prototype double-deck TGV and freight workings around Lille (Peter Knights, Mike Fordham and Chris King). (Mike Handscomb) (Continued from page 2) OPEN INVITATION to Norfolk Railway Society members Talk to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, by Nigel Yule “HIGH SPEED TRAINS FIFTEEN YEARS ON” Thursday 27th February Stakis Hotel, Norwich
Page 7 F our members - Chris King, Gordon Bruce, Peter Knights and myself - got up very early (3.15am) on the cold frosty morning of Friday 22nd November 1996. The idea was to drive down to the tunnel and via Le Shuttle to France, then driving to Lille. Maps were found, routes planned and Gordon became French exchange paymaster. That was before the fire in the tunnel. Instead, after a fast drive to Dover, stopping only at Thurrock for breakfast number two and passing many “Tunnel Closed” signs on the motorway and a coned-off entrance to Cheriton, we arrived at Dover Docks and exchanged our tickets for P&O Ferry tickets, bypassed the queue and drove onto the Pride of Burgundy, which departed as we climbed out of Chris’s car. Good-bye England, and join the queue for breakfast number three . . . . After a fast crossing of just over an hour it was Hello France, and we disembarked and passed the customs. Yes, they let us in! By 9.30am English time (10.30 French) we were driving past the aluminium works at Calais, noticing our first loco of the day - a small diesel shunter in the works. As we drove the wrong was round the roundabouts Gordon was wondering whether the front seat was the best place to be! Then onto the road overlooking the deserted French tunnel portal. No sign of life - is that a smell of smoke in the air? Where were all the repair workers? The banks were losing millions - don’t they need the trains running? In the yard at Coquelles were two British class 92s, nos 92006/46, two ‘BB66000’ mixed-traffic diesels now used for freight traffic, and two ‘Y7100’ tractors (shunters). Then from nowhere came a tunnel shunter with part of the burnt-out shuttle complete with fire-damaged lorries. The cameras came out in a flash! A double-deck TGV in blue/grey & white livery passed on a possible test train to Lille. BB26059 Sybics on a freightliner and BB22290 with Ford car spares also passed in the tunnel direction (the tunnel had been reopened to freight by this time). On to Dunkerque with its extensive yards, where several ‘BB63000’ and ‘BB63500’ and RE-built ‘BB66700’ mixed-traffic diesels were viewed and photographed from a station overbridge as they moved around the yard. A red & cream 2- car dmu on a Calais service called at the station. With Chris at the wheel it was off again via the motorway to Lille. Out again came the maps - why do all the roads say ‘No Entry’? Was that a traffic light? By 12.30pm we found the north end of Deliverance Yard, and as we walked (ran actually) to the road overbridge a train passed underneath - a ‘BB12000’ ‘monocabine’ with a very long train of new cars. The cameras came out but this one got away! The freight yard is one of the nineteen major yards left in France still served by wagonload traffic. Within minutes, two Bo-Bo diesels, ‘67400’ class no 67592 and ‘66400’ class no 66485, arrived from the north with a bulk wagon train. As the sun was in the wrong position for photos, we drove to the south end of the yard, parking at a now-closed but very French looking station. Walking onto the long footbridge crossing the tracks, we were just in time to see a Belgian BoBo dual-voltage electric, in blue & yellow livery, with a long mixed wagonload freight, soon to be followed from the same direction by a Bo-Bo no 12000 ‘monocabine’ and a ‘flat iron’ 12039 in dark green with a freightliner, while from the north came prototype Belgian Bo-Bo no 1201 of 1986 with a tank wagon train. Just before we left we caught another ‘63500’ class Bo-Bo with another freightliner. We must come back to this yard next year - it’s rather like BR in the 1950s! After more map-reading and getting lost, we parked up next to a horse meat shop in order to look over the fence at the TGV depot and see a number of TGVs pass, including the doubledecker seen at Calais. A Eurostar also passed - they were only working from Paris as far as Lille. From a bridge we viewed Fives depot, where several ‘67200’ diesels and dmus were stabled. We then moved on to Lezennes station, where we crossed the tracks and into Hellemmes Works to view five withdrawn ‘CC40100’ class quadruple-voltage (1500V dc, 3000V dc, 25kV ac and 16²/3Hz) locos all with their numbers removed, although Chris found the number 40103 painted in the cab of one of them. I had last seen these smart stainless-steel-finished locos working out of Paris Nord in 1994. There A Day Out In France Mike Fordham indulges in the art of “Le Trainspotting”
Page 8 were no signs to prevent people from crossing the tracks or even entering the Works - the French authorities must be very trusting, unlike the paranoid British Health & Safety Executive! A number of Works employees were going off shift while we were nosing around however, and they did not seem to approve too much of the British art of “le trainspotting”! By now it was getting dark, so we tried to head for the main station although only succeeded in getting lost in the one-way system for an hour or so! Eventually we parked in the car park next to Lille station but didn’t venture any further than the shopping centre, where we did our obligatory duty-free shopping! It was then back to the motorway out of Lille, by now crammed with rush hour traffic, and back to Calais. We had about 1½ hours to wait at Calais for a ferry back to Dover - in this case the Pride of Calais - but there was no sign of the chaos caused by the French lorry drivers which was to cripple the port just two days later. We were queuing right next to a coach with its smelly engine running, but the only amenities available were self-cleaning toilets in which the light went out when you locked the door! The weather had deteriorated - the crossing was rather rough and it was p***ing with rain when we got back to Dover, but we all enjoyed a meal of fish and chips on the boat. Back in Blighty we unfortunately arrived just after another boat, which means that we had a long time queuing to get off. It didn't help following a German van off the ship - if you were in a traffic jam in Dover, would you let a German van push in front of you? The customs were eventually negotiated, after which we passed more officials carefully looking at the suspension of passing cars and guestimating the quantity of booze contained in the boots! Mike and Gordon shared the driving back to Norwich. One of the Dartford tunnels was closed - emulating the Channel Tunnel! - but Poringland was reached at 1am, 21 hours after leaving. Here’s to the next trip! Railways around Lille INDEX OF ARTICLES The Editor has just completed a full Index of articles contained in the Norfolk Railway Society Newsletters, from issue 1 in January 1956 to the current issue. The Index runs to 49 pages. If any member wishes to obtain a copy, could they please notify Chris King or Gordon who will arrange for a copy to be run off. A charge of £1 will be made to cover the cost of photocopying. Alternatively, anyone with a computer and access to Microsoft Works Database can obtain a copy on disk simply by contacting the Editor (supply your own disk!).
Page 9 9.30am - Taxi ride to dear old Thorpe station. 10.05am - InterCity to Liverpool Street, arriving a couple of minutes early. Time for a look around that lovely old station - I never cease to wonder what a good job they have made of it. Next a ride round on the ‘yellow’ line to Victoria, where my wife and I had a wander and some lunch, before boarding the Gatwick Express for an enjoyable trip to the airport, with me keeping an eye on all the trains and things, especially through Clapham Junction in case they went the wrong way (!), but as usual Gatwick was arrived at spot on time. Now it was the airport’s turn to bear our inspection, while we waited for a 5.30pm flight to Rome Ciampino airport aboard an Airbus A320. An unbearably hot overnight stay in central Rome followed, after which we boarded a coach for Pedaso in the late afternoon. Alas, no more trains just yet - it would have cost twice as much to go all the way from London to Pedaso by train. I was impressed by the comfort of the coach, which took between 3½ and 4 hours to reach our destination, with a short stop about half way. Pedaso is on the Adriatic coast of Italy, between Ancona to the north and Pescara to the south in the district of Marche. Now the good news - the railway runs right down the coast. I would love to go all the way down to the foot of Italy by train. Most mornings we were on the beach, swimming or laying under the sunshades - all the ordinary people were looking seawards while yours truly was facing the other way, looking up at this lovely railway while pretending to read a book although in reality watching the trains going up and down the line. Our Italian friends Furio and Susy, with whom we were staying, lived only a couple of hundred yards from the railway, and from time to time Furio kept shaking his head, saying in despair “Inglese! Inglese!”. It wasn’t long before I realised that there was a Fiat factory somewhere south of Pedaso, as there were many long freight trains, some double headed, loaded with new Fiat vans of all shapes and sizes heading north and freightliners carrying the raw materials going south. The trains were going in both directions for as long as we were out and about - sometimes well past midnight - and also in the early hours whilst we were in bed. Ah - music, sweet music! By and by, during all the time we were in Pedaso we heard not a single English or German voice, so no German towels were left on the beaches all night - all were Italian locals or holidaymakers, so these parts cannot yet have been ‘discovered’ by the tourists. Furio told me that General Montgomery’s army was in the district during World War II, and many locals have quite fond memories of the British Army. Montgomery had said that the Italians would give the army wine etc, while the soldiers would give the Italians certain foods and things which they were otherwise unable to obtain. One day, whilst eating lunch in a beach café (the proprietors were friends of Furio and Susy), we were served a mixture of smallish fish and things from the sea : most of the fish seemed larger than sprats but much smaller than herring. The old apprentice was pingling with knife and fork - Vitorrio, the owner, must have noticed this because he came over and sat with us with his own plate of fish. Now it was his turn to shake his head and say “Inglese! Inglese!”. He then held his head back and lowered a whole fish into his mouth by its tail and then deftly drew it out, leaving it cleaner than any machine could have done it - just the bones left. I kept hinting that I really must go on to the ‘stazione’ to try to get some photos. There did not seem to be any readily accessible vantage points like bridges over the track, but eventually I got onto the station and considered that the centre platform would be best considering the position of the sun. I therefore crossed by the footboard-type thing (there being no bridge over or under) and stood around quietly, camera at the ready, waiting for the ‘trani’. After about three minutes, a lady stazione person came running out of the signal room (which is part of the station building) with two rolled-up flags, one red and one green, which she waved furiously at me and ran across to where I was standing pointing towards from whence I had come, loudly THE OLD APPRENTICE
Page 10 exclaiming (the Italians speak about four times faster than us, don’t they!). Now, being an old apprentice and reasonably bright, it didn’t take long for me to work out that I was not welcome on the centre platform, so I pointed to myself, tried to smile politely and said “Inglese, Inglese, sorry no speak Italiano” while at the same time making my way back across the track under the gaze of a stern looking man peering at me through a window. Now safely positioned in a ‘legal’ place, a little bell began to tinkle and the station lady reappeared with her two rolled-up flags, crossed to the centre platform and a few minutes later a lovely train came through. The same thing happened each time a train appeared, so this must be some sort of safety procedure. Sometimes it was the lady, sometimes the gentleman - every time a photo. They gradually became more friendly, probably realising that I was just an eccentric Inglese, and after a while one or the other would wave to me and point in the direction that the train was going. Trains, trains and more trains - lovely! Soon I sidled up to the signal room window and found that the man spoke just a little English, and that the modern-looking console with its array of chrome levers, black knobs and various dials was in fact forty years old and shortly to be replaced by a press-button affair which at the time was covered over with plastic sheeting. By now, we were almost buddies. There seemed to be a train about every twenty minutes, where I had imagined there were only a few a day, although very few stopped at Pedaso. There was a lovely surprise for me a few days later, as Furio told us that he had booked a trip on a vintage steam train from Porto San Giorgio to the hill city of Ascoli Piceno in the Apennine mountains. We boarded a coach in Pedaso to Porto San Giorgio, about 11km to the north, where along with other coachloads we shuffled through the underpass and up to where this grand old train was waiting. The first couple of photos were taken straight away! Soon the old engine gave a whistle, took up the strain and away we went back towards and through Pedaso. The carriages were also very old, with wooden seats and luggage racks and wild west-type verandas one could walk onto. As we puffed our way south a young entertainer chap with an accordion came through the carriage and started us all on a sing-song - believe it or not, the first tune he played was “Roll Out The Barrel”. I don’t know whether the Italian words matched ours, but we sang the English version as loud as we could! Everyone was very friendly and the accordionist was really excellent. We continued down the coast through Cupra Maritima, San Benedetto Del Tronto to Porto d’Ascoli, then turned inland and upwards to the mountains. I don’t know the gradient, but it was a steady old pull up to our destination. Before we got there we were spilt into four groups with different coloured hats - red, green, yellow and navy blue - we were blue. On the way up through this lovely valley we saw that they grew just about everything you could think of - vineyards, wheat, barley, oats, many fields of sunflowers, all sorts of vegetables and fruit, and everything was well irrigated. Much of the irrigation was very modern, while other parts really did look as if it had been there since Julius Caesar’s time! On our triumphant arrival at Ascoli Piceno station we were all marshalled into half a dozen or so articulated buses which took us maybe a mile or so to the city centre, where there was a two-hour guided tour of this historic place. One thing I took particular notice of was a stained glass window in a cathedral depicting the Nazi atrocities (I have a slide of this). At the time, my mind went back to “fond memories of Montgomery’s army”. After a while, we were marshalled back to the buses where we were told we were all going to be taken to the football stadium to use the toilets. This struck me as rather humorous, as I had not realised until then that the Italians don’t seem to do in for public toilets in a very big way (remember there were over 500 of us!). Unknown to me, the really funny part was yet to come. (To be concluded) The Society are proposing a visit to Upminster LT Depot on Thursday 22nd May 1997. More details to follow.