Flower of Gloster - to be released on DVD in Sept. 2015

[Derek R.]

(snipped) It certainly didn't make we wish I had been alive to see the 60s.

 

JP

 

Did anyone else notice the steam train?

 

Oh yes! But steam was being usurped by diseasel. Shunters at first, then came Deltic.

 

The fifties were in some ways more stable, or so I thought at the time being a sprog kicking a ball around the park. But the sixties were my teenage years - and exciting! The music, fashions, Vauxhalls with fins!!! instead of staid old Morris 8's and Austins in black, looking like sideboards on wheels. It all depends on when you were born as to how you view the past.

[Del 'boy' Trotter]

 

Oh yes! But steam was being usurped by diseasel. Shunters at first, then came Deltic.

 

The fifties were in some ways more stable, or so I thought at the time being a sprog kicking a ball around the park. But the sixties were my teenage years - and exciting! The music, fashions, Vauxhalls with fins!!! instead of staid old Morris 8's and Austins in black, looking like sideboards on wheels. It all depends on when you were born as to how you view the past.

 

Steam on B.R. (British Railways or referred to as British Rail from about 1965 onwards) finished in August 1968 in the north west of England.

 

The Deltics or class 55s?. I rode on them several times when I was a secondman (fireman in steam days) at Kings Cross during the mid-1970s although personally speaking I use to like riding on the class 31s or Brush type 2s as they were originally known.

 

The canals have become to popular since the time the Flower of Gloster was originally shown on the telly back in 1967,

Edited February 17, 2017 by Flower of Gloster

[Laurie Booth]

As a record of the canals in the late 60s it's very interesting but as a TV programme I thought it was at times a bit weird. Kids TV made by an adult who seemed to know bugger all about kids. It certainly didn't make we wish I had been alive to see the 60s.

 

JP

 

Did anyone else notice the steam train?

I thought it was very accurate about how kids behaved. I still don't know why the boat was using petrol? And why did they use a bad cameraman?

Edited February 17, 2017 by Laurie.Booth

[mark99]

The only weird bit was the badger episode.

As for camerawork I think I'm too used to the modern shots which are formulaic and planned to nth detail.

 

Refreshing to see old skool.

Edited February 17, 2017 by mark99

[Captain Pegg]

I thought it was very accurate about how kids behaved. I still don't know why the boat was using petrol? And why did they use a bad cameraman?

I don't think the kids were acting as such. It was early reality TV for them. Mikey looked frequently bored and in a world of his own. Probably because he was.

 

I thought the themes and the narrative were very adult for what was a kids TV programme. I think another 10 years on it would have been quite different.

 

Oh yes! But steam was being usurped by diseasel. Shunters at first, then came Deltic.

 

The fifties were in some ways more stable, or so I thought at the time being a sprog kicking a ball around the park. But the sixties were my teenage years - and exciting! The music, fashions, Vauxhalls with fins!!! instead of staid old Morris 8's and Austins in black, looking like sideboards on wheels. It all depends on when you were born as to how you view the past.

That was my point in raising the question. That would have been filmed in 1966 or 1967 so close to the end of steam when there wasn't much around outside the North West. I believe the train was crossing Frodsham Viaduct. Does that fit with folks view of where the river scenes were filmed?

 

I have no doubt that views of the past are aligned to personal memories. I remember the 70s as being terrible but am nostalgic about the 80s which were my teen years. Many older folk probably think the 80s were terrible. To my kids it's ancient history before the days of personal entertainment. They simply can't imagine it.

 

JP

Edited February 17, 2017 by Captain Pegg

[Derek R.]

(snipped)

 

The Deltics or class 55s?.

(snipped)

 

Deltics! Imagine our amazement/shock/horror at seeing a Blue Deltic with yellow stripes hauling the Elizabethan where an A4 Pacific was the norm! I must have been 15yrs of age when they appeared. We would rush out of school and cycle up to Wood Green station just in time to see the full eci pulled off, and watch for the plume of steam/smoke from Hornsey, and listen for that fluted whistle of the Gresleys. Then all we got was a box hauling more boxes.

[Athy]

To be fair, there was only one blue Deltic with yellow stripes, the prototype - and it did look pretty exciting and powerful at the time, as if it had migrated from some exotic American railroad. I know I saw it, because it's underlined in my Ian Allan Combined Volume, but I can't recall where; Doncaster must be a possibility.

 

CORRECTION: a look at a photo shows that the stripes were white. Has it been preserved?

Edited February 17, 2017 by Athy

[Ray T]

To be fair, there was only one blue Deltic with yellow stripes, the prototype - and it did look pretty exciting and powerful at the time, as if it had migrated from some exotic American railroad. I know I saw it, because it's underlined in my Ian Allan Combined Volume, but I can't recall where; Doncaster must be a possibility.

 

CORRECTION: a look at a photo shows that the stripes were white. Has it been preserved?

 

Yes, first at The Science Museum, now at the NRM.

 

The stripes on the ends were known as "Speed whiskers."

 

Rosebud / Kitmaster used to do a plastic construction of it.

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by Ray T

[Athy]

I remember them being called "whisker stripes". Bug boxes (DMUs) had them too.

I do like your last photo; I have seen both those engines in action, and only a few years apart.

[David Schweizer]

To be fair, there was only one blue Deltic with yellow stripes, the prototype - and it did look pretty exciting and powerful at the time, as if it had migrated from some exotic American railroad. I know I saw it, because it's underlined in my Ian Allan Combined Volume, but I can't recall where; Doncaster must be a possibility.

 

CORRECTION: a look at a photo shows that the stripes were white. Has it been preserved?

 

Correct, and my Uncle Jack was one of the group of design engineers at English Electric who designed the Napier Deltic engines, which were installed into the the prototype blue and white Deltic loco.

[David Schweizer]

 

Yes, first at The Science Museum, now at the NRM.

 

The stripes on the ends were known as "Speed whiskers."

 

Rosebud / Kitmaster used to do a plastic construction of it.

 

 

 

 

Tjhe kit is still available for around £9.00. Now being made by Dapol who took over the Airfix kits production some years ago. It is also available as a ready to run model, both by Bachmann and Hornby, although neither seem to offer the prototype blue and white livery at the moment.

[Ray T]

 

I am led to believe the engine was called Deltic after the Greek letter D, Delta:

 

 

Craftsman do a conversion kit:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/236/entry-2460-deltic-prototypes-craftsman-kit-applied/

Edited February 17, 2017 by Ray T

[Ray T]

There was also the "Baby Deltic":

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_23

Edited February 17, 2017 by Ray T

[pete harrison]

Well I have just learned something as I have never seen the Greek alphabet before, although obviously I am aware of the few 'letters' that are in common use

[Ray T]

Hence, Alpha to Omega, "beginning and the end."

Edited February 17, 2017 by Ray T

[Derek R.]

 

Unmistakable sound.

[rasputin]

There was also the "Baby Deltic":

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_23

Looks v similar to the class 37s that wake me up every morning, which should also be in a museum

[Del 'boy' Trotter]

Deltics?. Yeah I rode on the a few times in traffic as a secondman at Kings Cross back in 1974-75.

 

"Good old days..."

Edited February 22, 2017 by Flower of Gloster

[jake_crew]

Just to haul us back on topic, I wonder if there was a Deltic called Flower of Gloster ?

[Athy]

Just to haul us back on topic, I wonder if there was a Deltic called Flower of Gloster ?

Now you have raised an interesting, if still irrelevant, point. I thought that the Deltics were na med after racehorses (apart from 'Deltic' itself, which was not a racehorse). But I have just looked in my Ian Allan Combine (1961) to check, and found that they didn't have names at all. Must be my memory playing tricks, unless perhaps they received names later in their lives.

[alan_fincher]

Now you have raised an interesting, if still irrelevant, point. I thought that the Deltics were na med after racehorses (apart from 'Deltic' itself, which was not a racehorse). But I have just looked in my Ian Allan Combine (1961) to check, and found that they didn't have names at all. Must be my memory playing tricks, unless perhaps they received names later in their lives.

Perhaps because at the time your volume was written they had not actually been fully built and/or named yet?

 

(they were introduced in 1961, and I guess an Ian Allen identified as 1961, might have been comiled early or even before the start of that year.

 

About half had race horse manes, the other half being named after largely Northern regiments.

 

Possibly the race horses were those initially allocated to Southern depots, and the regiments was those allocated to depots in the North, but taht's purely a guess, and may well be wrong.

 

EDIT:

 

It looks like the "regiments" didn't all get their name immediately.

 

FURTHER EDIT:

 

Google is your friend! Linky

Edited February 23, 2017 by alan_fincher

[Athy]

Perhaps because at the time your volume was written they had not actually been fully built and/or named yet?

 

(they were introduced in 1961, and I guess an Ian Allen identified as 1961, might have been comiled early or even before the start of that year.

.

 

 

Good point Alan, thanks. Indeed, a perusal of the book shows that it was correct to January 1961, and the diesels section specifically mentions that locomotives on order have been included.

.

 

About half had race horse manes

 

 

...and very handsome they looked too.

[Ray T]

Naming the some of the Deltics followed the LNER tradition of naming many of the A1 / A3's after race horses.

 

Initially most of the A4's were named after "birds swift of flight." The exception being the first 4 which had the word Silver in their name with the inauguration of the Silver Jubilee.  Many were changed in later years to directors names or that of "famous" people. i.e William Whitelaw and Dwight D Eisenhower.

 

There was of course the 100th pacific to be built in 1937, Sir Nigel Gresley, but at the time it was unusual for a person to be so honoured in their lifetime.

 

Edited February 23, 2017 by Ray T

[archie57]

8 hours ago, Athy said:

Good point Alan, thanks. Indeed, a perusal of the book shows that it was correct to January 1961, and the diesels section specifically mentions that locomotives on order have been included.

...and very handsome they looked too.

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I don't think you can compare those noisy, smelly boxes on wheels with Gresley's A1/2/3/4s.............!

[Derek R.]

No, can't remember anyone walking to the head of a train to smell diesel exhaust. Now hot steam oil and coal smoke, and feel the heat from the engine - yes.