REMINISCENCES PART1

[Grandad]

Reminiscences Part 1
Horus's thread about Smallwood Steam Rally set me thinking about my own recollections of steam power and IC engines in my early years. SO, on a quiet and rather unpleasant and windy Saturday afternoon, I thought I would relate some reminiscences that were prompted by Smallwood Steam Rally.

I have two paper back books of a very localised area of the city. They were written and compiled by two local people, you might call them local historians. The books contain a wide selection of photographs from local newspapers and from individual people. I will however credit the authors, Paul Tritton and Derek Butler for the pictures, some of which I have copied here.
The pictures are all black and white and generally of poor quality which didn't reproduce well on the plain uncoated paper of the books.

In 1830 the first ever true passenger railway service started from Canterbury to Whitstable. The locomotive was called Invicta, built at Stephensons works in Newcastle upon Tyne. After fewer than ten years service Invicta was retired and until this day remains a museum exhibit. She has gone through several restorations and after a restoration in 1906 she was sited on a base just outside the city wall. My personal interest is that my grandfather and his team were responsible for preparing the site and installing sleepers and track.

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The original track gauge from the very start of steam railways was 4 foot 81/2 Inches, a gauge that exists to this day...

In January 1950 I started work, at 15 years and 3 weeks old, with a local company whose main trade was building and roadmaking aggregates. Before WWII they had established a general engineering company. During the war years I lived just across the road from the companies depot and works. The engineering workshop was given over to making parts for the war effort. Many women were employed and a young lady 'lodged' with us for a period while she worked in the factory. So, by 1950 the company had reverted to its general engineering activities which, apart from servicing the needs of local companies, also included work on aero components.


These two photos date from 1950 so I might well have been in the works at that time. The old boy in the larger picture was Bert Andrews operating his Landis crankshaft grinding machine. Horus, I know your keen eye will spot the counter shafting driving most machines. Power was provided by two Blackstone diesel engines that were started with a cartridge. All looks pretty ancient but by 1952 they had constructed a climate controlled room within the works to house a Newall jig borer.

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Long before my time with the company, their haulage business used steam driven tractors. This was 1930 with their fleet of 5 ton Fodens.

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I mentioned in Horus's thread that I remember steam lorries from a mill in the city. I found this picture, probably around 1940, of one of the steam lorries.

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I have said in the past that I have many memories of WWII and the years following. I won't bore you too much and just follow this with a short Part 2.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Bore away - I find it all interesting (although I can't admit to knowing much about the machinery).

What amazes me the most is how rapidly we've grown and changed. You're talking 1940ies into the 1950ies and in a mere 70 years look at where we are now...….

All interesting to me

[Kiya]

Grandad , Not boring at all but very interesting with the photos too

[Horus]

Very interesting Grandad and as I served my own apprenticeship in Crewe Locomotive Works (as did Mr Foden the lorry builder) I can well remember the counter shaft drives as we had them in virtually in all of our workshops of which there were many. They were fast becoming obsolete as mainly more modern machinery was in use during my time, but the shafts were never removed and some machines peculiar to making and repairing steam locomotives were still in use. It is still a mystery as to why Stevenson chose the 4”-81/2” gauge for his locomotives and many theories abound, the most common being it was the average distance of horse drawn cart wheels. Interestingly enough it is the centre distance of cart tracks found worn into the approach to the Roman fort of Halsteads in Cumbria, so maybe the Romans are responsible for our railway gauge. Just a pity that we had not adopted Brunel's seven-foot gauge as used on the Great Western Railway as a standard, had we done so we could have had more comfortable carriage widths today.