PhilJ W

There's not much to see of the line to Walton because it was never finished! (from the Manningtree-Harwich line that is.) Some bits of the original line to Harwich are still visible where it was diverted to serve Parkstone Quay.

The biggest problem in flour mills and granary's is dust. This could be very dangerous and has been known to explode! hence the dust extractor.

The mystery structure is a hopper of some kind with what looks like a dust extractor on top of it. Some of the buildings at Mistley were maltings or mills and the port was originally primarily used for the shipping of grain products as well as grain itself it is probably something to do with that. What was the original purpose of the building connected with it? If that could be identified it perhaps would explain the purpose of the structure.

It's NPCS, None Passenger Coaching Stock.

One traffic that was lost to the roads. A combination of Motorway construction and the advent of faster and more sophisticated road horse boxes.

I hope they do those converted for engineers use as well, such as mess vans.

AEC and Thorneycroft both up until the mid 60's did not provide there own cabs. The decorative trim is typical of Park Royal coaches, they also provided cabs for AEC.

The registration was issued in 1958. The van was already 10 years old. It would be one of the last J types made.

It was the same situation in Romford, it was the staging point between London and Chelmsford/Colchester. About 40 years ago I was invited to view the cellars of one of the pubs in Romford (The Woolpack), the pub itself was mid Victorian but the cellars were far far older, dating back to the 13th century it had been estimated. The headroom was only about 5 feet and the walls were blocks of chalk!

I was born in Romford and I remember when almost every other building in the market place was a pub. There is only about one or two remaining now.

IIRC even one or two of the Scammel mechanical horses received yellow livery.

The Townsman is attached to a lot older trailer, possibly pre-war. Scammel ceased using that style of wheel about 1946.

The bonnet looks longer and wider than the BMC. An easy conversion of the Trackside noddy van perhaps?

The Bedford 'flying pig' was a version of the BRS 'noddy van' but on a Bedford chassis instead of a BMC chassis.

Wasn't wood chip moved by rail? You could have a rail connected chipboard factory, hoppers inwards for the raw material and vans outward for the finished product.

There was a drawing of one of the Harton English-Electric OHE Bo-Bo's in the RM a few years back. Does anyone know which edition?

WD47877 is described on the Vintage Carriages Trust website as LNWR. It was usual for the military to use ex main line stock adapted for their own purposes. Here is the VCT entry. http://www.ws.vintag...fo.asp?Ref=6939

I'm not sure about the first one but the second van is LNWR. This like many other such vehicles lost their original identities whilst in military service. The two RNAD vans are ammunition vans specially built for the Royal Navy in 1913, these would have been 'internal user'.

The next one is going to be in BR maroon livery so it may be a bit of a wait for the carmine and cream version.

Corgi have one in BR carmine and cream in the pipeline, so no need to repaint.

I tried it again and it worked OK, perhaps a temporary problem with the site?

It shows that fork lifts have been around a lot longer than we think. I noticed in one of the trailer photos that the goods were on wooden pallets.

There appears to be a problem with the link, it will not load. It might be something to do with there being no www. in there and a superfluous --?

I have heard that this is the case in France. However the compensation is extremely generous and probably cheaper in the long run as there is no need for long and expensive delays and inquiries. The main objections here would come from the lawyers as it would deprive them of a lot of fees.

The different names used by Ford for their products is indeed confusing. The name Fordson came into use from 1933 for Ford's Dagenham made trucks but may have been used prior to that date for tractors. The Thames name was used from 1938 for the light vans up to about 20 cwt. The confusion arises because all commercials were then marketed under the Fordson-Thames banner. The Fordson name was dropped for the heavier commercials in 1950 when all commercials became Thames but the Tractors remained as Fordson. The Thames name continued until the introduction of the 'D' series when the only name for all products became Ford.