TheSignalEngineer

My Dad did quite a lot of motor bike riding around India before Partition when he spent about two years as a sergeant in the Military Police attached to the Indian Army. HQ was at Secunderabad but he spent most of his time at Ranchi and Calcutta.

During a reorganisation I had a new boss imposed on me. I was based in Birmingham and he was in London. He was a right PITA. He sent out various instructions when he took over, one of which was to send copies of all letters issued from outbased offices. Along with a couple of other section heads we got together and took him at his word including sending copies of the delivery notes for drawings issued listing every sheet with version number and status. Some of these itemised hundred of sheets. At our next meeting in his office he asked why we were sending all this paper to him, there was a pile of it about a foot high on his desk. We referred him to his instruction, to which he said we were only to send what he needed to know, weekly progress reports, minutes of meetings and the like.

Pizzaingdown and a few rumbles. Walk was walked just as the first rumbles started over Kinder. Think I may take the opportunity to do the shopping, and if the precipitation persists some unmentionable pursuits may have to be undertaken.

When I did HNC the man who taught me about radio and wave transmission systems had worked on radar development in WW2. One of his 'War Stories' was not telling the RAF everything they knew about German radar as they didn't want them to destroy it. They had guys on the ground trying to get information and nick bits of it intact. In addition they didn't want the Germans to retaliate by dropping loads of HE on our stuff. They just told them the best ways to try to avoid getting spotted too early by it. He also told us how police speed guns were using a Doppler radar system to measure speeds. In the lab he got us to produce a toy for telling whether an object was moving towards or away from you. He then drew up on the board a theoretical layout for a device to measure incoming frequency then set it to confuse the machine into thinking you were doing anything from going away to approaching at supersonic speed. Another teacher who did control engineering had previously been responsible for setting up machines which took in large lumps of hot steel and spat out RSJs, rods, tubes and other sections. My school chemistry teacher had been a lab tech for ICI before taking up teaching, and the games teacher was an England RU international forward. One of the languages masters who was an officer in our cadet force had been an interrogator working for SHAEF and had been involved at the Nuremberg trials.

Just waiting for the five o'clock pitch inspection to see if the grandsons have cricket tonight. It appears that bad behaviour has gone down the food chain in the game. It seems that the team that beat them by two runs in the the last match of the group stage of their U11 competition has been complained about by the team they beat in the playoff semi final. The boys have been asked if they are available to play on the day of the final so I await more news of what dark deeds they got up to.

I remember a shop near to Birmingham Snow Hill station where you could get shoes made to actually fit your feet. Never could afford to go there though. I used to listen to AFN on a valve portable (more like transportable as it had a 90v battery). I saw him as Buttons in panto I think in 1952/3 season in Birmingham. Avoided ever after. I think it may have been a trial run for the Palladium which was owned by the same people. Bygraves played the same part there the next year as did the woman playing Prince Charming, but Cinders was replaced by Julie Andrews for the London run.

I didn't think Andover was functioning yet after the fire, which was caused by a battery charging fault on a robot. Last robot incident was at Erith.

The outfield was over-watered and slow. We've had hardly any rain in weeks but some of the bowlers were using towels to dry the ball. The wicket was dire. It was the same one used for England - Pakistan last Tuesday, specially prepared for Adil Rashid to bowl on. It was already dusting up during that game. It was then used for the women's match this afternoon. The groundstaff couldn't wait to rush onto the pitch with hoses as soon as the winning shot crossed the boundary. The were flooding the square before the players had left the field. Probably trying to destroy the evidence. Had it been a county championship match the Lords Pitch Inspector would have been there for a look at it tomorrow.

I didn't realise that Network Rail were playing at Old Trafford today.

My Grandfather joined the LNWR when he left the army in 1919. He should have retired in 1963 but his Lineman's district was due to disappear just over 2 years later with the West Coast electrification. Preparatory work for New Street reconstruction was just getting underway and staff were already being brought in on loan from around the region to cover gaps. There used to be some sort of agreement, not sure if it was ever written down, about having a short gap then coming back as a labourer grade and doing the old job on a temporary basis until it was filled permanently but mostly it was ignored. He took his annual leave for what was the last two weeks of his normal employment. When his train arrived back at New Street on the Friday the S&T Inspector was waiting for him to ask if he could come out on Saturday evening to do some disconnections for a relaying job at Proof House. My Grandmother apparently turned away and the inspector said "I will send a taxi at 9pm." When his district finally disappeared the Chief Installer on the mechanical gang had been hurt in a road accident and had been put on depot duties so he was asked to continue covering that job for the main track alterations in preparation for Saltley PSB. He continued until the Midland side of that work was finished and the area was transferred to Tyseley depot before he retired at 70 after 48 years and 10 months.

Good to hear you are out. Looking forward to you being fit enough to give us the benefit of you knowledge on things GW again, but stay away from Iron Minks for a while.

It's a Trade Mark rather than a crest. Registration is in the name of the Secretary of State for Transport I believe.

That conjours up memories of a long distance charity walk which used to pass our house in the late 1980s. It was round the Birmingham Outer Circle bus route which is approximately the length of a marathon. There were checkpoints at about three mile intervals where you got your card stamped. There were free buses for participants but they only went the opposite way round the route to prevent cheating. Besides some householders providing goodies, getting your card stamped entitled you to refreshments provided by local firms duch as Typhoo Tea and Cadburys. I actually did the full route on foot twice.

My Mom likewise. Then she found that Anne's mother was brought up in the next courtyard to her. She knew Anne's grandparents, remembered her mother's wedding, great grandmother's funeral and she used to play with her aunt. Small world.

Nah! They would have one the right way round.

Who put the screen on the wrong way round? They did at least get both sides the same. Chathill, Northumberland, 05/06/2021

And at the New Bilton works there appears to be one in Rugby Cement livery in the late 1920s.

Hope they are on best behaviour. Kerfuffle over the U13 match this week seems to have died down. After a couple of days reflection the boys have got round to thinking they had a decent season. In the 'County' competition the 'A' team won their area group then were runners up in the top group of the second phase out of a total of 23 entries. They won 10 matches out of 12 and were the only team to beat the eventual champions. They are a small village team, everyone living within about three miles of the ground. The two teams they lost to come from millionaire country with four times the number of players available and umlimited money. They have a series of friendlies now to start building for next year as players move up in the age groups. The grandsons' U11 team were ranked 1 in their area winning 10 from 11 in the that competition. Main cricket task now is to try to understand what this Hundred is about. I watched the first match and all I decided was it's just a way of trying to get more TV money. Got a live match soon, our resident Statto will be there to tell us what is going on.

I'm feeling rather left out in this app business. Yes I can run the app, it's been working on my phone for at least two months now. I've been in several of what would be considered high risk areas on public transport, hospital and a large sporting event but still haven't managed to get pinged.

Continuing the cement theme there is an aerial shot of the Southam works on the Leamington to Weedon line (ex-LNWR) from 1932 with at least two iron minks or clones present. It's not possible to see any ownership on them.

Another one. At Five Ways heading for Central Goods or Granville Street from Church Road. This was after the APCM takeover. Greaves had a depot at Worcester Wharf, Birmingham. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrf23.htm This PO one is at Stratford on Avon in 1934. The number on the end doesn't match the Greaves list, but it appears that their wagons were renumbered after the takeovers. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrsa499a.htm An APCM van in Ferrocrete livery. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/misc_hcw174.htm

The picture also answers the earlier question about them being seen on other lines. The GW Iron Mink is on an LMS freight on the Rugby to Coventry via Leamington line, ex-LNWR. .

The other information on the site would infer that they were built between 1891 and 1906. There were just over 30 with the first 20 from Metropolitan and the rest from Birmingham. This page shows one in Greaves livery which would have been applied pre-1927. https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrlave4062b.htm

The Blue Circle / Ferrocrete versions would be interesting. At least two versions were in regular traffic use from Greaves Siding at Harbury at least as late as 1953 https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrhj2260.htm.

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/internal06xxxxwr/h150e0b0d