Nothing so simple! His family had moved to Bristol by 1911, though he was probably still at school somewhere else. He was called up in 1918, and sent to France in August - but only for a month. He was back in 1919 (more likely in Germany garrisoning the Rhineland) and demobbed in early 1920.
Just to pick up on this. Yes you are correct it’s the mail pick up gear that collects the bags from the line side without the train stopping. As per the famous film Night Mail. System in use until c1970 in uk iirc. The pick up gear needs to be on the correct side so the train has to be the ‘right way round’ if that makes sense.
I did see an example of the mail pick up working on the great series 'How The Railways Transformed Britain'. I heard somewhere that some unfortunate guards or firemen were almost (or were) decapitated by the gear when they stuck their head out of the cabin at the wrong time during night travels. Was that true or an urban myth?
I’ve never heard that which isn’t to say it never happened.
Surprising it needed turning on the triangle, as it was common to marshal two postal vehicles together oriented opposite ways, so there was the apparatus on the cess side whichever direction it was running. One vehicle did the pickup, the other used for sorting. It was unpopular to use the vehicle with active nets on that trip for sorting letters, due to the huge draft that blew through when the doors to the apparatus were opened.
Thanks. Does that arrangement (sounds logical) ensure the pick up gear faces the correct direction always? Ie back of the net at the rear.
Yes i do stand corrected it certainly is Bath Green Park i inadvertently stated Bath Road SORRY By the appearance of me bottom right i was very young there and would think i had just been moved into what was called the Tanky Link which worked Passenger Service Temple Meads to B.G.Park and Temple Meads to Portishead Single Line which was quite frightening along side the River Avon and under the small Tunnels under the Suspension Bridge
Hello Nobby. Thank you for your response. I have sent you a PM. For the wider audience I am now thinking which Hymek is pictured in the OP's four photos. There was a video clip posted up thread showing what was said to be the last passenger run between Bristol TM and Bath GP and return? If I saw that correctly, that turn was worked by D7000 no less, although I think there were still quite a few '35's in service at that time, and as I mentioned somewhere up thread there were perhaps North of half a dozen that were noted (by enthusiasts presumably?) running in to Bath from the Mangotsfield direction in those last few years.
Whether a decapitation ever happened I don't know, but there was certainly a risk of serious injury. A. Walnutt-Read in the Xpress Publishing book Plymouth-Penzance "District Controller's View" states:
. Shown here:I think "Night Mail" has some footage of the apparatus in action.My understanding was that the lineside apparatus armed with mailbags was clear of the loading gauge. It was the net on the TPO carriage which was swung out of gauge to do the pick up.
As replicated on the Hornby model version, those of us who had one, long ago
It does. Clips of it in the great video link from @Taunton which is well worth a watch.
Bath Green Park Hymeck
Hi Nobby. Excellent images, always good to see hitherto unknown pictures. D7048 is sitting at the dummy controlling the exit from The Long Siding, just the spot where I believe the original portraits were taken in the (other end) cab. Not saying D7048 is the loco concerned with those original pics of course, as I suspect, aside from the mix of colour and black/white photos, the Long siding, being the least used of the roads within station limits in those last years, was just a convenient place for locos on long turn rounds to sit between workings perhaps?
Separate topic but did this work include the two 41xx locos, 4103 and 4131, which were daily regulars on the coal trains up the Radstock line for years well into the 1960s - used to visit house which backed onto the line, two daily services by this pair passed each weekday at about 0800 and 0830, returning later. Heading up towards Whitchurch in the morning always heard them coming - must have been quite a climb. Returning later with full loads from the collieries, ran entirely by gravity, and noiseless.
