Southern Electrics in EM 4mm Scale.
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My other interests (Past & Present)
All images by the Author unless otherwise credited.
This page will be everything but model railways but I can start it with a photo from the days, straight from school, when I did work for the real thing. It's 1960, on the steps of the control tower at the "New Inward" hump marshalling yard in Hull and I'm a fresh faced seventeen year old with my "ganger" of the day, the now late Laurie Fairbanks.
This page will be everything but model railways but I can start it with a photo from the days, straight from school, when I did work for the real thing. It's 1960, on the steps of the control tower at the "New Inward" hump marshalling yard in Hull and I'm a fresh faced seventeen year old with my "ganger" of the day, the now late Laurie Fairbanks.
Working on the railways gave me "priv" passes and with a good "push" bike, membership of the Youth Hostel Association, the result was access to far away places from Hull such as Plymouth, Exeter, Perth and Edinburgh.
But the ladies couldn't be courted on a bike and so in 1962 I got motorised and shortly afterwards I met the lady who was to become my wife. The chariot that helped in this was a 250cc Ariel Arrow. Valerie soon learnt the art of changing spark plugs as the Ariel's two stroke engine was notorious for plug oiling.
I took Val (with my parents!) on the Ariel to Scotland the year after we met.
But the ladies couldn't be courted on a bike and so in 1962 I got motorised and shortly afterwards I met the lady who was to become my wife. The chariot that helped in this was a 250cc Ariel Arrow. Valerie soon learnt the art of changing spark plugs as the Ariel's two stroke engine was notorious for plug oiling.
I took Val (with my parents!) on the Ariel to Scotland the year after we met.
Shortly after we were married in 1965 the Ariel was
traded in for something just a little bigger.
This was a 1952 Vincent, a series C
"Rapide". 998cc's of brute power. Pictured above one moonlit in
Bridlington. We liked riding on moonlit nights as the Vincent's lights
were not very good. (note the extra spotlight which was soon removed
because it flatten the battery) Val and I had many happy years as
members of the Vincent Owners Cluband
are in regular contact with section members to this day. This
machine lasted until 1968 in regular service but after the birth of our
first daughter Heidi that year (she has always requested no-one should
work out her age) it was relegated to the back of the garage by the
arrival of MHO 86, a 1954 850cc Morris Minor. As by then Minors had
been out of production for some eight or so years the question would be
"Why buy such a car?" The answer is easy, because it was cheap,
£10 cheap. Incidently when I sold it I got £15!. The only
photograph I
have of this car was taken on the day our youngest daughter Helen was
christened in 1972. The Vincent had been, by then, sold to provide a
deposit to buy the house in which we then and still live.
Although MHO 86's O.H.V. engine was
better than the first side valve models it still wasn't powerful enough
for a family of four and all their gear and so we bought a 948cc model.
EWA 788B was a 1962 model re-registered to 1964 and was alot better. So much so that Val started to learn to drive in it.
EWA 788B was a 1962 model re-registered to 1964 and was alot better. So much so that Val started to learn to drive in it.
"Daisy" as she was called was well known in the Morris Minor Owners Club because of her non standard coloured YELLOW wheels.
Daisy was eventually considered by us to be too expensive to repair and she was sold to a local young man, keen to get on in the preservation world, and with sufficient funds.
KAT 408E "Katy" was aquired. As a 1098cc model, she was much more able to cover longer distances without causing driver fatigue.
Daisy was eventually considered by us to be too expensive to repair and she was sold to a local young man, keen to get on in the preservation world, and with sufficient funds.
KAT 408E "Katy" was aquired. As a 1098cc model, she was much more able to cover longer distances without causing driver fatigue.
She is pictured here desending a very
steep narrow private track from a friend's cottage in Swaledale.
Currently this car still awaits a compete overall whilst her duties are
undertaken by a Fiat Punto.I am still a member (currently
Vice-Chairman) of our local branch , the "East Yorkshire" section.
In a moment of madness I allowed myself
to be volenteered to help restore a double deck bus. Not just any bus
but WAT 652, a 1957 A.E.C. Regent Mk. V. The very last one built with a
shaped top deck to pass under the Beverley Bar just north of Hull. Not
as many believed with a low body but a full height vehicle. I know
"Sputnik" is still on the road these days and I hope her present owners are having
as much fun as we did.
I had also not forgotten the joys of Vincent ownership and when my brother-in-law Brian offered me "first refusal" on his 1950 Series C, 498cc Comet I had to have it. Perhaps it was a hasty purchase because it was not the same as the Rapide. My only claim to fame was a reprimand from the organisors of a local rally for excessive speed. It was almost three figures but not quite!
under my own steam and this is where you came in.
I had also not forgotten the joys of Vincent ownership and when my brother-in-law Brian offered me "first refusal" on his 1950 Series C, 498cc Comet I had to have it. Perhaps it was a hasty purchase because it was not the same as the Rapide. My only claim to fame was a reprimand from the organisors of a local rally for excessive speed. It was almost three figures but not quite!
The Comet eventually went to finance the layout this website is for, a van to carry it in and a garage/workshop to house both of them. That van has allowed me to also follow a love that "Daisy" started when she took us to the South of France, that is foreign travel.
