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Going underground through the Wheal Mexico tin mine, part of the Geevor Mine Museum complex. It is thought this section dates from the 18th or early 19th century and as such was dug mostly by hand apart from one harder section of rock where explosives have been used. "Wheal" means "place of work" in Cornish but no-one knows why the word "Mexico" was used.
The tunnel is quite low. I gave my helmet a good whack at least four times!
Wednesday's routing out of Heathrow Airport provided a good view of the royal residence, Windsor Castle. According to WikiWhoKnowsAlmostEverything, Queen Elizabeth has increasingly used the castle as a royal palace as well as her weekend home. It is now as often used for state banquets and official entertaining as Buckingham Palace. It is also a major tourist attraction.
The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I (1068 – 1135) it has been used by the reigning monarch of the day and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. From left to right in the photo, you can see the Lower Ward; the Middle Ward and Round Tower; the Upper Ward and the Long Walk in the lower right hand corner. The River Thames is in the upper part of the photo.
(Catching up this week on some road trip photos from the USA)
These two buildings are in a back road, one-horse settlement, name of Carter, Wyoming, population 10 in the 2010 census. However, just behind where I am standing, there is still a very active freight railroad (but with abandoned sidings), which gives the clue as to why Carter existed in the first place. The story goes that in approx 1868 one of the principal railroad locating engineers couldn't obtain a quart of whiskey over what was then the Utah state line on Sunday. So therefore he moved the rail route to pass nine miles to the north in Wyoming, resulting in the establishment of Carter Station at the junction of the east-west Union Pacific Railroad and the new road built from Fort Bridger to the north. A telegraph line was also built to connect the Fort with the Union Pacific Railroad, as it was that fort providing protection to the workers.
The timber building was the Carter Hotel. I don't know anything about the building with the false-frontage flag.
Another old building in Trowbridge features as this week's Saturday Timewatch. It is so named because there are no windows.
Dating from circa 1758, it was used as a lock-up for almost a century until the town had an official police station. One use was for locking up drunks until they sobered up.
However, there was clearly more to it than that. During a riot in 1826, the roof was ripped off and the prisoners released. The date is significant as the year saw major labour unrest in many Lancashire mill towns known as The Weavers' Uprising. Remember that Trowbridge's economy of the time was based on wool and weaving. I suspect the two events were connected.
This week's "Saturday Timewatch" goes back to 1954. Apart from showing a classic page from an original "Ladybird Senior" book, the following is just so evocative of the time -
"(Blue Tits) are also very fond of pecking off the caps of milk-bottles when left on the doorstep in the morning"
The way around this was to have a box outside the front door. Having collected the empties for re-use, the milkman put the glass milk-bottles inside and put the lid back on!
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back around 80 years to the 4-8-8-2 cab forward steam locomotives purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad. 4151 is illustrated here as part of the Union Pacific Exhibition car. Similar earlier classes and a later version were also built, as well as the AC-7 illustrated above. However, all were designed with a cab forward configuration so that the engine crew were ahead of the steam exhaust through the miles of tunnels and snow sheds that were found across the steep mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada. It is over and through that terrain for which these hugely powerful locomotives were primarily designed.
The final survivor of the class, 4172, was scrapped in 1959.
Although franchises have now spread to states other than TX, Shipley Donuts is a Houston institution going back almost 80 years, firstly as a wholesale and then retail operation. Luckily this outlet, always regarded as the best in town, is just up the road on Ella. It has been there since the late 50's or early 60's and as far as I can see has changed little since then. Queues for the drive-thru window regularly block the adjacent junction whilst foot traffic often queues outside the door. What do I have? ALWAYS, hot glazed donuts straight out of the fryer.
A quirk. This is the only branch named "Shipley's" with an apostrophe. All others are "Shipley".
Escapades and photos posted by flickr friends often contain a back story. So it is here. A winter ticket to Texas was purchased way back around Easter before we even knew that Union Pacific No. 4104 was finally making a return to operations in May. We agreed then that if 'Big Boy' ever came south from home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, we'd be travelling to see it.
Then came news of a nationwide tour on UP rails! However, the schedule was only published as far as September out west and the south west. Would 4014 then head east and more importantly, make sufficiently slow progress so that we too would be in Texas?
To cut a long story sideways, it was only weeks before that it became clear we would arrive in Houston on the very same day, November 6th! The schedule showed a one-day static display on the 7th at Houston's Amtrak station, with departure the following morning to start heading back north towards Cheyenne.
So on the very first morning back in the Lone Star State, it was straight down to H-Town's station for the time-limited open day. Predictably the conditions were nothing short of monsoon like. Nevertheless thousands turned out, photography was nigh on impossible and where the locomotive was parked meant you could not get any full side-on view.
Nevertheless, returning home like drowned rats, knickers soaking wet; shoes sodden; everything wet, wet, wet, we agreed it was still wonderful.
The photo above gives a hint of the deluge, outlined against the darkness of the cab. The photo below show the sheer size of the wheels. The second subsidiary photo, taken leaning over the fence, catches the fire and something of the length of the train.
Tomorrow, there'll be information about the locomotive and photos giving much better views of 4014 out on the tracks as we chased the train!
Part of the wider Merchant's Railway on the Isle of Portland, the diagonal track plunging down the hill is the Freeman's incline, aka Merchant's incline. Opened in 1826, the purpose was to transport Portland stone from various quarries to what is now known as Portland Harbour.
The system was apparently rather more complicated than the following single sentence suggests. However, the gist of how the incline operated was based on the concept of counterbalance, in which a heavily loaded wagon of stone, once descending, would be counterbalanced by a sufficient number of empty wagons ascending.
The railway finally closed in October 1939.
From this vantage point, it is just possible to make out a little of Weymouth to the top right of the photo. A section of Portland Harbour can be seen. The buildings on the hill on the far side of the harbour are in Wyke Regis. The shingle bank, with a lagoon on the landward side is Chesil Beach, 18 miles / 29 kilometres long, leading towards West Bay, Charmouth and Lyme Regis.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features the first in an occasional series about aviation history in Dorset. They will all be taken from the excellent Rodney Legg book "Dorset Flight : The Complete History". I will of course be removing this and any other images should anyone moan about copyright. However, I think the photos deserve a wider showing.
Here is the moment when for the first time in Britain, in Portland Harbour, an aircraft takes off from a moving ship. Lieutenant Charles Rumney Samson was flying a Short Improved S.27 from a ramp fitted to the battleship HMS Hibernia. Four months earlier, using the same aircraft and ramp he had successfully taken off from HMS Africa, a battleship moored in the River Medway.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a locomotive with quite a varied life. The photo above shows TKh 5387 going across an unmanned crossing at Vierves-sur-Viroi, Belgium, hauling the afternoon passenger service from Mariembourg to Treignes on the heritage Chemin de fer a vapeur des 3 vavallees (Three Valleys Steam Railway).
There are many details of her life that I cannot answer. However, the 0-6-0T locomotive was built in Poland in 1959, destined for work at the Cementownia Saturn (Saturn Cement Plant) Wojkowice, Poland. I do not know when that work came to an end. At some stage she then found herself in England, being a resident at the Northampton and Lamport Railway, though whether this was directly from Poland or via a stint in Belgium again I do not know. What is clear is that in more recent years she has been based at Maldegem Stoomcentrum, Belgium, but is now to loan to Three Valleys Steam Railway.
Two asides :
# 1 The volunteer on the footplate had just got back on board having used a 'flag' to ensure a safe crossing of the road.
#2 A close relative TKh 2944 (built earlier in 1952) currently runs at Churnet Valley Railway, Staffordshire.
(...translates as Public Holiday for those who live offshore)
Today, the tradition of a wet Bank Holiday Monday continued. It has chucked it down all day. So here is a celebration of one of the very few interesting shops in Weymouth "Rude Not To".
Who remembers Mods and Rockers and their traditional Bank Holiday Monday punch-ups at the seaside resorts? For those who live abroad, the rockers (motorcycles) and mods (scooters) created the moral panic of the day in the red-top press. As always the youth sub-cultures of the day were demonised and most teens were supposed to belong to one or the other. That was rubbish.
Personally, I was never a 'rocker' even though I bought a motorcycle to be able to drive 30 miles to/from an early job. Likewise, even though I was heavily into soul and Jamaican sounds, I was never a mod! It was all great fun though. So it is a delight to have such a retro clothes shop in town. I never go in. However, I do like to loiter outside listening to the music emanating from within.
Representing the rockers, Gene Vincent has featured here before flic.kr/p/9mnLvc
So here is a classic tune representing the mods and yes, I do have the Island Records 45rpm : )
bithbox # 218
"What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"
Following on from flic.kr/p/2rbqgsN this display indicated the typical sailor's diet in the time of the Mary Rose during first half of the 16th century. Remember that beer was a much safer drink than water in those days!
Inspired by Chris Firth's recent mention of Barmouth swing bridge, a delve into the vaults found this photo taken on my first ever digital camera. It has been somewhat reworked from a previous post. As can be seen from the photo below it features 76079 running one of the regular Cambrian Coast summer steam specials that the West Coast Railway Company operated between 2006-2009. The photos were taken on a foul morning from Tonfanau Station, part way up the bank from Tywyn towards Friog cliffs from where the line then drops down to the Mawddach Estuary and the Barmouth swing bridge.
Built in 1957, this 2-6-0 mostly worked freight duties, including some North Wales coal trains along the Chester to Holyhead line. However, as far as I know it was never seen on the Cambrian Coast line. The locomotive remains operational at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway where she is certified for mainline working to Whitby.
At the height of the summer holiday season, this photo from 1959 seems appropriate for this week's Saturday Timewatch.
The original photo is in the Dorset History Centre. It shows holiday makers at the Allandale Guest House, Weymouth in 1959. The town's esplanade remains lined with hotels, bed and breakfast establishments and guest houses. In fact, Allandale Guest House is still a going concern.
EDIT : Oops. Different guest house. The one on the seafront is the ALENDALE. I hadn't noticed the difference in spelling. The one above has either been rebuilt or refurbished and looks like apartments.
The fossil record shows that American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) has been around for at least 8 million years. Some suggest much longer as the family of alligators seems to have evolved quite slowly. The fossil record shows many quite similar species going back at least 100 million years.
They are reasonably common in Texas. This individual was photographed at Sheldon Lake State Park, some 17 miles east of downtown Houston.
This week's Saturday Timewatch visits the cockpit of a Lockheed C-60A delivered to the USAAF Dec 22 1942. As N31G is still airworthy I tried to persuade the powers-that-be to let me take her up. They didn't seem too keen............
Bithbox # 153
"Hans Zimmer & Alan Walker "Time" (official remix)
Have current generations ever been more aware of 'time' during this last year? This is my contribution to the (approximately) one year anniversary of the C-19 pandemic. Below are a selection of personal timeline dates from February and March 2020.
February 15th 2020 : eBay order placed for face masks.
March 2rd 2020 : Haircut,
March 5th 2020 : Decision taken not to attend the indoor annual Butterfly Conservation meeting as first Dorset cases have already been confirmed.
March 6th 2020 : Doctor's appointment.
March 11th 2020 : "Global pandemic" officially announced.
March 13th 2020 : Throw tickets in the bin for Phil Beer concert at Bridport.
March 14th 2020 : America closes the border to UK (and other) citizens : UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office issues travel notice effectively stopping UK citizen travel to the USA.
March 15th 2020 : Houston flights scheduled for 18th March are cancelled.
March 22nd 2020 : Last day trip visit to north Dorset countryside before Lockdown 1.0.
March 23rd 2020 : Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces full lockdown.
March 30th 2020 : First supermarket Home Delivery order arrives.
...and the rest, as they say, becomes 'history'
BITHBOX # 078
Midnight, August 14th 2017, is the 50th anniversary of the UK Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 becoming law. Whilst other offshore stations succumbed, Caroline famously continued broadcasting...
...and still broadcasts today, a remarkable achievement! You can listen to their live anniversary programming via this link. Some, if not all, is coming from their final vessel, MV Ross Revenge, currently moored along the River Blackwater.
www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html
Jimmy McGriff's evocative track has been chosen partly for its title; partly because other tracks intimately associated with Caroline have already featured on this flickr stream and partly because I remember it from Radio Caroline North anchored off Ramsey, Isle of Man. For a time, Caroline North used to close down during the evening hours, but re-open broadcasting from midnight until 2 a.m. then closing down again with 'Round Midnight.
The photo above features the MV Caroline, Radio Caroline North's ship. It is on the front cover of my Radio Caroline Club booklet, sent to you along with other goodies when you joined.
Note : The photo of the booklet was taken today. However, for old times' sake, I've put the geotag at the approximate location from where Caroline North broadcast during the mid-sixties.
It should sharpen the garden spade and shears nicely.
Apparently the company still carries on under another name in what is now the Czech Republic. I can find little information about this particular product. However, on the internet I've seen a very similar item made in America dated to the 1930's.
It is 42 years since Star Wars first came out. Not being much of a film fan, I only ever saw the original of the whole saga in a cinema. However, I have never forgotten the event as it was the first and only time I've ever known applause to break out in a cinema at the end of the film.
Fast forward to 2019 and who would have expected such an interesting United special livery to promote the latest episode "Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker" The United aircraft is a B737 (N36272) and is photographed here on departure from Houston to San Francisco. The details are more visible on large size.
I'm sure it must have happened before but the inside of the aircraft is also themed and can be seen in this link that also explains some of the details of the livery www.insider.com/photos-inside-united-airlines-star-wars-b...
Thanks to Kim for making the diptych!
As a nipper in the mid 20th century, unlike quite a few around this neck of the flickr woods, I never did go bunking engine sheds or locomotive works. Perversely, living just about as far as you can get from the sea in England, I was simply far more interested in ships!
For those out of Britain, 'shed bashing' was undertaken by rail enthusiasts who either officially or unofficially visited the numerous engine sheds to see what was in there. Happy days!
This is the scene inside one of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway sheds. There was no interpretation board or anyone around to ask so I don't know the identity of the steam locomotive being rebuilt in this photo.
A most unexpected item for this week's Saturday Timewatch. I came across this poster yesterday. It is displayed at Staverton Station on the South Devon Railway, a heritage railway that runs from Buckfastleigh to Totnes. Previously I had no idea GWR ever operated an airline!
For overseas readers, GWR stands for Great Western Railway, a name that is still in use today. Their own website has this to say about a short-lived foray into air transport.
"The GWR formed its own air service in 1933 but operated independently for only a year before the Railway Air Service was formed by the Big Four railway companies (including GWR) in collaboration with Imperial Airways to provide internal services to connect with Imperial’s international flights. One of the most important routes was Cardiff to Plymouth and Cardiff to Liverpool and Birmingham. The RAS was absorbed into the nationalised company British European Airways in 1947"
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings are featuring here during November, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
This is the third of the series to be posted and the most recognisable location today. His painting shows the tiny 'harbour' at Osmington Mills with a protective outcrop of cliff and a natural barrier of rocks out to sea. The Isle of Portland is in the distance. You can see the modern view below.
Southern Pacific Railroad advertising poster, circa 1950.
Interesting to note that some 67 years later, Amtrak's service on the same route takes 44 hours 35 minutes.
This weekend's gala at Swanage Railway features no less than FIVE Bulleid locomotives to mark 2017 as the 50th Anniversary of the final operation of steam hauled services on the Southern Region of British Railways.
In the above photo, Battle of Britain Class 34081 92 Squadron is about to depart Swanage Station with another nearly full load of passengers. She is named after the famous Spitfire squadron based at various airfields but most revered for their operations from Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Entering service from Brighton works in 1948, her mainline career ended when she was withdrawn from Eastleigh shed in 1964. Finally restored, she spent 10 years on the heritage circuit from 1998-2008. After major work she has just re-entered service for a third time earlier this year, now wearing the British Railways malachite-and-sunshine livery.
In the background, Battle of Britain Class 34053 Sir Keith Park awaits her turn.
Why "Bullied"?? Southern Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid designed SR's West Country and Battle of Britain classes, collectively known as 4-6-2 Light Pacifics or informally as Spam Cans.
This photo shows the station staff who worked at Sturminster Newton station on the old Somerset & Dorset line. The original image features on an interpretation board where the station used to be. I don't know the name of the photographer or the exact date. However, from the board I do know that the gentleman in the middle of the front row (with the dog) was William Henry Owen, Station Master there for 41 years until his retirement in 1921.
I'd put money on that most of my UK contacts will have owned at least one Observer's Book in their childhood, often given to them as a Xmas or birthday present. First published in 1937, the last, numbered 100 in the series, came out in 2003 entitled "Wayside and woodland".
I don't know if there were similar publications in other countries?
One for the aircraft fans that frequent my stream. You know who you are! As you know I'm not a fan of planes on poles, much preferring them either in the air or undercover in a hangar museum so they are not rusting away. However, this was an unexpected "discovery" at Texas City. So this week's Saturday Timewatch goes back a century.
The historical claim by Texas City, though open to different interpretations, has some validity. Previously the U.S. Signal Corps possessed a small number of balloons and a dirigible. They also tested an airplane at Fort Myer, Va. in Aug 1908. Within a month, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, flying with Orville Wright, was killed when the plane crashed thus becoming the first military aviation casualty. After more testing with an improved Wright Flyer, the U.S. Army Signal Corps formally accepted this airplane, identified as "Airplane No. 1," on Aug. 2, 1909. By October 1912 they had 9 active aircraft.
This is where the story moves to Texas City. The 2nd Division of the United States Army deployed from Augusta, Georgia to Texas City in 1913 to guard the Gulf Coast from incursions during the Mexican Revolution. Nearly half of the nation's land military personnel set up camp! This was due to the perceived double threat that the Mexican Revolution might spill over across the border or that the neighboring country might become a German ally in the incipient World War. It was from within their ranks that the 1st Aero Division was formed, the Wright brothers trained over a dozen soldiers as military pilots. It is this official formation of an airborne unit upon which Texas City claims its place as "the birthplace of the U.S. Air Force".
However, it wasn't until 1947 that the U.S Air Force became a separate military service.
The fully loaded steam powered coal barge “Minx” broke her moorings one night during November 1927. She drifted unnoticed without her crew through Portland Harbour and across Weymouth Bay, finally coming to rest on Frenchman’s Ledge where she was wrecked. The following morning apparently produced frantic activity from the locals, as the Minx’s cargo of coal started to wash ashore.
Taken during a very low spring tide, this photo shows her remains towards the bottom left corner of the photo. The Isle of Portland is in the distance.
Sometimes it takes an expert's eye to highlight what is around you. That was the case here.
We had walked along this length of pedestrian pavement on several occasions but had never noticed the unusual make-up of the stone wall. Whilst on a Portland archaeological walk with Andrea Frankham-Hughes, she pointed out the huge boulders in the wall of which there were more than just these two. Rather than being left over from quarry workings, they are believed to have come from a nearby, no longer existing, stone circle on a site destined for development.
We could certainly see that they could easily have been standing stones in the distant past.
Continuing the Isle of Portland then and now series, this really is the same place as in the modern scene shown below. To confirm that, look at the hill top in both photos.
Taken by an unknown photographer late in the 19th century, this shows quarried stone blocks being loaded onto carts for onward transfer down to the port in Castletown. Note the supervisor's cottage behind the cart!
The Moody Blues played Houston last week as part of their 50th Anniversary Tour celebrating the release of their second album "Days of Future Passed" In fact they played the album in its entirety. I must be getting passed it as well, failing to get the camera through security. So this is the best that could be done with a phone shot from up in the gods.
You'll already know that most audience-based footage of concerts is rubbish. Poor sound, but worst of all people seem incapable of holding their phones steady and can't resist constant panning and zooming in and out. The video below is a very honourable exception and shows the band line-up pretty much as it was in Houston.
Bithbox # 085
A midweek "Timewatch"!
This is one of c60 pages in a school exercise book entitled "North and Mid Wales" dating from around 1960. It is my hand drawn map of parts of Caernarfonshire and Snowdonia, North Wales.
The circumstances of such a big school project have frankly been lost in the mists of time. However, during most school and bank holidays, my parents would take me to this area where they owned a small caravan. Therefore, even at a tender age I knew the area quite well. I also loved maps!
My best guesses are that it was either a summer holiday assignment or one that was set for me to do at home after coming out of hospital. I'll never know. By the way, whoever marked the assignment clearly didn't give it that much attention. There are quite a few pencil ticks but no comments until on the last and 59th page there is a single '70 Good' !
This week's Saturday Timewatch features Amersfoort, Holland. It was not a city that I knew much about. What a revelation! It surely has to be one of the best preserved medieval 'old towns' in northern Europe. In fact you could easily take a photo of the above 1580 plan and use it as a modern-day map to get around. Lots of the old buildings also still survive.
Highly recommended should you get the chance to visit.
This week's "Saturday Timewatch" goes way back to long before homo sapiens ever walked the Earth. The overall alligator family goes back some 37 million years. More recently, this American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) shown above is well represented in the Pleistocene fossil record going back 2.5 million years. However, in 2016, a nearly identical fossil skull to the above animal was discovered in Florida. That 'sister' species discovery, means that the American Alligator can now be traced back 8 million years to a near-identical but as far as i know 'unnamed' species.
By comparison, humans evolved comparatively recently from earlier hominids, around 200,000 - 300,000 years ago.
From an unknown date and an unknown photographer, this is a photo of Jesty's at 1, Straits, Easton, Isle of Portland. Compare and contrast to the photo of the same address today and you can see that the only external feature that survives is the first floor window.
At some point, a building extension has been added filling in the gap where the gate behind the cart used to be. This must have happened in relatively recent times as the gates were still there when "Portland Spice", a business previous to todays' Chinese takeaway occupied the site.
EDIT : Note that things have moved on and my comparison building immediately below is incorrect. It is across the street from "Flavour of Asia" correctly identified by David!
A Southern Pacific Lines train leaves Houston Union Station circa 1950. The number '2' on the front of the locomotive denotes that it is a Sunset Limited service eastbound to New Orleans.
If I've understood the literature correctly, Alco built the 2,000 horsepower diesel PA-1 locomotive # 205 sometime between September 1946 and June 1950. The carriages, built by a different company were also state of the art at that time. Part of a much longer Pacific to Gulf Coast timetable, the journey time in 1950 between Houston and New Orleans was 7 hours. The same route in 2017 takes 9 hours 30 minutes!
This weekend's Saturday Timewatch features the American Airlines' livery that pays homage to Reno Air.
Reno Air was a short-lived but reasonably successful low-cost start-up that operated its first flight in 1992. Using new aircraft and quickly establishing a reputation for reliability, its selling point was to be a cut above the competition whilst still offering low fares. The company was acquired by American in 1999.
The B737-800 above (N916NN) was delivered to AA in 2013 and given the "Reno Air Heritage" special paint scheme in 2015. On this flight the aircraft is seen arriving at Houston George Bush Intercontinental from Chicago.
I'm back on board after being awol from flickr for a couple of days.
Both items in the photo, each with two parts, are the same. But what are they and what are they used for? Note that the small pieces of plastic are irrelevant being used merely for display purposes.
Your best guesses and answers on a postcard please!
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a slogan synonymous with Texas. Now commonly used by Texans as an an identity statement, a declaration of Texas independence and pride in the state, the phrase started out over 35 years ago as an anti-litter slogan www.dontmesswithtexas.org/about/history/
Hugely successful, it is still used as that to this day. All sorts of well-known Texans have been involved in promoting the campaign over the decades including musicians Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lyle Lovatt, George Strait, LeAnn Rimes, Joe Ely and of course Willie and his son Lukas Nelson.
Here is one of Willie's campaign adverts www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6aAX1X8ho0
Now renamed the Commemorative Air Force, here is an older one featuring a CAF B-17.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features the Showboat Pavilion, Texas City, another in my Last Picture Show series. It opened in 2002 on the site of the original Showboat Theater that was finally demolished in 2000 after years of neglect. Several features of the original building were recreated, retained or re-used including. The facade is similar to the the original and the tower is a replica. A large part of the original terrazzo floor, featuring a steamboat, was salvaged and now forms the centrepiece of the lobby floor. Architect Joe Hoover said "I tried to preserve the integrity of an historical icon"
You can see more of The Last Picture Show here
A bit of a theme has developed this trip with Texas 'institutions' such as bbq, Buc-ee's and Shiner already featuring. Next up for this week's Saturday Timewatch is Blue Bell ice cream.
Painted by TX artist Benjamin Knox, the painting displayed at Blue Bell's museum celebrated the company's centenary in 2007.
Ahem : Yes, I did get my $1 tub of triple chocolate ice cream.
www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618
2020 Reel youtu.be/fXhm5se6H3c
2017 Reel www.starnow.com/media/778224
2016 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/623368
2015 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/500618
Crew CV crew.mandy.com/uk/crew/profile/chris-christopher-wilson
wartimeproductions.co.uk/index.html
In Film and Television
Bletchley Park and its tremendous story have featured regularly in film and television over the past few years. From the BBC’s Antiques’ Roadshow to Operation Mincemeat, the Timewatch Special, Codebreakers: Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes and the blockbuster film The Imitation Game, all filmed on location at Bletchley Park.
The Imitation Game
The Oscar-nominated movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, was screened in cinemas around the world in 2014 and 2015. Filmed partly on location at Bletchley Park, the behind-the-scenes video can be viewed here.
Bletchley Park: Code-Breaking’s Forgotten Genius
In September 2015, BBC2 broadcast its documentary about Gordon Welchman, Bletchley Park: Code-breaking’s Forgotten Genius, filmed extensively on location at Bletchley Park.
The Bletchley Circle
The hugely popular ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle Series One and Two, was broadcast in the UK and the US and in the UK attracted an average of 5 million viewers per episode. Both series were filmed on location at Bletchley Park.
A whole new meaning is given to the phrase "rolling stock" in this gravity siding. Not my original but a photo of one displayed at Maiden Newton Station, Dorset. No date is given.
Those who know a lot more about the operation of railways than myself may well be familiar with the concept of a "gravity siding". I certainly wasn't! So this is what I understand to be happening here.
Arriving from the direction of the bridge, the steam locomotive has already pulled the two carriages into the platform at the extreme left. Once the passengers have departed, the engine has then pushed the carriages up the slope of the siding to the left of the water tower. Once uncoupled, the loco has returned into the platform and subsequently moved out of the way to its present position. Under the control of the guard, the carriages are then rolled back down the incline to the platform so that the engine can rejoin the set for the return journey out of Maiden Newton Station.
The Maiden Newton to Bridport (and eventually West Bay) branch line ran for about 10 miles off the still operational Yeovil Pen Mill to Weymouth route. Remarkably it survived the infamous Beeching "axe" but eventually bit the dust some 10 years later in 1975. It is still easy to see various bridges along the branch line and some sections of trackbed though most are very heavily overgrown. By the way, that property is still also standing and occupied.
I am not a Liverpool supporter. However, this weekend is the 25th Anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 Liverpool football fans died due to the total incompetence and prejudice of Yorkshire's police. All matches in the top five levels of English football kick off 7 minutes late, 6 minutes representing the time that passed before the game was stopped with people already dead on the terraces and the seventh minute being that of silence. All of football will join together in memory of those who died (and the hundreds who were injured) in Britain's worst stadium disaster. For those abroad who may not know, the music below is Liverpool's anthem, sung by the crowd before every home game.
BITHBOX#033
GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE"
This qualifies as a 'Saturday Timewatch' because Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel have now been rollin' along the musical highway venues for 55 years. They are yet another hard working band who pretty much single-handedly have kept western swing alive. A couple of nights ago, we were delighted to see them perform live for the second time in a small theatre at Brenham, TX.
Below is the title track off their new and 63rd album (including compilations). Whilst Ray still leads on many tracks, fiddler Ian Stewart takes the strain off Ray for vocals on this one.
jukebox # 521