While browsing Tinternet blogs on globalwarming/climate change/climate disruption I came across this youtube thingy of winter of 1963 and trains. I have no interest in trains but thought it might interest the trainspotters on here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHJW3cxTF0
I remember that winter very well - school closed from Jan to March beacause no heating/light/dinners possible(?) but fantastic sledging and skating!!
Also found this listed next to previous and, as I grew up in Scarborough in 1950s and 1960s, found it interesting. I might well appear as a callow youth! Was it really like that in my lifetime??
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFPdO91gQ8Q
and then another of Scarborough and Brid
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou3Dm8DS7UI
Not sure I remember those girls leapfrogging on the beach - but then maybe I do!
Happy days but not sure I would want to go back!!
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Thanks for those Phil.
Scarborough was part of my childhood from earliest memories, probably 63ish. Went with Mum and maternal Granny, her brother, my Uncle Sidney, his partner Pat together with (Great) Uncle Tom. Stayed in various guest houses including Kestevan on the North Bay and later Brooklands Hotel off the Esplanade. Uncle Tom though stayed at The Bell, a short toddle from his habitual place at the back of the Family Bingo.
Some of the things in the film were before my time. I remember the water chute and the little paddle boats named after nursery rhymes in Northstead Manor Gardens. The Open Air theatre and Neptune and Triton hauling their little coaches up to Scalby Mills.
The closing shots of the North Bay with that row of 'spanish style' chalets - we always ahd one at the Northern end of the group are a particular memory - all gone now.
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We were Scarborough people too. One of the highlights was the naval battle on the lake in Peasholm Park.
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" I remember the water chute and the little paddle boats named after nursery rhymes in Northstead Manor Gardens. The Open Air theatre and Neptune and Triton hauling their little coaches up to Scalby Mills."
Yep, remember all those! I even did a season at Open Air theatre as an extra on The King and I - think I was a buddhist monk, barge man and a bloke in a strange costume "singing" in the background. Many years later my kids loved the miniature railway to Scalby Mills.
"One of the highlights was the naval battle on the lake in Peasholm Park"
Yep again! Really exciting as a kid. Had a mate who was one of the frogmen "driving" one of the ships one summer. Some good summer jobs available (and some very boring ones - flogging seaside rock on seafront for instance!)
Wonder when you were there Manatee - I lived there from 1955 to 1970. Then had to move away - few jobs available. Great place to grow up though - seaside and the moors inland.
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>>Wonder when you were there Manatee - I lived there from 1955 to 1970
Scarborough holiday people I meant - there was a tendency for families to adopt a particular resort. Ours was Morecambe for a while, then Scarborough, probably 1962-67 ish. Both were (slightly) more genteel than Blackpool, though I liked Blackpool for the trams. Still do.
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"Scarborough, probably 1962-67 ish"
Prob flogged you some rock or delivered various meat products to your Hotel/B&B then!
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>> We were Scarborough people too. One of the highlights was the naval battle on the
>> lake in Peasholm Park.
Still going but no longer a re-enactment of the battle of the River Plate.
It's now just 'the enemy' not the Germans and the narration is a bit camp.
The kids still love it though.
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>> Still going but no longer a re-enactment of the battle of the River Plate.
What, three ships mooch closely about at one end of the pond, the ship at the other end of the pond sinks itself?
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>> While browsing Tinternet blogs on globalwarming/climate change/climate disruption I came across this youtube thingy of
>> winter of 1963 and trains. I have no interest in trains but thought it might
>> interest the trainspotters on here!
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHJW3cxTF0
I remember the winter of '63. We were trapped in the house with snow drifts 6 feet or more against the door and windows, and my old man was at work, for close on 60 hours, driving trains up and down the lines, night and day, to keep them clear of snow.
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my old man was at work, for close on 60 hours, driving trains up and down the lines, night and day, to keep them clear of snow. "
Interesting Z because there were some huge snowfalls. How come your old man could keep the lines open then but a couple of inches of snow these days seems to cause chaos? Anything to do with Steam engines and no/few (?) electric trains?
Mind you, in 1963 I seem to remember Scarborough being cut off by road and rail for some time and my uncle, who had a farm on the edge of the moors spent a week digging his way out with a tractor - all the lanes were full of snow to the hedge tops! Don't think our car ( a sit up and beg Ford Pop) went anywhere for weeks!
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>> my old man was at work, for close on 60 hours, driving trains up and
>> down the lines, night and day, to keep them clear of snow. "
>> Interesting Z because there were some huge snowfalls. How come your old man could keep
>> the lines open then but a couple of inches of snow these days seems to
>> cause chaos? Anything to do with Steam engines and no/few (?) electric trains?
If you kept the trains rocking up and down the lines all the time, 24 hours a day, they tended to stay fairly clear, and thats what they used to do, run ghost trains. (don't forget these were the days when christmas day was a normal sunday service)
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>> 24 hours a day, they tended to stay fairly clear, and thats what they used to do, run ghost trains.
The first link in PhilW's OP seems to show some of these, loco with snowplough on its nose and one carriage.
But is there not some extra problem with 3-rail or even overhead wire electric trains? Shorting, poor contact on the third rail, unsuitability of snowplough where there is a third rail, stuff like that? I don't really know but it seems possible at least.
There were two or three cold snowy winters around that time. I got married in the 1963 one but was still boheming around London for at least one of them a year or two earlier.
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>> my old man was at work, for close on 60 hours, driving trains up and
>> down the lines, night and day, to keep them clear of snow. "
>> Interesting Z because there were some huge snowfalls. How come your old man could keep
>> the lines open then but a couple of inches of snow these days seems to
>> cause chaos? Anything to do with Steam engines and no/few (?) electric trains?
Could be
take this vid I shot this January, all other services stopped yet this......
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcbNg_o6ZGY
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Nice hat Z, and did you notice the passing steam train?? ;-)
After looking at your vid, I also went to this
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=PLM9y9qtfxI
of the Great Central Railway Winter Steam Gala which is only about a mile down the road from us. Often see the trains and been on it several times when kids were younger. Also been on the Pickering - Goathland steam railway through NY Moors. Also reminds me that as a teenager I went on a trip organised by one of our teachers on the last train (steam) to operate between Scarborough and Whitby (1963?). Could have been a good tourist attraction now but lines ripped up and now lots of houses built on parts of it. Rest is a wonderful walk with great views of the coast.
P
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The right kind of snow (for trainspotters?) - Bromptonaut
