Kings Coss Passenger Loco

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'day Gents

Yes there was a right Hotch-Potch of uniform styles in the mess room at KX, jeans, Tweed jacket ? (once) cowboy boots, even carpet slippers, and all sorts of mixed matched clothing, I used to wear paisley green or blue shirts, with my uniform plus a bobble hat/beaney, my steel capped boots were always badly scuffed from kicking the rails !! always thought they were to high !

manna

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'Day Gents and Micky

Would that be by any chance, Driver MacTavish, and at about 6'6" and 16 stone with a very loud booming voice, although he always turn very pale, when you mentioned the 'Wolf of Badenoch' And I pretty sure it was him who turned up one day with a tartan waistcoat under his uniform coat

manna

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Hey, Micky you at work !! it's 1114 (am) here and is heading to 36c today Bet it's not so warm there ?

No sorry can't remember him, although there was at least a dozen black drivers there in my time plus at least three dozen Guards of the same color.

manna

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'Day Micky

Naw ! leaving to lolly water alone, but I did get a nice bottle of Wild Turkey with Honey the other day, but that's for tomorrow, can't be many trains about now, all going back to the depot, or don't you close down now on Christmas Day !!

I did spend one Christmas eve as a secondman on the passenger loco, with light flurries of snow the only thing that made it stand out, besides the snow was a Baby Deltic coming on shed, for fuel, so some poor sod had a days work out of it before it broke down !!

manna

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'Day Micky

As footplate crews always said about the 'bobbie' if he was a bit slow pulling the board off, 'Take the roof off of the box' then he'll have to move quicker to keep warm !!!!!!!

Aw well a couple of hours you'll be home in a nice warm bed, catch ya

manna

[strang steel]

G'Day Gents

Hey, Micky you at work !! it's 1114 (am) here and is heading to 36c today Bet it's not so warm there ?

manna

36C?

Good heavens, couldn't cope with that at Christmas. The turkey would be cooking before it went in the oven.

36F is what I prefer at this time of year.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Yeah, I reckon it hit 36c yesterday then in the late afternoon, in came a fairly large storm,huge raindrops, (the kind that used to flood Gasworks tunnel ) thunder and lightning all the hills around us were cover in big black clouds, dropped the temperature down by at least 10/12 degrees, so the evening was a lot cooler, today it's going to be 30c with showers, so we're going to have a Bar-B-Que and salad, and I'll think of the cold days at the passenger loco, and smile

Merry Christmas to everyone from--------manna

[Mickey]

Deleted

[giner]

H0H 0H0 (that's Santa's postal code here in Canada's north pole) geddit? Anyway, we get a Christmas card each year from a couple of ex-Stevenage friends who now live in Perth, WA. The card usually has some desert scene on it, and our friends always bemoan the 35-40C temperatures at Christmas.

They'd like to get some of our 'cool' here - has all that heat got to them???? Anyway we'd gladly send them some snow, but there's so little here this year. I've only ever seen one brown Christmas in the 30 years we've been here, and it looks like this is going to be another. Oh well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! from the not-so-great white north.

[StevieG]

Back around 1974/75 there was a black african driver at Kings Cross i forget his name but he was an alright fella i recall (i think he was in no.5 gang?) who usually wore a normal B.R. driver's uniform anyway i do vaguely recall seeing a picture of him driving a Brush type 4 (i think it was?) and he was wearing full black african chieftain robes in the driving cab on some occasion that he was celebrating?.

Would that be by any chance, Driver MacTavish, and at about 6'6" and 16 stone with a very loud booming voice, although he always turn very pale, when you mentioned the 'Wolf of Badenoch' And I pretty sure it was him who turned up one day with a tartan waistcoat under his uniform coat

manna

Na not driver MacTavish manna i know the fella that you are referring to he had a very pronouced Scots accent

No this other fella had 'sharp facial features' and was in no.5 gang i think?

Micky,
No idea if it's the same chap, but from when I was around Fins.Pk. and in KX box from '77 well into the '80s at least, there was a tall slim upright chap with a distinctive clipped and clear way of speaking, who always spoke, (and sounded as he if he would have gone about his work), in a very proper way :
For example (start of incoming 'phone conversation) "Power Box.", "Is that the power box supervisor?", "It is. Good morning Joe.", "I did not tell you my name", "I know, but there is no mistaking your clear diction Joe", "Well that is alright then. As long as we know who is speaking to whom. Now this is what I am calling you about...." : -
- One Driver J. Gunter of KX.