My Father Has Been Proved Right!
My father described himself as a left-wing Tory. Today, he would probably have approved of the views of the likes of Michael Hesseltine or Kenneth Clarke.
I’m not sure what he actually did in politics, but I do know that he once worked at the League of Nations in Geneva before the Second World War. During the war, he was for some time a Civil Servant, but apart from one or two clues, I don’t know much. I should have a look at Kew and the web site.
I also know that I never heard him say anything racist and when someone questioned why he actually printed letterheads and wedding stationery for the local black community in Wood Green, he rebuked them by saying that as long as their money had the Queen’s head on it, he’d do business with everyone.
I also know that he was firmly anti-fascist and was at the Battle of Cable Street, where as he said, all the East End stopped Mosley and his Blackshirt thugs, marching through.
Recently, I took a taxi, where the driver had had talks with his Jewish grandfather, who had also been at Cable Street. His grandfather, like my father was adamant that it was not just the communists who stopped Mosley, but a wide alliance of right-thinking people in the East End.
I use the term London Mongrel to describe myself and my father used it himself, in my presence a couple of times, which is where I picked it up. You have to remember that the Nazis referred to people who were part-Jewish as mischling, which roughly means mongrel or half-breed. My father wasn’t Jewish but his great-great-grandfather, who I refer to as the Tailor of Bexley, was probably a Prussian Jew, who had run away from Napoleon.
As the term dates from the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, it would very much have been a term of the time my father was on the fringe of politics, so it is no surprise that he used it.
Incidentally, I’m probably more of a mongrel than my father, as my mother’s father was a Huguenot engraver and her mother was a posh lady born in Dalston Junction from Devonian yeoman stock with the surname of Upcott. Cullompton Museum told me that the family were very much involved in the development of worsted serge and made a fortune from it. This section in the Cullumpton Wikipedia entry, says more about the cloth trade and the Upcotts.
I once asked my father, if he’d ever wanted to stand as an MP and he replied that he’d been asked to put his name forward as a candidate for a by-election, but a young Duncan Sandys was chosen instead, which my father thought was probably the right choice.
Searching Wikipedia says that this was the Norwood By-election of 1935. Wikipedia says this.
The by-election was held due to the resignation of the incumbent Conservative MP, Walter Greaves-Lord. It was won by the Conservative candidate Duncan Sandys.
An Independent Conservative candidate was fielded at the by-election by Randolph Churchill, who sponsored Richard Findlay, a member of the British Union of Fascists to stand. This got no support from the press or from any Members of Parliament, despite Randolph being the son of Winston Churchill. Ironically, in September that year, Duncan Sandys became son-in-law of Winston and brother-in-law of Randolph by marrying Diana, the former’s daughter.
Knowing my father’s strong anti-fascist views, it fits with his version of the tale. The other thing that fits, is that although my father had met and liked Winston Churchill, he had no time for his son, Randolph.
Indirectly, I think I benefited from my father’s political contacts, as after the war, when he rebuilt his printing business in Wood Green, his largest customer was Enfield Rolling Mills, whose Managing Director was John Grimston, the Earl of Veralem, who was eight years younger than my father and had been MP for St. Albans a couple of times.
When in the early sixties I needed a summer job to earn money and I couldn’t have my usual one in his print works, as my father’s business was bad, my father phoned the Earl and asked if he had something that would suit.
The Earl of Veralem said yes and I had a very good job in the Electronics Laboratory for two summers, where I learned an amazing amount about life and making things.
I have no idea of the Earl’s politics except that he was a Conservative MP and very much thought to be a good boss of the company, by those with whom I worked.
One view of my father’s though, was that as he hated the likes of Hitler and Stalin equally, he said several times to me, that the extreme left are no different to the extreme right.
Reading this article on the BBC entitled Livingstone Stands By Hitler Comments, I can only conclude that the Labour Party has proved my father to be right.
Around Kidbrooke Station
In Development At Kidbrooke Station, I wrote about how a partnership had been formed between Transport for London and developers, that is aimed at creating revenue for London.
I also said I would be going with my camera.
In some ways it was all a bit depressing.
This Google Map shows the area where I walked.
Kidbrooke Station
It looked like a rather nice wooded landscape had been trashed to build the A2 through the area in the last century.
Pretty it is not!
I would hope if housing is developed at Kidbrooke to the north of the station, that something could be done to improve the dreadful feel of the area.
Is This The Worst-Placed Bus Map In London?
These pictures show the bus map at Kidbrooke station.
I was checking if I could get a bus to Abbey Wood station.
To read anything, you had to stand in the flower bed, but then the fence was in the way of the entries under A.
You can’t! But how could I find out?
The Millwall Path
This path wasn’t here, the last time I walked this way. So I had to explore.
It eventually led to South Bermondsey station.
I think that this could become a popular walking route, as it links up to the path I took from Surrey Quays station, that goes to the still-to-br-built New Bermondsey station and on to Queens Road Peckham station.
It would appear that there is the possibility of opening another path through the arches close to the Millwall Path.
This would probably.
- Give good walking and cycling access between the development between the railway lines of the dive-under and South Bermondsey station.
- Open up more uses for the land between and the buildings under the dive-under.
- Create a direct walking route between the Surrey Quays area and Millwall Football Ground.
I think the whole area could make a very good designer shopping outlet or perhaps a high-technology or design cluster, as there are stations at each of the three corners of the site.
It is certainly a site with possibilities!
Walking Beneath The Dive-Under
I took these pictures, as I walked along the path beside the London Overground between Surrey Quays station and Millwall Football Ground.
The path is crossed by the massive arches and viaducts of the various tracks that form the Bermondsey Dive-Under.
If you look at A Tribute To Victorian Engineering, it shows the structure from a train on the last viaduct I walked under.
I was talking to a lorry driver, who was probably on standby with a powerful road-sweeper, in case the road got covered in mud. He said it was impressive from inside and that it looks like they are creating a lot of small business units.
He also speculated, that there might be cafes and some retail.
But whatever happens, it looks like London is getting an impressive railway structure, to rival some of the best in the world.
It’s Less Than Twenty Days Until The Rail Timetable Change
The new rail timetable for the UK comes into affect on the 15th May 2016.
The Oracle (the National Railweb site) has a page that lists all the timetable changes. This page gives all the changes for December 2015.
But where is the page for May 2016?
Some of the changes are reflected in the timetables, like the start of services from Lea Bridge station, which I wrote about in The Full Service From Lea Bridge Station Starts On The 16th May 2016.
But other services are not in the on-line timetable!
Some companies also seem to have decided that not to publicise their plans for May 2016.
It is just not good enough!
Work On The Platforms At Hayes And Harlington Station
I took these pictures of the extended Platforms 4 and 5 at Hayes and Harlington station on Wednesday.
Obviously, there would appear to be some work needed before the services to Hayes can start, as I wrote about in Hayes Shuttles To Start.
Basingstoke To Exeter By Electric Train
In Where Are The Battery Trains? – Part 2, I suggested that short lengths of electrification could be used, so that trains with an IPEMU capability could work a longer route.
I suggested that the West of England Main Line might be handled this way between Basingstoke and Exeter.
The distances from London of the main stations in this part of the line are.
- Basingstoke – 47.76
- Salisbury – 83.48
- Yeovil Junction – 122.60
- Exeter St. Davids – 172.15
Each section would be capable of being run by an IPEMU with a more-or-less fully charged battery.
So if the train could be charged sufficiently at Salisbury, Yeovil Junction and Exeter St. Davids, the line could be worked by electric trains. Intriguingly, eight minutes is shown for the stop at Salisbury on the 07:10 train from Waterloo to Exeter.
It has been regularly said in the last few years, that there will be no new third-rail electrification, but as it looks like Network Rail have electrified some short sections and platforms like the bay platform at Oxted station. So I don’t think a few short lengths of third-rail electrification would be a problem.
To me, as an Electrical Engineer, creating a charging station is one of those problems, that should have an affordable and practical solution.
You have to remember that many of the stations on this line are simple ones with the two tracks, having a platform on either side. So to electrify a station to charge an IPEMUs batteries, there would just need to be two third-rail lines between the tracks at the station. Stations could probably be electrified very easily with little disruption.
The picture shows some very typical third-rail electrification at Kidbrooke station. Note the gap in the third rail, which I assume is for staff or emergency services personnel to cross the track in emergencies. Third rail like this, could be put into all stopping stations.
The West of England Line has a 90 mph speed limit, so a train stopping at a station would charge the batteries with all the train’s kinetic energy as it stopped and the electrification would just be needed to top up the batteries and get the train moving again.
What would also help, is that later four-car Electrostars have eight contact shoes to give better electricity pick up when there are gaps in the third-rail, as you can see in the picture above. So the train would be able to draw electricity from the time the first shoe made contact to the time the last shoe lost contact.
The electrification would also be simple from the electrical point of view, as because the train would be handling the regenerative braking, all the rail would need to be able to do was supply sufficient 750 VDC, whilst the train required it.
If the West of England Line can be electrified, it has three further benefits.
- Salisbury is also on the Wessex Main Line, that I wrote about in Cardiff to Southampton By Electric Train. So if IPEMUs were to work the Cardiff to Southampton route, they could top-up at Salisbury.
- Yeovil Junction is on the Heart of Wessex Line and as the Weymouth end is electrified and the Bristol end will be in a few years, this line must be another that could be served by IPEMUs.
- If Exeter had the ability to fast-charge IPEMUs, then the various branch lines in the area could be given electric trains.
Just when new third-rail electrification has been declared a blind alley, has it found an important niche market?
If the only electrification in the area was third-rail, then there wouldn’t even be a need to build new trains, as a few of the extremely numerous 100 mph-capable Class 377 trains, built in the last few years, could be refurbished and given an IPEMU capability. These could also be converted to dual-voltage, so they could serve Bristol, when that area is electrified.
In my view the second and third routes are the more interesting, as these lines are sold to passengers as a picturesque journey through beautiful countryside. So imagine it with quiet new electric trains instead of noisy and smelly 1980s diesels.
I can’t believe that someone isn’t looking seriously at a plan like this to bring electric trains to Wessex.
West Of England To Weymouth
This is the headline on an article in the May 2016 Edition of Modern Railways about the May 15th timetable changes. This is said.
On summer Saturdays and bank holidays from 21 May to 3 September the 07:50 Waterloo to Salisbury service is to be extended to Weymouth via Yeovil Junction, with a corresponding return service leaving the resort at 16:56. On arrival at Weymouth the service will rerurn to Yeovil Junction before providing a shuttle service between Junction and Pen Mill stations and then returning to the resort in time to form the working back to London
This sounds like an innovative way to provide a service that used to run in the summer between 2008-2010 using Mark 2 coaches and diesel locomotives.
Incidentally, the train would be used in Yeovil to replace a bus service.
As this Yeovil Metro is not in the Oracle yet, I assume that South West Trains are still refining their ideas.
Cardiff To Southampton By Electric Train
When I was waiting on Bath Spa station to return to London, a Class 158 train from Cardiff stopped at the station, on its way to Brighton via Southampton.
The train travels the full length of the Wessex Main Line from Bristol Temple Meads to Southampton, using the soon-to-be-electrified South Wales Main Line and the electrified West Coastway Line to complete the full route.
I wondered how much of the route will be electrified, once Cardiff to Bristol is hopefully electrified in the next few years. The current date for wires to Cardiff is December 2018.
I would estimate the length of the non-electrified section between Southampton and Bath is about sixty to sixty-five miles.
So it would appear that, the line could be within range for a Class 387 train or a new Aventra, with an IPEMU capability.
Obviously, Great Western Railway could also run a five-car Class 800 train on the route, using the on-board diesels to bridge the gap.
One way or other by 2020, Cardiff to Southampton will be run by electric trains, with a much increased capacity.
The Anonymous Widower 