Category Archives: Fisherton Sarum

#OnThisDay… O.V.S. Bulleid passed away

Today marks 53 years since the passing of Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid CBE. He was of course Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway  between 27th May 1937 and 31st December 1947 and then briefly for  the Southern Region of British Railways until 1st October 1949.

A line up of malachite Bulleid Pacifics , a Q1 and even the Leader, at Fisherton Sarum. I make no apologies if you have seen this excellent picture by Chris Nevard / Model Rail magazine before but it’s one of my favourites!

On the 10th May 1937 Sir Nigel Gresley advised O.V.S Bulleid, who was working away from Kings Cross, by  telegram stating that “Sir Herbert Walker wishes to see you 12.30 tomorrow” at the meeting Bulleid was asked by Sir Herbert Walker, the SR General Manager, to apply for the position of CME…

This post is not an attempt to outline the whole of Bulleid’s career, but to mark the anniversary of his passing, and also an excuse to show one of my favourite pictures of some of his achievements on Fisherton Sarum.  Also it’s an opportunity to reiterate the fact that order for the first ten express passenger locomotives, that became the first series Merchant Navy’s, was approved by the board in March 1938, and it was a myth of convenience that they were rumoured to be classed as mixed traffic locomotives due to being introduced during the war and having 6’2″ driving wheels (actually the same as the LNER P2 class that Bulleid had previously worked on)!

1st January 1950 Bulleid was awarded CBE in the New Years Honours list. He retired from being Chief Mechanical Engineer CIE in May 1958, firstly living in Devon before moving to Malta in December 1967.

 

 

Daffodils and Easter wishes

T14 class No 461 heads west passing the ‘daffodils’ appearing on the embankment between the main line and 21c159 “Sir Archibald Sinclair” waiting on shed.

May the angels protect you, may the sadness forget you, may goodness surround you and may your God always bless you. The budding trees, the new flowers, and birds that sing, whisper to me that it’s Easter, that and supermarkets full of chocolate of all shapes (many irrelevant), sizes and special offers!

Here is wishing a warmth in your firebox for your soul on Easter & always!

Ch-ch-changes, Turn and face the (s)train…

With apologies to David Bowie… regular readers may have spotted a slight change to the layout of my little corner of the world wide web.  The previous WordPress theme (page style) I was using had become obsolete and was causing a few back office and functionality issues, so I therefore have adopted a new WordPress theme that hopefully solves some of the issues and gives a similar but slightly fresher look.

The downside, and there is always a downside of course, is that the positioning of images, annoyingly, align differently and so has affected the visual appearance of previous posts. Please bear with me and accept my apologies as I either find a work around and / or slowly manually correct past posts.

USA Tank No 68 shunts across the Quay.

In other news, Canute Road Quay is on the road again next month and is appearing on Saturday 20th August 2022 at the Silverfox DCC MRC exhibition being held at the Oakgrove School, Venturer Gate, Milton Keynes MK10 9JQ

It is good to be at exhibitions again, especially as many Model Railway Clubs/Societies have lost such valuable income from the lack of exhibitions during the pandemic,  so if you are able to visit the show, and support the Silverfox DCC MRC, please drop by Canute Road Quay and say hello.