The report was published on 15 April 1938 – the week in which you-know-who’s party won more than 99% of the votes in the final “election” before the war.

  © Copyright Ben Brooksbank and
licensed for reuse under this
Creative Commons Licence.

The question of what happened to the railway-wrecking hook which used to be at the now-defunct Museum of Army Transport at Beverley in East Yorkshire sometimes arises in various places.

Some time ago I e-mailed the National Army Museum to ask if they knew where it had got to, and they kindly got back to me with the following information:

When the Museum of Army Transport closed, a large proportion of the vehicles were transferred to the National Army Museum, including the railway wrecker. This vehicle (NAM. 1998-09-89), a Pline C24, was made in Germany in 1943. It was used in Italy and indeed captured there by the British Army.

Since the move of the vehicles, some have been transferred to other institutions who have much larger storage facilities for these types of vehicles. The railway wrecker was transferred to the Ministry of Defence Railway Service in Marchwood and it is unlikely to be on public display.

A 31 March 2008 report filed with the Charity Commission gives some details of what the National Army Museum did with former Museum of Army Transport (and other) exhibits, and includes the hook:

Does anyone have a better photo of the Beverley hook which I could include on this website? I was a regular visitor to the Museum of Army Transport when I lived nearby, but as ever with things which seem so familiar, I didn’t take any photos and then one day it was gone.

A sign explains:

The “Hook” combined track-wrecking machine (Germany)

Track-wrecking machine were produced at the Krupp factory since in 1942. They were applied for destruction of the railway way in second half of 1943. The mechanical principle of action was based on the breaking of the wood cross ties, deformation the rail and earthen cloth. It was towed by 1 or 2 locomotives.

The exposed track-wrecking machine was made for the museum by railway armies in 1995.

Performance

Weight of the equipped hook, T 30
Preparation for working, min 6-8
Work speed, kmph 7-10
Maintenance crew, people 10

Photos © Andrew Grantham, taken on 25 March 2011.

Built in 1899 to Midland Railway design 2b, the Grade II listed signal box at Oakham in Rutland achieved fame as the prototype for the Airfix plastic kit, now made by Dapol (catalogue no.C006).

On 22 August 1999 I happened to be passing through Oakham, and I stopped off to take some photos of the signal box. Jim Filby has kindly supplied some photos of the interior, taken in 2004.

The June 2001 issue of Railway Modeller magazine had an article on detailing the Airfix/Dapol 4 mm/ft scale kit to resemble the real box more closely.

Inside Oakham signal box

Some interior photos by Jim Filby in 2004.

Village church

The Airfix/Dapol village church kit (Dapol catalogue no. C029) is based on the Old St Boniface church at Bonchurch, near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

Windmill

The Airfix windmill kit might be based on Rolvenden windmill in Kent(?).

Other

I would be interested to know the locations of the prototypes (if any) which the other Airfix building kits were based on.

PKP emblem on a steam loco at Wolsztyn.

I’m taking an early holiday ‘cos I know summer comes soonest in Wolsztyn.

A real steam-hauled freight train leaves Wolsztyn on a wet morning. 2002-08-05.

The driver of SU45-205 on the Wolsztyn to Leszno train says says hello. Leszno, 2002-08-05.

A diesel-hauled train at Hel, waiting to depart for Gdynia. 2002-08-06.

A view from the window of the overnight Gdansk – Krakow train, morning of 2002-08-07. Standing in the corridor and leaning out of the window seems a popular way to travel by train in Poland.

A quadlingual sign at Oswiecim. 2002-08-07.

A tram in Krakow. 2002-08-08.

Once on board the train, we began to suspect that buying the cheapest ticket might have been a mistake… Chabowka, 2002-08-08.

Steam loco Ty51 182 in the railway museum at Chabowka. They’ve got quite a variety of standard and narrow gauge locos there. Entrance to the museum cost PLZ 3, and permission to take photos PLZ 10. 2002-08-08.

Our train from Krakow to Wroclaw, seen on arrival at Wroclaw. Electric locomotive EU06-17 was built in Britain.
2002-08-09.

A tram in Wroclaw. The city has an extensive tram network, and almost every street in the centre seemed to have tram tracks. 2002-08-10.

A tram in Poznan. Gdansk, Katowice and Wroclaw had very similar vehicles.

An EP08 at Poznan. Most electric locomotives we found seemed to be green, but this one wasn’t. 2002-08-10.

Tram 7066 near the center of Antwerpen. 2001-09-05.

A modern tram in Brussels.

Tram 7811 at the terminus near the Atomium in Brussels.

Another Brussels tram.

Ramparts military cemetery, on the city walls in Ieper. The town is called Ypres in French, but is perhaps better known in Britain as "Wipers".

De Lijn coastal tram at Oostende, 2001-09-03.

Railcar 4508 at Dinant in the Ardennes, forming the 12.47 departure to Beauraing on 6 September 2001. These noisy little things are probably as bad as British Pacer trains – though they do have bogies, and if the driver leaves the cab door open you can see out of the front. From Beauraing to Gedinne the train was replaced by a bus, owing to electrification work.

A tram in the streets of Gent, 2001-09-02

Tram 6304 seen from the castle walls, Gent 2001-09-02

Tram 53 at the terminus Gent 2001-09-02. Note the "park and ride" facilities.

Loco 6313 at Gent Sint-Pieters station.

SNCB locomotive number 2131 in the rain.

The SNCB/NMBS logo, on an overnight train

One of my ancestors fell at Waterloo…

My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender. 2001-09-08.

Picture by Paul Grantham.

The two sections of narrow-gauge railway totalling 12 km were built to transport building materials for a quay and breakwater between the mainland and Örfirisey Island. One section ran from Öskjuhlið, the other to Skólavörðuholt.

There were two locomotives, Pionér and Minör, bought from Denmark. Both were built in Germany in 1892 by Arnold Jung. They are 4·9 m long, 3 m high, and weigh 13 tons.

The locos made an average of 25 trips each day for between 1913 and 1917, and saw limited use until 1928. Pionér is now at Árbaer open-air museum, Minör is at the harbour museum in Reykjavik.

Links

• Some background information by Peter Bowyer.
• A modern railway in Iceland, including Iceland’s first railway collision in July 2004. Used to transport workers, equipment and supplies for the three TBM machines involved in the project, the diesel-powered light railway system used in the Kárahnjúkar scheme has given Iceland its first working railway since 1913-15, when a narrow-gauge steam line was used to carry rock from a hillside quarry during the construction of Reykjavík’s first harbour.

As of September 1 it has been relaunched with a new host, so hopefully the problem shouldn’t reoccur. It is possible that a few things might have got mangled during the transition, so let me know if anything is too badly broken.

Normal service is now resumed, hopefully.

Andrew

The Grade II listed splash boat in Kingston upon Hull’s East Park was supplied by Charles Wicksteed & Co in 1929 at a cost of £1400. The city engineer’s department built the tower for £474 2s 5d. The drop is 22 feet, in a run of around 100 feet.

The ride’s rail support structure was rebuilt around 1961.

The splash boat was closed for almost two years following an accident during maintenance on 6 August 2010. An inspection was undertaken by NPS Humber, and their condition report was presented to the city council in May 2011.

Happily the splash boat underwent a £35 000 restoration undertaken by Hull firm DB Engineering from November 2011, and it reopened on 2 June 2012. The video is from 5 June 2012.

Great fun, well worth the 80p for a ride. And yes, you do get wet.

The other surviving splash boats are the original 1926 waterchute at Wicksteed Park near Kettering, and a 1932 one to a different or rebuilt design in Scarborough. This was part of the Kinderland park until its closure, but in 2008 the waterchute reopened under the management of the North Bay Railway.

Links

• Hull City Council splash boat page

.

There are historical details on the town council website.

The staff at the golf course were happy to let us walk over to see the block, and seemed rather proud to have it on their site.