The news is out – The Dixie Chicks are back – London March 2014

The news is out. The Dixie Chicks are coming back to the UK for the first time in eight years.

 

This trio of very very talented country singers from Texas had several No 1 hits with contemporary country music and claim to be the highest selling female band in any genre. They however suffered a career stumblingblock in 2003 after speaking out against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Virtually overnight the Chicks vanished from radio station playlists and were really “blackballed” by their industry and people for daring to speak their mind. Two of the girls had children, and sisters Emily and Martie took to the road as “The Courtyard Hounds”. Reinvigorated, these ladies are playing at the C2C weekend at the O2 Arena in London in March 2014 with Brad Paisley, Chris Young, Rascal FLattsand the Zac Brown band. If you want to see some wicked fiddle, mandolin and banjo along with cracking vocals get yourself along to London in 2014.

 

 

Tampa’s trolleys and Florida’s freshwater springs. Two more boxes ticked

From visiting Florida for more times than i dare remember I have harboured a passion to visit one of the freshwater springs on the western side of the state. i remember reading sometime ago of being able to float down a freshwater river on a tube, and thinking how cool that would be – literally. Sadly my wife has never been convinced, so the notion has remained just that – up until this trip.

Choosing to go on a five day cruise to Mexico was good for the ladies, but the needle never flinched on the keenometer for us blokes, so we despatched the ladies to Cruise Terminal 3 in Tampa, then parked up for a ride on the Tampa trolley system. Under the Teco company name a standard gauge tramway was built from the tourist area of Ybor City to Downtown Tampa in the early years of the 21st century. According to one of the motormen the system was built by an ex CSX railroad guy on the standard gauge of 4’8.5″, rather that the North American streetcar standard of 4′.

The cars were built in Iowa in 2002 using new bodyshells, but riding on 1920s / 1930s trucks (bogies) the interiors extensively featuring varnished wood. We parked in the carpark on 8th street then walked to stop No 4 and bought a five dollar day rover ticket from the machine whilst a northbound tram passed through. A couple of minutes later and a southbound car arrived after we’d signalled we wanted to board. The motorman explained that there was a problem with the vehicle and he was taking it into the carbarn (depot) for some minor repairs.

Apparently the farebox was faulty and needed a man with a hammer to sort it out, which gave the motorman a reason to swing off the mainline, into the yard, then straight into a clear road in the barn. Several taps with the hammer and the problem was resolved so that the motorman walked through the car to change ends and take the car back in the direction it had arrived. After changing ends again we were back in service and on our way to the terminus at Whiting Street. We actually stood for a short time for the Amtrak “Silver Star” to pass over the junction led by P42 diesels 62+50.

Not much to say about the vehicles except they had a traditional controller with a big brass handle which appeared to rotate through six positions, the motorman’s other hand (right hand) being used for controlling the air brakes. It appeared that three trams were in service – ours No 428, 431 and 434, whilst another four or five were in the carbarn, or outside, along with a smaller four wheeler. A traditional touch was the use of trolley poles at each end rather than maybe a pantograph.

We intended to “do” the whole line on a round trip, but temporarily overlooked the requirement to pull the cord requesting the motorman to stop. No loss and another trip to Whiting Street and back, then lunch in Ybor City and a drive back to the Condo. We later drove down to the waters edge at Fort de Soto to watch the cruise liner Jewel of the Seas sail under the Sunshine Skyway bridge and off into the Gulf, taking our ladies off to Mexico.

I’d mentioned to Norm that i fancied doing a freshwater spring, and it would be ideal to drive up and do it whilst the ladies were on their cruise. He was amenable, but in a kayak rather than a tube, so i googled and came up with Rainbow River Canoe & Kayak who provided a service out of Dunnellon. A reservation was made and we drove up on Friday, arriving in time for the 1100 departure from the base.

Nathan and his wife have an interesting business working from a slip on the Rainbow River in the town of Dunnellon, with over 100 canoes and kayaks. They run an hourly shuttle comprising former shorty school buses towing canoe trailers to the up river destinations on the Rainbow River and the Withlacoochee River, for people to paddle their way back downstream to Dunnellon. Although the Rainbow River rises a mile or two upstream, the canoes and kayaks are put into the water at KP Hole. People can then decide whether to paddle the couple of miles or so up to the river head, or simply head down the river. We opted to paddle up to the start and saw some wildlife en-route. Lots of turtles were sunning themselves on rocks or tree branches, and there were of marine birds lining the river on both sides.

Because the Rainbow River is fed from freshwater springs the water is crystal clear and the bottom of the river can be seen for the most part. This is not the case on the “sister” Withlacoochee river where the water iz quite opaque and tannic. The Withlacoochee is considered more remote and therefore has more wildlife, but the transit time is considerably longer.

All in all we probably spent around 4 hours on the expedition and highly recommend it to anyone who fancies. Nathan and his wife are excellent hosts at Rainbow River Canoe & Kayak and IMHO are deserving of the business. They have over one hundred canoes and kayaks, even some examples with windows on the bottom to see the river floor.

Cruising among alligators (in Florida)

 

Sharing a passion for Florida with our friends Norman and Joan we headed out for a holiday in St Pete beach. My wife and Joan wanted a trip to the outlet mall at Ellenton so we dropped them off then headed for Myakka State Park to rent a canoe. We headed south on I75 then SR72 to the park, paid our six dollars park entrance, then drove further three miles to the lakeside outpost.

We hired a two man aluminium canoe, successfully launched and tootled round about a quarter of the lake’s circumference staying reasonably near to the bank. Plenty of large herons and other assorted birds wading amongst the reeds. Offshore there were large areas of water lily pads which sometimes flipped up in squalls of wind, but there was the unmistakable shape of the first alligator we saw. These beasts were swimming or crawling along in a couple of feet of depth. We went on to see well over a dozen of different sizes, but photography was pretty difficult for me at the back of the canoe but Norm managed to get a few piccies. The flat metal seat of the canoe was not too comfortable so we headed back to base after about two hours, and that was when I had my problem. Trying to get out of the canoe with a bag containing a camera and car keys. Norm headed the front of the canoe straight at the steeply angled slipway and jumped out before I had chance to say “don’t do that” ! He pulled the front of the canoe up the slope while I was still sat right at the back, with the inevitable result !!! I managed to keep my bag out of the water but I got a good soaking in the pretty murky water, but fortunately had clean clothes in the car. Really really enjoyed our trip, which was made a little more comfortable due to an intermittent breeze and some cloud cover. I was rather captivated by the pair of airboats on the lake which we passed a couple of times. These we basically pontoons with glazed shed superstructures able to carry 30 odd passengers, fitted with a big V8 petrol engine spinning a mesh enclosed prop on the rear. Tickover was quiet, but as soon as the throttle was opened they sounded like taxying aircraft !!

I cannot tell you how thrilling this was and would highly recommend such a half day trip to anyone who enjoys Florida, but doesn’t enjoy the shopping so much !!! Probably an hour’s drive from St Pete, it would be less than three hours from the West Orlando area popular with British holidaymakers.

Another class 47 joins the preserved list

Fine, it’s not my money, and I have no responsibiities towards it, but I read in the railway media yesterday that ex British Railways class 47, 47712 has been bought from Direct Rail Services by a group based at Crewe Heritage Centre. Genuine good luck to them, but on discussing it with a close mate, his first words were “not another one, there’s too many preserved already !!” Those were my thoughts but not my words back to him. Speaking to a colleague at work the other week, a similar conversation cropped up about class 50s, and this was recounted back to my mate.

It has to be said that back in the day, my mate and myself were not particularly into class 50s, preferring the 16 wheelers and the baby Sulzers – in fact all things Sulzer really. So when I mentioned the “class 50” word, it sparked off a discourse about how there were too many locos lying around waiting for those few dedicated volunteers to raise whatever cash they could to restore their chosen locos. I do share his sentiment to a degree, but it is of course nothing to do with us what people do in their spare time with their money. We only speculate and waste bandwidth.

I guess it is all down to personalities and pecking orders and stuff, and how people want to do their own thang. I believe there are two class 50s sitting at Tyseley in the West Midlands, gathering dust and rust. Neither have run for a few years despite one – 50033 leaving the National collection at York as a running loco around seven years ago. I believe the other 50021 is in need of a large electrical component, of which there are few in existence. 50033 has apparently just passed into the care of preservation company at Tyseley so it is hoped that it will be restored to running order, but who knows the fate of it’s current shedmate.

So going back to the preservation of 47712, it is quite ironic that the first of the class 47s to have returned to running order in preservation, now languishes at Crewe presumably waiting funds and manpower to restore it to working order again, whilst another practically identical locomotive joins it. Will it become another 50021 ? Who knows

Happy and healthy 2013 for all model railway enthusiasts

Well the nasty November and December weather is behind us, the madness of the festive period has come and gone, and we are now headlong into the year 2013. A real effort needs to be made to shed some excess pounds and healthy up the body and soul.

I have been somewhat distracted from my Bescot book project for the past few weeks for various reasons, one in particular being the 2013 production announcements of the toy and hobby company Hornby. There was a new buzzword bandied around “Design clever”, and this according to some online scribes was to be the success or failure of Hornby in the model railway marketplace. “Design clever” was mentioned as a precursor to the 2013 announcement, and has promoted a good deal of froth on forums as enthusiasts eagerly discuss what it actually means to the man wiv da wallet in the model shop. There has been some Hornby mention of coach roof vents and handrails possibly being moulded as one, rather than numerous separate parts needing to be factory assembled, leading to higher production costs. This in turn, has prompted some model railway enthusiasts to declare unhappiness, as it seems a retrograde step from the separately fitted fittings, handrails etc  of the last decade of new model production. Wait and see is the only real option here, after possibly taking the option of giving feedback to the head honcho at Hornby, who has apparently requested same on a particularly popular model railway forum.

The 2013 list provides little inspiration for my particular channel of interest – 1960s and 1970s BR(LM) in the Black Country, so I’ll not be straining at the leash to experience “design clever” in the plastic, but do hope Hornby are making sensible decisions

Railway modelling – was it in my genes ?

I was born in Coventry and my parents kept a model railway shop in the east side of the city on Humber Road – just up from the Rootes factory and more or less opposite the Co-operative.

The shop was known as Finisters, and I think my father added “of Coventry” to it when he took it over. Being a lifelong railway enthusiast and very interested in railway modelling he saw a gap in the market and the shop started to fill with models, kits and all sorts of modelling supplies.

My memories are not too clear but I knew that Gosford Green goods yard was located a few hundred yards to the rear of the shop, and was spanned by a long grey iron footbridge. Distant and hazy memories are of two tone green Sulzer type 2s shunting the yard, and the construction of a container crane to modernise the handling of Rootes car components. Blue articulated lorries formed a shuttle service to ferry the 20′ containers from the Humber road works to Gosford Green to load onto freightliner flats.

At home, my dad built a OO gauge model railway in the loft which was based on Blisworth on the West Coast Main Line between Rugby and Bletchley. I will write more about this in future blogs.

Towards the end of the 1960s my father became tired of city life and had taken to visiting Wales on Sunday trips. He eventually bought a huge house cum Post Office, cum washhouse cum bakery cum slaughterhouse, located in Upper Corris in the then county of Merioneth. To move our household belongings, my dad bought a ex Co-op surplus Morris LD van. 23 trips later, in January 1971 we finally were moved to the Post Office, and Finisters of Coventry became a mail order business.

My father’s production of models must have been quite prolific in the 1960s because I remember seeing what seemed like rows of LMS black locomotives, with a few red ones !! Many of the LNWR designs such as the “George V, Precursor, Prince of Wales, Claughton etc as well as the smaller locos.

By the 1970s some diesels had appeared including the Triang Brush type 2 and type 4, the brand new Triang Hornby class 25 and the equally new Joueff class 40. This latter model was really quite disproportionate, and I recall my dad taking a hacksaw blade to the body and cutting it into sixteen pieces, then glueing it back together, in an attempt to slim it down to it’s correct width. Of course, the French company were not the only model makers to blunder with the width of their model, the Danish firm Heljan suffering a similar problem a couple of decades later !!

With all this model railway action going on in my young life, there probably was a very good chance that I would follow my father’s footsteps in the model railway hobby.

American country music in my life

In 1971 our family moved to North Wales- a small village in the mountains where radio reception wasn’t really too good. In fact, the only BBC stations were Radio 2 and Radio 4, and we could occasionally receive “Fab 208” as Radio Luxembourg was known. Radio 4 was the current affairs programme with lots of spoken word, so it was really down to Radio 2 to entertain me, particularly as my father didn’t want us to have a television.

Radio 2 played a mix of styles of music but I do remember the odd country singer being played. Billie Jo Spears, Glen Campbell, Tammy Wynette, Don Williams etc etc. This must have been the turning point for me, and the start of a passion for country music. Of course I only really listened to the radio in my bedroom, as my father at that time was strictly into classical stuff and generally played his choices on the Hi fi system. Apart from classical music I do remember the odd Welsh song being played from a record of the group named “Hogia’r Wyddfa” translated as “boys of Snowdon”.

My sister had an old Dansette record player and bought the odd “45”. If I remember correctly she had “Leader of the pack” by the Shangri Las as one of her collection, but I cannot recall any others with any accuracy. My sister married and moved to South Wales, and I started work. Not sure how long I had been working for but I decided to buy a stereo system “on the club”. This marvellous machine could play the new fangled stereo cassettes, and had an MW/LW tuner for radio reception, as well as the record deck for playing your “33”s and “45”s.

With the stereo system I bought three LPs, The Hollies, and two Abba albums. The Hollies 20 Golden Greats was brand new in 1978 and was a breath of fresh air compared to what was played at home. Abba – well everyone loves a bit of Abba don’t they ?

Two years later and it was time to move away from home, through a job promotion. I recall leaving home on that morning, my mum and dad taking me to the railway station to catch the train – boxed stereo system under one arm, and a holdall of clothes on the other. I lived around Walsall for a number of years and visited the library off and on, to borrow cassettes and later, CDs to further educate myself on my growing country music tastes.

All of a sudden Tanya Tucker, Reba McEntire, Boxcar Willie and many others became part of my life. The tuner on my stereo system came alive with radio stations galore and I discovered there were odd programmes devoted to country music – Wally Whyton and David Allan presented Country Club on a Thursday night and local Beacon Radio also presented a rado show.

Moving on I discovered The Judds, the Forrester Sisters, Janie Fricke, Barbara Mandrell and Lacy J Dalton as well as Vince Gill and many others. Working at Bescot I made friends with my buddy Steve Howard, who I discovered also loved country music. We went to a couple of concerts together at the Odeon in Birmingham New St – Boxcar Willie and Don Williams. Around the mid 1980s I discovered the Rhinestone Country & Western club which met in the Birchills club in Walsall on a Monday night. This was another chance of a country music fix, mostly live bands playing, and a few times we were graced with visits from Pinto Bennett and the Famous Motel Cowboys from the USA.

The Birchills club was fun, apart from those who enjoyed their gun drawers. Selfishly I always wanted more music rather than watch the participants draw guns on each other. Probably around this time, a train driver from Bescot named Benny Bennett was at a low point after a marriage breakup. I suggested he come to the club, he did, and did it change him. Ben really entered into the spirit of the club and started making outfits up to wear. Being a fairly short rotund fellow with crinkly grey hair and a beard, Ben adopted for himself the persona of a preacher, wearing big clokes and tall round top hats, which along with his circular spectacles really presented a particular image.

The 1980s turned into the 1990s and I married my wonderful wife Tracy. She showed some interest in my country music, particularly Shania Twain, who I’d first heard played by Terry Wogan on his breakfast show. The 1993 self titled album was played frequently in our house, until “The woman in me” was released in 1995. Around the same time the Mavericks started producing records which were obtainable here in England. A revolutionary sound often using a brass section, the Mav’s were very different, and very fresh, and sold a lot of discs and cassettes.

Another band which became popular in our house was the Dixie Chicks, although there were many many more, some discovered through reading the specialist country music magazines or listening to the radio stations. It was probably around this time that we first started using the internet, and were able to search out information like discographies etc.

Our first holiday to the USA involved a week in Orlando and a week in the Dominican Republic, this giving me my first chance to visit an American record shop !! We’ve never looked back since !! some of our holidays allowed us to see the CMA awards on US television – always a good evening to grab a takeout meal and a bottle of beer.

Tracy’s choices moved through Colin Raye and Clint Black, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Rascall Flatts. My chosen music drifted more toward the ladies, particularly Shelby Lynne and her sister Alison Moorer, and bluegrass angels like Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent.

Of course media has changed, Us Brits enjoyed CMT for a while on an analogue satellite broadcast, but lost it again when the digital replacement arrived. David Allan replaced Wally Whyton on BBC Radio 2, and then was replaced by “whispering” Bob Harris with his own particularly brand of country music. Matthew Carr on Shropshire Radio sadly ended the broadcasting of his country musc programme, and a short while later Marie Crichton started presenting her Monday night show. All of a sudden things improved, and I discovered that I share a lot of Marie’s choice in country music.

I started hearing of Dawn Sears and Kimberly Murray, and through the use of youtube was able to discover Amber Digby and Miss Leslie, as well as male counterparts Gene Watson and Dale Watson. All these names hailing from Texas, along with many others have given me a whole new insight into American country music such that I believe Texas has replaced Nashville for real country music.

A couple of weeks ago on Marie’s show, she mentioned a visit by Miss Leslie to the Royal British Legion club in Higher Bebington on the Wirral that Friday. I rang Bernie to arrange a ticket, and he told me of an internet radio show he presents on a Thursday evening – http://www.7waves.co.uk. I was disappointed not to have anyone to accompany me (Tracy at work) so I toddled off up the A41 and M53, and enjoyed one of the greatest country music evenings ever. I think Miss Leslie and the band would be the first to admit it wasn’t a “polished” performance, but I don’t think they had had so much fun in a long time. Miss Leslie was pleased to tell us she wanted to sing “Working girl blues” until the band explained what sort of hours a working girl in Liverpool might be out until !!! I should mention that Miss Leslie flew the “red eye” into Manchester that morning, had a quick rest, then a couple of hours of “rehearsal” with the North west based band. It was a fabulous night and we hope she will return to the UK soon.

That brings my 40 years of country music pretty much up to date, but I’ll doubtless add more as and when

 

The calm of a rural lane

We moved to Great Wyrley in the summer of 1996 and I immediately realised that this was a wonderful place to live. Our gardens back onto farmer’s fields used for agriculture and grazing, and there are also fields opposite the house on the other side of the lane, which are used solely for horse grazing. A very peaceful place to live.

But as with all roads in the UK traffic has increased and our lane is used as a “cut through” at morning and evening “commuter” times by people trying to avoid traffic nd by farm tractors at all times, and occasionally by boy racers in the evenings.

For the last few weeks, traffic in our lane has very seriously reduced due to some bridge work on the adjoining Gorsey Lane. It appears contractors are repairing or replacing a bridge which carries Gorsey Lane over an old mine tramway. I believe this cable worked tramway used to convey coal from Wyrley No 3 pit over to the canal basin and railway yard for onwards distribution.

It is only temporary but the dearth of commuter traffic means this temporary peace is wonderful !!!