Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: 1977

Feeding the birds on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. The Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner and the Palace of Westminster seem much closer than they really are but almost 50 years of tree growth has spoilt the view today.

I bought this 1973 MG B Roadster from a Mr Swindell of Prattville Alabama... I hadn't been there long but thought it might be ideal for the southern Louisiana weather. Yes & no. Mainly no. New Orleans is semi-tropical so hot & humid for most of the time and raining a lot of the time. Being caught on the freeway with the roof down in torrential rain is not a great experience. Nevertheless the MG was a fun car to drive. This shot was taken at Lakeside shopping centre off Veteran's Boulevard I believe. The MG is in the company of many 1970s classic American motors none of which I can identify

Aberdeen Station Class 47 diesel 47251 departs past the fabulous signal gantries that used to grace this line. I was returning from supervising a VSP velocity survey on Mobil's Beryl oil production platform & an exploration well in the same block in April 1977. After a helicopter ride from the offshore rig to Sulom Voe in the Shetlands the onward flight to Aberdeen was by DC3 Dakota - brilliant. I then took the train from Aberdeen to Kings Cross changing at Waverley but because I hadn't slept for 48 hours I missed most of the journey south of Edinburgh being slumped in my seat asleep.

View north from Leicester station. Peak class diesels 45159 & 45114 slowly draw a train towards the station although the signals seem to be against them. In fact that's the signalman hurrying back to his box to clear the Inner Home. Meanwhile a dmu is heading northwards under clear signals on the Down Main. 45159 had failed within sight of the station & fortunately 45114 was on hand in the station & was dispatched to retrieve it. The whole episode only took half an hour or so. I wonder how long it would take today if a Midland Mainline train failed here? There are only very few locomotives around, if any, & those would be EWS or Freightliner owned so difficulties with insurance, liabilities, etc would make it a long drawn out procedure I'm sure. Until the 1980s Leicester Midland before modernisation was an interesting place with a definite steam-age atmosphere. Leicester North's Midland Railway signal box, a forest of semaphore signals, the loco stabling point behind the box and, off shot to the left, the LNWR & MR Goods yards all added their bit. Interestingly, the loading gauge post on the extreme left has lost its hanging gauge hoop which could still be seen on a 1975 photo I posted elsewhere. A clear indication of the further loss of freight business in the intervening two years.