Thursday 28th September 2006 ~ East Anglian Special Events

Roger Harrison ~ summarised by John Yelverton

Appeared in Journal 502

The new meetings season kicked off in fine style with a most enjoyable and informative presentation from our very own Roger Harrison. Roger’s theme was ‘Transport Special Events in East Anglia through from the 1970s onwards’ and this was illustrated by a varied collection of slides featuring rail, road, air and sea transport.

The first event to be featured was an Open Day at the old Norwich Surrey Street depot of Eastern Counties, on Sunday 30th September 1973. Many familiar and not so familiar types were on display, some featuring unusual and almost forgotten liveries. Included in the display were examples of types LM, LFS and LS; a diminutive LHS single decker built for Luton Corporation and an FLF in the striking all-over ‘London and Manchester Assurance’ livery.

The next ‘event’, also held at Norwich, was the Crown Point Open Day, which took place at the rail maintenance depot on 30th May 1987. This was one of several publicity exercises that accompanied the commencement, on 11th May 1987, of regular electric services between Norwich and London, and it provided an opportunity for the general public to see the work involved in servicing the East Anglian rail fleet. Depot shunter 08869 was shown, shortly after it had been named ‘The Canary’ at the open day, and we were reminded that it had been named by the then Norwich City captain, Steve Bruce, whose son Alex, now plays for the blue and white football club at the other end of the A140. For many, the star exhibit was A4 Pacific 4498 ‘Sir Nigel Gresley, looking somewhat out of place amongst the (more) modern classes. The latter were represented by a 20, 31, 37, 43, 45, two 47s, 50, 55, 56, 58, 73 and 86220 and a variety of coaching stock and diesel and electric ‘units’, including a tube car, in the shape of London Transport’s Track Recording Car TRC666. Although not officially part of the display, a sad line-up of eight withdrawn Class 03 shunters was also to be found in the sidings behind the depot; the pictures of these evoking many fond memories from our audience.

Next, we were treated to some shots of classic aircraft, taken at the Lowestoft Air Festival on three separate occasions, including some as recently as last July. A Spitfire, Hurricane, Dakota, Catalina and B17 Flying Fortress all featured, together with Lynx and Gazelle helicopters. The high quality of Roger’s photography was particularly evident in his shots of the spectacular displays by the ‘Utterly Butterly’ and ‘Red Arrow’ flying teams.

The first half of the meeting concluded with a look at the now-closed Eastern Coachworks establishment in Lowestoft, including shots taken at an open day held in July 1985. New buses for Northern General, Colchester Borough Transport and Hong Kong, and a Ribble bus undergoing a stability test, were amongst the highlights. Other ECW photos included London Transport Leyland Olympian L263, the last bus to be bodied at the Lowestoft works, on the last day before closure. As such, it received special treatment, with a high quality finish and the names of its builders written on the inner body panels for posterity.

After the interval, Roger recommenced his show with a look at the start of scheduled electric trains between Stowmarket and London, on August 5th 1985; on this day, the inaugural 07.13 departure (formed by Class 312 units, headed by 312786) was waved away by the Mayor of Stowmarket, Mr Ron Pattle.

A short ‘Shipping’ section then followed, featuring amongst others, the HSS Discovery, the ‘Pride of Suffolk’, the Felixstowe-Harwich ferry and various Norfolk Lines and Finn Lines cargo boats, the latter conveying the (now lost) paper traffic to Felixstowe. This was followed by a rally at the Ipswich Showground on July 12 1970, featuring former Ipswich trolleybus 347 in its final Walsall colours, together with a stunning variety of old buses, cars and motorcycles – truly something for everyone.

Roger’s final look at rail events covered the replacement of the Norwich swing bridge at Trowse as part of the electrification works. The old and new bridges, the temporary reopening of the 3-platform station at Trowse for passenger use and the rail replacement buses between Trowse and Thorpe station were all depicted, with a subsequent trip around the Wensum curve to Yarmouth also featured.

An Air Display at Wattisham on 16 September 1972 provided an opportunity for Roger to show us examples of a Doodlebug (not flying!!), a Messerchmitt, Tiger Moth, Scout helicopter, Nimrod, Hunter, Vampire, Meteor, Vulcan and Concorde, plus a Victor with its refuelling tubes released. An impressive line-up of no fewer than 14 Lightning’s on the runway was followed by an equally impressive display of formation flying by these stylish jet aircraft.

The meeting concluded with a Norwich bus rally on 15 September 1985, featuring buses of many types, including LFS, LFL, RT2157, FLF459, IBT 63, London Country XF3, East Yorkshire 674, and Southend Transport 252 and many other vehicles. Apart from vehicles seen out on the road, an impressive line-up of 19 vehicles at the Norwich Showground was also depicted.

So, in the course of the evening, we were treated to a total of 159 slides, covering ten separate ‘events’. Even the most knowledgeable of transport buffs, will have learnt something from Roger’s presentation, and we are indebted to him for stepping into the breach at such short notice, providing us with a nostalgic and informative evening, which was greatly appreciated by all of those present.

The vote of thanks was duly proposed by John Day and was warmly responded to by those present.

Front Cover. Anglian has just acquired what is thought to be the very last Optare Spectra - YJ56 ASZ - seen in Norwich, route branded for service 588. Photo by Fred Ward

Rear Cover Top. Driver trainer 62745 (G145 HNP) in use at Norwich towards the end of October. Photo by Fred Ward.

Rear Cover Bottom. N7, 69621 photographed at Sherringham on the 6th October. Photo by Stuart Ray.