Red Star parcels

Just had a look and Old Tom's 8.5%! So it seems that comes under the 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'

 

I still remember going out drinking with a mate of mine (the same one alluded to elsewhere) once when we were on a training course. I remember the hangover caused by the disproportionate consumption of Old Tom

 

Perhaps you're confusing it with Owd Roger from Marstons? Stand to be proved wrong, but I can only ever recall it being named Old Tom.

 

In the 1980s I was involved in a major station redevelopment. At one end there was huge difficulty reconciling the needs of taxis, hotel parking, drop-off and Red Star Parcels. They had the biggest vehicles and the layout eventually thrashed out was rather dictated by their needs. Worked OK right until they packed up a few years later.

 

Going back to when I was a kid in the late 1970's and early 1980's, my Dad was responsible for distributing the "Church of England Newspaper" to those in the congregation of the church that wanted to read it. That entailed a slight detour every Sunday morning to pick up a roll of papers from the local station that had come down from London via Red Star. Got to the point that the regular Sunday staff would recognise me as I walked in the door and get the package without even being asked.

 

How am I feeling nostalgic for something I never experienced?

 

Not sure if it was via Red Star but I remember a few times when I was 'spotting' crates of pigeons arriving by rail complete with instructions for staff to "Please release at 1pm" or similar and with a return address for the cages. Apparently that's how they used to train (no pun intended) them. Sending them slightly further afield each time...

 

Carrying racing pigeons was once big business for the railways. As @gwilialan says, individual pigeon fanciers dispatched their birds by rail on training flights, but more importantly, during the summer racing season special pigeon trains travelled to the major race release points, such as York, Hexham, Fraserburgh and Wick (known to the pigeon racing fraternity as the "North Road") and specific stations towards the south-west (the "South Road"). The LNER had specially adapted full brake coaches for pigeon traffic and many station staff were specially trained to release the birds at the appropriate times. The traffic was largely lost to road transport during the Beeching era and finished entirely when BR stopped carrying all forms of livestock in the early 1970s, so it's demise predated the Red Star parcels service.

 

I feel something similar having never used the Red Star service but as a kid watching 'The Train Now Departing' on 'The Line That Refused To Die' episode there's an interview with a couple on Settle station with a nice 'Red Star' poster behind them! Then a few years later (1991 maybe?) I was given a choice of train sets for Christmas. Did I want 'Red Star Parcels', with a red 90? Or did I want 'Night Mail Express' with a red 46251 and a TPO that caught and dropped mail bags? No contest really! The all action train set with the Big Lizzie won! So began my admiration of things by Billy Stanier

 

I can only imagine that must have been a nightmare to clean.

 

I could well be. My memory's not what it used to be, tbh.

 

I remember in the mid-70s (1975/76?) seeing a long train of cattle wagons heading down the ECML behind a class 40. I assume they were making their final journey.

 

Probably. The last cattle traffic on BR was about 1974/75, Irish stores being transported from west coast ports to be fattened on summer grazing. A regular destination for this traffic for many years was Norwich, from whence the animals were taken to grazing marshes in East Norfolk and Suffolk. The extensive cattle docks at Trowse, used for receiving this traffic, survived for many years after the traffic ended.

The hundreds of cattle wagons were quickly scrapped, apart from a couple claimed by the NRM and four that were converted into departmentals, as access vehicles for maintenance in tunnels. All the latter vehicles survive in preservation, including one at Mangapps. According to a late 1950s BR poster that we have in our collection, there were no less than 11,500 cattle wagons in service at that time, but only those six original wagons survive.

 

Before its recent conversion to a Brake Third, the Severn Valley Railway's 24506 began life as full brake pigeon coach (BGP) 70759. The brake portion still retains the racks used to hold pigeon baskets. There are a number of pictures at
http://www.svrwiki.com/LNER_24506_Brake_Third

 

Red Star did have a facility for sending pigeons in individual containers.
I used it to send an errant pigeon from Kings Cross to Leeds as late as 1988

 

One of the more modern items of railwayana at Mangapps Railway Museum. Formerly at Clapham Junction Station.

 

There is still one of those in situ on the station approach road to Guildford.

 

Someone had better get a ladder out, it's the railwayana of the future.

As a friend in the railwayana world often says, "It's still out there!"

 

There's a really nice EWS 3 beasties sign on not too far from my current abode, I did send a email to someone at DB about it,asking how much and could I purchase it please? No response and I think it's still there, but you just know some scroat's going to whip it away one day.

 

It's another downside of the "modern" railway. Before privatisation you could contact the local BR manager and, if the item was redundant, he could contact Collector's Corner at Euston, who would set a price and you, having paid, could go and remove it. Failing that, a direct approach to Bob Ballard, the CC manager would often produce the same result. So you got the desired item and BR got something for it. Now you have a situation that benefits nobody and simply encourages theft.