The Galloping Sausage And Other Train Curiosities.

[TheQ]

That would you believe is the title of a railway book I've been reading, it brings together stories from throughout the UK. But there is a high east Anglian content.

Three in particular catch my eye.

An event on the 10th of September 1965, involving a yacht called " The Four of Hearts" which on dropping it's sails to moor at Reedham, missed its mooring , its  engine failed to start, so it drifted towards the bridge, which was open ..for the 534 ton Ellen M, which on swerving to avoid the yacht hit the bridge..

In a story about the long gone Breydon railway bridge , it points out that the enabling acts of parliament stated if that or several other bridges failed to open within 1/2 an hour for river traffic there was an automatic £5 fine....

I wonder if that still applies...

 

And in the August 1912 floods many passengers were trapped around Norfolk on trains, those in GY at Beach Station and Vauxhall Station were accomodated in the carriages and  station buildings. They were then fed  were fed kippers for breakfast and fried fish for lunch.. for several days..

 

[YnysMon]

That’s a bit fishy!

Do we know what happened to Ellen M?

[grendel]

6 hours ago, YnysMon said:

That’s a bit fishy!

Do we know what happened to Ellen M?

it came after K and before N  

[Vaughan]

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

An event on the 10th of September 1965, involving a yacht called " The Four of Hearts"

I gave the trial run on that yacht!    

And when we got down there, the engine started normally.  Perhaps they should have started it before lowering the sails.  The Ellen M glanced off the bridge pier on the Ship Inn side and when they shut the bridge again, the rails were 4 inches out of line!

[TheQ]

10 hours ago, YnysMon said:

That’s a bit fishy!

Do we know what happened to Ellen M?

The first Ellen M was torpedoed off lowestoft at 22:44 1st Feb 1940 with the loss of all hands .

The second Ellen M there's little Info on , here's a sister ship.

[Vaughan]

The M stood for Metcalfe, if I remember right.

[TheQ]

3 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

The M stood for Metcalfe, if I remember right.

Correct from what I've read, after various mergers and bout outs they became part of , James Fisher and sons who still exist.  https://www.james-fisher.com/

[Vaughan]

The other company that traded a lot to Norwich was Everards, whose names all ended in ITY, such as Serenity, Absurdity, Obscenity, and one or two others . . . .