leyland motors

[jwhi]

I remember the big white banana boats moored near Watery Lane, bringing bananas (well, they would) from the West Indies. The dock was busy in those days.
After closure there was a crackpot idea to fill in the dock basin with rubbish and level the site.....how short-sighted can you be?

John

We're not having much luck getting mum mbers to contribute Frank, it doesn't augur well for the future of the forum. Today we walked around the marina at Preston. Years ago I used to drive along strand Road where the Dock is or rather was, it closed in 1984 I think, and used to wonder what was going on behind the doors, you couldn't tell it was actually a dock. Now it's been opened up and converted into a marina with shops along one side, apartments on the opposite side and a local steam rail running across the end of the marina. A journey of a couple of miles. But it's a great feeling when you're there as it chugs past. There's a dragon boat team there and we were able to watch the racing a couple of months ago.

[anacortesdamp]

I remember the banana boats also, John. There were special trains that ran from Preston Docks down to the London station nearest to the big produce market, to get the bananas into the food chain quickly. They must have gone up that steep track that crossed Strand Road to get to the station.

Frank D.

[jwhi]

Yes I suppose they must have, then under Fishergate Hill to the station. Did you ever work at Strand Road Frank? Wasn't it what we always called Dick,Kerr's or was that the other side of the road?

John

I remember the banana boats also, John. There were special trains that ran from Preston Docks down to the London station nearest to the big produce market, to get the bananas into the food chain quickly. They must have gone up that steep track that crossed Strand Road to get to the station.

Frank D.

[anacortesdamp]

John:

I worked at the Strand Road plant for about 3 months during my apprenticeship "tour". It was not a pleasant experience and I never went back again. The first batch of TSR-2 airplanes were under construction at the time. The first one was already in flight test at A&AEE- Boscombe Down and the second one was complete and was also at Boscombe, but hadn't flown. Eight fuselages were in work when the Wilson government cancelled it.

As I remember, both factory buildings were originally "Dick, Kerr's" and the name was changed to "English Electric" some time in WW2. The airplane manufacturing was on the Preston side of Strand Road and the railway locomotive work (the Deltic and other diesel-electrics) was on the other side at the time I was there. Several different aircraft, from other manufacturers' designs, were built for the RAF during the war, followed by the Canberra, then the Lightning in the post war years. They were both"English Electric Aviation" projects. I don't think airplane construction re-started there after TSR-2. It moved to the Samlesbury airfield site for later products.


Frank D.

[noel]

The railway carriage manufacturing on strand Road finally closed this year the parent company Alstom decided the plant was no longer viable
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.c...e-41753242

[jwhi]

I remember seeing the Lightning coming over when I was at Farington school Frank......probably on flight test at that time. I think we knew it as P2. That was always my favourite plane at Farnborough Air Show, the way it could climb vertically from take-off and disappear into the blue yonder. Saw it many times. I believe that when it was at full power like that it only had a few minutes flight time

Noel, have the factory buildings been demolished on Strand Road?

John

John:

I worked at the Strand Road plant for about 3 months during my apprenticeship "tour". It was not a pleasant experience and I never went back again. The first batch of TSR-2 airplanes were under construction at the time. The first one was already in flight test at A&AEE- Boscombe Down and the second one was complete and was also at Boscombe, but hadn't flown. Eight fuselages were in work when the Wilson government cancelled it.

As I remember, both factory buildings were originally "Dick, Kerr's" and the name was changed to "English Electric" some time in WW2. The airplane manufacturing was on the Preston side of Strand Road and the railway locomotive work (the Deltic and other diesel-electrics) was on the other side at the time I was there. Several different aircraft, from other manufacturers' designs, were built for the RAF during the war, followed by the Canberra, then the Lightning in the post war years. They were both"English Electric Aviation" projects. I don't think airplane construction re-started there after TSR-2. It moved to the Samlesbury airfield site for later products.


Frank D.

[anacortesdamp]

I hadn't realised that plant was still in business until so recently, Noel. It's been some time since we last visited the UK. When EE had it, they built diesel-electric locomotives there. I think the Deltic was the last type they made. I understood that someone on the engineering team dropped a number (either 3.14 or 12) when calculating the power it needed. It was so powerful that, once it had accelerated to running speed after leaving a station stop, the crew could shut down one of its two engines and it could maintain over 100 mph on one.

Britrail used the Deltic on the Royal Scot service from Euston to Glasgow for a while, before the system changed over to electrification. I remember seeing it when I lived with my family in Hargreaves Avenue, before getting married in 1964. I think we left the UK just about the time electrification was being installed on the West Coast main line . We'd lived in the Midlands (firstly in Kenilworth and then the village of Coven, north of Wolverhampton) from November 1965 until we emigrated to the US in July 1968.


Frank

[noel]

We had a walk round the marina this afternoon and I took a few. 3, photos intending to share them but can't work out how to do it with this new format.