April 2021 - The MrT Podcast Studio

LotWL Episode 31 – Autumn Steam Gala 2019

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:00 — 21.1MB)

Episode 31 – The Autumn Steam Gala 2019

Welcome to The Autumn Steam Gala 2019 where I see some locomotives in pristine condition and talk to people. This is being published in time for the Spring Steam Gala 2021.

To view the photographs that accompany this podcast:

Please click here to open the gallery in another tab.

When the gallery is open ‘hovering’ over a picture shows arrows to move forwards (or back), enlarge the picture (an ‘X’ in the top right hand corner) and close the gallery (an ‘X’ in the bottom right hand corner).

Alresford to Medstead & Four Marks:

The Gala takes place on a beautiful Autumn weekend. The railway cannot operate into Alton because a bridge is being replaced. This also means that there is no access to the mainline via the link at Alton Station.

The 2019 Autumn Steam Gala is using the Watercress Line’s fleet of steam locomotives.

D8059:

The British Rail Class 20 locomotive is doing a sterling job getting the steam locomotives into the right place. It is busily going hither and thither around the Ropley tracks.

Known as ‘Choppers’ because, under load, they sound like like helicopters, 228 of these locomotives were built between 1957 and 1968. The locomotives weigh 73 tonnes and can deliver 1,000 HP. These locomotives worked mixed freight traffic at up to 75 mph.

D8059 entered service in 1961 and was based at depots in the Sheffield area until British Rail retired it in 1990.

You can find a video of D8059 in action at the Gala here.

Cheltenham:

Cheltenham is looking magnificent. Freshly painted and sporting the British Railways designation 30925. Cheltenham is a Richard Maunsell design and was built at Eastleigh. They are the most powerful 4-4-0s built in Europe.

The class was withdrawn in 1961 / 62 and three, including the National Rail Museum owned Cheltenham, are at heritage railways.

S15 Class number 506:

Robert Urie designed this class for the London and South Western Railway. The L&SWR also built the Watercress Line.

The locomotive has just come back into service after a long overhaul and this is it’s first Gala Weekend. The paintwork is in the style used by Southern Railway freight locomotives post 1927.

No. 506 first entered service in October 1920 and continued until January 1964. Over a million miles steamed she broke down on her way to Woodham Brothers scrap yard.

7 of the class live on in preservation.

Find out more about the Watercress Line:

To visit the Watercress Line website please follow this link to the Watercress Line.

Please consider donating to the Line at this time because over the past year costs continued but there was very little income. To donate please click here.

Events at the Watercress Line:

You can find out more about the Day Out with Thomas, running from 29th May to the 6th June 2021 by scrolling down on this page.

About ‘Life on the Watercress Line’

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl.

AKM Music has licensed Steam Railway for use as the theme music.

Joseph McDade has licensed his work Backplate for use as incidental music.

TH 19-20 T21 Poverty by Lorna Thomas

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:46 — 58.4MB)

Season 2019 / 2020 – Talk 21 – Poverty

In Poverty Lorna Thomas takes us on a journey through the centuries from the middle ages to the early twentieth century.

The talk is illustrated with pictures and diagrams which illustrate Lorna’s words. Please click on an icon below to open the gallery.

In Feudal times….

We learn about the stratification of society in Feudal times. We find, above all the layers the Pope and Church, and then see the layers within a country’s society. There are five distinct layers from Monarch to Serf.

We also learn of the ‘Three Field’ system of crop rotation which includes fallow land. There are also forests, commons, meadows and rivers to consider.

At this time even the poorest in the community were able to grow crops and raise stock to provide food.

The Black Death

In June 1348 the plague entered England, reportedly through the port of Melcombe Regis. It had already devastated parts of Europe. By October it reaches London and when it starts to fade in 1351 it is estimated that up to 50% of the population across Europe has died.

The Peasants Revolt

An enormous change occurs in society following the Black Death. The Feudal system is dying and the aristocracy pass laws to keep the peasants in their place.

A ‘poll tax’ is the final straw, and Wat Tyler and his band of Kentish men march on London.

Agriculture changes…

We learn of the advances in farming, the growth of yeoman farmers and the effect of enclosures. All of the make the traditional small holding of the peasant farmer untenable and we start to see real poverty.

The Industrial Revolution and the growth of cities

The new farms rely on fewer farm workers and so people gravitate towards the cities where new, mechanised, industries need large numbers of low paid people. These cities generate large slums for the poor. Those who cannot work go hungry.

New roads, the building of canals and, later, the railways aid the industrialisation. These make it easier to transport the new goods over long distances. The railways make it possible for the rapid transport of food to all parts of the country.

The workhouse

Many, at this time, see poverty as a ‘disease’ that people have brought upon themselves.

The workhouse is intended to be the last resort, somewhere so unpleasant that people will do anything to avoid it.

The beginnings of social reform

We learn of the reformers of Victorian times. The realisation during the Boer War that an undernourished population leaves the nation vulnerable.

Lorna ends with the reforms of the Liberal Government elected in 1906.

Listen to this podcast for the full story of poverty through ages.

About this podcast:

This podcast is an edited recording of a talk first given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.

The Farnham u3a site is found here.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl.

AKM Music has licensed Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

T19 20 Talk 20 Are all inventions necessary?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:45 — 30.0MB)

Season 2019 / 2020 – Talk 20 – Are all inventions necessary

In Are all inventions necessary Joanne Watson introduces us to a great number of inventions that, for some, make one wonder about the sanity of the inventors. For others, we must wonder about the users!

To fully appreciate Joanne’s talk you should follow her presentation, accessed below. The images really do bring the talk to life!

Please Click Here

The gallery opens in a new tab. If you wish to enlarge an picture please click on the at the top right hand corner of the image.

Three serious inventions

We start with the wheel. Possibly one of the most important inventions ever. It certainly makes driving a car more comfortable!

Joanne then moves on to the Autocannon devised by James Puckle in 1716 and the Gatling Gun. Dr Richard Jordan Gatling firmly believed his gun would help stop the bloodshed on the world’s battlefields!

Then we move to the strange….

A mechanism to help you pull on your boots. Then a ventilated Top Hat that stops the misery of the build up of steam.

Other ideas might have a scientific use

An apparatus to define the height of clouds may well be of meteorological importance. Designs for a family fire escape may be important., if you’re at the right window…..

Then we learn about mechanical leeches, an anti garrotting cravat and a corset with expanding busts. We marvel at the ingenuity of the inventors of yester year!

Then we look at the dangerous…

Joanne tells us about the expansion of crinolines. Harmless you may think …. but stand too close to a fire! But then who’d follow a fashion that requires you to use radio active makeup?

Of course the safety regulations were much less in days gone by. Cocaine in your cough pastilles and toothache drops was seen as normal.

Then inventions that ‘helped’ the world

The first Traffic Lights in Westminster, sadly resulting in a gas explosion. Then something called the telephone, a device described as ‘too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication’ whilst the Post Office said ‘the Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys’.

In case we think Joanne is getting serious

We learn of an animal trap that relies on a revolver, a lamp that also acts as a vending machine that could be easily defrauded and a mass shaving apparatus in America.

Listen to the full story of these and many more inventions in this podcast.

About this podcast:

This podcast is an edited recording of a talk first given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.

The Farnham u3a site is found here.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl.

AKM Music has licensed Media Magazine for use as the theme music.