1950s Eastbourne

A passenger on a open-top bus snaps Eastbourne sea-front around 1951. A touring coach has parked up and edges into the shot, a Leyland TD2/Harrington all the way from Manchester. A scan from a negative in my collection.

Blighty

New arrivals into the Vintage Stuff archives are two copies of the humorous men's magazine, Blighty,  these from January 1951.

The magazine was originally published in 1916, for troops serving in the war, ceasing in 1920. It was resurrected in 1939, continuing into the 1950s, offering stories, features and cartoons (often risqué, at least for the period), again, aimed mainly at men. By the mid-1950s, pin-ups were appearing on the cover and the name was changing; by 1960 it was a proper men's magazine, Parade, continuing as such until 1974, when the contents became more explicit.

The Far Tottering & Oystercreek Railway

Roland Emett's whimsical railway creations, first seen, I believe, in the pages of Punch magazine before the war, were bought to life at the Festival of Britain at Battersea Pleasure Gardens in 1951. The 15in gauge railway saw Nellie, Neptune and Wild Goose each in the form of a 4.6.2 built by Barlow of Southport, with a diesel engine mounted what would have been the tender. After the festival, they were returned to Barlow and rebuilt as conventional miniature locomotives. The photographs were taken on 20 September by the late Mervyn Mason, the negatives of which are now in my collection.

Wild Goose at Far Tottering

Neptune arriving at Oystercreek station

Nellie 'on shed' at Oystercreek