Glorious Steam Locomotives

[rentbook2u]

The Worth Valley Railway - hurrah!

You've just relighted several memories in an old ex-Keighley boy!

[BillShipton]

Sorry i'm giggling again, bill was in the porn industry and got paid to right a piece on trains. Thats mad

regards

Andy

Not just trains (though I did a lot of them) ...lots of classic cars, planes (I was taken on an air race once), traction engines, fire appliances (only once) powerboats, nostalgia stuff like old fruit machines, you name it.

And that was just for Mayfair! I also worked briefly as "Nostalgia correspondent" for Saga magazine (ironic as I was only about 30 at the time) and wrote numerous features on everything from vending machines to vehicles for them too.

That's why I'm such a bore.

[andy250]

You know the worst thing about this is, when I was growing up, use to do the usual things nck yer dads porno mags, and inbetween veiwing all the porn. I would also read the stuff the colums, ie cars and trains, etc. All these years later its turned out you where writing them, MAD AS CHEESE!!!!! that is.

regards

Andy
(the reporter!!!)

[Richard]

The only reason I used to buy Mayfair every month was on the off chance there might be an article on trains amongst the tits & arses.

[Hayley]

And don't forget Carrie the colour strip cartoon! She quite often got in a mess at a time when that stuff was unheard of elsewhere. Bill has an original Carrie piece of artwork given to him by the artist (Steve Kingston - though he didn't invent her) in which, amongst other things, she gets a cake slammed in her face and her bare boob pushed into a goldfish bowl!

When I saw Bill's Mayfair collection, I loved them all and sooooo wanted to be her. Sadly I don't have the boobs for it! Great 80s outfits too!

Hayley

[Richard]

This Channel 4 microsite is quite good about the "race to the north".

The C4 website is quite interesting but full of inaccuracies; the train introduced by the LNER in 1927 was the Silver Jubilee, not the Flying Scotsman, (which, by the way was a train running between Kings Cross and Edinburgh as well as being the name given to an A3 pacific locomotive, - now preserved but in a dreadfully vandalised state). The A3s were the forerunners of the A4s but not streamlined.

In the 'Design' section of the site, it's hard to know where to begin! The word 'pacific', in this context describes the 4-6-2 wheel arrangement only so neither the A4s nor the Coronation class locos were derived from the same design. The A4s were developed from Gresley's earlier work on the Great Northern Railway, while Stanier, as a former Great Western man based his ideas on work begun by Churchward in the early 20th century. Coronation Scot was the name of the train not the locomotive.

[Richard]

Re: 'Mayfair', I loved the McB cartoons which were so detailed and sometimes had content of a sploshing nature. I have sent one to Hayley for inclusion on this thread as I can't do it myself

Richard.

[Lizzie_Claymore]

The C4 website is quite interesting but full of inaccuracies

True but when did you last read anything in any media about a subject you know something about and not be able to pick holes in it! (I'm sure Bill's articles were perfect, of course! )

Not quite sure what you meant about 4472? According to the NRM: "The locomotive has now been withdrawn from service, as the current period of certification which legally allows it to run on the main line has expired. It will be completely dismantled and overhauled to the highest possible standards in order to re-certify it for the next seven to ten years. We are hoping to complete this process by late 2007 in order that the locomotive can be back hauling trains."

Is there a 'back story' that they aren't releasing?

[Richard]

Just that it doesn't look anything like it did when it was originally withdrawn from service. The German style smoke deflectors, the double tender, the livery, etc. I know that these modifications were done to make it a better runner for mainline excursions but to a purist it simply is NOT the original Flying Scotsman. All preserved steam locomotives have parts renewed and usually finish up like George Washingtons famous 'original' axe, having had six new handles and two new heads! But at least the replacements should look like the original bits; if you are going to 'improve' on the original then it becomes a different beast altogether.

If during the dismantling and overhaul it can be restored to its condition when it was built then I will be happy but I suspect that it will emerge as the efficient modern loco that it has recently become.

Richard.

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Oh right. I didn't realise they'd been tinkering with it. I tend to agree with you. It's the same with Classic Cars. If it's been modified, it's not concours but hot-rodded, no matter how well it's been done (and I'd much prefer concours any day - most of those mods are hideous vandalism)! Having said that, it comes down to whether replacement is better than keeping the parts you have (i.e. the "but is it original" issue). That's always another lively debate in the classic car circles.

I suppose it depends on NRMs view of restoration versus conservation in this case.

[Hayley]

Re: 'Mayfair', I loved the McB cartoons which were so detailed and sometimes had content of a sploshing nature. I have sent one to Hayley for inclusion on this thread as I can't do it myself

Richard.

Here it is, sorry about the delay - was in the car all day yesterday.

[BillShipton]

There is a (mildly) interesting story connected to the cartoon above.

I wasn't at Mayfair when it first appeared however I was when it was re-scheduled to appear in Best of Mayfair (No 1, I think) which I had the dubious and financially unrewarding task of helping compile. It was the editor, Ken Bound who has put this cartoon on the pagination and when everyone saw it there was considerable consternation. Many of the editorial department claimed it was glorifying sexual abuse and the lawyer was very definitely against it as it was during the height of the feminist "porn causes rape" rows and could be seen as excalating their grievances. Ken on the other hand dismissed the arguments saying, "It's not rape, it's more a romp." an argument which didn't actually improve matters.

I am sure that no magazine would dare publish a cartoon like that now for the same reasons but as I recall it did make it into the mag back in the mid-80s. How do people see it now?

PS Best of Mayfair went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and make the owner/editor Ken Bound even more money than he already had. I think the editorial team got a glass of champagne out of it. Not that I'm bitter, of course.

[Phantom]

It's amazing to think that such a beautifully painted picture could be done just for a mere porn mag. Every little detail is accurate and perfect. I particularly love the upskirt view on the shocked stockings and suspenders woman flying through the air.

On the subject of 'Carrie' ... I first saw it as a teen. I think I only ever saw 3 Carrie cartoons and 2 of them had some sort of messy content. One that really stuck in my mind had her in a car park carrying groceries. She ended up falling and somehow losing her clothes (bra tangled up in a car ariel?) and having eggs on her breasts (I think) and a cream cake on her muff.

It's quite a vague memory. What's important about 'Carrie' for me, is that those cartoons came at a time when the only WAM I'd seen had been in 'harmless' stuff like Laurel & Hardy, Double Decker, Tiswas etc ... kids friendly TV. Carrie was the first time I'd seen my secret fantasies in a concrete way - messy fun and sex together!!!

I'm wondering - how many Carrie episodes were ever made (roughly) and how many of them had some kind of WAM material.

Also - as I recall, the Carrie episodes I saw had no dialogue at all. Everything was visual humour. Is that right?

Better yet - does anyone still have any Carrie cartoons they'd be willing to post?

Phantom

[BillShipton]

Carrie was a double page spread on an A4 magazine so it would be difficult to scan a whole strip. If I can I will try and find a picture from the few mags I have left (I had a purge and chucked most of mine out). It had no dialogue just three lines of 24 letters at the top to tell the story. It was my (or one of my colleagues') job to write this and get as many puns in the approx eight words as possible! Good training for tabloid writing which I needed for later life. The idea, of course, of writing to a 'character count' is now as archaic as typewriters and carbon paper.

When I left Mayfair to go freelance, I discussed with Ken the idea of putting together a Carrie book and getting it published. Unfortunately, Ken then sold Mayfair to Paul Raymond and we agreed that the question of who owned the right to the Carrie name could get extremely tangled legally (officially PR only owned the rights to the film used to print strips in the magazine not the original artwork - the copyright of which should belong to the original artist - but the artist lived in a council flat in Wapping and Raymond was a millionaire so it wasn't a battle anyone was keen to fight). Also several artists drew Carrie and nobody knew who 'invented' her (she was even replaced briefly with her sister Connie when one of the artists wouldn't do it for the money any more!). But in my opinion Steve Kingston's were the best. They were even more detailed than the Romp cartoon above.

I think I may set up a Mayfair Memories thread....there are so many stories (quite a few WAM related) from those days.

PS Where Carrie was required to fight another girl, Steve used to use all his friends, neighbours and even his girlfriend as models! We never told the lawyer that cos he would have shat himself.

[BillShipton]

Oh, and quite understandably, you say it is surprising that artwork that good should appear in a "mere porn mag". It would be true now. But in the early 80s, Mayfair was the equivalent of FHM selling 350,000-plus copies and the 16th best selling mag in the country (way above Private Eye for instance). So they had the budget - not that the owner parted with much of it.