November 2018 - The MrT Podcast Studio

U3A Open Meeting – Theme Africa – the French Foreign Legion

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:08 — 37.7MB)

Welcome to this podcast of the Farnham U3A open meeting on this year’s theme Africa where Joanne Watson talks about the French Foreign Legion.

The Annual Theme is open to all Farnham U3A members. Meetings are usually held each month in the Barley Room of the Farnham Maltings (Maximum capacity 100 people). Most of the meetings are free, however some others are ticketed.

This podcast has been released so that those members who were not able to be present have the opportunity to listen to the talk.

Joanne covers the fascinating history of the Legion. She starts with the origins of the legion. Then she covers it’s successes and failures through the decades. Having started as part of the French push into Africa, with its main base in Algeria, the role has evolved and it has fought in many theatres across the world.

Please click on a graphic to open the gallery:

Please note: all the pictures accompanying this podcast are stated as being in the Public Domain.

The Farnham U3A site is at Farnham U3A Home Page.

The theme music Local History 1960s used in this podcast is licensed from AKM Music.

This podcast is also available on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

Talking History with Farnham U3A – Exhibition Fever in the 19th Century – part A – S2018/9 03A

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 24.7MB)

In the first part of her talk on the Exhibition Fever in the 19th Century Joanne talks about exhibitions that preceded the Great Exhibition of 1851. She then talks in detail about the Great Exhibition.

After listening to Joanne please follow this link to see the V&A material.

This talk has been split into two sections to make it more convenient to listen to.

Please click on a graphic to open the gallery:

Please note: It has not been possible to include all the graphics used in the original talk due to copyright considerations.

The Farnham U3A site is at Farnham U3A Home Page.

The music Media Magazine used in this podcast is licensed from AKM Music.

This podcast is also available on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

Talking History with Farnham U3A – Exhibition Fever in the 19th Century – part B – S2018/9 03B

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:11 — 17.6MB)

In the second part of her talk on the Exhibition Fever of the 19th Century Joanne talks about some of those that followed the Great Exhibition of 1851.

There were many, both in Europe and across the Atlantic.

This talk has been split into two sections to make it more convenient to listen to.

Click on a graphic to open the gallery:

Please note: It has not been possible to include all the graphics used in the original talk due to copyright considerations.

The Farnham U3A site is at Farnham U3A Home Page.

The music Media Magazine used in this podcast is licensed from AKM Music.

The Canadian Pacific Restoration project – part 3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:59 — 13.7MB)

Welcome to the Canadian Pacific restoration project – part 3.

The Canadian Pacific restoration project – part 3, often called the CanPac project, is about the restoration of the Merchant Navy class locomotive, number 35005, Canadian Pacific and also two carriages designed by Oliver Bulleid in the 1940s.

In this episode we are in the boiler shop at Ropley. I talk to Becky and also to Sam, a fully qualified boiler inspector. Sam originally started as an apprentice at Ropley before leaving to become a boiler inspector. Tiring of inspections Sam returned earlier this year.

Becky and I talk about the progress of the project and Sam talks about the technical considerations of repairing boilers for steam engines.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

If you’d like to donate to this major project please follow this link.

My thanks to Becky and Sam for their time and the members of the team at the Watercress Line for making these podcasts possible.

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

Join us in two weeks for the next episode of Life on the Watercress Line.

To visit the Canadian Pacific project web pages please follow this link Canadian Pacific project pages.

Full size copies of the photographs taken by MrT are available from Flickr, Facebook and some through Instagram.

You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

The music Steam Railway used in this podcast is licensed from AKM Music.

The recording of Canadian Pacific in action is from material published by the Watercress Line.

US Rail Journeys – From Pasco to Shelby – S1 Ep7

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:19 — 20.4MB)

In the seventh episode of US Rail Journeys our traveller continues his journey on the Empire Builder from Pasco to Shelby.

It is dark when the train stops at Pasco. Our traveller joins the other passengers on the platform for an ‘air break’. This gives him a chance to look at the night sky.

The journey continues into the night. The train stops at Spokane (more details here) and waits for the section of the train that comes from Seattle. Once both parts of the train have been joined the train continues East. Our traveller is in the very last carriage.

About an hour after leaving Spokane the train reaches Sandpoint, the only Amtrak station in Idaho. The station first opened in 1916 (more details here).

The Empire Builder then reaches Libby in Montana in time to be greeted by the early risers! Nearly 5,100 passengers used the station in 2017. (More details here). By the time our traveller is up and dressed the train has reached the relatively busy Whitefish station (57,000 passengers in 2017). Whitefish is the busiest station between the Pacific Ocean and St Paul, Minnesota.

The next station, only 23 miles further on, is West Glacier which was used by 5,000 passengers in 2014; this is followed, forty minutes later, by the ‘request stop’ at Essex station. The local population is less than 50 and most visitors are going to the Isaak Walton Inn (more details here).

Our next stop is at East Glacier Park, open from April to October, for visitors to the Glacier National Park (more details here). We then pass through Browning station, only open in the winter, on our way to Cut Bank, reached nearly an hour later. Cut Bank is home to a large BNSF freight yard which has a number of ‘grain elevators’.

The episode concludes in the late morning when the Empire Builder reaches Shelby where we get the opportunity to stretch our legs and breathe fresh Montana air.

Click on any of the ‘thumbnails’ below to open the photograph gallery.

Join us in two weeks for the next episode where our traveller continues his journey from Portland to Chicago aboard the Empire Builder.

Full size copies of the photographs taken by MrT are available from Flickr, Facebook and some through Instagram.

The theme music Steam Railway is used under licence from AKM Music.

In addition to this website the podcasts are also available through iTunes (Apple podcasts), Spotify and Stitcher.

US Rail Journeys – From Portland to Pasco – S1 Ep6

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:59 — 21.0MB)

Our traveller boards the Empire Builder for the journey from Portland to Chicago. The sixth episode of US Rail Journeys describes the part of the journey from Portland to Pasco.

After leaving his hotel he travels to Portland Union station. When he gets to the station he waits in the Metropolitan Lounge for the train to be ready for boarding. It is a grey, wet day as the train leaves Portland. Very quickly our traveller has travelled from Oregon to Washington State.

During the first afternoon / evening the Empire Builder reaches the Columbia River and follows its path for many miles.

The first station after Portland is Vancouver – Washington, not Canada! The station first opened in 1908. The station is a unique, two sided station, because it is shaped in a Y (wye). For more information click here.

The next stop is at the unstaffed Bingen – White Salmon station which opened in 1992. For more information click here. This if followed by Wishram, an important gateway to the Columbia River. In 2017 it was used by 1,577 passengers. For more information click here.

This episode closes with our traveller reaching Pasco station which serves the ‘Tri cities’ of Kennewick, Richland and Pasco. Opened 20 years ago in 1998 it was used by 24,245 passengers in 2017. For more information click here.

Click on any of the ‘thumbnails’ below to open the photograph gallery..

Join us at the end of next week for the next episode where our traveller continues his journey from Portland to Chicago aboard the Empire Builder.

Full size copies of the photographs taken by MrT are available from Flickr, Facebook and some through Instagram.

The music Steam Railway is used under licence from AKM Music.

The musical excerpt from The Chrysanthemum by Scott Joplin, played by Gerlutz, is rights free from the Musopen library.

In addition to this website the podcasts are available through Spotify and Stitcher.

The Canadian Pacific Restoration project – part 2

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:51 — 17.3MB)

Welcome to the second episode about the Canadian Pacific restoration project.

This project, often called the CanPac project, is about the restoration of the Merchant Navy class locomotive, number 35005, Canadian Pacific and also two carriages designed by Oliver Bulleid in the 1940s.

Becky explains that some parts of the locomotive are at Eastleigh works (where Canadian Pacific was originally built) and that the boiler is at Ropley.

Some of the people working on the restoration at Eastleigh actually worked in the works when it was operated by British Rail. The boiler shop, at Ropley, is well equipped and has welders who are certified to work on ‘pressure systems’.

Becky also talks about the cost of the restoration project and where the funding has come from. There are still many opportunities to donate to the project – perhaps by paying for a ‘boiler stay’!

We then move outside and into the busy yard to see the bogies and frame for Canadian Pacific’s tender. Once we’ve crossed the yard we enter the carriage shop where the two Bulleid coaches are being restored. We discuss the materials originally used for building these carriages. There are a number of photographs of the restoration of the carriages in the gallery.

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

My thanks to Becky for her time and the members of the team at the Watercress Line for making these podcasts possible.

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

Join us in two weeks for our final podcast about the restoration project for the Merchant Navy class locomotive Canadian Pacific, the pride of the Watercress Line fleet. To visit the Canadian Pacific project web pages please follow this link Canadian Pacific project pages.

Full size copies of the photographs taken by MrT are available from Flickr, Facebook and some through Instagram.

The music Steam Railway used in this podcast is licensed from AKM Music. The recording of Canadian Pacific in action is from material published by the Watercress Line.

US Rail Journeys – In Portland – Series 1 Episode 5

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:32 — 7.8MB)

The fifth episode of US Rail Journeys is spent in the city of Portland, Oregon, where our traveller spends two days seeing the sights of this beautiful city.

He takes a Pink Line tour around this relaxed city. The high-point, quite literally, of the tour is Washington Park where the tour ‘trolley’ takes visitors through this beautiful park. The park is over 410 acres on a steeply wooded hillside and the height varies from 200 feet above sea level to 870.

The tour leaves the park and heads for the Willamette River front where the first thing our traveller sees is the Steel Bridge. The bridge was opened in 1912 and is a double-deck, vertical lift bridge. The lower deck carries railway, bicycle and pedestrian traffic, whilst the upper deck carries road traffic.

Our traveller then passes the riverside station for the Portland Aerial Tram and also the modern Tilikum Crossing bridge. Access to the bridge is restricted to public transport, bicycles and pedestrians.

At the end of the tour our traveller has an interesting talk with the Pink Line driver about working as a tour guide.

Join us at the end of next week for the next episode where our traveller sets out on his journey from Portland to Chicago aboard the Empire Builder.

Full size copies of the photographs taken by MrT are available from Flickr, Facebook and some through Instagram.

The music Steam Railway is used under licence from AKM Music.

Musical excerpt by Oregon based Pink Martini used with permission.

Excerpt from the Richard Berry composition Louie Louie which provided a hit for the Portland based band the Kingsmen in the 1960s.