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Post by p5tgc on Dec 27, 2018 10:56:54 GMT
If you, like me, spent much of the later 1950s & early 1960s with a copy of one or more of Ian Allen's ABC booklets in your pocket, you will be able to identify this....
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Post by JohnC on Dec 29, 2018 8:03:52 GMT
I was never a spotter but did work on the Great western and travelled to Iminingham depot. It was a very busy depot stuck in the middle of an oil refinery.
Happy New Year
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Post by Warwick on Dec 29, 2018 8:18:46 GMT
How about a bit of an explanation for us foreigners?
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Post by JohnC on Dec 29, 2018 9:06:05 GMT
Its a train thing, to explain. In the UK, in the days of British Rail, all traction depots had a unique letter and number code. This was displayed on each locomotive allocated to that depot. thus identifying where it was from. I hope this goes someway to explain the workings of locomotive coding.
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Post by Warwick on Dec 29, 2018 10:24:36 GMT
Thanks John, I thought it looked like a loco number plate. But the thread title led me to think it was something else. What does cop or cab mean, and how does it relate to a locomotive?
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Post by Brendan69 on Dec 29, 2018 12:25:42 GMT
I knew a girl once who had a bust that size or was it DD. LOL
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Post by p5tgc on Dec 30, 2018 15:42:13 GMT
Lucky you, Brendan, must have been a bit of a handful! Yes, the mystery object is a steam loco shed code plate, indicating that the loco to which it was attatched, on the smokebox door, was allocated to Immingham / Grimsby loco shed. Locospotters carried the Ian Allen ABC booklets which listed all the locos in a region by class, and as each loco was seen for the first time it was claimed as a "cop", and marked off in your ABC. If one managed to actually get onto the footplate, it could be claimed as a "cab".
I even went one step further at an open day at Lincoln when I was allowed to clamber inside the firebox of the famous 9F "Evening Star" whilst it was on static (&cold!) display. Not sure if there was a buzzword for that enterprise, just got skinned knees & a sooty jacket!
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Post by Welsh Warlock on Dec 30, 2018 23:36:31 GMT
Trevor, a 40B would be a bonnie lass as you say up there but you'd need small hands to be as you described.
Anyway, my favourite uncle was a firebox lad when he stated on the railway.Sadly by the time I was interested in trains all of the steam engines had gone. However my uncle was a driver based out of Liverpool Lime Street and I may (or may not) have driven the Liverpool to Euston train on one or two occasions as his "second man"
I suspect the ABC books became "I Spy" books by the time I was spotting things.
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Post by Warwick on Dec 31, 2018 2:50:51 GMT
Now it all makes sense! As in one of the slang meanings of cop. Cop this. Have a look at this. Did you cop that? Did you see that. Cop an eyeful. To see something unexpected. Usually in close proximity. Usually pleasant or unpleasant.
Doesn't get used much anymore.
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Post by Brendan69 on Dec 31, 2018 10:28:18 GMT
I deffo " copped " an eye full swiftly followed by 2 hands full. LOL
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