miscellany, August 2001

miscellany

IT IS SAID THAT AS ONE GETS

older the mind wanders — some may say mine always has — so I have just remembered a schoolboy episode from about 1924 when a friend, whose father was the manager or chief engineer at a South London waterworks, allowed us to play with his steam passengerhauling model railway. “Don’t show off,” he told his son “brake early instead of using the terminal buffers.” Driving away, he reflected that the loco was worth more than his Rover 8, then priced at £185. Probably true. The loco, I think a 3 1/2ingauge passenger-hauler, was named Cosmo &mon Does any aged model-maker recall it? ANOTHER EX-BROOKLANDS CAR,

the 1750 Alfa Romeo four-seater driven by Leonard Headlam, is now in good hands after not having surfaced since before the war. In the 1929 BARC 6-hour race it was second, won its class in the TT, and was fourth in the BRDC ‘500’. Its then-owner was killed in a road accident. The present owner wants to fill in its history after 1930. Its Reg No is VN 397, chassis and engine number 0312906, and it has a Carlton fabric body. Letters can be forwarded. ONE OF THE VSCC SLOGANS IS

“Front brakes are for girlies”, applied especially to aeroengined specials. Fortunately I have seen no move to disconnect the front ‘stoppers’ of those very quick Maserati, Bugatti, ERA and similar cars raced by VSCC members, nor do their drivers look like becoming transvestites!