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The article in the
October Call Sign "Alex cheats death in high speed
crash" certainly brought many comments from drivers, but one
very interesting letter came from a former ODRTS stalwart who
was at ODRTS during our days at Pentonville Road and Shirland
Road, where he had the callsign of A81. He is long retired and
an avid Call Sign Online reader. He recently wrote
to us about Alex’ crash on the A10 in heavy fog. "I thought you would like to know of a matter that might be of interest to Dial-a-Cab drivers. It was with interest that I read about the fog-related accident to Alex Laird (064) and I am pleased that he got out safely. But it brought back memories to me of exactly fifty years ago.. I was driving my cab down a foggy Old Kent Road, taking passengers to Lewisham on 4th December 1957 with the cab’s fog light beam bouncing off the smog, when I saw convoys of ambulances racing past us with their bells ringing. I later heard that two trains had collided at St Johns Railway Station just outside Lewisham at around 6.20pm in thick fog. 90 people were killed and a further 200 were injured – some very seriously. I became passionate that there must be a way to see through fog and it became a challenge to design something with a final concept of CCTV. After all, when a beam of visible light was shone through a glass of water, the beam was refracted. What I needed was an invisible light! Hence the use of Infrared light was the chosen route. |
As we approach the fiftieth
anniversary of the Lewisham train crash in which 90 people died,
a former ODRTS driver remembers the day because he was actually
working when it happened. He also links it to the October
Call Sign in which DaC driver, Alex Laird (064) could so
easily have been badly injured driving along the A10 in thick
fog before losing control and smashing into the central
carriageway. It reminded him of an idea he came up with
following the train crash… DRIVING IN FOG WITH INFRARED CAMERAS? |
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 The scene of devastation exactly 50 years ago at Lewisham My PCO passing station was at Harvist Road and they gave me written permission to carry out experiments during foggy times only, but that the equipment carried was to be of a temporary nature. I carried out a survey and was granted an interview with the Commander of London (Heathrow) Airport. He showed an interest and gave me some information from the avionic point of view. Some limited success was made; a Provisional Patent with some aviation aspects was applied for and granted for one year. But sadly I ran out of time and the idea then moved into the public domain. I believe that BMW now have an Infrared camera and modified headlights as an accessory on their upper range of cars. Infrared cameras are freely available and can be bought on the Internet for |
£80 to £190 and can be connected via an interface
to certain types of SatNav systems with the converted picture
being displayed on the SatNav screen. But of course, not without
PCO approval. The vehicle spotlights could be set to peak the emitter at Infrared frequency by reducing the visible light beam as the beam will see heat, not light or a switchable modification on the headlights to increase the beam range - again, only if permitted. Because of limited space within the dashboard area, the original design was to project the display from a lens onto the windscreen. Looking to the future, plasma screens are now so thin perhaps they could be embedded into the windscreen or onto it, thereby giving a larger, see-through head-up display instead of a projected image onto the vehicle windscreen? Finally, can I thank you for putting Call Sign Magazine onto the Internet. It is so nice to keep in touch with the changes going on since my days at ODRTS in Pentonville Road." Norman (Ex A81) |
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MARCHING OFF TO WAR The story of those on the Chigwell War Memorial killed in WW1… |
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| World War 1 was the
first real global war. Between 1914 and 1918, over 40million
casualties resulted, including around 20million military and
civilian deaths and a total of more than 60million European
soldiers being mobilized. With the 90th anniversary of that
awful war’s ending, there will be many books on the subject. But
there is one new book out that deals mainly with just 42 of that
horrendous total of dead soldiers and with many Dial-a-Cab
drivers living in and around Essex, it will be especially
poignant to them. DaC driver
Jerry Solomons (E33) has a special reason for reviewing the
book… "The book Marching Off To War is written by my brother-in-law and fellow cab driver Marc Alexander. It tells the story of the men listed on the Chigwell Village War Memorial who were killed in the Great War of 1914 - 1918. |
 It took him several years to write and as you can imagine, a great deal of research. It follows the journey of those 42 men from Chigwell Village in Essex, who left their homes, families, friends and jobs to fight in the First World War. Given the passage of time and information available from press cuttings and the National Archives, some stories are more conclusive than others, but all are interesting. Taking |
the war in
context, Marching Off To War enables the reader not only to
follow the Chigwell men’s journeys, but also the First World War
itself as it unfolded for the men in the trenches. Its 252 pages also give snippets of life in and around Chigwell at the time. It contains 55 maps and 112 pictures. The book retails at £14.99, but Dial-a-Cab drivers get a £5 discount down to £9.99. Marc is happy to sign any copy if required. Marching off to War makes an ideal Christmas or Chanukah present for Dads, Uncles and Granddads who take an interest in local history and World War I." For more info, Marc is at: marc.alexander@ntlworld.com or call him at 07956 269606. Jerry Solomons (E33) |
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