Warmtoast,
Lovely photos of your mobile DF at Gan being repainted brilliant white (glad to see that you're Keeping a Wet Edge !). At home most manual DF installations were bricked-in, but the navs rarely used them from the '50s on, as the CR/DFs coming into the Towers gave (I have to say) a quicker and better service on VHF.
Consequently the operators had little to do for long periods. At Valley in '51 ours was no exception; one of our Operators had ample time on his hands for his hobby - making Lead Soldiers ! (the tale starts on p.173, #3449 on this Thread).
It will be a long time before I forget manual VHF/DF Ops !
Danny.