fantastic thanks to both fedriver and warmastoast

lovely tales

i did school trips on ss Dunera and Uganda in the 1960's
all sick and slop everywhere lol
the Nevasa was supposed to be luxury compared to those 2.

Excellent memories, Not sour grapes but my troopship was the Empire Medway and we slept in hamocks [Spelling?] in 1951 to R.A.F. Gibraltar but came back by civilian plane in 1953 thank goodness. :D:D

Great pics of the ship. Like skua, I did a schools cruise on her in c1965, with similar experience re. puke and scoff, although we went north from Liverpool, around Cape Wrath to Bergen, sailed past a scheduled stop at Kristiansand ( regatta cancelled due gale) to Oslo, then to Copenhagen (Nyhavn an eye opener for a 14 yr old). Finally through the Kiel Canal to Amsterdam, then back to Liverpool. Two things I do still recall, the bunks were identical to Warmtoasts pic, and the male and female teachers were more interested in "socialising" with each other than taking the classes in the school area...

My yonger brother and I travelled on two troopships after my mother became a Queens Army Schoolmistress. In December 1946 we were posted to Grado, a small island near Trieste, joined to the mainland by a causeway. We spent three wonderful days on the Blue Train, leaving it in Udine and almost freezing to death in the back of a three ton truck during the two hour journey. Eighteen months later we were transferred to Tel el kebir in the canal zone. I was ten when we boarded a troopship in Venice and sailed to Port Said. The only thing I remember about that voyage was having to wear a life jacket most of time as the Adriatic and eastern Med had not yet been swept for mines. In December 1949 we returned home on the SS Orduna, an old rust bucket built by Harland & Wolf, Belfast in 1914. The food was awful, but this didn't matter after I won a daily distance covered sweepstake and became a "wealthy" eleven year old who was going to buy a trunk full of Dinky Toys after we got home. Our arrival in the Bay of Biscay coincided with the biggest winter storm for years. Again we donned life jackets on several occasions, but I enjoyed the storm. The dining room was empty for a couple of day and the food improved dramatically! I remember it was drizzling when we docked in Liverpool in the early hours a few days before Christmas. Everything was grey, the buildings looked as if they were covered in soot and everybody seemed to be miserable. The troops were happy to be back in Blighty, I wasn't so sure myself.

The Blue Train? The only one I know of, and have been on, is a five star train that runs between Cape Town and Pretoria.

My Blue Train ran from Calais to Nice from 1922 to 2007, operated by the International des Wagons Lits and famous for the race with the blower Bentley in March 1930. The train was commandeered by the Americans, who ran it between Calais and Vienna via France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. It took three days to reach Udine, mainly because of the damage to the track and bridges in Germany and France.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3..._000-9_Mz1.jpg

I stand corrected. Bet your Blue Train didn't cost as much as mine did.

We were even supplied with free candy, normally life savers and M&M chocolate bars. We only ate breakfast on board, all other meals were povided at tented catering stops run by the US Army. I can't recall what the food was like, but it must have been better than home. I do remember visiting the footplate of our large SNCF steam locomotive during an extended stop near Frieburg. It was replaced by an electric engine for the journey through Switzerland, then it was back to steam power in Italy.

Or sipping champagne crossing the Kalahari Desert.

Seriously it wasn't worth the cost.

I imagine you bought your Singapore film from the Cathay Photo Store in Bras Basah Road. With the evil smell wafting across from the Rochor canal. It was the only decent photo shop I found in the early 60s.

Your story is interesting. On the Oxfordshire, I went to Singapore in 1959 via Gib Suez Aden and Colombo, though I was 13. Returned 3 years later by air. Singapore was mostly green at that time with building only half the length of Orchard Road. Later I operated in Singapore for the duration on No52 Sqn Andovers and when Oz or Hadj flying with Britannia Airways.

I have just returned from my latest visit to Singapore. Sadly, it has lost all its attraction. It seems to be geared solely to the banking sector. Stupid prices and over-developed.

bpilot 52
I doubt it. More likely this shop in Changi Village:

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...gi-Village.jpg

Not particularly sharp photo as it's a screen-grab from my 8mm cine film as is the one below - a bit of nostalgia for those who knew Changi and shopped in the village in the 1950's - 60's.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...lage-Buses.jpg

The rubbish large-format transparency film I mentioned in my original post is (according to the cardboard mount in which the film is mounted) "Ruby" Film, although they may have been the processors rather than manufacturers.

That photo store picture rings a bell. When 52 Sqn (Andovers) moved from Seletar to Changi. Didn't have much faith in these local shops - so set up a darkroom in the built in wardrobe in my room. No air, temperature in the thousands and thick with fumes from the chemicals. I don't think it was clever but I made a few decent pictures.
Interesting also to see the busses of the Changi bus company. As a kid, they were the contractor for the Army kids school run.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos.

I travelled out to Kenya in 1949 as a family when I was six on the 'Empire Ken'. We docked at Mombassa and night trained up to Niarobi. The Empire Ken (who the hell names a ship 'Ken'??) was a real tub which I remember would have rolled on the Serpentine. No air conditioning, two or three families (women and children only) to a cabin and terrible food. But as a six year old, a huge adventure. From what I remember, we docked at Gib, somewhere in Greece, Port Said, Suez, Somalia and then Mombassa. The best bit of the whole 3 week trip, was sleeping in a bunk on the train journey up to Niarobi.

Three years later, we did the same journey in reverse, this time on the 'Empress of Australia' on her last voyage. A different ship altogether - total luxury! The main things I remember about that voyage, were the superb bread rolls at breakfast and sailing through the Bay of Biscay during the worst storm for 50 years (apparently).

Loved the whole experience, seasickness aside! :ok::ok:

They said "Concrete Grey was Lee Kuan Yew's favourite colour."

... and there wasn't a single high-rise in Hong Kong in 1960. The first two were the Mandarin and the Hilton about 63-64 – the fun the boys had doing the "Top of to Top of" races – organised with military precision :E . Kept 'em out of the bars.


LFH

Memories!
 

A fascinating post Warmtoast. My father was an instructor at 5 EFTS at Thornhill from 1951 until it was closed in 1953.

After some UK postings Dad was posted to RAF Changi in Singapore in 1958, we travelled out by air and were only there for about a month when he was sent to RAF Katunayake where he spent almost a year flying supplies and personnel to and from Gan. After that it was back to Singapore for another couple of years. We had a holiday in Hong Kong during that time and travelled both ways on the Nevasa, though because Dad was an officer I think we must have travelled 1st class!

He died in 2002, and I have all his log books which helped when I wrote his life story a few years ago.

WT, I am guessing the photos were mostly Ektachrome -- certainly faster than Kodachrome.

They are a wonderful documentation of a time long past. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Cardmaker

Almost matches my two overseas postings. I was at 5 FTS RAF Thornhill Aug 1951 - Oct 1953 and was posted to the Far East in October 1956.

RatherBeFlying

Large format transparencies are Ektachrome, whilst oblong ones are Kodachrome. Of the two I preferred Kodachrome, much less grainy and over the years they are as vivid and colourful as the day they were taken.

I've had all my (nearly 1,500) Kodachrome slides scanned professionally to digital format which makes printing and showing them a doddle.

The Empire troopships were named after rivers, often rather obscure ones.

Many were quite large former captured German liners. Maybe the MoWT was making a statement.

Warmtoast, your RAF Thornhill posting coincides pretty closely with my father's, but we probably missed you in Singapore, as we had only been there a few weeks when Dad was seconded to RAF Katunayake, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to fly the supply runs to Gan during the building of the runway. We were there for almost a year, until April 1959. Dad was Flt.Lt. O.C. Douglas, known to all as Joe. Correction, he was known as Dougie in the RAF and Joe at home, must have been confusing ;)

The photo shop in Changi village was familiar. I was given a Brownie camera for my birthday and used to spend all my pocket money on films and developing.:O