An ex member of Moseley School's science dept, Roger Norfolk, was featured on page 231 of the 2016 Christmas Radio Times and was on BBC4 on Thursday 29th December in "Flying Scotsman from the Footplate" actually driving the train.
Roger started in the Science/Physics dept at Moseley Modern in the 60s and was a star of many productions in and out of school and designed and ran the stage lighting for years.
He was always a steam railway fanatic and a volunteer driver at Severn Valley Railway. Indeed he encouraged pupils to join him to help restore old engines and on several occasions both myself (Roger Green) and a friend, Robert Perry who later became a guard with BR, joined him to help restore old engines - a process that included many hours getting covered in dirt and grease while scraping rust of chassis with the possible reward of a ride on a steam engine footplate later in the day.
When Roger Norfolk got fed up of the constant changes in education (in the 1980s I think) he left to join British Rail, becoming firstly a mainline train driver and later a trainer of train drivers. A highly successful second career. He moved down south but kept his links with Severn Valley and regularly came back to do his volunteer shift. He was/is a lovely man.
Alan Lamb sent the following message:
It was great to see my old friend Roger on the footplate. We go back many years when we were both members of The Crossed Keys Musical Theatre Company. We both sang bass together and occasionally took part in a Barber’s Shop group. We shared many productions at the Alexandra Theatre including Oklahoma, Orpheus in the Underworld, La Vie Parisienne, Kiss me Kate etc.
David Jones sent the following message:
As a railway (steam) enthusiast since my schooldays, I found the programme to be a very welcome change from the usual TV productions that invariably focus more on the presenters than the subject matter, and are accompanied by irritating non-stop music and other intrusive noises. The production team should be congratulated on such a well-presented programme that was both educational and entertaining.
However, I have to draw your attention to the fact that locomotives are never referred to as ‘the’. The subject of the programme was
‘Flying Scotsman’, not ‘the Flying Scotsman’. Similarly, other locomotives, such as ‘Mallard’, ‘Tornado’ and ‘City of Truro’, should never be referred to as ‘the Mallard’ and so on. The headboard on the smoke box of 60103, showing ‘The Flying Scotsman’, was to commemorate the daily TRAIN of that name which ran between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh (and vice-versa), and was hauled by various locomotives, amongst them,
especially in the 1920s and 1930s, ‘Flying Scotsman’ itself.
Yours sincerely,
David Jones (1947-53)
Sarah Lee sent the following message:
Mr Norfolk was a lovely teacher one of my favourites.
Though when it came to hockey he was a demon player. I was the school teams goal keeper and when we played against the teachers no one took prisoners. I remember it was Mr Norfolk or me. So I ran out of goal, tackled him and sent him flying. I seem to remember I knocked him out! My Wright patted me on the back and said ‘good play little goalie’.
Sarah
Message from Gordon Allen:-
Roger Norfolk was not teaching at the School in my time but my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed riding on the footplate with him on ‘The Flying Scotsman. The TV programme was a most welcome change from the gloom and doom being pedalled over Brexit!
Kind regards
Gordon Allen
Pupil 1949-1954
Norman Stainthorp sent the following message:
Hi Roger [Green], Thanks for the Roger Norfolk reminder. I did notice one editing slip in the programme, When the fireman picked up the Highley-Arley token, he said, correctly, to the Driver- “Highley-Arley”, however, when he picked up the Arley-Bewley token, instead of saying “Arley-Bewley”, he repeated “Highley-Arley” I can only suppose that the camera team didn’t have a ‘clean’ recording of the Arley-Bewley confirmation, and just repeated the earlier one, trusting that no one would notice !
Open the cage !
Norman Stainthorp.
My wife and I sat riveted to the telly, what a great program – but we guessed correctly how it would end!
Roger
Mike Westley sent the following message:
Just watched it – thoroughly enjoyed it, especially with all the outside photography and the commentary – it took me a moment to recognise Roger without a beard – lol.
I remember vividly a time that we, (Roger, myself and many others) stood peering over the bridge alongside Tyseley station at the comings and goings of steam trains back in the 70s. Happy days.
Cheers
Mike