Thursday, February 24, 2005

100 years ago: A correspondent stated that the railway company had yet to be found which could give complete satisfaction to all its customers. A good many people seemed to make a special hobby of criticising the management of the North-Eastern Railway Company, more particularly in the running of trains and in the matter of first-class tickets. The latest complaint came from Stockton-on-Tees in the shape of a letter, with which the writer desired to "draw the attention of the public, and perchance someone higher in authority than those persons who have, as a rule, the ordering of trains and their service, to the nothing short of abominable one which, in the year of Grace 1905, exists between those stations north of Northallerton, on the main line to the towns of Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough. I am one of those unfortunate persons who have in winter, sometimes to spend no less than 2 hours going a distance of 28 miles, the wait at Northallerton being close on two hours. It is true that on Tuesdays and Wednesdays you can make their enormous journey in 1 hours."

50 years ago: The cabs of two lorries just broke the surface of the sea at Scalby Mills to the north of Scarborough. They got stuck in wet sand over night and the tide later swept over them. One lorry had been along the beach when it stuck in the sand and a breakdown truck was called out. Before this truck could rig up its towing tackle it also became embedded in the sand. Salvage efforts proved successful later in the day and the two vehicles were hauled from their watery parking place.

25 years ago: Students at York University produced a rag magazine hailed as non-sexist, non-racist and non-political - but still thought the jokes were funny. As the students planned a week of canoeing down the Ouse, dancing in St Sampson's Square and an auction, the Evening Press reported how the year before, students had shocked onlookers by streaking down Shambles.

Updated: 08:53 Thursday, February 24, 2005