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Isn't the Internets Brilliant?!?

Pugsley

Entry posted by Pugsley

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It's not often I feel compelled to compose a more typical blog post with my general wittering (I think two in as many years is quite sufficient) but over the last few days I've been, well overwhelmed isn't quite the right word, but I've come to truly appreciate what a fantastic tool the Internet really is.

 

Of course, there are the more immediate aspects, (one of which I'd probably best not mention here ;) ) such as bringing together like minded groups to discuss their interests and share their models and information. Forums have allowed people to share their projects with others from around the world, and have allowed people to see some fantastic modelling that they may otherwise have never known anything about.

 

Forums such as RMweb (other model railway forums are available) have also lead to a bit of a revolution in terms of passage of information. Want to know what loco hauled the 2F38 from Blackpool North on the 6th June 1992? Someone probably knows (an upside-down dog for anyone who can tell me, and yes, I do know the answer ;) ). There is a veritable mine of information here alone, before you even start casting the web wider, outside of forums and other groups. There is also the social aspect, where online relationships, in the broadest sense, transfer into the real world. I've certainly met some great people, who I regularly keep in contact with, through RMweb.

 

A special wagonphile mention must go to the Barrowmore MRG - I'd be struggling to do what I'm currently doing without the amazing resource created by putting the BR weight diagram books online.

 

Before the demise of Fotopic, there were a huge number of images available to view stretching from the 60's to the present day. Want to find a photo of a particular loco in 1991? It was probably on there. The demise of Fotopic has left a bit of a hole in that respect, although it's great that a lot of people who had images on there have slowly migrated them to other providers - especially the like of Paul Bartlett and Martyn Read (and others) - their photos are invaluable to wagonphiles. It does, however, highlight one of the major Internet negatives - the transient nature of the content and the ease in which it can be destroyed - keep those hard-drives backed up!

 

What's prompted this outpouring of Internet love? I've been searching the web for information on parabolic suspension for the tank wagon project. Although most of what I needed has been measured from prototypes, I find that no matter how thorough I think I've been, there's always something I've missed. Either something I didn't photograph properly, or a key dimension that I didn't measure, or if I did, I recorded it in such a way that I no longer understand quite what I did...

 

Anyway, after a bit of deft Googling, I have now ascertained that the length of a Bruninghaus parabolic spring is 1200mm over the eye centres (when straight) Edit - I've since discovered that a UIC standard spring is 1200mm, the standard UK spring is 1400mm, which was the cause of much head scratching when dimensions scaled from photographs didn't match! For the UIC suspension, the bottom link pin is 750mm from the spring centre, there is a 150mm offset between the top and bottom pins and the pins are 288mm apart and 35mm diameter. The pin dimensions will be the same for the UK spring, but I'm guessing the 750mm dimension quoted above should be 850 for the UK spring. In short, everything I need to get my suspension parts drawn up and in the right place on the model. Stuff that would have been very difficult to obtain even a few years ago, and I would have had to take another 230 mile round trip to go and get the information that I didn't get first time around.

 

So, in short, I think that this is a brilliant time to be doing what I'm trying to do and I'm now more fully appreciative of the role that the Internet plays in it, it would be a darn sight harder without it.

 

If you've got this far, thanks for reading my waffle and I hope it's been interesting/struck a chord/not been a complete waste of time (delete as appropriate) I promise that the next post will be more interesting, with pictures and everything.

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Jamie

I think you've made the internets blush Pugsley.

 

But you're right though. It has been vital (in the true sense of the word) to my modelling both for tutorial and research. The traditional printed publishing remains fundamental in the latter, but the internet opens up a world of "substandard" images that would never make a book, yet yield priceless factual information despite possibly ropey technical quality or obscure subject matter.

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Will Vale

I agree wholeheartedly, I couldn't build models of the real places I'm interested in without the internet. Even the reference books and films are bought from the internet!

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Timara

Couldn't have put it better myself Martin. Little things such as obscure prototype views that only an intrepid Urbex fanatic could go and get or other such snippets are where the 'net is just brilliant.

 

The social aspect is great too as a quick question can suddenly yield bucketloads from a crucial source.

 

And to think people say the internet is wrong and stuff...... I dunno! :)

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Pugsley
I think you've made the internets blush Pugsley.

Heh, probably. Spontaneous outpourings of love, whatever next :D

 

You've got a very good point about the not great quality, but extremely useful photo, another advantage over the printed medium.

 

Will - I can see the additional advantages that it has for you, what with being on the other side of the world and all!

 

Tim - The people that say that the Internet is wrong, are, well, wrong!

 

As an additional aside, the other thing that I found quite amazing was that, courtesy of the Fostoria Webcam, I could watch in real time something that was happening right at that moment several thousands of miles away. I must check if that's up and running again.

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aberdare

I agree. I have been away from railway modelling since 1984 and apart from a brief spell between 2002 and 2004 I had not touched anything. Using the web to find out which companies still existed or who had taken over who was invaluable.

I am now using it to sell off a lot of my fathers stuff so that I can buy what I want. Also joining sites like this has been a mine of information.

 

How did we cope without it?

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Pugsley

TBH, I've no idea how we coped without it, but we obviously did for a very long time! I wouldn't want to be without it now though.

 

I'm also surprised that no-one took me up on the upside-down dog challenge - here's what you could have won:

http://i207.photobuc...earsonfloor.jpg

 

(It was, quite appropriately, 37415 that hauled the 2F38 from Blackpool on June 6th 1992)

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