Castle Aching

[Shadow]

As they used to say on the A Team.

 

"Don't you just love it when a plan comes together."

[runs as required]

A minor observation - prompted by the Bristol paraquat versus vinegar spat on controlling May dandelions and weeds :

For a remote Norfolk early 1900s village, Castle Aching presents an extraordinarily pristine cobbled streetscape - not even dust and horse dung demarcate usage patterns, let alone 'plants in the wrong place'.

 

But, J.E's threads Minders interject: "think yourselves privileged to be shown a preview - a mock-up of the village once all the variables are resolved"

"So where will the railway run?" The RMweb readership shout back en masse.

erm... ??

 dh

[rovex]

Which all rather puts me mind of Hinge & Brackett. Now where was it they stayed when last they visited. Oh yes lovely little village called Loose Chippings.

[DonB]

Just caught up with this entertaining thread... I found the discussion a few pages back about the style of coaches, particularly ones with verandah ends, on the light railway an interesting thought. I don't have an extensive library of books on coaching stock, but I don't recall any UK standard gauge line using them (some one will be along within the hour to correct this !) although there were examples on the narrow gauge lines, here and on the Continent. One NG line with verandah stock which I have travelled on is shown in my Gallery. (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/31362-baltic-cruise-011/ )This Scandinavian example was a Timber carrier as well as a passenger line.  

[Nearholmer]

DonB

 

Nearly all the examples of verandah-ended coaches that were cited earlier in this thread were from UK standard gauge railways.

 

But, perhaps I'm misunderstanding you.

 

Edwardian

 

Very nice gatehouse indeed. All it needs to complete it is a goldfish.

 

Kevin

[Edwardian]

Edwardian

 

Very nice gatehouse indeed. All it needs to complete it is a goldfish.

 

Kevin

 

My thought exactly, and if I could Photoshop, I'd have included one!

 

 

A minor observation - prompted by the Bristol paraquat versus vinegar spat on controlling May dandelions and weeds :

For a remote Norfolk early 1900s village, Castle Aching presents an extraordinarily pristine cobbled streetscape - not even dust and horse dung demarcate usage patterns, let alone 'plants in the wrong place'.

 

But, J.E's threads Minders interject: "think yourselves privileged to be shown a preview - a mock-up of the village once all the variables are resolved"

"So where will the railway run?" The RMweb readership shout back en masse.

erm... ??

 dh

 

It needs a lot of greenery; gardens, cracks in the path and along the edges of the buildings in particular.  I think there ought to be some sprouting on the gatehouse too.

 

I have not yet tried modelling vegetation yet, so I will need to steel myself to attempt something new soon!

 

Where will the railway run?

 

I see that I will have to come up with an answer to that soon.

[Nick Holliday]

As Kevin says, back on pages 6 and 7 the photos showed standard gauge examples, perhaps DonB is thinking of Light Railways?

Although the Garstang and Knott End, Weston, Clevedon and Portishead, Lambourn Valley, Hundred of Manhood and Selsey, and Burry Port and Gwendraeth all were Light Railways, they were all standard gauge. However balconied vehicles also ran on the Midland, London Brighton and South Coast, London and South Western and Great Eastern which were in the premier division, and there were the ex Barnum coaches on the Alexandra Docks and Harbour line, and there are probably others that I have forgotten!

[Northroader]

"Much Sprouting on the Gatehouse" could be the next stop on the line to "Loose Chippings"?

[DonB]

I thought that I would be corrected on the subject of coaches with veranda / balcony !  I'll go and have lie down !

[Edwardian]

Don B, welcome to this, somewhat eccentric, corner of the site and thank you for posting.   As I found, there are more standard gauge verandah coaches out there than you might suppose, and, when you go to lie down, take a glass of single malt and R W Kidner's Carriage Sock of Minor Standard Gauge Railways (Oakwood Press) with you.  I recently acquired this slim but fascinating volume for a keen second-hand price, following the recommendation of Nearholmer of this parish.

 

A geological interlude may be enjoyed at http://www.hunstantonfossils.co.uk/Hunstanton-Fossils-Geology/geology-guide.htm, from which site I reproduce the image below:

[Nearholmer]

Now that we are on to geology, can I enquire as to whether the WNR extended into areas where my favourite mineral, coprolites, were dug? They were extracted commercially in some parts of Norfolk, and their presence would provide a golden excuse for a mineral branch, probably horse-worked.

 

K

[mullie]

Just found the time to read this great thread from the start, really inspiring.

 

I live on a huge mound of Portland stone in the middle of the sea on the Jurassic coast so see loads of this sort of stuff.

 

I also love the North Norfolk coast, has also inspired my own modelling.

Edited May 2, 2016 by mullie

[runs as required]

Now that we are on to geology, can I enquire as to whether the WNR extended into areas where my favourite mineral, coprolites, were dug? They were extracted commercially in some parts of Norfolk, and their presence would provide a golden excuse for a mineral branch, probably horse-worked.

K

We look to have some very similar fossilised crap dung* on display in the Victorian rockery arranged around our front door - probably from the Durham dales.

dh

 

*Ed:  Old Spike Milligan joke: 'What comes out of cows but sounds like a bell?'

Dung !

Edited May 2, 2016 by runs as required

[Nearholmer]

I didn't know they were dug in Durham.

 

There were workings all the way from Norfolk down into Buckinghamshire, where green sands met gault clay.

 

Picture below is from the beds/bucks border,mwith horse drawn tramway, but at least one in Cambridgeshire had a locomotive-worked tramway, and things got pretty large-scale, with a standard-gauge branch at at least one site.

 

K

[Edwardian]

I didn't know they were dug in Durham.

 

There were workings all the way from Norfolk down into Buckinghamshire, where green sands met gault clay.

 

Picture below is from the beds/bucks border,mwith horse drawn tramway, but at least one in Cambridgeshire had a locomotive-worked tramway, and things got pretty large-scale, with a standard-gauge branch at at least one site.

 

K

 

That is a great picture, Kevin.  Certainly lower greensand extends far enough north to be near the WNR. Essentially, I don't understand the geology sufficiently! In any case, I gather that the industry collapsed rapidly from 1890 due to cheap imported fertilisers, so might not be the best source of traffic for a layout set in the Edwardian years.

 

Just found the time to read this great thread from the start, really inspiring.

 

I live on a huge mound of Portland stone in the middle of the sea on the Jurassic coast so see loads of this sort of stuff.

 

I also love the North Norfolk coast, has also inspired my own modelling.

 

 Mullie, you are very kind, especially as Pott Row is a proper grown up layout, well planned and executed, and featuring very fine work on both the scenic side and the stock. 

Edited May 3, 2016 by Edwardian

[Nearholmer]

Edwardian

 

Just re-found this, which I read some time ago, by a quick google, http://www.pdmhs.com/docs/default-source/bulletins/bulletin-14-5/bulletin-14-5---the-origins-and-development-of-the-british.pdf?sfvrsn=4 all you ever wanted to know about the coprolite, including the photo that I pasted-in above. I have a nice glossy printed copy from Bucks archive, which I used in an article in the NGRS journal.

 

Looks as if any coprolite branch will have to be grass-grown, and largely OOU, pending re-opening during WW1, but being used to convey the odd wagonload of agricultural produce from an outlying farm.

 

K

[Edwardian]

Edwardian

 

Just re-found this, which I read some time ago, by a quick google, http://www.pdmhs.com/docs/default-source/bulletins/bulletin-14-5/bulletin-14-5---the-origins-and-development-of-the-british.pdf?sfvrsn=4 all you ever wanted to know about the coprolite, including the photo that I pasted-in above. I have a nice glossy printed copy from Bucks archive, which I used in an article in the NGRS journal.

 

Looks as if any coprolite branch will have to be grass-grown, and largely OOU, pending re-opening during WW1, but being used to convey the odd wagonload of agricultural produce from an outlying farm.

 

K

 

Kevin,

 

That looks like a fascinating article.  I love the locomotive on the Cambridgeshire line!  I could never make anything like that work, but what fun.

 

I notice from the chart that output nationally had all but ceased by 1902.  It is clear from the (much better) map in the article that deposits were within reach of the WNR, so grass-grown and largely OOU it would be.

 

On the subject of scatological investments, it was rather poor luck on the part of the promoters of the West Norfolk that they invested heavily, but late and after the boom years, not only in the Castle Aching Coprolite Company, but in Peruvian Guano.  

 

I feel for them.

[Nearholmer]

Oh dear!

 

This is all getting perilously close to the fictional history of my 45mm gauge garden railway, which specialised in the transport of all forms of "soil amendments", to use my grandfather's term. Manures, various types of sand, guano, coprolites, peat, lime, compost etc. It even had a bit of near-recent history, involving the industrialised manufacture of a super-phosphate called "Saur-o-Soil", for sale at inflated prices to amateur horticulturalists.

 

The rolling stock, of two generations, modern-in-1890, and modern-in-1935, is currently dormant, because garden railwaying has been rendered unsafe by the ballast mites, and a steady mortar barrage, kept up by my son, with the aid of several footballs.

 

The main mining site was called "Compass Deep", which was how my son used to pronounce "compost heap" when he was very small.

 

K

[corneliuslundie]

I have a feeling I once had a slim book on coprolite and railways in Cambridgeshire. It went during the 2006 thinning down. Unfortunately I can't remember the title.

Jonathan

[Edwardian]

I have a feeling I once had a slim book on coprolite and railways in Cambridgeshire. It went during the 2006 thinning down. Unfortunately I can't remember the title.

Jonathan

 

A pity you let it go, Jonathan, not least because I suspect that shedding a fatter volume would have been more to the purpose.  Perhaps you could try Yellow Pages for a replacement; "Have you by any chance a copy of The Fossilised Sh1t Railways of Cambridgeshire by J R Hartley?  Oh you have, splendid ..." 

 

Yes, the poor promoters of the West Norfolk.  Whenever one was at a social gathering, where people politely enquired as to his business interests, he was bound to reply "I'm in guano".

 

The Memsahib was, for some years, head of European marketing for a commodity trader in petro-chemical derivatives.  This meant I could introduce her with the words "my wife is in PVC".  Sadly, I was never allowed to.  

[Caley Jim]

Yes, the poor promoters of the West Norfolk.  Whenever one was at a social gathering, where people politely enquired as to his business interests, he was bound to reply "I'm in guano".

He would be in competition with these people.

 

 

And the model (courtesy of an etch done by a fellow 2mm modeler).

 

With apologies for the c**p lettering (no pun intended)

 

Jim

[Nearholmer]

Where was Roughcastle?

 

And, how long did it take for everyone who lived there to move away?

 

K

[Caley Jim]

Where was Roughcastle?

 

And, how long did it take for everyone who lived there to move away?

 

K

Roughcastle was the name of a Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall, near to Greenhill, where the CR main line to the north crosses the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line.

 

Jim

[runs as required]

Actually my grandfather 'was in guano' up to the First World War.

Travelled all over the world he did, a racily dressed type with an 'untrustworthy' looking moustache; sent my grandmother a huge stash of romantic post cards.

 

But it was a German company so from !918 until he died in the 1960s he eeked out life as a subsistence chicken farmer out on the Essex marshes - with an earth closet!

dh

[Edwardian]

No market in chicken sh1t, presumably.

 

I really like that Scottish Fish Oil & Guano Co. tank wagon.  What vintage is it, I wonder? 

 

What exactly was involved in this business, and might there not have been a Norfolk Fish Oil & Guano Co. with similar wagons?!?