Castle Aching

[Donw]

I see life is still kicking you when your down Edwardian. It never rains but it pours my Gran would say.

 

Many years ago I was discussing my house insurance with my Father who was in Re-insurance. I mentioned a company which was advertising heavily. His condemnation of the company was 'They do not behave like Gentlemen' , explaining further he said decent companies would give one the benefit of the doubt as long as there was clear evidence of a loss. They did not look for an excuse to refuse the claim in the small print unless there was suggestion of a deliberate attempt to defraud. The company he disliked it seems had a history of finding grounds to reduce or refuse claims of genuine cases of loss.  

I accept that there has probably been a growth in people inflating their claims and other activities which amount to cheating.

This is not the world I thought I had been born into. 

 

As for the car some items are difficult to dispose Tyres for example. Laws on disposal have increased costs and the downturn in China has reduced the demand for scrapmetals

Don

[ChrisN]

When we got rid of my wife's car a couple of years ago we googled and found someone willing to take it away and pay us for the privilege. (It was an S reg Micra.)   It may not be that easy where you are I assume and things may have changed.  Just googled 'scrapping a car', and there are some adverts.

[Donw]

Part of the problem is that in recent years the majority of our population has voted for low taxes because they want to spend it on luxuries which has meant the government has been short of money to spend. Add to that the fact that families these days do not look after Granny (or Grandad) if they can avoid it and think it should be done by the very authorities that they want to give less money too. It seems self evident that we could have a low tax stand on your on two feet minimal state help economy or a high tax look after every one economy. What you cannot have is a low tax look after everyone economy it just doesn't work but people seem to be expecting it.

The NHS was a brilliant concept but advancing medical knowledge has led to a wider range of treatments. Sedentary lifestyles and poor diet have increased health problems which has added to it so the NHS is in desperate need of money.

My suspicion is that since the days of my childhood people seem to spoil their children who get used to being given what they want and doing little in return. Naturally when they reach adulthood they behave in the same manner don't really accept the need to pay in but are happy to take out.

The other total madness is the system of tax credits which basically mean if you wages are low the rest of us have to chip in to boost them. It could be acceptable for a smaller number of particularly disadvantaged people but the numbers and the cost are huge. It is a sign we are living beyond our means.

This is not intended to be political. Politics is about the choice all I am saying is when you make the choice you are choosing what kind of society we have. Those choices will have consequences.

 

Don

[runs as required]

The really rather wonderful thing about Castle Aching set within its Edwardian epoch is that it is unknowing about all the miseries that were about to be unleashed by WW1 that in one way or another continue to beset us over a century later.

 

That maybe why we so enjoy escaping into its north Norfolk bucolic intricacies

No bl00dy cars, just good horse manure for the vegetable patch

Perhaps an Eastern Daily Press paper arriving by the afternoon train - maybe I should drop by the shop for it and also fetch back a bar of carbolic soap 'cos its bath night for the missus and me.

 

dh

[Fenman]

... its north Norfolk bucolic ...

 

WEST Norfolk bucolic, please! The North already gets far too much attention for its gaudy pleasures.

 

Paul

[Nearholmer]

If North Norfolk is gaudy, I hate to think what rather-old-fashioned and low-key might look like!

 

K

[runs as required]

WEST Norfolk bucolic, please! The North already gets far too much attention for its gaudy pleasures.

Paul

Now you have me confused.com

The northern coastal strip I avoid from about late May till early Oct is the A149 through Wells to Cromer (and actually on around to Eccles).

So where in your head is Kings Lynn N or E?

At Swaffham heading back from Norwich sister-in-law to the A1 (and safety) we either turn left across to west Norfolk and Downham Market or continue north (on our mental map) via Kings Lynn.

If it is a pleasant early afternoon and the A47 traffic is crawling we may turn north to Castle Aching  Acre and Castle Rising off that sad 'railways into roads' straight.

dh

[Edwardian]

the only reason the (alleged) decline in religious sensibilities has created a moral "vacuum" is that no one has bothered to replace it with anything else - but this is as much because we are still working it out.

 

 

 

That's the nub of it.  The decline in organised religion as something universally followed and, therefore, capable of inculcating a universal moral code has left something of a lacuna.

 

On the car front, my parents are kindly funding a replacement. 

 

On the house front, my solicitors have unearthed a 1913 deed that, to general surprise, proves that we had an express grant of a right of way all along.  This means that there is no need to assemble evidence to prove a prescriptive right (long usage).  I now have the means to drive this to a conclusion.  

 

Generally I maintain a Wemmick-like division between my serious professional persona and the world that I would much rather inhabit!  It has been interesting to see them come together, but it will soon be time to return to my Castle.

 

During this enforced break from modelling, I have had Further Thoughts. 

 

The West Norfolk Railway really beat the opposition to the area, being built in the mid-late 1850s.

 

It takes a broadly north-south axis, from Castle Aching in the South, up through Flitchinham to the Birchoverhams;  Birchoverham Market, Birchoverham Town, and Birchoverham Staithe.  The latter did not realise its potential as a port as access was restricted as the channels silted up, restricting the port to local coastal traffic in smaller (sailing) vessels.  This disappointment was more than compensated for when the WNR secured access to what would become a fashionable seaside resort from the 1880s, Birchoverham next the Sea.

 

In the meantime, the north-south Lynn and Hunstanton Railway of 1862 had been built, taking a broadly parallel route, but nearer to the west coast of Norfolk, before swinging east, inland, with the West Norfolk extension, which dissected the WNR's route (both subsequently GER).

 

About the time the WNR opened for business, it became involved in a rather ambitious scheme to build a Grand Eastern Trunk Railway from the East Coast Mainline (GN Section) near Peterborough (at Meadeshempstead) right through to Great Yarmouth, via Norwich.  

 

The plan was overly ambitious.  The decisive problem was that, a few miles east of Meadehempstead lay the Great Eldernell Mere, and the through route rather depended upon the draining of the Mere!  While nearby Whittlesey Mere was drained by the 1850s, in the event, Eldernell Mere was not.  In anticipation of the drainage, a short line had been built from the shore of the Mere at Guildenburgh to Meadehempstead, though the line terminated at Meadehempstead Abbey and was never connected to the ECML.  Passengers would, thus, need to take a horse 'bus from the ECML to Meadehempstead Abbey Station, take the train to Guildenburgh, and then steamer across the Mere to Eldernell Mereside on the self-contained Isle of Eldernell & Mereport Railway.

 

To the east, things did not prosper either.  Though the Lynn and Achingham Railway Act received Parliamentary assent in 1858, the failure of the scheme to the west, of which it was intended to be a part, caused investment to dry up and the company was wound up.  It had completed just one section, from a junction with the WNR at Flitchinham east to the town of Achingham. 

 

This section was bought by the WNR and Achingham completed as a terminus station.

 

To the west of Flitchinham the L&AR had surveyed and acquired most of the land required.  The route (from Flitchinham) only made it as far as Bishop's Lynn (to the east of King's Lynn), so the line had not got as far as crossing the Great River Ouse (it would then have needed to run inland from the Wash to a further crossing of the New Wendle River, to connect with the isolated IOE&MR at Mereport. But, none of this was to be!

 

The GER eventually acquired the land, but, in the meantime, the Lynn and Fakenham Railway (subsequently part of the MGN) was authorised in 1880, and a second east-west route was built that dissected the WNR's north-south route.  The L&FR effectively did the job the L&AR had been intended to do.

 

In the 1880s the GER was able to obtain powers to construct a lightly built  tramway, utilising some of the old L&AR route from Flitchinham to Bishop's Lynn, but also diverting to avoid bits of land not owned or stretches requiring significant civil engineering by, running along sections of road.  This line left Flitchinham and reached Bishop's Lynn via the area of Mullie's Pott Row! 

 

This leaves Castle Aching as the southern terminus of the WNR.  The WNR mainline runs north to Flitchinham where there is a junction with the GER Lynn & Flitchinham Tramway (to the west) and the WNR Achingham Branch, to the east.

 

The junctions are so configured that traffic bound for either Bishop's Lynn or Achingham must run south to Castle Aching and reverse.

 

You will anticipate that the Lynn & Flitchinham Tramway is run by GER G15 0-4-0 and C53 0-6-0 Tram locomotives.  Passenger rolling stock is a W&B bogie coach, a W&B 4-wheel coach and a Kelvedon & Tollesbury tramcar converted from an old GER 6-wheeler.   Goods traffic is fruit and agricultural, but the line also serves the Bishop's Lynn factory of the Norfolk Fish Oil & Guano Company. 

 

Finally, I am rather hoping that I can squeeze in a junction with the Aching Hall standard gauge estate railway.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Edwardian

[Edwardian]

Don't forget that the C53 trams were not introduced until 1903, initially in limited numbers, and were primarily freight engines - the G15s ran the passenger trains, and the lighter freight trains.

 

Yes, but we are in 1905 and I already have a C53/J70!

[Nearholmer]

Perhaps, in view of all of the foregoing, the district around Castle Aching should be declared some sort of huge socio-political experiment, so that while we all chip-in (in my case, barely ever) helpful suggestions, we can also thrash-out the model for an ideal society, a sort of Utopia or Erewhon in 4mm/ft scale.

 

K

 

PS: could we please have a map of the WNR?

Edited July 6, 2016 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Perhaps, in view of all of the foregoing, the district around Castle Aching should be declared some sort of huge socio-political experiment, so that while we all chip-in (in my case, barely ever) helpful suggestions, we can also thrash-out the model for an ideal society, a sort of Utopia or Erewhon in 4mm/ft scale.

 

K

 

PS: could we please have a map of the WNR?

 ... involving pyramids, presumably

[Donw]

If North Norfolk is gaudy, I hate to think what rather-old-fashioned and low-key might look like!

 

K

 

West Norfolk?

Don

[BG John]

How good a Utopia? I mean, are we talking 00, EM or P4 Utopia?

One where they invented a new gauge to keep corrupting influences out? It could explain where the idea of using 4ft 1½in gauge for model railways came from!

[Donw]

Edwardian I am delighted that you have discovered the documentental proof you need to move things forward.  I also rather like your history of the railways and look forward to seeing this develop. We have been rambling a bit I assume we are now 'on topic'. 

Don

[Edwardian]

Now you have me confused.com

The northern coastal strip I avoid from about late May till early Oct is the A149 through Wells to Cromer (and actually on around to Eccles).

So where in your head is Kings Lynn N or E?

At Swaffham heading back from Norwich sister-in-law to the A1 (and safety) we either turn left across to west Norfolk and Downham Market or continue north (on our mental map) via Kings Lynn.

If it is a pleasant early afternoon and the A47 traffic is crawling we may turn north to Castle Aching  Acre and Castle Rising off that sad 'railways into roads' straight.

dh

 

Perhaps, in view of all of the foregoing, the district around Castle Aching should be declared some sort of huge socio-political experiment, so that while we all chip-in (in my case, barely ever) helpful suggestions, we can also thrash-out the model for an ideal society, a sort of Utopia or Erewhon in 4mm/ft scale.

 

K

 

PS: could we please have a map of the WNR?

 

The areas that have inspired the WNR reflect visits to Castles Acre and Rising and the route (by road) taken from King's Lynn, up through Hillington, Flitcham, Great Bircham, Docking, the Burnhams to the Burnham-Holkham section of the coast.  Though we have been to Old Hunstanton on the west coast and Wells on the north, we have eschewed the "gaudiness" of "Sunny Hunny" and stuck in the main to the smaller places.  We have gone no further east along the coast than Blakeney and Cley, and inland, Fakenham.

 

I must attempt a map, but I envisage Castle Aching lying on a NW-SE slant roughly between Castles Rising and Acre with the principal WNR route running northward.  Flitchinham must be somewhere between Flitcham and the Massinghams, but the station must be to the south of the MGN Lynn & Fakenham line, otherwise I'd have to feature the junction with the MGN on the model!

 

The eastern branch to Achingham takes us into an area of abundant 'hams'; the 2 Massinghams, Rougham (been to air shows there), Weasenham, Raynhams, Rudham and Fakenham.  Achingham might be understood as a market town rather like Fakenham, but a little further to the south.

 

From Castle Aching, the Lynn & Flitchinham Tramway takes a north-easterly course that would pass close to the real villages of  Pott Row and Grimston before ending at the other Lynn, Bishop's Lynn, on the east bank of the Great Ouse (as I have explained, the literary "East Lynn" is "taken").

Edited August 30, 2018 by Edwardian

[Edwardian]

Edwardian I am delighted that you have discovered the documentental proof you need to move things forward.  I also rather like your history of the railways and look forward to seeing this develop. We have been rambling a bit I assume we are now 'on topic'. 

Don

 

Yes, thanks, Don. Modelling should resume in a week or 2 (though I don't want to tempt fate!!!)

[Fenman]

Now you have me confused.com

The northern coastal strip I avoid from about late May till early Oct is the A149 through Wells to Cromer (and actually on around to Eccles).

So where in your head is Kings Lynn N or E?

At Swaffham heading back from Norwich sister-in-law to the A1 (and safety) we either turn left across to west Norfolk and Downham Market or continue north (on our mental map) via Kings Lynn.

If it is a pleasant early afternoon and the A47 traffic is crawling we may turn north to Castle Aching Acre and Castle Rising off that sad 'railways into roads' straight.

dh

Lynn is clearly West (it is after all the main town of the "Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk").

 

There's also a clue in Edwardian's adoption of the name West Norfolk Railway.

 

But geography can be a very personal thing!

 

Paul

[Edwardian]

I thought that came from using the average of 3' and 5'3", so that in 4mm scale you can run models of Irish prototypes on 00 track regardless of prototype...

 

Of courSe, by Selecting a Sensible Scale, uSing a ratio of one to Sixty four, then theSe concernS Simply diSappear...

 

So SayS Simon

Found a couple of S scale wagon drawings if you are interested.

 

Do you happen to know at what % of the original I'd need to print 'em for 4mm scale?

[runs as required]

Is your answer to be found here ?

 

s scale  is 1:64  or  3/16" : 1 ft (4.8mm:1 ft)

 

19% larger than

                 1: 76  or 4mm : 1 ft

 

[Edwardian]

Is your answer to be found here ?

 

s scale  is 1:64  or  3/16" : 1 ft (4.8mm:1 ft)

 

19% larger than

                 1: 76  or 4mm : 1 ft

 

Thanks, David.  As I am an absolute duffer in relation to almost anything involving practical application, your answer suggests to my mind that there must be an equation, whereby, if S Scale is 100%, I can derive the percentage of S Scale that is 4mm scale, but that equation eludes me!

 

E.g. 4mm scale is 57% of 7mm scale, so, if I have a scale drawing in 7mm I can print it out at 57% of the original to achieve 4mm. 

 

Recently I learnt that American O Gauge is not to 7mm Scale, so that, in order to print out an "O gauge" US downloadable card building to 4mm scale, I would need print the kit off at, near enough, 63%:

 

UK O gauge is 7mm/1.43.5 scale so the 57% is correct for that, USA O gauge uses 1:48 scale so for the CleverModels papers being American you need to print at 62.99 to get to 4mm/1:76.2 scale, Europe uses 1:45 scale.

[runs as required]

Have you tried 83.3333333333333333333 ?

 

 dh

[Edwardian]

Have you tried 83.3333333333333333333 ?

 dh

 

Is that the answer or a cruelly precise track gauge?!?

 

I am not being lazy, just thick; I really do not understand how to go about working this out.  Blame progressive educational theories of the 1970s (I do).

[runs as required]

Thanks, David.  As I am an absolute duffer in relation to almost anything involving practical application, your answer suggests to my mind that there must be an equation, whereby, if S Scale is 100%, I can derive the percentage of S Scale that is 4mm scale, but that equation eludes me!

E.g. 4mm scale is 57% of 7mm scale, so, if I have a scale drawing in 7mm I can print it out at 57% of the original to achieve 4mm. 

 

I just did it by a stock (1948 pre-eleven plus) piece of proportional cross multiplication

E.g. 4mm scale is 83.333333333333% of 4.8 scale, so, if I have a scale drawing in 4.8mm I can print it out at 83.33333% of the original to achieve 4mm.

 

It seemed to work for me, but your mech. eng. fans will no doubt scoff at an old architect who always has to half shut his eyes to properly appraise the proportions.

I always imagine characters like SW Johnson did it like that peering over an Assistant's board in the drawing office.

dh

 

Ed

sorry forgot to write it:

If    4.8 = 100

then  4 = x

 

so 4.8x = 400

 

           x=400

               4.8

 

           x= 83.33333%

Edited July 7, 2016 by runs as required

[Donw]

Actually your 4.8 is an approximation the most useful factor is the scale ratios S=1/64 00=1/76 

 

Take any dimension on the plan  call it d  full size it would be d times 64  for 00 it would be 1/76 of that = dx64/76

there the proportion for S to 00 is 64/76 = 0.8421 or 84.2 %

 

If a print is not to an exact scale measure a known dimension of a drawing usually a wheelbase or wheel diameter.  Say it is 37mm for a 7ft wheel base and would be 28mm in 4mm then the proportion for scaling should be 28/37

 

Regards Don

Edited July 7, 2016 by Donw

[Nearholmer]

Or, more quickly:

 

4/4.8 = 0.833 etc.

 

Which, interestingly, means that in terms of area, 00 is, very roughy, 0.64 that of S, which somehow feels good, because it resonates with 1/64th.

 

Should all layouts be built to comply with the golden ratio? And, have pyramids? And, chaps standing with their feet apart and arms held out to either side?

 

K