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47137

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  1. Yes, I pulled the plug on it. "Shelf Island" kept me happy for many years, and the blog worked for me as a way to share my efforts. When the blog was young, I was pondering whether to put it on its own web site or on RMweb. I had created a web site for my company and I knew how to buy a hosting package and create and maintain a simple web site. Around the same time, the RMweb "Gold" membership was offered, and I decided the £50 a year I would spend on hosting was better spent here, where it could support the site and allow better integration with other topics. I think the project suffered because a great deal of the effort was a proof of concept of one kind or another, which usually worked out for me and I shared hoping this might be for the benefit of others. This caught the attention of some of the more vocal members of the community, who responded as though I was trying to challenge the domination of 4mm scale. I also think, I tried to gather up and work up too many different RTR models, and some of these I have sold. During all of this, the hosting software changed, needing me to prepare a new index and new subject tags from time to time. The upkeep of the blog was taking more time than preparation of new posts, and this got worse as I extended the layout around the hobby room; I found it quite difficult to integrate the extensions into the blog in a coherent sort of way. Curiously, the extended layout did not satisfy me. I now had most of half a scale mile of track, enough to keep a train in motion for a couple of minutes, but the siding accommodation was now nowhere near sufficient. "Wellwood" never really got off the ground and was broken up, and "Shelf Marshes" was hived off to make the basis of a preservation society one day. "Shelf Island" is dormant (and terribly dusty!), with the extension to "Fairport" remaining as the only scenic development. The blog had received a decent number of views and I felt it had achieved all I could expect from it, and so I deleted all of the posts. I think an account of "Shelf Island" could reappear one day, but after the core baseboard has received some scenics, and on a dedicated web site where I have control of the software and the backup regime. I do have pdf copies of most of the posts on the blog and I can send a few files on by email or whatever if anyone would like to ask - a PM would be best. - Richard.
  2. Andy I am so glad the loco still runs well after all of the dismantling and reassembly you have had to do, and it looks excellent in its new livery. Well done. - Richard.
  3. I think, my best starting point is Grace's Guide. I know a bit about E H Bentall, but not enough to make a "truly correct fiction" in terms of the way my imaginery railway served them. So for example, Motor tyres from the East London Rubber Company, arriving in a GER open wagon Leaf springs from Jonas Woodhead and Sons of Leeds, arriving by the Midland Electrical parts from Bristol, arriving well-wrapped in a 4-plank open or possibly an iron mink. and so on. I can make a decent variety of wagon kits and if I have one or two red GWR wagons, these won't define the time period exactly(!) but they will provide a clue to the 1890s. I can have a MR D299 too. These wagons can appear on the layout one at a time, and the operating sequences (this are probably a year+ ahead!) can represent interesting days in (say) 1893 and 1908. I have something to aim for. - Richard.
  4. I am sometimes unsure how specific or general to make my posts in this sort of thread. As it happens, I am thinking of an agricultural engineers who tried to make cars (E H Bentall) for my layout, so the products coming in might be raw castings up until the time when they had their own foundry up and running. Garretts would have been a competitor. I am not familiar with London or its railways. Essex is divided by the River Crouch and at the moment, trying to compose a fiction involving routing via London is too difficult. I hope this doesn't sound disingenuous. Perhaps really, it is too uninteresting. - Richard.
  5. I agree entirely. Bearing in mind the layout represents a limited period, the replacement boiler could arrive once in every complete operating sequence. The sequence can also have a delivery of lead from Shropshire dispatched via the GWR, a ploughing engine arriving on a distant railway's machinery wagon, and hopefully a couple more items. I have never had my Modeller's Licence taken away from me, but it has picked up a few endorsements for what are I suppose the broad equivalents of speeding; or as the Officer would say, "it's a bit much". - Richard.
  6. What I am trying to say is, for my project as an offshoot from GER territory, the products of heavy enginneering would more likely come from the Black Country via the Midland, or from the North East via the NER or coastal shipping. - Richard.
  7. Suppose so . . . I was thinking of Wiltshire to Cornwall. Could have been phrased better! - Richard.
  8. Pig iron is a particularly good example for me. My intended layout is supposed to have a foundry off-scene but nearby, and I'd forgotten to include it on my list. Moreover, there was little heavy industry in GWR territory, nor indeed in GER territory. The wagon needs to be something from the Midlands or the North. - Richard.
  9. I has occurred to me, some 'foreign' wagons, carrying a specialised load, might have been destined for a private siding. As such, they wouldn't stay long to be photographed in the nearby general goods yard. - Richard.
  10. I have added "before 1916" to the title of this thread. Partly because this might help to focus the discussion on the periods of interest to me (1889 to 1913) and to other contributors, but mainly because operating patterns changed so much after pooling. I hope this helps. - Richard.
  11. This is very important to me. I was confusing 'joint' lines with 'running powers'. Thanks. - Richard.
  12. I have just bought myself a copy of Ian Allan's reprint of the 1904 RCH maps. At first glance I realise so many small towns with more than one railway company had more than one station. Looking at the railways in and around Rutland, I wonder how freight consuming a single wagon was sent from (say) Rockingham to Ketton. I am going to go back to the main topic, https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/159248-foreign-wagons-how-many-would-you-see/ I really do need to read it from end to end. - Richard.
  13. I think we have identified some of the answers. 1) A load needing a special wagon, like a gun barrel 2) A load needing particular care, like a show animal 3) A load being awkward or laborious to tranship, like a ploughing engine There ought to be others. The load nagging in the back of my mind is an entire wagon filled with a product bound for a single destination. There must have been specialised loads like particular grades of coal or tar or timber, sourced in unique localities and finding markets far afield. I want to think, there were so many pre-grouping railway companies, then without through workings they would have spent more time doing transhipment than running trains . . . and of course, this gives me a justification for through workings on a layout.
  14. So - I have make a post, intended to help or reassure another member of the site: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/171078-rmweb-change-of-hosting-missing-images-april-2022/?do=findComment&comment=4901593 Someone picked up on my use of one word ("site"), and less than a day later, a member who I have always respected to the highest degree seems to be slamming me down. I am sorry for the obvious annoyance I have caused to all concerned. Please accept, this was not my intention. I will return to my blog, to rebuild it as well as I can, and I won't post here (on this topic) again unless someone asks me to. I hope this sounds fair. - Richard.
  15. To my mind, RMweb is a web site and for convenience I call this a site. The site holds promotional material for its owners, announcements by model train manufacturers, diary information and public discussion; and the owners of the site accept payments from users for 'premium' levels of membership. Trying to break this service down into elements such as the sub-contractors responsible for particular aspects of the service such as provision of software and web hosting does not alter this. If I hire a car and the thing conks out a few yards down the road, my business remains with the company I hired it from not the garage which forgot to put oil in the engine at the last service. The root of the problem will always lie with the owners of RMweb - they choose how to run their business and their business decisions have put themselves and the users of their site where they are now. It's not personal, it's business.
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