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Edwardian

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Blog Comments posted by Edwardian

    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    On 28/05/2021 at 22:53, Florence Locomotive Works said:

     

    Thank you James, that was most informative.

     

    Wood edged platforms could be a possibility. They would have noticeable disadvantages over conventional materials though, such as the cost of having to have some whopping great big pieces of oak creosoted probably up in Sunderland at Armstrong Addison Ltd. Or if the SECR creosoted its own sleepers in bulk then perhaps those would have been used at no cost to the company? 

     

    On an unrelated note, are those what we call in the USA "dwarf signals" to the left of No 16's tender in your post?

     

    Douglas

     

    Re the top photograph, there is no trace of planking on the platform surface.  I would be tempted to treat such a platform as masonry, to surface with something like fine sandpaper or chinchilla dust and to interpret the edging as brick with an overhanging single course of stretchers above the rendered side and then bricks set with their headers facing the line to form the coping.

     

    Re the lower photograph, the dwarf signals are what in the UK would be referred to as ''ground signals''. I could not say off hand whether they were a LCDR design of a type adopted or introduced by the SE&CR.

     

     

    • Informative/Useful 1
    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted · Edited by Edwardian

    Good to see a pre-Grouping project taking shape. There will be others far better qualified than I to comment on SE platforms, but here are two examples that seem to offer some encouragement.

     

    Halstead, a SER station opened 1876 and later known as Knockholt. This is a wooden station.  The platform appears to be masonry, however, as it looks to be edged with brick (quite common a common alternative to edging stones). The view is given as c.1880.

     

    20210527_062312.jpg.f7a6e1a32da12f65af8c989a11b6b293.jpg

     

    Another SER timber wooden station of the period, Bromley (1878) is said to have had platforms "edged in timber".  Quite what that means, I'm unsure.  Considering Bromley, is it possible to interpret the edging at Knockholt as timber planking, not brick?

     

    Whatever the construction of Knockholt station platform, the effect is of a smooth, rendered, platform face beneath the edging.

     

    The only other example I have so far spotted is at the LCDR's Canterbury, later known as Canterbury East, of 1860, in a picture dated to the 1890s. Here the platform is very striking, with no apparent edging/coping or overhang, it looks like nothing so much as a huge concrete slab, you can even see where it's chipped at the edge to the right.  

     

     20210527_062234.jpg.bc707f4ed7e1e3b3ba1cd28166dc2cfe.jpg

     

     

    • Informative/Useful 1
    MikeOxon

    Posted

    I am guilty of re-roasting this chestnut ...

     

    The main question is whether the red was applied all over, but it inevitably engages the question of the date of the transition to grey.

     

    As a consequence I was directed here.

     

    My twopenneth is:

     

    Re the Broadsheet photograph:

     

    - If this showed a mix of grey and red wagons, I would agree that the darker ones are the red, however,

     

    - I agree with Stephen.  All the wagons are red. The lighter ones are faded and the darker, glossier ones are newer

     

    - The G. W. R is applied to the left in all cases, congruent with the circa 1890 assumed date. From, IIRC c.1893-5, the G. W. R moved to the lower right.  There is no suggestion in any of the scant sources of grey wagons (other than brake vans) in the lower left letter period.

     

    This post, however, seems most significant to me:

     

     'Broadsheet' No.6 (1981) is that an early painting specification for an Iron Goods Break Van of 1852 states that:

     

    "The whole of the van including the wheels, axles, axleboxes, side springs and every part [my italics] .... brown colour and figures as might be directed,"  The scheme for other wagons is stated to be similar.

     

    The idea that all over grey was a change in colour, not painting practice, appeals to me.  I also wondered about those grey brake vans in the 1860s to 1890s period.  Were they all over grey or grey with black running gear and/or solebars?

     

    The idea that, pre the introduction of red in the 1860s, GWR wagons were all over brown (including the wheels!) again causes the 

    me to question whether the GW would do anything than paint a single colour all over when turning to red. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    - 

    • Like 1
    Knuckles

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Knuckles said:

    I get caught up in the ‘Forum Trap’ constantly cycling the forums looking for some kind of ‘feel’ based on a response and I agree it can be pretty damaging and pointless after a while. 

    Another thing I didn’t mention is how ‘likes’ can help your content pique algorithms and get your video/posts ranked higher and thus on some platforms with certain set ups that can equate to more money.  There is that too which can be a good thing but also bad when everyone is constantly ‘reminding’ us to “Smash That Like Button”  Ugh.

     

    ...

     

    Oh yes I agree, last 8 or so years I’ve given up caring what people think, or trying to fit in or to please everyone.  Isn’t possible so screw it.  I want to know what people think more for the social interaction (basic social wants/needs) aspect rather than feeling valued.  I’m done basing my value on the shifting sands of an ever culturally changing meme.  Bad init!

    Yeah, if receiving a ton of likes but no real interaction with people, then other than monitory considerations, socially speaking it’s a bit pointless.  I know we are often busy but if we truly like what people have done then actually saying something and having an interaction is worth way more than a digital number.  

     

     

     

    Crumbs, I just 'liked' your post (old habits ...), so, quick, I must think of something to say!

     

    It caused me to reflect that there are Young People, for whom the accumulation of ratings and followers is a way to earn a living, and even younger people, like my daughter, who see that as perfectly worthwhile and to be emulated.

     

    The World has moved on and left me behind ....!

     

    We do not need conspirators to enslave us.  We do it to ourselves by, for instance, equating researched and substantiated factual reporting by traditional news media with the gossip of social media, or even preferring the latter to the former, which is discredited as "fake news" by the peddlars of 'real' fake news.  

     

    Though perhaps we are nudged along that path by Dark Forces?  They wind us up, point us in their direction of travel, and leave us to do all the walking for them. God, that's bleak. 

    • Like 1
    Knuckles

    Posted

    Perhaps they 'liked' it ironically?

     

    Interesting and much in what you say.

     

    It's preferable to post a comment, but, realistically, there is not always the time to do so.  Further, some content that I like or find skillful lies outside my areas of main interest or knowledge and, really, I wouldn't have anything of value to contribute! Simply replying "wow!" each time would just be a long-hand version of the like button!

     

    What you did not mention is the addictive endorphin release of social media approbation, to which our 'like' buttons are cousins, and which is another negative effect and a distraction from modelling and proper critical evaluation.  That said, there is an upside, too, as some of us gain much needed confidence and encouragement from ratings. It is sometimes hard to judge one's own work, but ratings can let you see when you do, or do not quite, hit the spot.  There again, however, comments are of even greater value, and I'd have to agree with you that the ratings buttons can breed a laziness of response, but at least they're a response!     

    • Like 2
    • Agree 5
    Mikkel

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

     

     

    Crafty :). In fairness to Churchward, he seems to have acted very galantly in his relationship with Dean. I don't think he ever said anything in public about his role in many of Dean's latter day designs? Although we mustn't underestimate Dean either, I think. As Jeremy Clements says in "Dean, Greatest of Them All", he deserves much more credit than he sometimes gets.

     

     

    Thanks Mike. I originally wanted to make the cloud of steam entirely without photoshop effects - so it is actually a ball of cotton wool. But in close-up it looked like exactly that! So the edges were blurred with my photo editing software.

     

    I too am finding it a bit hard to adjust. I try to remind myself it's the way of the world but that can also be a bit defeatist at times. So L.R. Thomas has my sympathies, also when it comes to things like the unpleasant realization that some young know-it-all is in fact smarter than you!

     

    Here is a photo believed to show L.R. Thomas after he migrated to Kashmir and became a well-known guru.

     

    740511867_LRThomas.gif.fc0f6360f798686043c3f78b07ed0475.gif

     

     

     

    Now had time to look more into this. Great stuff!

     

    Her terrible tale
    You can't assail,
    With truth it quite agrees:
    Her taste exact
    For faultless fact
    Amounts to a disease.

     

     

    Gilbert and Sullivan is a satirical gold mine. It's nowadays considered terribly old hat and the preserve of middle-brow am-drams, but it's actually extremely witty and effective satire, but never too crude or cruel.  Even the music is funny and, often as not, satirising 'serious music', like Italian Grand Opera. 

     

    If you're prepared to get to know it, it's a very funny take on 'pre-Grouping' society and culture.  

    • Like 2
    • Agree 1
    Mikkel

    Posted · Edited by Edwardian

    Another bravura effort, which has made pleasurable breakfast reading this morning. Beautifully observed, modelled, composed and photographed as usual. 

     

    EDIT: Having just seen Don's post, one might add of Mikkel and his time travelling alter ego:

     

    We know him well
    He cannot tell
    Untrue or groundless tales —
    He always tries
    To utter lies
    And every time he fails

     

    ...

     

    And in this case
    It all took place
    Exactly as he says!
    Exactly, exactly, exactly
    Exactly as he says!

     

    • Like 1
    • Craftsmanship/clever 2
    Knuckles

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

    Top stuff, Gavin, many thanks for posting that.

     

    I wasn't going to get one of these, because they're too far out of my geographical area, even for my outrageously improbable light railway, but then again, why shouldn't an outrageously improbable light railway have some even more outrageously improbably locomotives?

     

    Glad KMRC sorted it out so quickly, but not surprised, they are very good like that.

     

     

    Well, a G15 (Y6) has been seen on a light railway in Somerset .....

     

    1879194237_DSCN9556-Copy.JPG.eb0f6ff12357bdcee6c4b5378e6562c0.JPG

    • Like 5
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