Compound2632

Also, @hmrspaul made an observation (that seems to have vanished) about the diagram in Atkins. Although one cannot use a diagram as a reliable basis for the details of a wagon, it will be correct in the written dimensions, since that was its primary purpose. [EDIT: it's a post in the old thread I linked to in my previous post.]

There was a rather vigorous discussion about the dimensions of an Iron Mink some years ago: Some time ago I measured the width of a Ratio kit, comparing with dimensions quoted by @Miss Prism: ... concluding that it was just a scale 2" too wide. @Miss Prism also affirmed that trimming the top of sides and ends to bring the roof down to the top of the doorframe yielded the right height. ..

What works nicely (fortuitously?) in EM won't work in other gauges because the sleeper positions are defined relative to the location of the crossing (timber under the tip of the vee) and for a given track centre-to-centre distance, the distance between the crossings will change as the gauge changes - the wider the gauge, the closer the crossings. With a slip or diamond, I suppose the timbers will be orthogonal to the longitudinal centre line, so at an angle relative to the point timbers - 1:14 for a 1:7 crossing.

F.W. Webb pioneered the 8-coupled goods engine in Britain. After an initial inside-cylindered prototype, he built three-cylinder and four-cylinder compounds, all 0-8-0s. One of the earliest acts of George Whale on acceding to the throne at Crewe was to stick a carrying axle under the front end of the four-cylinder engines - the cylinder block forward of the leading pair of coupled wheels had but an excessive weight on that leading axle. The majority of the compound engines were eventually rebuilt to resemble the inside-cylinder prototype, and subsequently (or directly) gained larger boilers. It was not until early LMS days that they gained superheaters. But they kept that front overhang.

What quantity would you have done, by what production method, and at what price? And how would you raise the capital? As you've been involved in a number of magazine commissions, you probably have a more authoritative insight into the economics than the vast majority of other commenters here.

Your particular experience of Spokane, whilst clearly satisfactory in the short term (whatever its long term consequences), can hardly be taken as providing an objective assessment of the place for other potential visitors.

The Lune Viaduct was restored in 2007 by BRB (Residuary) Ltd at a cost of £600,000, so is, I hope, safe from that for a good while. The adjacent culvert carrying the Crosdale Beck under the embankment was in a bad way after Storm Desmond: Washed out for five or six yards upstream of the outer arch. That's partly down to Locke & Errington underestimating the maximum flow rate of the beck under storm conditions when they engineered the line in the 1850s. There's the danger that if the culvert failed completely or became completely blocked (filling it up with concrete would definitely be a Bad Idea!), it could take the embankment down with it which could destabilise the southern abutment of the viaduct.

For those who like a good bit of scandal, here's the original version of Abraham Solomon's First Class, as mentioned by @5&9Models back in March: Notice that in this version the young man is a Sporting Gentleman; in the revised version he has become a Naval Officer and therefore of unimpeachable good character.

Whereas the SECR van used Alan Gibson wheels. One wonders what has happened there.

Does he suppose 'they' can't do that already? ('They' most likely being in the basement of the Lubyanka.)

Well, I've just done two weeks' supply teaching in a local secondary school with up to around 30% of pupils in some year groups at home as their bubble has included a pupil with a positive test. So I'll let you know in a couple of weeks... All being well, by then we should be heading north for our usual fortnight - missed last year of course.

If he was retiring at 65, he would have been born in 1911. The earliest he could have started on the railway was then probably at 14? Which would be 1925... If he was retiring at 68, say, his claim to have been an employee of the Caledonian could be accurate. But the identity of the pre-Grouping companies, certainly in term of esprit de corps, lasted well after grouping, or so one gathers. So his first employer may well have been the LMS but he would identify as a Caley man, and certainly not as a Sou'-West man!

Maybe not quantity, but the quality declined as the Baltic forests were felled. The best timber got cut first.

I understood that a key factor in the replacement of Brunel's timber viaducts was that it became impossible to obtain high-quality slow-grown Baltic pine in sufficiently large pieces at an economic price. I'm not sure where I got that from, it might be Rolt's biography of Brunel.

... or an analysis of what the man in charge of the photo boards had had to drink the previous evening and a recording of the foreman's conversation with him after the plates had been developed.