Jump to content
 

ian@stenochs

Members
  • Posts

    518
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by ian@stenochs

  1. 28 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:


    At Jill’s behest we once went into the Tate Northern in Liverpool. I won’t attempt to list some of the rubbish pretending to be ‘art’ in there but just to give two examples:

    Standing in a corner was a broom handle that had been painted with bands of different colours; next to it was a closely typed A4 sheet explaining what the ‘artist’ meant with this ‘work’ ; Another was a collection of driftwood placed in a circle on the floor. Once again there was an explanatory sheet. I think that I upset one of the curators when I said to Jill as we left, “This place is just an example of the unscrupulous preying on the gullible.”

     

    Dave


    The real artistry is demonstrated by the creators of these piles of stuff in convincing the founders that their work is art!

    • Agree 11
  2. 20 hours ago, MrWolf said:

     

    Depending on how much plate you're heating and what equipment you have it might be worth experimenting with playing a large oxy-propane flame over it as I have done when preheating cracked engine blocks for welding.

     

    Even heating and thus oxidation is only really possible in an enclosed furnace.  I had access to one in my working life but that was no longer an option for me. Anyway  I have now built two G&SWR Baltic tanks with painted boilers so that itch is well and truly scratched.

    • Like 7
  3. 3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

     

    It might be worth contacting a gun shop and asking about barrel blue for refinishing and preserving the steel parts of weapons.


    I tried that and I could get an even blue either. It always came out more black than the blue that I wanted.

    • Like 4
    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
    • Friendly/supportive 2
  4. 56 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

    Good to see Douglas back again and happily fettling his new acquisition. Is that 'Russian Iron' the same stuff that was used for the boiler clothing on the G&SWR Baltic tanks?

     

    Dave


    Russian iron/Planished Steel could be the same. Blued steel was once used extensively for cylinder cladding on marine engines and widely available. A friend tried to obtain some for his 3.5” gauge Baltic but despite extensive enquiries couldn’t source any. He ended up using anodised Aluminium which started off ok as a deep blue but after a few firings turned a dull brown hue!

     

    I tried heat treating the boiler on my Baltic and managed to get a nice deep blue colour in parts but not even.  I rather think a torch was the wrong tool as it was impossible to get an even heat over the whole boiler.  In the end I used paint!

     

    Ian,

     

    40692192-E928-42F1-907E-6827964C6B8D.jpeg.d82befa0d03456fb64aab08b9574087a.jpeg

    • Like 19
  5. 4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

     

    But was there any significant mineral flow over the Caledonian main line to Carlisle? I would presume that most mineral traffic was confined to Ayrshire and the central lowland belt, through to Fife, these being the coal-mining and coal-consuming districts - and hence short haul. (Short-haul doesn't rule out big engines, of course.) My impression is that export of Scottish coal to England or vice-versa was not an economic proposition, given the local supplies. 


    Most of the Ayrshire coal was moved by the G&SWR, the Caley tried to move in but only succeeded around Muirkirk.  There was a considerable coal export trade through the ports of Ayr, Troon and Irvine which resulted in all the G&SWR mineral wagons having doors at both ends to cut out the need for turning wagons prior to tipping into ships.

    • Like 1
    • Informative/Useful 4
  6. On the way to the Manchester show with ‘Auchlin’ our hire van broke down just as we entered Killington lake services.  Broken timing belt, quite a common occurrence with transits, so our breakdown man told us. It was a Friday morning, show opened late afternoon.  Eventually a relay truck arrived and we were loaded on only to be taken to Bolton, there to wait on another relay coming from Manchester, something to do with areas!

     

    The upshot was that we eventually arrived on a low loader outside the venue, Coop hall, about the same time as the show opened to the public.  The layout and all our bits were taken into the hall and deposited behind the barriers just as the crowd flooded in.  Erecting the layout in a cramped space between to other exhibits while the public watched was interesting. However we gave the viewers an insight into what goes into an exhibition layout. Thankfully there were no other gremlins and trains started running within an hour.

     

    The post show beers were very welcome that night!

    • Friendly/supportive 10
  7. 15 hours ago, wagonman said:

     

    This is slightly undermined by the roofed lead ore wagons built by the Gloucester Wagon Co for J B Balcombe which came fitted with a chunky padlock. There were also secure lead ore stores at Llandovery station and Aberystwyth harbour – there may have others but these two I know about – presumably for the accumulation of enough ores for a cargo. I won't argue that it was probably the silver content that made the stuff nickable – except there was no silver in the Blaencaelan ore!

     

    LEADOREWAGONcopy.jpg.b0189cc0bfb3a2d792c17d65a25855b4.jpg


    I wonder how ore was handled in these wagons.  It must have been difficult shovelling it into and out of the corners under that low roof and through that central door. 
     

    Ian.

    • Agree 3
  8. 10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

     

    Then there's the Midland Great Western.

     

    And an interest in the G&SWR inevitably leads to accidentally discovering the delights of the GS&WR.


    Yes, a real joy especially if you read the ‘Tales’ by David L Smith.  254 has that giant eel with ‘lugs like a horse’ in its tender tank!
    AEFF4B58-D09D-434C-B47A-FFE02608E879.jpeg.524d7bf5936929e04823794e51d46715.jpeg

    • Like 9
    • Agree 1
    • Craftsmanship/clever 4
    • Round of applause 2
  9. 2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

     

    Ah, but you haven't costed in the value of the fun. The build is a leisure activity and should be compared with other leisure activities. I could spend an evening scratchbuilding a wagon for £15, or I could go out to the theatre, opera, or football for something around ten times that much. So clearly I'm quids in.


    I have a friend who spends about the same time on a golf course as I do in my workshop.  I know, because he constantly tells me, how much green fees are and it is way more than I spend on modelling bits.  
     

    Both of us enjoy our hobby but when I go there will be a legacy of models and a workshop full of tools. My friend will leave a set of clubs!

     

    Ian.

    • Like 4
    • Round of applause 1
  10. 2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

    Easy!

    • Dumb it down
    • Ignore those visitors who love railways whilst “reaching out” to those who have absolutely no interest in either railways or visiting a museum.
    • Make it “relevant”
    • ”de-colonise” it
    • install cheap and soon-broken interactive media
    • Allow the “gift shop” to grow like a cancer and take up ever increasing amounts of museum floor space.
    • Stock said “gift shop” with cheap trashy and tacky items, 90% of which have nothing to do with railways.

    Trust me, it’s a tried and true approach.

     

    Absolutely spot on.  Glasgow did the same with the excellent transport museum in the Kelvin Hall.  Built a new 'prize winning design' mega expensive building which is too small to display most of the collection. Now the vintage cars are on little shelfs, like toy cars, bikes hang from the ceiling and the locomotives are surrounded with cases and boards so they cannot be viewed properly. One exeption is the Drummond pug which is stuck halfway up a wall peeking out like a mouse from its hole.

    It boasts excellent visitor numbers but they are mostly made up from creches and disabled groups because entry is free, warm and there is a cafe!

    Ian.

    • Like 2
    • Agree 1
    • Informative/Useful 1
    • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
    • Friendly/supportive 8
  11. This thread has been fascinating and thought provoking even though my interest is not the NER.

     

    I have been building models from the same railway for 50+ years.  There is only one preserved engine from the line and that is late period.  The only contemporary model, more a toy, I know about is painted in municipal green paint!  

     

    When I was younger I was lucky to meet and listen to ex employees and enthusiasts who remembered the railway and some even commented on my early modelling efforts. Despite bring painted in differing shades, whatever Humbrol or Airfix produced at the time,  the most common comment was 'that looks right'!

     

    Since then my philosophy on painting is to ensure that I paint each part in the correct colour, ie, if the original was green it will be green on the model.  The colour or shade I choose is the one I think is correct.  Having read everything I can find on the subject I am happy that my shade is close enough!

     

    100 years on since the grouping I am sure nobody can be any more definite.

     

    Ian

    • Like 6
    • Agree 2
  12. 8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

    A little poser. The Liverpool and Manchester was the first 'Inter city' line to be built. In which country was the second one to be built and between which cities? A clue, it opened fully in 1856.

    You have been watching Alice Roberts on TV last night!

    Egypt between Alexandria and Cairo.

    • Like 4
    • Agree 2
  13. 27 minutes ago, AndyID said:

     

    Despite being a resident of the picturesque village of Paisley (which pinched the design from India thanks to a certain Queen Vic) I never did own a shirt although I did have slightly flared trousers. A work colleague in Ayrshire said his father liked to refer to John Travolta as "John Tarbolton" which, if you knew the place, was pretty funny. It was also the haunt of a certain poet named Burns.

    Nothing about sartorial elegance but being a native of Stair,  just down the road from Tarbolton, I can tell you that the local pronuciation is 'Tarbouton'.

    Incidently my first ever steam loco footplate experience was in the yard of the station during a bit of shunting.  I would be about 7 or 8 and was with my Grandfather on a tractor and trailer collecting something from a wagon!

    Ian.

    • Like 11
  14. On 02/03/2023 at 17:17, Compound2632 said:

     

    There's an interestingly high proportion of Midland stock for this LNWR goods station (Curzon Street). Are we seeing the fruit of the 1908 traffic agreements?

     

    lnwrcs1503.jpg

     

    [Embedded link to Warwickshire Railways lnwrcs1503, per link in previous post.]

     

    But the wagon with the new sheet is curious. I've not been able to match it to a LNWR diagram - the D31 coke wagons come closest but the cupboard doors, which I think were unique to that diagram, were taller than those we see. Plus the characteristic quadrant cut-out of the headstock end is lacking.

     

    Note the wagon turntables, a house speciality since 1837.


    I’m just catching up after a weekend away.

    Definitely a G&SW 10 ton mineral.  Here is a scan from a view of Ardrossan harbour in much earlier times with an almost new example amongst the older dumb buffered wagons.  Only a single shoe brake, probably one either side in the Curzon St view but not definite. Note that the 6ton wagon has no brake on this side.
    1D87F700-EB49-42A5-AC27-37F800B75855.jpeg.5a2529c1417090df7ab1256a0780a6e7.jpeg
     

    I wonder what traffic the wagon carried to Birmingham, probably not coal. The G&SW had loads of mineral wagons so perhaps pushed into service instead of an open merchandise wagon.

    • Like 12
    • Informative/Useful 1
  15. 4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

     

    Try googling GSWR looking for images of Scottish railway engines. To say nothing of the multiplicity of GNRs. One has to be careful to avoid ambiguity when referring to the Great Northern and the Midland in the same sentence. 

     

    If all that wasn't bad enough, one has to tread carefully not to confuse the Caledonian and Cumbrian Railway 

     

    Omitting the ampersand is a sloppy modern trait which neither the G&SWR nor the GS&WR did.

    Googling gswr gets you to the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway!

    • Like 2
×
×
  • Create New...