Castle Aching

[ukpepsi]

Hi Quarryscapes,

 

I think the quality of the two wagons in the photo is superb, am I correct in guessing they are 2mmfs?

 

Also a guess WRT 3D printed or etched chassis:

 

I've gone for the lower wagon being the etched chassis & the upper one, 3D printed?

 

Pepsi

[Edwardian]

Not quite Norfolk, but these buildings in Broadstairs reminded me of the type used in your village.

 

Apologies for the harsh sunlight, it was early morning (on holiday, that's about 8:30am), and the odd angles (it was a very narrow lane). The earliest of this row allegedly dates from 1603.

 

20160829_084416.jpg

 

20160829_084434.jpg

 

20160829_084441.jpg

 

20160829_084448.jpg

 

20160829_084451.jpg

 

20160829_084459.jpg

 

20160829_084541.jpg

 

Superb buildings that deserve to be modelled, thanks indeed.  I think I'm coming over all Alec Clifton Taylor .... 

 

 

And, in a further attempt to flog bits of vernacular architecture to Edwardian ......,,

 

What CA needs is a water pumping station, housing a pair of oil engines, built c1892-5, in 'public works gothic', as was used for many schools.

 

This one is from 1892, but it is a steam one, and hence a lot bigger, so imagine a much smaller building, adopting the same style.

 

I can't find a picture of the first oil engine one, also dating to 1892, so when I get a free half-day, I will go and see if it still exists; doubt it, because it was superseded in the 1929s, but you never know.

 

It should be set over a purpose-bored deep well, far enough from sources of pollution to guarantee the safety of the aquifer that it draws from. I don't think there was any treatment of the water at this stage, but there probably would be a small reservoir, although that might not be adjacent to the well, because I think it needed to be at a high point to obviate the need for secondary pumping.

 

Kevin

 

Superb idea, thanks very much, very modellable.

 

School

 

Yes, I did plan on a school.  1850s in carstone rag, very similar in style and date to the station buildings.

 

I thought to base it upon Hillington, which, rather charmingly, is right next to the former MGN station. 

 

Hard to get a good view of it, so one for Photoshop, I think.  A hedge now screens the view from Google Earth (see grainy image at bottom of post).

Waterworks

 

Not, I think, for Castle Aching, but I can envisage a micro-layout with a NG line for delivering the coal.  This is Tees Cottage, Darlington.  The lines (as Tubs would say, "Lines, lines, lines; what do they all mean?") on the plan are subterranean water pipes, and, sadly, not NG tracks.  The 6 tons of coal needed daily was brought via horse and waggon.

 

So we have:

 

(1) Plan.  1 and 2 are the 2 original engine houses of, I think, the late 1840s.  The 2 engines were owned by 2 different companies, worked independently and had different customers.  Their systems were linked, however, so each could help out the other when demand for one outstretched capacity.   The large rectangles are, of course the settling/filtration tanks.  The red rectangle represents the big new engine house built at the turn of the Twentieth Century. 

 

(2) The big new engine house

 

(3) One of the 2 original beam engine houses.

 

(4) The other of 2 original beam engine houses, some random people entirely unrelated to me and, right, the Foreman's house (13 on the plan)

 

(5) Foreman's House, with the Dóttir (whom, it must be said has her own unique fashion sense)

 

(6) Said Dóttir admiring the large Edwardian beam engine.

 

(7) Beam engine controls, or, if you are into Steampunk, main engine controls for Her Majesty's Sky Dreadnought Icarus.

 

(8) The large beam engine's 2 hungry Lancashire boilers.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Edwardian

[Nearholmer]

Edwardian,

 

A magnificent temple of water and steam!

 

But, what I am trying to foist upon CA would be much more modest. A village-size pumping station, with two oil-engines, and two pumps, was not much bigger than a double garage. Estate pump-houses were similar, sometimes even smaller, because they would get-by with a single engine and pump, tolerating temporary loss of supply.

 

Most of the pre-WW1 ones seem to have been swept-away, as the move to electrically-driven pumps was made, so it is hard to find photos. The picture below is a 1920s site, which is probably a valve-house, rather than a pump-house, although it may contain electric pumps, but it is about the size under consideration.

 

The Metropolitan Pyramid Company has recently suffered a downturn in its core business, and has opened a new venture, operating from the same premises: The Pyramid Public Works Company, which would be pleased to provide a a fully inclusive quotation.

 

Kevin

 

PS: All this water stuff is really the result of false-time-economy on my part. I got stuck for hours, with a flat battery in my car, on Saturday, and had to read about something while waiting for the AA (fortunate I was on my own; I'm not sure if I'd still be alive if I had stranded the entire family). I knew the battery was on its last legs (eleven years old), but was trying to eke it through until the car goes for service and MOT in a fortnights time, to save time, by avoiding a special trip to get a new one ............

 

PPS: following a further search for inspiration, the PPWCoy. suggest the example shown further below. Octagonal in plan, flint construction, with brick detailing, designed by Lutyens, and erected on the Slindon Estate c1907. Very tasteful, and makes good use of local material.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Kevin,

 

I had rather liked the 1892 example.  Perhaps it would do for Achingham, though I had planned a Fake-ingham Gas Works.

 

Turning to wagons.

 

Quarryscapes was responding to my ramblings on the subject of 9'6" w/b wagons:I am, how shall I put this, unusually price-sensitive, so this is really an issue peculiar to me than a comment on the relative value of different products.

 

I am trying to avoid buying too many separate components such as etched W irons, cast or printed axle-box/spring assemblies, brake gear, crown plates and goodness knows what else.  That is one reason butchering a plastic u/f kit appeals. 

 

The simplicity and elegance of the 3D print solution appeals.  It is, I confess, logically, the answer.

 

Out of my ideal list of about 20 wagons for Castle Aching, I find there are: 

 

GER Open Merchandise, un-diagrammed c.1883 4-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ over headstocks
GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 16 c.1887 5-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs
GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 17 1893-1902, 5-plank, 10-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs
GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 17 1893-1902, 5-plank, 10-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs

GNR Open Merchandise, c.1882, 4-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs

 

The GE and GN types are very similar.  Of the GE wagons, the only duplicate on my list is a second Dia. 17, as they were ubiquitous, but they're all essentially similar. The GE Dia. 17 and the GN vehicles in particular represent standard designs of which thousands were built.

 

I note that some of the LBSC opens also had a 9'6" w/b.

 

A wooden 9'6" w/b 3D u/f would be a very useful thing.  Presumably the process also favours changes in axle box, bolt etc detail.

 

Now my head is full of questions that I suspect have no answers, but it boils down to this:  I have made almost zero progress with Inkscape.  Truth be told, I am avoiding it.  It gets me down.  Mike Trice has done a brilliant tutorial.  At the moment I am trying to summon up the will for a third attempt to import an image.  Pathetic.  Am I really going to start designing for 3D print?  Realistically?' 

[BG John]

Now my head is full of questions that I suspect have no answers, but it boils down to this:  I have made almost zero progress with Inkscape.  Truth be told, I am avoiding it.  It gets me down.  Mike Trice has done a brilliant tutorial.  At the moment I am trying to summon up the will for a third attempt to import an image.  Pathetic.  Am I really going to start designing for 3D print?  Realistically?' 

Leave the coach, and try something easier. It's what I'm doing. I'd send you my files to play with, but don't think that broad gauge wagons and 7mm scale windows too fine to cut in 4mm would be much use!

[wagonman]

 

I thought this discussion best continued here...

 

 

Edwardian, on 17 Sept 2016 - 13:08, said:

 

 

Here's a little comparison for you - one of these is a plastic body on an etched chassis with separate axleboxes, the other is entirely 3D printed - from this photo, I can't tell them apart and I know which is which!

 

DSCF4868.jpg

 

 

 

I would hazard the 2-plank open is the plastic kit as it has unmodified Cambrian Kits brake gear! Both are lacking brake safety loops (as are many of my wagons). Nice work though...

Edited September 19, 2016 by wagonman

[phil_sutters]

If you want a really small water supply you could go for a well and donkey wheel as at Stamner, near Brighton

 

 

If you want 'small' in gas works terms you could try the Highbridge (SDJR) Station Gas works. My photo from 1969 shows what remained then, but there are very clear photos including the gas holder in Colin Maggs' Highbridge in its heyday. Although located to side of the station it provided gas for the locomotive and carriage works as well.

Edited September 20, 2016 by phil_sutters

[Quarryscapes]

Hi Quarryscapes,

 

I think the quality of the two wagons in the photo is superb, am I correct in guessing they are 2mmfs?

 

Also a guess WRT 3D printed or etched chassis:

 

I've gone for the lower wagon being the etched chassis & the upper one, 3D printed?

 

Pepsi

 

I would hazard the 2-plank open is the plastic kit as it has unmodified Cambrian Kits brake gear! Both are lacking brake safety loops (as are many of my wagons). Nice work though...

 

Both EM gauge - I did try in 2FS but my eyes can't hack it. Both correct in that the 2 plank has the etched chassis, but the brake gear is etched not plastic - originals have safety straps and are for iron brake shoes not the wood trying to be depicted here. 

 

Kevin,

 

I had rather liked the 1892 example.  Perhaps it would do for Achingham, though I had planned a Fake-ingham Gas Works.

 

Turning to wagons.

 

Quarryscapes was responding to my ramblings on the subject of 9'6" w/b wagons:I am, how shall I put this, unusually price-sensitive, so this is really an issue peculiar to me than a comment on the relative value of different products.

 

I am trying to avoid buying too many separate components such as etched W irons, cast or printed axle-box/spring assemblies, brake gear, crown plates and goodness knows what else.  That is one reason butchering a plastic u/f kit appeals. 

 

The simplicity and elegance of the 3D print solution appeals.  It is, I confess, logically, the answer.

 

Out of my ideal list of about 20 wagons for Castle Aching, I find there are: 

 

GER Open Merchandise, un-diagrammed c.1883 4-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ over headstocks

GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 16 c.1887 5-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs

GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 17 1893-1902, 5-plank, 10-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs

GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 17 1893-1902, 5-plank, 10-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs

GNR Open Merchandise, c.1882, 4-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs

 

The GE and GN types are very similar.  Of the GE wagons, the only duplicate on my list is a second Dia. 17, as they were ubiquitous, but they're all essentially similar. The GE Dia. 17 and the GN vehicles in particular represent standard designs of which thousands were built.

 

I note that some of the LBSC opens also had a 9'6" w/b.

 

A wooden 9'6" w/b 3D u/f would be a very useful thing.  Presumably the process also favours changes in axle box, bolt etc detail.

 

Now my head is full of questions that I suspect have no answers, but it boils down to this:  I have made almost zero progress with Inkscape.  Truth be told, I am avoiding it.  It gets me down.  Mike Trice has done a brilliant tutorial.  At the moment I am trying to summon up the will for a third attempt to import an image.  Pathetic.  Am I really going to start designing for 3D print?  Realistically?' 

 

Sketchup is free and as with everything takes some time to master, but it's what I use quite happily. Of course if you want to point me at some drawings of prototypes I'll quite happily bash out the required components for you. 

[Edwardian]

 

If you want a really small water supply you could go for a well and donkey wheel as at Stamner, near Brighton

 

Stanmer Well & Donkey Wheel 1 4 2016.jpg

 

If you want 'small' in gas works terms you could try the Highbridge (SDJR) Station Gas works. My photo from 1969 shows what remained then, but there are very clear photos including the gas holder in Colin Maggs' Highbridge in its heyday. Although located to side of the station it provided gas for the locomotive and carriage works as well.

Highbridge station gasworks 9 1969.jpg

 

 

Great ideas and lovely buildings.

 

These will certainly be 'filed' for future use.  I am thinking in terms of Achingham, which is a country town. Although I have a pretty good idea of how the rest of the layout would be, I am currently restricting work to the Castle Aching boards.   What this means in terms of remaining buildings is:

 

(a)  The continuation of Bailey Street, Castle Acre post office, a cut down PH, and a number of cottages.

(b)  The railway buildings - an unlikely Aylesford/Alston 'mash-up' for the main structure 

©  Village pond and blacksmith's forge group.  Layout based on Docking, forge based on Honing, a further pub!

(d)  Village school, based on Hillington

(e)  Parish Church, perhaps with adjacent cottages based on Castle Rising.

(f)   Norman castle keep

 

I don't think I could or should try to fit in anything more.

 

 

Both EM gauge - I did try in 2FS but my eyes can't hack it. Both correct in that the 2 plank has the etched chassis, but the brake gear is etched not plastic - originals have safety straps and are for iron brake shoes not the wood trying to be depicted here. 

 

 

Sketchup is free and as with everything takes some time to master, but it's what I use quite happily. Of course if you want to point me at some drawings of prototypes I'll quite happily bash out the required components for you. 

 

 

Thank.  I think I recognise that mastering these new techniques is of great importance.  On the one hand it speeds the process, and I'm all for that.  On the other, it means that I am not dependent upon what happens to be available on the market.

 

At the moment, I am trying to get started with rolling stock, both coaches and wagons.  The aim is to have sourced the components I need for coaches so that, when I have pushed through my mental block against the software and can produce coach sides and ends, I can make a start on construction.

 

This is a long process, and I would prefer not to wait to the end of it before doing anything about goods stock. 

 

This makes your kind offer particularly welcome, as wagons need not be delayed until that future point when I can produce things this way.

 

If you like, we can continue this via PM and/or email.  One thing that I would like to clear up is an idea of the approximate cost, so that I can lay aside something for the purchase.  I am currently prioritising wagon and coach components above the big spend on insulation and timber, because I can do so bit by bit.

 

There are 3 9'6" u/fs, all 15' over the headstock, of interest:

 

(1)  Wooden GE which is good for un-diagrammed 4-planks from 1883, and Dia. 16 5-planks from c.1887.  Items such as GE loco coal and sand wagons could also use this u/f.  I have a number of photographs and a 4mm scale drawing of the Dia. 16 from Model Railway News.  

 

(2)  Steel GE for Dia 17 5-plank (1893-1903) and 7-plank Dia 48 (1903-1908).  Again, I have a number of photographs and a 4mm scale drawing (of a Dia.48).   

 

(3)  Wooden GN, used for 4-planks from 1880s.  I have some photographs and a large drawing from The Engineer in 1882 relating to a tender for outside contractors.  I note that this features non-standard buffers, which usually seem to be of the ribbed sort.  

[phil_sutters]

Great ideas and lovely buildings.

 

These will certainly be 'filed' for future use.  I am thinking in terms of Achingham, which is a country town. Although I have a pretty good idea of how the rest of the layout would be, I am currently restricting work to the Castle Aching boards.   What this means in terms of remaining buildings is:

 

(a)  The continuation of Bailey Street, Castle Acre post office, a cut down PH, and a number of cottages.

(b)  The railway buildings - an unlikely Aylesford/Alston 'mash-up' for the main structure 

©  Village pond and blacksmith's forge group.  Layout based on Docking, forge based on Honing, a further pub!

(d)  Village school, based on Hillington

(e)  Parish Church, perhaps with adjacent cottages based on Castle Rising.

(f)   Norman castle keep

 

I don't think I could or should try to fit in anything more.

 

 

 

 

Thank.  I think I recognise that mastering these new techniques is of great importance.  On the one hand it speeds the process, and I'm all for that.  On the other, it means that I am not dependent upon what happens to be available on the market.

 

At the moment, I am trying to get started with rolling stock, both coaches and wagons.  The aim is to have sourced the components I need for coaches so that, when I have pushed through my mental block against the software and can produce coach sides and ends, I can make a start on construction.

 

This is a long process, and I would prefer not to wait to the end of it before doing anything about goods stock. 

 

This makes your kind offer particularly welcome, as wagons need not be delayed until that future point when I can produce things this way.

 

If you like, we can continue this via PM and/or email.  One thing that I would like to clear up is an idea of the approximate cost, so that I can lay aside something for the purchase.  I am currently prioritising wagon and coach components above the big spend on insulation and timber, because I can do so bit by bit.

 

There are 3 9'6" u/fs, all 15' over the headstock, of interest:

 

(1)  Wooden GE which is good for un-diagrammed 4-planks from 1883, and Dia. 16 5-planks from c.1887.  Items such as GE loco coal and sand wagons could also use this u/f.  I have a number of photographs and a 4mm scale drawing of the Dia. 16 from Model Railway News.  

 

(2)  Steel GE for Dia 17 5-plank (1893-1903) and 7-plank Dia 48 (1903-1908).  Again, I have a number of photographs and a 4mm scale drawing (of a Dia.48).   

 

(3)  Wooden GN, used for 4-planks from 1880s.  I have some photographs and a large drawing from The Engineer in 1882 relating to a tender for outside contractors.  I note that this features non-standard buffers, which usually seem to be of the ribbed sort.  

Re. your church & keep - I have sent you a message.

[Edwardian]

Re. your church & keep - I have sent you a message.

 

Received with thanks, Phil, that is very kind of you.

[Nearholmer]

Probably c43.225% off-topic, but such an interesting/poignant photo, that I can't resist sharing it.

 

I keep imagineering the Wolfringham (or is it wolfingham?) Branch, and have been extending it beyond Wolfingham Harbour, to reach Shepherd's Port, location of the failed (possibly never-completed) resort hotel.

 

This involves transitting the head of the shingle-bank that is now called Snettisham Beach, and I got all excited when I discovered that the lagoons there were gravel pits, dug during WW2, which had a pretty extensive narrow gauge railway.

 

The photo shows the aftermath of the 1953 tidal floods, in which many people perished at Snettisham Beach, but, as incidental detail, it shows the narrow gauge railway and the shingle-grading plant.

 

Upshot: the Wolfringham Branch has found a new source of traffic, beside coal and a failed hotel. It now serves a concrete-block-making plant, inspired by one at Rye Harbour in Sussex.

 

There is a grave danger that I'm going to get drawn into modelling this line, perhaps with a c1935 setting, when concrete/shingle was big business, and the hotel just about lingered-on, its permanent-resident-gusts expiring one-by-one of old-age (it finally closed when it was requisitioned by the military in 1939).

 

The church of Our Lady of Wolfringham comes into the story too, but I'm not quite sure how, yet!

 

Kevin

Edited September 21, 2016 by Nearholmer

[runs as required]

....I keep imagineering the Wolfringham (or is it wolfingham?) Branch, and have been extending it beyond Wolfingham Harbour, to reach Shepherd's Port, location of the failed (possibly never-completed) resort hotel...

Hands up how many have read this novel called Troubles by the late JG Farrel?

 

A compellingly bizarre White Elephant of a high Victorian Grand Hotel on the verdant SE coast of Ireland close-by Rosslare in the 1920s.

Its great conservatory has been lifted entirely off the ground by a plant that has got out of hand and is also growing through the damp lime mortar of the structure to to thrust up through the carpets of half forgotten spots like the 4th floor residents only lounge bar.

Frail English spinsters are the only residual residents in this inevitably doomed hotel.

 

Here is my imagery for this - the LNER Zetland at Saltburn with a light railway connection terminating at the rear (south), adjacent to the kitchens and laundry. However there is a back door from the platform through to reception) and with the great conservatory for afternoon tea rituals on the south-west flank.

dh

Edited September 21, 2016 by runs as required

[TheQ]

This was the scene near my house in 1953, where 7 people died.

picture from the Eastern Daily Press

My house and some others I'm told, were left on an island.

The started but never finished line from Mundesley to Yarmouth Beach Station would have passed my house on the way to Palling and was one of the possibilities when I was looking for the layout to build.

Edited September 22, 2016 by TheQ

[Nearholmer]

RaR

 

The energetic plant presumably being Irish nationalism, and the crumbling edifice British power? Sound like a fascinating book.

 

And, the railway to the back door of the Zetland Hotel is marvellous.

 

Not sure if the subsoil of Shepherd's Port could bear the mass of that monster building though; perhaps that's why it was never properly finished, and why Theophilus O'Doolight's (remember him?) career never really prospered again. He himself lives in a series of cheap hotels, BTW, not actually having an office anywhere, despite the impression that he attempts to convey with his business card. And, his self-identity is as fluxative as he is itinerant. It all goes back to an upbringing that filled his head with dissonant imagery, provided partly by his father, a deeply poetical man from County Kerry, and partly by his mother, an energetically practical woman from Pireaus, who just happened to be a formidable mathematician.

 

K

[Edwardian]

Probably c43.225% off-topic, but such an interesting/poignant photo, that I can't resist sharing it.

 

I keep imagineering the Wolfringham (or is it wolfingham?) Branch, and have been extending it beyond Wolfingham Harbour, to reach Shepherd's Port, location of the failed (possibly never-completed) resort hotel.

 

This involves transitting the head of the shingle-bank that is now called Snettisham Beach, and I got all excited when I discovered that the lagoons there were gravel pits, dug during WW2, which had a pretty extensive narrow gauge railway.

 

The photo shows the aftermath of the 1953 tidal floods, in which many people perished at Snettisham Beach, but, as incidental detail, it shows the narrow gauge railway and the shingle-grading plant.

 

Upshot: the Wolfringham Branch has found a new source of traffic, beside coal and a failed hotel. It now serves a concrete-block-making plant, inspired by one at Rye Harbour in Sussex.

 

There is a grave danger that I'm going to get drawn into modelling this line, perhaps with a c1935 setting, when concrete/shingle was big business, and the hotel just about lingered-on, its permanent-resident-gusts expiring one-by-one of old-age (it finally closed when it was requisitioned by the military in 1939).

 

The church of Our Lady of Wolfringham comes into the story too, but I'm not quite sure how, yet!

 

Kevin

 

Probably because I discuss with you good people, but I find myself thinking as if CA is a real place.  A notion that could only be reinforced by someone building a layout of another part of the system at a different period!

 

Kevin, I'd love to see Wolfringham c.1935!

 

The West Norfolk Railway's 'Withered Arm'!

 

Hands up how many have read this novel called Troubles by the late JG Farrel?

 

A compellingly bizarre White Elephant of a high Victorian Grand Hotel on the verdant SE coast of Ireland close-by Rosslare in the 1920s.

Its great conservatory has been lifted entirely off the ground by a plant that has got out of hand and is also growing through the damp lime mortar of the structure to to thrust up through the carpets of half forgotten spots like the 4th floor residents only lounge bar.

Frail English spinsters are the only residual residents in this inevitably doomed hotel.

 

Here is my imagery for this - the LNER Zetland at Saltburn with a light railway connection terminating at the rear (south), adjacent to the kitchens and laundry. However there is a back door from the platform through to reception) and with the great conservatory for afternoon tea rituals on the south-west flank.

dh

Zetland.jpg

 

A grand white elephant would be the thing.  I have never read this novel, but did enjoy reading The Siege of Krishnapur once upon a time. 

 

Very interested in that railway line leading from that really interesting architectural composition.  Saltburn is a splendid place.  There is a modern image 2mm scale layout with some very fine models of Saltburn's Victorian seaside architecture, and I realise that it includes this very feature (see below, snapped at the Redcar show this summer).

 

 

This was the scene near my house in 1953, where 7 people died.

221746f8ae45f3269a3b320616a6acc75b6c680e1.jpg

picture from the Eastern Daily Press

My house and some others I'm told, were left on an island.

The started but never finished line from Mundesley to Yarmouth Beach Station would have passed my house on the way to Palling and was one of the possibilities when I was looking for the layout to build.

 

A terrible event.  Adds a note of menace to the desolation.  A very atmospheric setting for a layout.

[runs as required]

RaR

The energetic plant presumably being Irish nationalism, and the crumbling edifice British power? Sound like a fascinating book.

And, the railway to the back door of the Zetland Hotel is marvellous.

Agree about both the metaphor and the railway to the back door.

Farrell was a Irish Scouser from Wallasey tragically drowned in his thirties fishing off the west coast of Ireland.

I like to think he enjoyed that improbable LNER line into Wales from Seacombe's art deco ferry termina,l across the Queensferry bridge to Wrexham Central.

[Edwardian]

Agree about both the metaphor and the railway to the back door.

Farrell was a Irish Scouser from Wallasey tragically drowned in his thirties fishing off the west coast of Ireland.

I like to think he enjoyed that improbable LNER line into Wales from Seacombe's art deco ferry termina,l across the Queensferry bridge to Wrexham Central.

 

The Siege of Krishnapur is about a group of people confined to a place, who represent in microcosm a whole society and whose values and attitudes are very much put under strain by strong forces that are alien and inimical, and which ultimately represent the future. In this case the officers and wives of a garrison during the Indian Mutiny.  Seems as if there could be common and enduring themes in Farrell's work. 

 

The Memsahib is reading it at the moment. I haven't for years and years, and must do again.  Clearly I should then explore more of Farrell's work.

[runs as required]

.....Clearly I should then explore more of Farrell's work.

"The Singapore Grip" is the last of Farrell's big set piece trilogy.

Same theme (in fact the gallant Major from 'Troubles' re-appears in it.)

Nobody in the Art Deco whirl of commercial pre-war Singapore sees what is gradually creeping up on them .....

....until it is too late.

The Newcastle actor son brought this doorstop of a novel back from working in 'Industrial theatre' in the Singaporean construction industry.

 

dh

[Fat Lieutenant]

I have very much enjoyed being lost in this wonderful topic.  Edwardian, I admire what you have set out to do, and your modelling so far.  It has been a delight to wander these meandering Edwardian byways in the company of such erudite and sociable topic contributors.  

 

There is much inspiration in these pages - how I long for an Edwardian layout myself!

[Edwardian]

Thank you very much, Fat Lieutenant, for the kind words.

 

Apologies.  There has been a security breach.

Henceforth, and until such time as I can be confident that the 'heat is off' and the Memsahib is back in Horse-Heaven, where she belongs, I will end each post with the name of a Pre-Group CME, so you know it's me.

Massey Bromley

[Ian Smeeton]

Thanks for the heads up re Security.

 

We had to Google Massey Bromley, mainly because our collective knowledge couldn't place him in the great Pantheon of pre grouping CMEs, and we weren't sure if it was really you.

 

Regards

 

GCHQ

[Edwardian]

Thanks for the heads up re Security.

 

We had to Google Massey Bromley, mainly because our collective knowledge couldn't place him in the great Pantheon of pre grouping CMEs, and we weren't sure if it was really you.

 

Regards

 

GCHQ

 

Dear GCHQ

 

Glad to learn that tax payers' money is being put to such good use.

 

William Martley

[TheQ]

Thank you for the information

Sam Fay

MSWJR

[The Stationmaster]

Dear GCHQ

 

Glad to learn that tax payers' money is being put to such good use.

 

William Martley

 

That wouldn't be Martley's ghost by any chance?