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Interesting evolution of the label illustration there - there's a bottle of it at the back of our cupboard, and it's been there so long that I suspect that the chap on the left hasn't yet taken his seat.

 

JA aside, 'Riddle of the Sands' is as interesting for its author as it is for its plot. He took a notably dim view of the 'early bottle' version of British Values.

 

K

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Mention of JL and the Ghurkhas is now several pages back...

Is some modified version of Godwin's Law operative on model railway forums (fora?)?
K

though I wouldn't dream of going as far as 'mentioning the war' as K suggests

When I first heard JL talk of her garden bridge I visualised a poetic Srinagar type forested island hanging over the Thames with romantic houseboats nuzzled in between the hanging tree roots

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But I completely lost my adulation of JL when her fragrant vision turned out to be a mean minded repetition of the minimalist Waterloo Bridge with a few concrete planter tubs and flower beds plonked either side of a cycleway with a hefty toll for its use. :O

Moreover another £65M has to be shelled out of the public purse to fund the private toll bridge!

 

As for JA - when my eldest was doing his International Baccalauriate in Newcastle, he found he was walking up past Central station alongside her - so he gallantly offered her a piece of the chewing gum he was opening.

She accepted it and they continued walking towards Marlborogh Crescent bus stands. As they parted to their respective buses, he asked her for the chewing gum back.

 

He still has it on his desk at work 30 years later.

 

dh

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Interesting evolution of the label illustration there - there's a bottle of it at the back of our cupboard, and it's been there so long that I suspect that the chap on the left hasn't yet taken his seat.

 

JA aside, 'Riddle of the Sands' is as interesting for its author as it is for its plot. He took a notably dim view of the 'early bottle' version of British Values.

 

K

 

The man had the same problem as the book.  Fascinating throughout, but with a rather disappointing ending.

 

 

I visualised a poetic Srinagar type forested island hanging over the Thames with romantic houseboats nuzzled in between the hanging tree roots

attachicon.gifGarden bridge.jpg

 

 

... or a calamitous vision by J G Ballard

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The man had the same problem as the book. Fascinating throughout, but with a rather disappointing ending.

Like Steve said, Jen kept her tam o shanter on at a fetching angle all through, never removed it once, there was just the inference things were going to happen soon after the ending, so it wasn't disappointing at all. It's much better to dream about that than watch the filth they put on "Nature Watch" don't you agree? And aren't the BBC doing a good job of running the NHS??? And Camp coffee, ahhh, in a steaming billy can???

Edited by Northroader
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Like Steve said, Jen kept her tam o shanter on at a fetching angle all through, never removed it once, there was just the inference things were going to happen soon after the ending, so it wasn't disappointing at all. It's much better to dream about that than watch the filth they put on "Nature Watch" don't you agree? And aren't the BBC doing a good job of running the NHS??? And Camp coffee, ahhh, in a steaming billy can???

 

Actually, I meant (a) I never felt that, after the tension and mystery and brooding sense of threat, the novel had a sufficiently dramatic dénouement, and (b) after such an interesting and adventurous life, being shot by the Irish Free State for the illegal possession of a revolver was rather a disappointing end.

 

So far as I can tell, what the BBC, and ITV, are doing is pretending that people in the 1950s shared all the modern values of the "liberal elite".  Of course, Trump's election and our referendum suggests that many people today are still very far from signing up to the values that the resolutely liberal media are busy writing into their past.  I think a revisionist coffee label fits perfectly into this nicely re-adjusted Sunday evening fantasy. 

 

Life as we want to believe it was like, in preference to life as it actually was, brings me nicely back to Castle Aching ...

Edited by Edwardian
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I gather that Camp Coffee was introduced in 1876.  So, while the Settle-Carlisle Railway opens to passenger traffic, Alexander Graham Bell makes a telephone call, and Custer meets his Little Bighorn, Paterson & Sons Ltd of Glasgow's ersatz chicory-based coffee hits the shelves.

 

To my mind, only the first three of these events is explicable.

 

The original bottle label has, of course, the master-servant message firmly to the fore.  "Ready Aye Ready" (on the flag) was, I gather, the motto of the Frontier Rifles.  Camp Coffee is, of course ready, whereas real coffee must be ground.

 

Other advertising expands on the military theme.  I rather like this one.  The commentary that accompanied it on the site where I found it says that the location is confused between India and Africa and that the sitting fez-wearer is European.

 

I disagree.  I would suggest that he is an Egyptian officer of the Khedive's forces, attached, in this instance, to a British force.  They wore just such a uniform. The red tunics of the Brits also suggest Africa, rather than India, where Khaki came in earlier, and, specifically, the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884-5, as some red was still worn on that campaign.  Place the scene any earlier and we were fighting the Egyptians. Frankly, grey would have been more representative of the British uniforms,but, artistic licence favours red.  I suspect much of the public thought of our boys in red; I have seen coloured military prints, of the type hung in pubs, of Second Boer War battles in which our advancing battalions are clad in scarlet. 

 

The general appearance of the scene and the fez-wearing servant seem to me to fit with Egypt-the Sudan. I wonder if the rather august looking senior officer enjoying a cup of Camp Coffee is intended to represent the Great Man himself, Sir Garnet Wolesley?  If so, the cheek of advertisers ....!

 

What about the 2 Indian troops?  Well, there were a number of Indian Army regiments in Wolesley's force, although they should have been wearing Khaki.  One cavalry regiment present had a blue turban, but for the rest of the uniform, Khaki.  So, we must assume artistic licence.  They look like cavalrymen, and I wonder if I can identify an Indian unit dressed thus.  

 

So, I would love to know the date of this advertisement, because it features what could be an almost believable evocation of that first Nile Expedition against the Victorian equivalent of ISIS.

 

If things had fallen out differently, the seated fez-wearer might have been General Gordon.

 

Sadly, and despite the signal advantages in speed conferred by pre-prepared bottled coffee, as we all know, Wolesley failed to reach Khartoum in time.  Perhaps the message is that, unlike Gladstone, Camp Coffee could always be depended upon.

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Edited by Edwardian
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Which all assumes that anyone would want to drink the stuff. Personally, even with battle calling, I would rather grind, or do without.

 

Brief (doubtless) return to the iron road: I snapped this at our local club exhibition today. A real piece of genius in making a model of almost nothing, in the middle of nowhere, both interesting and believable. The whole layout is about 48 x 15 inches, but holds attention for ages. Pentrefan, by ......... well, I now realise I don't know the artist's name, although I chat with him regularly. [Mike Morley ...... it just came back to me]

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Edited by Nearholmer
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Also, I took the chance to have a close look at a r-t-r Adams radial tank in LSWR livery (Oxford Rail?).

 

I'm thinking that a careful hand with a razor saw, and maybe a jeweller's saw, could create a typical Beyer-Peacock light 4-4-0 tender engine, like the M&GN ones, from it fairly easily .... looks to me as if the side tanks could readily be separated from the rest, then shortened. It was £60, which I thought seemed a reasonable price.

 

Has got whopping flanges on the bogie and pony wheels, though ...... if it was 0 scale it would be called 'coarse'.

 

K

Edited by Nearholmer
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Camp coffee is ONLY about the label - and somewhere there is a fascinating illustrated analysis of of the label's typographic evolution over the years.

This an excuse to put in a plug for this (next) month's Backtrack that has just arrived. The February edition contained little to lift my spirits, but the current one looks very promising - particularly to GER (and GW and Brighton) aficionados.

There is a great whole page advert for Tibbles Vi-Cocoa (of 1900) featuring a testimonial letter and drawing of signalman Carrutthers of the Liverpool Overhead Railway - well worth shelling out £4.75 on to read more about.

dh

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I'm knocked out flat with the erudite research on the Camp label. I agree, it's obviously Egypt with all those pyramids in the background, but feel terribly deflated when our Egyptologist declares that actually it's. .. not very good. When I was a spotty just teenager in the scouts, we used to tip a whole bottle into a steaming billycan, well, it is called 'Camp' after all, and sit around drinking it - real coffee! wow, what sophisticates, getting away from mums tea, and all this talk of it not being the real thing is a bit of a let down, even sixtyodd years on. Then there's the thing that the Camp enamelled advert was one of the most common to be seen on a railway station. If there isn't at least one at Castle Aching I shall feel even more let down.

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Edited by Northroader
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Great work on those country folk.  Nicely toned, showing that less is more where colour is concerned. 

 

Pondering on your Indian sowars.  I don't know the regiment concerned, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the artist of the Camp advert had taken inspiration fro this picture, which, I believe shows troops in the earlier - Tell El Kebir - campaign of 1882 against the Egyptians, which you mention.

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What about the 2 Indian troops?  Well, there were a number of Indian Army regiments in Wolesley's force, although they should have been wearing Khaki.  One cavalry regiment present had a blue turban, but for the rest of the uniform, Khaki.  So, we must assume artistic licence.  They look like cavalrymen, and I wonder if I can identify an Indian unit dressed thus.  

 

So, I would love to know the date of this advertisement, because it features what could be an almost believable evocation of that first Nile Expedition against the Victorian equivalent of ISIS.

 

 

There is a famous illustration, by Orlando Norrie, showing the Indian Army troops engaged in the Egyptian Campaign, including the 13th Bengal Lancers, and another on active service by R. Caton Woodville showing them wearing exactly the combination of dark blue tunic and Khaki jodhpurs that is seen in the label.  The illustration by Mad Carew Too is by Richard Simkin and shows a mounted 13th Lancer Sowar, and a dismounted Officer.  There is a further illustration by Simkin, from the 'Boys Own Paper', which is a fold out sheet some 2 feet by 9 inches, which I'm lucky enough to own, which shows a similar 13th Lancer Sowar in the background. They can always be identified by the pennant which shows red over blue unlike most other regiments which have the more usual red over white.

 

So l think we can say that the figures shown are from the Egyptian campaign without doubt, especially as the 13th Bengal Lancers have the battle honour, Egypt 1882.  So I would suggest that the label cannot be earlier than 1882.

 

The famous (or infamous) 'Camp' coffee label is probably intending  to show a sowar from the 4th 'Prince of Wales's' Madras Light Cavalry.  The other 3 Madras cavalry units did though wear the same uniform, French grey, buff facings and silver lace, though the illustrator has taken some liberties with the turban, kurta, and waist sash, depicting an ornate sash that would have been worn by a Halvidar (Officer) who l suspect would not have been happy to be serving coffee even to a Gordon's Officer!

Edited by Adams442T
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My minimal interest in military uniforms is engaged by mention of the Boys Own Paper. I used to have a huge bound volume, from 1899 to 1902 I think, which had very high quality colour illustrations of all sorts of uniforms, as well as jolly exciting stories about chaps drawing their service revolver just in time to blow the head off a cobra, as it struck at the tiny daughter of their servant, and similar.

 

Have it to a friend when I moved from a biggish flat to a tiny house c35 years ago.

 

K

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Some progress on the 4-wheeled rake.

 

I was pretty bored with the motley appearance of the donor bodies, which was confusing when trying to gauge the finish. I decided that the best way to judge the sanding and filling that remained to be done would be to spray with primer.  As can be  seen, the primer reveals the many imperfections very clearly.

 

At the same time I added rudimentary brakes and gas cylinders and faded the pipes to the non-step ends.  The Hornby/Bachmann wheels now have the MJT Mansell inserts.

 

I suspect I should fit foot-boards level with the axle boxes.

 

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I cannot add much to the comments of those knowledgeable about our military past. In my 50s childhood Camp Coffee was a weekday thing school holidays at 11 my gran would provide camp coffee and a biscuit (Garibaldi aka dead fly biscuit was one favourite).  Weekends my Dad would get the Percolator out.  I still wouldn't wish to swap my childhood for one today. Steam Train on the GWR across the river for a start and becoming a teenager in the sixites was definitely a win in life's lottery.

Don

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I find it really weird following this thread and the one on the Airfix church, as they bring back 50 year-old memories of doing exactly the same thing all those years ago. It's staggering that the old Triang clerestorys are still available and the best option for panelled chop jobs. Keep up the good work!

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Some progress on the 4-wheeled rake.

 

I was pretty bored with the motley appearance of the donor bodies, which was confusing when trying to gauge the finish. I decided that the best way to judge the sanding and filling that remained to be done would be to spray with primer.  As can be  seen, the primer reveals the many imperfections very clearly.

 

At the same time I added rudimentary brakes and gas cylinders and faded the pipes to the non-step ends.  The Hornby/Bachmann wheels now have the MJT Mansell inserts.

 

I suspect I should fit foot-boards level with the axle boxes.

Coaches are looking really good and I suspect you do need to add footboards. I'm currently bashing some Ratio 4 wheelers into six wheelers and will be adding footboards. The four wheeler I built based on an ex GE conductor guard carriage didn't need them but I had to solder up some steps out of scrap brass and wire as only the end doors were in use.

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Napoleonic interlude.  I finally found one of my childhood battalions, in this case, I believe, the 28th Foot.  Flags hand-painted.

Neatly done and nice standards. Minifigs methinks! That's what I cut my teeth on - not literally - too much lead content.

Edited by phil_sutters
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20mm.  I have a dim recollection of a range called "Kennington" - would that be right?

That rings a bell. I think Minifigs were 25mm - before Essex, Foremost and the rest hiked the size up to 28mm. Hinchliffe were the other 25mm range. Minifigs were very neat - like your 20mm ones, but Hinchliffe were a bit bigger and had a slightly craggier look to them Somewhere I think I still have one of their French Napoleonic artillery teams unfinished in its box.

Goodness, what with the clerestorys and Airfix church and now these, I think I am regressing into my childhood. I need (we need) to get off the computer and onto the work bench!

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