Castle Aching

[Shadow]

Well done - I hope you didn't get caught up in the "gas cloud" round Beachy Head.

That was the day after, must have been the smell from all those sweaty walking boots lingering around!

They certainly weren't pleasant after 24hrs walking, trust me!

 

Dave.

[BlueLightning]

I hope you didn't get caught up in the "gas cloud" round Beachy Head.

 

That was the day after

 

You should be thankful! Being in the "gas cloud" was not a pleasant experience!!

 

Gary

 

PS. Well done on the walk!!

Edited August 30, 2017 by BlueLightning

[runs as required]

Things seem a bit quiet here in CA on the first day of autumn.

I suspect Edwardian's Platoon to be still on the motorway long road home from Summer Camp in Cornwall - staying the night in various Drill Halls along the way.

 

Do you take the dogs along with you as Company Mascots ?

dh

[mullie]

Things seem a bit quiet here in CA on the first day of autumn.

I suspect Edwardian's Platoon to be still on the motorway long road home from Summer Camp in Cornwall - staying the night in various Drill Halls along the way.

 

Do you take the dogs along with you as Company Mascots ?

dh

Probably dodging the rain!

[runs as required]

Probably dodging the rain!

Oh dear!

Sorry to have to report it has been very holiday like weather up here in the 'Land of the Prince Bishops' - but then it is on 'the Dry Side'.

dh

 

Edit: as soon as I boasted about dry weather we suffered a short sharp shower

Edited September 1, 2017 by runs as required

[Nearholmer]

I've been promising myself all summer that I'd get to Castle Aching, and this afternoon I did!

 

A bike tour of WNR territory, starting and ending a Wolfringham, so that a brief survey in connection with the branch could be conducted.

 

Obligatory picture of transport parked outside the Dodo is below, and you can see the ginger beer too, if you look very closely.

 

No photos of picturesque cottages, because that isn't practical when pedalling, but I couldn't resist the post office, which is surely a candidate for the layout.

 

Let's all hope that Edwardian and family get home safe soon.

 

Kevin

[Edwardian]

Well, I hope that the downward spiral of questionable health, atrophy and black dog is at least now arrested for a time as a result of finally managing a holiday of sorts!

 

So, normal service, such as it is, should resume shortly!

 

Before I plunge into a proper catch-up on the excellent recent topic traffic, I thought I would offer a "Plan of the Month", arising from my holiday reading.

 

A locomotive-worked, quayside Inglenook-style 'micro' is, I daresay, not very original these days.  But it may make some claim to distinction if it is mid-Victorian, employs bridge rail, and is set in a war-zone!

 

Welcome to Balaklava Wharf, 1856!

 

Now I have about 20 layouts that I want to build after Castle Aching, which may never be finished at this rate!  So, I don't really need another layout project, but I throw this out for a bit of fun.     

 

The layout could be viewed/operated from either side.  The more conventional course would be to model back from the wharfside and have the buildings as the backdrop. However, I am tended to towards the idea of viewing from the landward side, with a forest of ships in the harbour as the back-drop.  To save space and force perspective, you could model the ships at a slightly smaller scale; plenty of work for those Bounty and Endeavour kits!

 

The buildings are a mixture of the surviving, but very much abused, Mediterranean-style Crimean village vernacular, such as the stables, the Post Office and the villa occupied by the famous Times correspondent, Mr Russell.

 

The various sheds are utilitarian imports, said to be brought from Peto, Brassey & Betts' last job, the Eastern Counties Railway.  So, there is some connection with our topic. In some pictures you can see the company's name.  I wonder if these are railway company tarpaulins on the roof?!? 

 

Peto, Brassey & Betts built it 'at cost', with much donated equipment, as a temporary railway that could be up and running within weeks.  It made the decisive bombardments of Sevastopol possible and saved the army during its second winter.  Morton Peto was knighted as a result. 

[Hroth]

A "Balaklava Wharf" inglenook would certainly be a different take on the format, you could have much fun accurately modelling the Ordnance Wharf (Look! Cannonballs*!) too.

 

 

And seeing that Fenton was the Times war photographer, you could park his processing van outside Mr Russells house. (Added brownie points for Postman Pats van outside the post office with a black and white cat snoozing on the drivers seat).

 

The ghostly figures in the third photo are an eerie comment on the bloodbath that was the Crimea War, though I know they're just an artefact of long exposure times.

 

* Actually, some are probably shells, they've got holes in them. 

 

Boy!  You shall do 100 lines on "I must check my spelin" and hand them in by the end of the day!!!

Edited September 2, 2017 by Hroth

[Nearholmer]

Welcome back Edwardian, glad to see that the creative thinking continues to flow.

 

Your Balaclava ideas put me in mind of two things:

 

- exceedingly uncomfortable knitted helmets; and,

 

- the quite active strand of military/railway modelling crossover that revolves around The American Civil War. Somewhere I've seen a layout not dissimilar to Balaklava Inglenook based on that theme, and I'll see if I can find a reference to link to. Edit: Yep, here is a very good video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2pa9y4iGftg

 

Kevin

 

PS: Plus Florence Nightingale, of course. She retired to live with her sister (IIRC) at Claydon House, firmly in Buckingham Branch territory, where what was her bedroom now houses a very interesting collection of personal papers, including a 'pie chart', something that she is credited with inventing, although I'm not sure about that.

 

PPS: FN's pie chart was actually a 'polar area diagram', and she didn't invent the format; she used it very effectively.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Hroth]

Welcome back Edwardian, glad to see that the creative thinking continues to flow.

 

Your Balaclava ideas put me in mind of two things:

 

- exceedingly uncomfortable knitted helmets; and,

 

- the quite active strand of military/railway modelling crossover that revolves around The American Civil War. Somewhere I've seen a layout not dissimilar to Balaklava Inglenook based on that theme, and I'll see if I can find a reference to link to. Edit: Yep, here is a very good video

 

Kevin

 

PS: Plus Florence Nightingale, of course. She retired to live with her sister (IIRC) at Claydon House, firmly in Buckingham Branch territory, where what was her bedroom now houses a very interesting collection of personal papers, including a 'pie chart', something that she is credited with inventing, although I'm not sure about that.

 

PPS: FN's pie chart was actually a 'polar area diagram', and she didn't invent the format; she used it very effectively.

I've always thought of "Polar Area Diagrams" as pie charts with frilly edges!

 

As well as FN, you could put Mary Seacole in too, and veering into fiction, Harry Flashman swaggering along the road......

[Edwardian]

Guy Rixon of this parish has very kindly designed 3D-Print  Great Eastern Railway coach components.  They are available on Shapeways: https://www.shapeways.com/product/8DZ6QHBP7/ger-6w-coach-fittings-set-a

 

I ordered the test print, which arrived whilst I was away, pictured below.  There is enough for ONE 6-wheeled coach, so I am rubbing my coppers together for a further 5 sets. That said, they are particularly good value in my view.

[runs as required]

Aha! Welcome Back Edwardian - CA has been a bit like the telly in August with all the celeb regular anchors off away at Beeb-on-sea  Southwold crowding into Adhams watering holes

 

A suggestion about the '1000 layouts you have to construct before you die' you posted about above - in particular the Crimea.

 

The two pics below are of 2 delightful mid C19 animated pictures that we found (about a door width wide) hanging side by side in the Rampsbeck Hotel on Ullswater when we called in for lunch last summer. They looked to be German and were about 3 to 4 inches deep (glass to wall), trains crossed the bridge and boats moved and rocked on the water.

 

 

 

These seem to me a rather more do-able (as well as potentially rather rewarding) form of diorama presentation, given your particular techniques of card simulation of buildings and small eccentric trains.

 

dh

[Edwardian]

We haven't had any of those preraphaelite thingys for a while, so here's a post card my friend Routier du Nord sent from his grandes vacances:

IMG_1201.JPG

 

Woopee! A round of 'French Railway Seaside Posters'; I always enjoy this.

 

See below (sea, below?), although I'm not sure that the sturdy-looking mademoiselle in red actually adds anything to what is otherwise an entrancing view.

 

And, of no relevance at all, a recommendation that King Ludwig II should visit CA, by means of his exceedingly Ruritanian Royal Train, handily available in H0 scale from Messrs Maerklin, at a reassuring price.

 

Kevin

 

Evidently all tastes catered for in the topic, whether you want to whoop it up with your mistress in Monte Carlo, like the Prince of Wales, or sit alone in a Louis quatorze train, humming Wagner, like Ludwig.

 

The Directors of the West Norfolk Railway categorically deny that they made an opportune, if insensitive, approach to the Bavarian State Government in 1886 asking if the Royal Saloon was going spare.  They also most strenuously deny blowing the budget for a Directors Saloon at baccarat in Monte Carlo.

 

After all, these were just rumours spread by a girl who'd danced with a man, who'd danced with a girl, who'd danced with the Prince of Wales, and not at all reliable.

[nick_bastable]

nice to see the  Mayor back from his holidays  Le Touquet per chance ?

 

Nick

[James Harrison]

They also most strenuously deny blowing the budget for a Directors Saloon at baccarat in Monte Carlo.

 

It wasn't baccarat.  It was petits-chevaux.  My source is a respected writer for the Morning Post.

[Edwardian]

Looks like she's praying for a big win at the Casino (or to meet a handsome gentleman who has just had a big win)!

 

Jim

 

As my late Yorkshire grandmother would have said "she's no better than she ought to be"!

 

 

to bring it back to anglo shores 

 

Nick

 

But sticking with Berties; didn't Wooster go to Le Touquet to play golf.

 

It is also, IIIRC, where P G Wodehouse had a house in the '30s.  It would have been better for all concerned had he not lingered too long there in 1940!

 

 

Nearer than you might think.

 

Its probably a replacement for the Kingswear - Dartmouth service...

 

The-Mew-01_b.jpg

 

(look for the GWR rowing boat, waiting for latecomers!)

 

 

Bathing costume, waterwings, towel, OUT!!!

 

This is a rare glimpse of the brief period during which the Great Western sub-contracted its River Dart services to Ryan Sea.  The lady in the rowing boat was so pleased at the low fare for crossing the Dart on the Mew, that she clean forgot to pay the gangplank supplement. 

 

 

Inspired by the above photo of the sewage wagons.

 

P1010156a.JPG

 

Mustn't grumble, mustn't grumble.....

 

The express engines, inparticular that big blue one, never seem to get given this job.

 

Flash photography shows I didn't paint the back of the wagon wheels, perhaps I could use a marker pen.

 

That's a really useful engine.  Don't fit the wagon with a DCC smell chip, though.

[Edwardian]

It wasn't baccarat.  It was petits-chevaux.  My source is a respected writer for the Morning Post.

 

For the sake of remaining, however tenuously, sur le sujet, it must surely have been chemin de fer?

[Compound2632]

Inspired by the above photo of the sewage wagons.

 

P1010156a.JPG

 

Mustn't grumble, mustn't grumble.....

 

The express engines, inparticular that big blue one, never seem to get given this job.

 

Flash photography shows I didn't paint the back of the wagon wheels, perhaps I could use a marker pen.

 

Seeing as how night soil / manure wagons have come round again - appropriately enough, in the middle of some high-society gambling - just a note that one of my holiday second-hand purchases, Bill Hudson's Private Owner Wagons, Vol. 3, includes details of Charles Roberts-built wagons for Dewsbury and Halifax Corporations, looking rather similar to relaxinghobby's one. The Dewsbury ones date from around 1907 and were all given numbers in single figures; the Halifax ones were from 1897 and numbered 9-14. These small fleets led further support to the idea that the Midland's four batches of D344 manure wagons, in quantities of 20 to 32 wagons each, were built in for specific municipal contracts, including Nottingham.

 

 

 

Hudson notes the night-time collections by horse and cart: 'in urban areas many councils had a private siding, where carts could be unloaded into waiting wagons. However, where the wagons were taken, and what happened to the contents, could only be revealed by further research.'

[Compound2632]

Evidently all tastes catered for in the topic, whether you want to whoop it up with your mistress in Monte Carlo, like the Prince of Wales, or sit alone in a Louis quatorze train, humming Wagner, like Ludwig.

 

The Directors of the West Norfolk Railway categorically deny that they made an opportune, if insensitive, approach to the Bavarian State Government in 1886 asking if the Royal Saloon was going spare.  They also most strenuously deny blowing the budget for a Directors Saloon at baccarat in Monte Carlo.

 

After all, these were just rumours spread by a girl who'd danced with a man, who'd danced with a girl, who'd danced with the Prince of Wales, and not at all reliable.

 

The restrained* interior décor and eight-wheeled radial underframe suggest Wolverton origins - possibly it's a rebuild of one of the 42' ladies' saloons that worked in pairs with 42' gentlemen's saloons. Clearly the Wolverton style of external panelling was thought a little too ornate and has been toned down. Whoever was responsible for the roof ventilator evidently ordered a 7 mm scale one in error for 4 mm. I do worry, though, about the way the headstock is unsupported behind the self-contained buffer - one wouldn't want this vehicle involved in a rough shunt.

 

*by comparison with a Midland vehicle.

 

Incidentally, can one whistle Wagner? My usual method is to hom-pom loudly whilst banging the furniture.

 

EDIT: sorry, you wrote 'humming' not 'whistling'. There are hummable passages, like the Pilgrims' Chorus in Tannhauser, but even there some blaring is needed to get the full effect.

 

EDIT: to correct the position of the apostrophe in the previous edit. Wagner would never have settled for a single pilgrim.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Compound2632

[runs as required]

Informative awarded for imparting whistling skills in post #5050 on previous page

dh

 

Ed after finding this explanatory footnote started a new page

Edited September 4, 2017 by runs as required

[Compound2632]

Informative awarded for imparting whistling skills in post #5050 on previous page

dh

 

Ed after finding this explanatory footnote started a new page

 

Oh, I'd assumed you'd hit the wrong post and were aiming for the one on night soil wagons!

[Compound2632]

Oh, I'd assumed you'd hit the wrong post and were aiming for the one on night soil wagons!

 

Thank you, Edwardian, my self-esteem is suitably massaged.

[Edwardian]

However, where the wagons were taken, and what happened to the contents, could only be revealed by further research.'

 

You'll just have to keep digging ...

[St Enodoc]

There are hummable passages, like the Pilgrims' Chorus in Tannhauser, but even there some blaring is needed to get the full effect.

Absolutely. That was my Grade 5 trombone test piece. Very restrained to start (almost buttoned-up, to use a modern phrase) but building up to the climax with as much gusto as the lungs could manage. My accompanist had fun with the arpeggios too.

 

There are bits of The Flying Dutchman that could probably be whistled though.

[Edwardian]

I am currently thinking of my old stamping ground in the Caribbean, which is directly in the path of Hurricane Irma.  I have been watching footage of severe tropical storm conditions today, which precede Irma, after which communications were lost with the island, so no more live feed.  Naturally I am particularly concerned for the friends we have out there.  It will be a while before we know what has happened to them.

 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT1+shtml/061448.shtml

 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCUAT1+shtml/061657.shtml?

 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/145453.shtml?tswind120#contents

 

The Caribbean is a surprisingly large amount of sea, and, so, while hurricanes are common, you have to be pretty unlucky if one hits directly your particular speck of rock, but this is precisely what is happening, with Irma rolling up a whole chain of islands. It is particularly unfortunate, because Irma seems to have unprecedented strength as a Category 5 + + +.

 

Fingers crossed.