Castle Aching

[Nearholmer]

Malcolm

 

the ‘feral gamekeeper’ is Kaiser Wilhelm II. Both pictures show him visiting Sandringham in 1898, and I’m fairly sure he visited again in 1902.

 

I’m pretty sure the hat isn’t a bowler, not rounded enough.

 

kevin

[drmditch]

Would not 'Feral Gamekeeper' be a good description for the most out-of-control monarch of the Edwardian era?

Not that he would have called it 'Edwardian' of course, since envy and strong dislike dominated his feelings for his uncle.

 

On the subject of Pickelhaube, didn't some British regiments have similar headgear at one time?

 

PS - am actually making a 1909 vehicle at the moment, but I seem to have forgotten how to cut square.

 

[rockershovel]

32 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Malcolm

 

the ‘feral gamekeeper’ is Kaiser Wilhelm II. Both pictures show him visiting Sandringham in 1898, and I’m fairly sure he visited again in 1902.

 

I’m pretty sure the hat isn’t a bowler, not rounded enough.

 

kevin

 

One thing I will say from personal experience, is that whatever popular legend might claim, bowler hats won’t stand being stamped on..

 

[Edwardian]

Well, if I actually had some modelling to show, the topic might have more on topic content. So, my fault really.

 

And yesterday proved to be a complete write-off. 

 

It was very interesting to see an English publication making the Kaiser's withered left arm so obvious, when he generally did as much as possible to disguise this.  I cannot help but think this was deliberate on the part of the illustrator, showing a sharp edge beneath the superficially polite coverage of Society 'doings'

 

 

 

[Owd Bob]

11 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

There are, I'm sure, no readers of the Daily Mail in Castle Aching!

 

And no  pikelhaubes neither!

 

 

 

I'll read whatever paper my chips are wrapped in.

[wagonman]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

 It's a fair distance between Hillington and Massingham and I certainly wouldn't want to have to walk that far.

 

Actually Massingham is the next station down the line from Hillington and even I could probably walk it, though I'd rather take the train were it still an option!

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

One thing I will say from personal experience, is that whatever popular legend might claim, bowler hats won’t stand being stamped on..

 

 

On the one hand (head?), there are the cheap lightweight bowlers for would-be city types, and the rather more reinforced items for professional and country wear. The anecdote doesn't specify the degree of deformity that the stamping client was prepared to accept, but I'm sure the head thug/feral gamekeeper would prefer the reinforced type due to its cosh-resistant properties!

 

I wonder when the steel-rimmed variant was introduced...

 

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

One thing I will say from personal experience, is that whatever popular legend might claim, bowler hats won’t stand being stamped on..

 

That’s the whole point: they are functional protective headgear.

When buying a bowler, the correct thing to do before purchasing is to put it on the floor and stand on it. If it collapses, don’t buy it as although it is indeed some form of hat, it isn’t a bowler hat.

 

They were also used as marks of rank: typically a foreman would wear one in, for example, a railway workshop. (To make this pre-grouping railway relevant.)

[Martin S-C]

14 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

 

 

Good God. Telly Savalas as a WWI German officer. What was the casting director thinking?

Which film is this, I must watch it just to try to understand the thought process!

[Martin S-C]

5 hours ago, webbcompound said:

Unlike many modern internet driven examples this could well be a pre-grouping pickelhaube

I call fake. Those jackboots are not being lifted up anywhere high enough.

[Hroth]

22 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Good God. Telly Savalas as a WWI German officer. What was the casting director thinking?

Which film is this, I must watch it just to try to understand the thought process!

I think he makes an excellent Prussian Junker, definitely the type to be an absolute schwinehund towards his peasants!

 

As for the sausage dog clip, it could be one or t'other. Given the walking sticks, the jackboots are probably oppressing the serfs, rather than marching through Belgium*...

 

*Other anexees are available.

 

[Martin S-C]

4 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

One thing I will say from personal experience, is that whatever popular legend might claim, bowler hats won’t stand being stamped on..

 

I suspect, if the original was designed to protect the skull while out riding, that they had skull cap inserts, possibly metal, possibly hardened leather, so the hats of today may well not follow the original recipe.

I am unashamedly going to steal the name 'Feral Gamekeeper' for a character on my railway.

[Edwardian]

49 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Good God. Telly Savalas as a WWI German officer. What was the casting director thinking?

Which film is this, I must watch it just to try to understand the thought process!

 

Pre-1910 introduction of Feldgrau, to be pedantic!

 

Oh, it's an absolutely splendid film and a firm favourite of mine (but I love these whimsical period romps), The Assassination Bureau Ltd (1969).

 

And there's even one scene on a train!

 

 

[Compound2632]

51 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

I call fake. Those jackboots are not being lifted up anywhere high enough.

 

Give a dog a chance - those are very short legs he's got.

[petethemole]

The 'goose step' was a parade march; German troops on campaign marched normally. The boots surrounding the dachsund are officers' boots, like riding boots, rather than the 'jackboot', or marching boot, of the infantry. The pickelhaube wearing dachsund is an early example of the weaponised dog; fortunately for their targets the dachsunds couldn't jump high enough.

[Hroth]

15 minutes ago, petethemole said:

The 'goose step' was a parade march; German troops on campaign marched normally. The boots surrounding the dachsund are officers' boots, like riding boots, rather than the 'jackboot', or marching boot, of the infantry. The pickelhaube wearing dachsund is an early example of the weaponised dog; fortunately for their targets the dachsunds couldn't jump high enough.

 

The Canine Pikelhaube (Mk1) was also the reason for the invention of the "cricket box", a typically British obfuscatory naming strategy that was followed in later years when the armoured fighting vehicle was named a "tank", to pretend that it was a mechanical water carrier for the Mesopotamian campaign and not something for steamrollering over the Boche trench systems.

 

Or so I believe...

 

BTW the powers of levitiation that these small dogs possess is amazing, crotch height is easily achievable by even a Miniature Daschund, and while the Standard breed in the film clip can't get much higher, the power  of the leap would be very intimidating to an unprepared opponent.

 

Edited March 24, 2019 by Hroth
More fun...

[Compound2632]

Well, I tried...

 

So, it's weaponised dogs of the Great War era you want is it?

 

 

From the website of professional modeller Ben Trevellyan Rogers.

[Martin S-C]

21 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

BTW the powers of levitiation that these small dogs possess is amazing, crotch height is easily achievable by even a Miniature Daschund, and while the Standard breed in the film clip can't get much higher, the power  of the leap would be very intimidating to an unprepared opponent.

 

This strikes me (as it no doubt struck you) as an account from bitter personal experience.

 

EDIT:

 

Diana Rigg. Mm.

 

Diana Rigg and JA in the same thread. This is proper railway modelling. Long may the off-topicness continue, I say.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Martin S-C

[Hroth]

33 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Well, I tried...

 

So, it's weaponised dogs of the Great War era you want is it?

 

 

From the website of professional modeller Ben Trevellyan Rogers.

 

Far more "civilised" than Stalins Anti-Tank Dogs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

 

Or the weaponised dolphins that the US and USSR have attempted to develop.  Next, Sharks with lasers, Mr Bond?

 

[webbcompound]

Although I enjoy tangenital tosh, and to avoid being accused of being the purveyor of further irrelevance, and in case anyone thinks my interest in pre-grouping is just academic, not practical, I have taken the step of beginning my own layout thread. It will no doubt pale in comparison to Edwardian's massively entertaining magnum opus, but at least it will be there. Connah's Quay is the name.

 

[Penlan]

Which can be found here >>> 

 

Not sure I understand the new system, but....

 

 

[Annie]

5 hours ago, wagonman said:

 

Actually Massingham is the next station down the line from Hillington and even I could probably walk it, though I'd rather take the train were it still an option!

My digital railway empire has the Massingham and Hillington the correct scale distance apart and I know very well that if I was one of the wee folk on my layout I would not want to walk that far.  To bring this even more dangerously on topic I'm still trying to decide exactly where between Massingham and Hillington the W.N.R. makes its junction with the M&GNJR.

[Donw]

I believe in 1905 ordinary folk walked a lot further than people people today would think. If you were earning less than a £1 a week 1s 1d would be rather extravagant for one train journey when you could walk it.    

 

Don

[Andy Hayter]

Don

The 1s1d is a monthly return - not a single journey.

It was however probably more than some could afford.

[Compound2632]

I'm a bit puzzled - as far as I can make out the distance between the two stations was around four and a half miles - Massingham station being some way from Great Massingham; but that return fare would equate to 6.5 miles at 1 d/mile - or is the higher rate because the ticket is available by any train?