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... but none of the above are LMS locomotives, in the sense of built under the auspices of that company during the fleeting quarter-century of its existence. Tiny, for instance, served his first masters for over sixty years but the LMS for just five.

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27 minutes ago, Killian keane said:

If thats one of the named special tanks I wonder if this isn't Ireland 

It is, but the Dundalk, Newry and Greenore is still technically LMS.

 

If I wanted to be really obscure I could've gone for the sentinel...

 

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10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

GWR - green, always a 4-6-0 of some sort, or a pannier.

 

Hmmmm

 

In South Wales, there'd be lots of 56xx and their relatives from the constituent companies. Then, and as well as the ubiquitous Panniers, there's the other infestations of Churchwards mighty "standardisation" policy such as the equally ubiquitous Moguls (which would often deputise for  those 4-6-0s) and the Prairies in large and small breeds.

 

But you'd KNOW it was a GWR loco by the Safety Valve cover!

 

Even stray GCR 8K locos got 'em! (though that WAS post-grouping...)

 

And they were all painted in a PROPER colour!

 

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

But to be serious (and seriously post-Grouping) for a moment, Stanier took the best of both the Swindon and Derby drawing office traditions to produce locomotives that were an improvement on what had gone before on either line.

 

Don't leave Crewe out of the mix....    Stanier was brought in to provide new thinking and to damp down the internal warfare between Crewe and Derby.  Where he improved on Swindon was to get Swindon-based designs to perform well on poorer classes of coal.

 

3 hours ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

Sorry if I quoted that incorrectly, it's been a while since I read Witches Abroad. 

 

You need to cycle through Pratchett every now and then.  I'd let you off reading the first two, which were episodic skits on popular Fantasy stories of the day, and the last few, which are sadly painful to read.

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Thats the same as the one I pointed to, but with fewer big, joined-up wheels, and a little wheel instead.

 

(Before anyone else mentions it: I realise that it's actually a saddle tank, not a pannier tank. But, the 0-6-0ST version does look very like badly-startled 57XX)

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27 minutes ago, Hroth said:

You need to cycle through Pratchett every now and then.  I'd let you off reading the first two, which were episodic skits on popular Fantasy stories of the day, and the last few, which are sadly painful to read.

I'm actually currently reading through them all in order. I'm on Soul Music atm. 

Although yes, I can imagine the last few are rather heart-wrenching considering the context.

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24 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Thats the same as the one I pointed to, but with fewer big, joined-up wheels, and a little wheel instead.

 

Do you think the substitution of the rear castor for proper wheels was the result of a Late Victorian economy drive at Crewe?

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1 hour ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

I'm actually currently reading through them all in order. I'm on Soul Music atm. 

Although yes, I can imagine the last few are rather heart-wrenching considering the context.

In the late discworld book theres too much anger, and the subtlety, lightness and deftness of touch are gone. Phrases, parts and paragraphs crop up to remind you of the good times but just show up the contrast in quality with the majority of the books.  The reasons behind this are fairly obvious, but they're not books I want to reread, whereas for all the earlier books I'm well into double figures.

Edited by brack
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Hmm, some interesting pics . 

 

Now, I am looking at the pic posted by Killian keane. So why would there be an intermediate lamp left on the end of what seems to be a brake coach ? Now, it may be a very localised shunting move that does not pass a signal box, but even so I'm a bit confused. Even if it was something done on the nod in that location why would the crew not have taken it off for a photo? 

 

And yes , I must get the damn decorating done and get back to modelling before I get far too pedantic for my own good..... 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

And, here is an LMS (at least a few survived long enough) small black, which proves my contention https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LNWR_engine_No.808,_0-6-0ST.jpg

 

 

 

Almost a Pannier!  Wouldn't it have been odd it the LMS had developed Panniers as well as having Churchward-like tapered boilers for its tender engines!

 

 

 

Edited by Edwardian
spelling!
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Arguably the Pratchett novels had long since become increasingly dark, so, I suppose it depends how you define "late books" in a series that ran from 1987 to 2015.

 

Night Watch (2002) is often cited as a definite shift in that direction. Night Watch is a great book nonetheless, and it's a little less than three quarters through the series.

 

I am not sure I'd agree that the late novels (wherever we consider "late" to start) have too much anger in them.  The impression I received was Pratchett moving beyond the glib and ironical treatment of death and destruction seen in the earlier novels in favour of wrestling with the additional complexities that his evolving world threw up.  Nevertheless, he does so with the same tolerance for human frailty  that runs through all his work. His evident humanity, rare in a satirist (and I can really only think of Fielding as comparable in that regard), shines through his work to the end. Optimism and redemption remained constant.

 

I think you can detect something off a falling off from peak-Pratchett in places - but people are sensitive to that in any long-running series and especially in the case of an author who has disclosed he has Alzheimer's and the critique is easily overdone - but nothing that impaired my enjoyment and there was always much to enjoy.  Moist and Adora Belle were brilliant late-flowering characters. Discworld never went stale in my view.   

 

There is not, I think, much sadness or depression affecting Pratchett's late books.  His goodbye is deftly done with much poignancy in Shepherd's Crown and I think he wrote brilliantly to the end.  

 

I do not think there is a single book in the series that I wouldn't/haven't re-read with much pleasure. 

 

 

Edited by Edwardian
grammar
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23 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Arguably the Pratchett novels had long since become increasingly dark, so, I suppose it depends how you define "late books" in a series that ran from 1987 to 2015.

 

Night Watch (2002) is often cited as a definite shift in that direction. Night Watch is a great book nonetheless, and it's a little less than three quarters through the series.

 

I am not sure I'd agree that the late novels (wherever we consider "late" to start) have too much anger in them.  The impression I received was Pratchett moving beyond the glib and ironical treatment of death and destruction seen in the earlier novels in favour of wrestling with the additional complexities that his evolving world threw up.  Nevertheless, he does so with the same tolerance for human frailty  that runs through all his work. His evident humanity, rare in a satirist (and I can really only think of Fielding as comparable in that regard), shines through his work to the end. Optimism and redemption remained constant.

 

I think you can detect something off a falling off from peak-Pratchett in places - but people are sensitive to that in any long-running series and especially in the case of an author who has disclosed he has Alzheimer's and the critique is easily overdone - but nothing that impaired my enjoyment and there was always much to enjoy.  Moist and Adora Belle were brilliant late-flowering characters. Discworld never went stale in my view.   

 

There is not, I think, much sadness or depression affecting Pratchett's late books.  His goodbye is deftly done with much poignancy in Shepherd's Crown and I think he wrote brilliantly to the end.  

 

I do not think there is a single book in the series that I wouldn't/haven't re-read with much pleasure. 

Course, you do get the odd outlier anyway. Pyramids is really quite dark, especially for the early series.

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I was going to suggest somewhere around monstrous regiment as the turning point, but that's pretty close to your night watch theory. Although I do enjoy going postal and the moist stories, unseen academicals is probably my least favourite and raising steam follows pretty close afterwards. The tiffany aching series somehow never grabbed me like the other character arcs (I know it was aimed at younger readers).

However I'm not sure I'd ascribe the change, such as it is, to his condition so much as perhaps just getting older and grumpier (less patient might be a better way of putting that), which is not uncommon. Certainly to me there seems a shift from a charitable poking fun at human frailties in most of the books towards some pretty heavy pillorying of those the author disagreed with nearer the end, with the "villains" seemingly less sympathetically treated and having fewer redeeming qualities.

Having said all that, his output was prodigious - I discovered discworld at the age of 12 or so (94) and bought every book as they came out from then on, plus catching up on previous works. Turning out a book or two each year for so long without many obvious duds is very good going for any author, so it does seem a little churlish to be too disappointed in the final few books.

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2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Morning All,

 

High time, I think, to break out the accordions and get those shoulders shrugging...

 

 

You can shoot the pianist but you should always shoot the accordion.

 

I take it that's a couple of tricoloures hanging over the backscene?

Edited by Compound2632
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25 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 

You can shoot the pianist but you should always shoot the accordion.

I beg to differ! You can't have a ceilidh without at least one accordion player! (and a fiddle player !) 

 

Jim 

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