Castle Aching

[Martin S-C]

17 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

It's not a curious decision in the context of this being a limited-run test product, pioneering the application of a new technology. That's why you only get one version.

 

In the future, new product can take advantage of the flexibility of 3D-print v. injection moulding in order to produce different physical variants within the same production run.  In theory, if you wanted, you could print 9 wagons on a bed, each one physically different.

 

Nevertheless, the intention has always been to do an early version of this test product in a subsequent run.  My brief was to select a SE prototype covered wagon that could span the full livery period of a certain RTR Wainwright locomotive.

 

That is always a tall order; in general locomotives had longer working lives than wagons. D1424 was built from 1904 and lasted, albeit in small numbers, into the mid-'50s, so managed to fulfill the brief. 

 

The earlier version should, IIRC, take us back as least as far as 1909 and be good for early SE&CR livery, late SE&CR livery and early SR livery.  It will need Hills brake gear and roof vents.  Those will be the principal physical differences to the printed wagon.  It will need to be fitted with Alan Gibson 12mm Mansell wheels.   

Thank you James, I had no idea this was a test bed for new technology/production methods. Exciting times ahead!

[Compound2632]

Ah, yes, of course, Atchingham FC - known as "The Honeysuckles" on account of the picturesque vegetative growth up their ill-frequented main stand. Looking forward to seeing that modelled!

[Edwardian]

Just now, Martin S-C said:

Thank you James, I had no idea this was a test bed for new technology/production methods. Exciting times ahead!

 

Possibly.

 

But I am actively involved in this project, concerning which there is renewed activity now that the first product has landed, so I am cautiously optimistic that we will see something else! 

 

Bear in mind that this sort of application was never envisaged for this technology. It was serendipity that Rails even looked at it.  Rails had asked me to consult on their loco commissions and the Memsahib took on a role for a local engineering firm that had started to use this new process.  All credit to Rails, they seized on the possibility of this innovative use of a new process.

 

It took a lot of development to produce the van.  Many tests and adaptations.  We had to overcome a number of issues and needed to identify optimum print angles, settings etc.  We had to re-design the chassis at least once and some things were made separately that could have been printed integrally in order to accommodate subsequent processes, such as painting.  In the end, we actually exceeded the expectations of the US manufacturers of the machines/the technology, and our humble van goes to trade shows and helps impress customers such as high-performance automotive manufacturers who need parts printed to exacting specifications!

 

Dapol had to adapt to the characteristics of the material and had to work hard to create the right painting jigs.  In the end they did a superb job with the painting and pad printing, but it involved a lot of work at that stage, too. It was a very intense process (!), but, as a result, we now know how an RTR covered wagon can be produced. 

[Regularity]

3 hours ago, drmditch said:

I am not an expert on turning/machining, neither am I an expert on the LNWR, or any other railway for that matter, although my loyalties lie with the NER and LNER and perhaps I was being slightly mischevious!

 

Well, Gresley was (initially) trained at Crewe...

 

1 hour ago, Martin S-C said:

Roye England's biography has some very upsetting sections where he was working as fast as possible measuring rows of half derelict thatched cottages at the same time that workmen were pulling them down. Thank heavens this would never happen today but before we entered this age of the recognition of the value of these things, far too much was lost.

 

Northampton Castle, anyone?

 

1610 Map:

 

Recent sketch:

 

Deconstruction by LNWR in the 1880s:

 

BR station erected during "modernisation":

[Nearholmer]

Martin

 

Resolution of a digital camera is set by two things, the quality of the optics, and the resolution of the photo-sensor.

 

If you apply ‘digital zoom’, all you are doing is using a proportion of the photo-sensor. The focal length and field of view of the lens stay the same - you just don’t capture all of the field from the sensor.

 

If a digital camera has optical zoom, that changes the focal-length of the lens, and the whole of the sensor remains in play throughout.

 

In theory, cropping a full field photo should be no different from using digital zoom, but I perceive a difference; maybe the cropping software uses a different interpolation algorithm., or maybe, as I say, I’m kidding myself.

 

Does that make sense?

 

Kevin

 

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Regularity

 

if you have your doubts about the present Northampton Station, you should have seen the horrible thing that was there between demolition of the Victorian station and the recent(ish) erection of a collection of conservatories.

 

K

[Edwardian]

Indulge me ...

 

If CA has one great source of ultimate inspiration, it is this.

 

Frustrated with my photographs through the glass (this was before I was invited inside the exhibit) I took some pictures from the film of MVR playing in the room ...

 

 

 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, K14 said:

 

Found this:—

 

 

 

 

http://www.steamindex.com/people/engrs.htm

 

So that backs it up to pre-1864 on the GWR. I'd expect that it was patented & thus expensive to implement for 'foreign' companies; by the time it had expired (1880s ?) I'd guess that bolt-ons had become SOP for many & it took a while to catch on. The 1932 date given in the LMS paper ties in with the arrival of Stanier from Swindon.

 

I can remember seeing bolts on the tender wheelsets of the Super D when it was being overhauled at Crewe & being surprised/shocked that it had such antiquated fastenings for something so relatively modern.

 

Pete S.

Well played sir!

[nick_bastable]

This member really likes the fourth image 

 

Nick

[St Enodoc]

8 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Indulge me ...

 

If CA has one great source of ultimate inspiration, it is this.

 

Frustrated with my photographs through the glass (this was before I was invited inside the exhibit) I took some pictures from the film of MVR playing in the room ...

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent photos,thank you.

 

Has there ever been a more famous model railway pub than the China Clipper?

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, nick_bastable said:

This member really likes the fourth image 

 

Nick

This member really likes all of them.

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

10 hours ago, Regularity said:

How would they feel about exclamation marks?

 

Westward Ho!

 

We're too laconic for that. 

[Martin S-C]

Thanks James, beautiful pictures. I confess to being consumed by envy if you got permission to get inside the exhibit.

 

What's incredible to me is how fresh the colours are and how dust free everything is.

Anyhow, I though I'd drop this here and see what the reaction of the parish council is. I found it on a Facebook group and have gleaned a few scant details but I think the experts here should be able to reveal more.

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

13 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

Thanks James, beautiful pictures. I confess to being consumed by envy if you got permission to get inside the exhibit.

 

What's incredible to me is how fresh the colours are and how dust free everything is.

Anyhow, I though I'd drop this here and see what the reaction of the parish council is. I found it on a Facebook group and have gleaned a few scant details but I think the experts here should be able to reveal more.

 

That's a complicated accident - looks like there were three trains involved, or was the one at the left just an innocent bystander.

[Compound2632]

I believe this to be the accident that occurred at Loughton Junction on the Great Eastern's Cambridge old main line, where the High Meads loop comes in from the south west (left of photo), just north of Stratford, on 19 August 1901. It's listed on Railways Archive but the BoT report has not been uploaded. This photo was discussed on the LNWR Soc Facebook group a good while ago, IIRC. The OS 25" map matches the layout in the photo - we're looking north to the Temple Mills Lane bridge.

 

The Midland 3-plank wagon on the left, Diagram D305, has the end stops on the drop sides, showing that it is to Drawing 1143 and therefore demonstrating that the photo can be no earlier than 1897/8.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Compound2632

[DonB]

Harking back to the Wheel tyres and holding screws .... https://www.psbooks.co.uk/apps/onlinecatalogue/index.html  has an offer at £9.99 (from £19.99) currently of "The Victorian Steam Locomotive,its design and development ,  1804-1897 "

Ref.S08659  Page63 of their on-line catologue.  The Photos might help the to determine when the practice started.

[Nearholmer]

That must be the inspiration for "Unusual triple Incident at Loambarrow Bottom".

 

Isn't it interesting how much of the goods appears to be empty things going back to get filled again. Sort of ecologically sound, but possibly not, if you factor-in the energy expended in schlepping them about in wagons that probably weigh tents times as much as the load they are carrying. I wonder what the charge-rates were for empty things?

[Buhar]

12 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Many of the most characteristic Scottish boys' names begin with A* and girls names with K. I used to work with a chap whose family was from the Scottish side of the border - Henderson, a good Reever surname - his brother had ten children, seven boys all A and three girls all K. It must have saved many hours of sewing in name labels on school uniform.

 

*If not A, then G. 

It's Reiver, by the way.  The Border Hendersons were latercomers to Reiver activity and do not appear to have been settled in one area so much as other more powerful clans.  They weren't named in the first Parliamentary list of Reiver/Riding rogues.

 

Old Scotch Mother mine's family had a convention going back to at least the early 18th Century of alternating Helen and Catherine down the female line.  After death, married women in Scotland have their maiden name more prominently inscribed on the headstone.

 

Alan

[Annie]

4 hours ago, DonB said:

Harking back to the Wheel tyres and holding screws .... https://www.psbooks.co.uk/apps/onlinecatalogue/index.html  has an offer at £9.99 (from £19.99) currently of "The Victorian Steam Locomotive,its design and development ,  1804-1897 "

Ref.S08659  Page63 of their on-line catologue.  The Photos might help the to determine when the practice started.

Sorry no.  Only riveted wheels are mentioned.  I purchased the same ebook for Kindle more cheaply than that a while ago from Amazon.

 

[Hroth]

9 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

Thanks James, beautiful pictures. I confess to being consumed by envy if you got permission to get inside the exhibit.

 

What's incredible to me is how fresh the colours are and how dust free everything is.

Anyhow, I though I'd drop this here and see what the reaction of the parish council is. I found it on a Facebook group and have gleaned a few scant details but I think the experts here should be able to reveal more.

 

I do like the motion blur on the baskets that the chap has just thrown from the wagon! His pose is rather dynamic too...

[Edwardian]

This morning we go behind the glass.

 

Madderport:

 

 

 

 

 

[drmditch]

At the risk of appearing to criticise a classic model railway, is there not something anachronistic about the shape of 'Erica's bow?

Somehow I would have expected the stem to be more vertical.

 

Is there any evidence as to the prototype modelled?

[TheQ]

I'd be more concerned about the lack of mooring lines and springs..

[Edwardian]

2 minutes ago, drmditch said:

At the risk of appearing to criticise a classic model railway, is there not something anachronistic about the shape of 'Erica's bow?

Somehow I would have expected the stem to be more vertical.

 

Is there any evidence as to the prototype modelled?

 

You mean Erica is more this ....

 

 

than this ....

 

 

I agree, the bow looks much more of a post-WW2 design than the rest of Erica.

 

I would expect any short raised quarter-deck coaster built prior to WW2 to have a vertical stem, and certainly not one raked to such an angle.

[Northroader]

The ship was possibly named after Erica Roe, in which case the shape of the bow is quite minimal, and not requiring any restraint, either.  I must say what a great set of photos you’ve produced, James, and in colour, too, I’m used to old b & w piccies. Number one lesson, which you’re faithfully following with Castle Aching, is quality and placement of buildings. 

Theres some real treats lurking, like the Port Carlisle dandy on a plinth. I was aware of the narrow gauge locos upsized to standard gauge, Festiniog, Darjeeling & Himalaya, Isle of Man, all looking perfectly acceptable, but then I spotted he’s got an old Bury 0-4-0 tender loco tucked away as well. 

Hope youve recovered from drinking Arkells by now.