Castle Aching

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I don't know who Miss Austin was - some relation of the Chamberlains? but Miss Austen lived very firmly in LSWR territory.

 

I was quoting a distant relative on her father's side who wrote extensively on railway matters in the very early 19th century ............ 

[Hroth]

9 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

Miss Austin also wrote "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a small village in the west of England, must be in want of a depiction in OO gauge of a GWR terminus". 

 

9 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I don't know who Miss Austin was - some relation of the Chamberlains? but Miss Austen lived very firmly in LSWR territory.

 

In one of Jasper Ffordes "Thursday Next" books, the Goliath Corporation built a book travelling tour bus.  It was called the "Austen Rover"....

 

8 hours ago, sem34090 said:

Oh and on a literary theme we had J. M. Barrie living at The Boynes, a few hundred yards back from Medstead's up platform. It is probable, therefore, that the famous author graced our station numerous times. As did his Sister. And the piano that she insisted on taking with her everywhere

 

Most people only took harps to parties...

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a railway modeller in possession of a good fortune, must be not spending enough."

 

Jayne Austyn Northanger Engine Shed, p. 351

 

Miss Austyn 1783 - 1817 was a reclusive novelist who is recognised as envisaging a future world when steam powered mechanical devices would lead to endless digressions along the path to somewhere in the west country.

 

Sadly unrecognised in her time she remains sadly unrecognised ..................... 

[Nearholmer]

Brilliant!

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

A good example of the opportunities created by the new order at the start of the 19th century is the Armstrong dynasty on the GWR. The first member started out in his teens as an engine driver, when such things were very new and no-one was an expert.

Jonathan

PS How to bring the thread back on topic! 

PPS When we were at Eariith on the Cam, our infant son cried the whole time. He hated the vast open spaces.

[phil_sutters]

9 hours ago, sem34090 said:

And the piano that she insisted on taking with her everywhere - I bet that caused some 'fun' for my LSWR predecessors. The close proximity of house and station is best shown with an aerial photo, courtesy of Google;

 

Some of her luggage obviously never arrived at the correct station.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a railway modeller in possession of a good fortune, must be not spending enough."

 

Jayne Austyn Northanger Engine Shed, p. 351

 

Miss Austyn 1783 - 1817 was a reclusive novelist who is recognised as envisaging a future world when steam powered mechanical devices would lead to endless digressions along the path to somewhere in the west country.

 

Sadly unrecognised in her time she remains sadly unrecognised ..................... 

 

Brilliant, though no doubt had the novel been written by the north western author, Mrs Gasket, it would’ve been called Northlight Engine Shed 

[Skinnylinny]

1 hour ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

Jayne Austyn Northanger Engine Shed, p. 351

 

Northlight Engine Shed, as any fule kno...

 

[Edit: Must refresh the page to check for new posts between putting the kettle on and posting!]

Edited December 4, 2019 by Skinnylinny

[Hroth]

24 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Brilliant, though no doubt had the novel been written by the north western author, Mrs Gasket, it would’ve been called Northlight Engine Shed 

 

3 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

Northlight Engine Shed, as any fule kno...

 

Highlighting once more the absolute need for a [Groan] button...

[Edwardian]

26 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

 

Northlight Engine Shed, as any fule kno...

 

[Edit: Must refresh the page to check for new posts between putting the kettle on and posting!]

 

I had to take a call halfway through writing my post, so could easily have been similarly overtaken!

 

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

How to bring the thread back on topic! 

 

 

Things are Afoot in the world directly above my 'pooter screen.  The bridge has been largely completed.  I've had a go at distressing it.  

 

The Navvies were out over the weekend with wheel barrows full of papier-mâché, or, rather, my lazy version of it ("Potter's Patent Papier Mache Preparation"), and are happily forming the river banks and filling in behind the embankment.

 

 

 

 

 

[sem34090]

I never cease to be envious of your mastery when it comes to model structure-building...

[Nearholmer]

My head is heavily into building railways through Buckinghamshire at the moment, and my first response to that photo was that it was one of the many taken during the construction of the GCR London Extension, which is a tribute.

[Annie]

Beautiful model making James.  That bridge is an absolute delight.

[Edwardian]

Thank you all, though as I think I mentioned before, it's really just an adaptation of the Smart Models kit. 

 

 

Adaptation is probably too grand a word, because these downloadable kits are by their nature very easy to manipulate.

 

Here, for instance, I simply have to build it half-width (for a single track), lose height and use only the bits I need from the largest and smallest of the three arches. The only remotely cunning bit is that I printed it out slightly under-scale in order to achieve the height and spans I needed. 

 

If I built the kit full-scale, to its maximum extent as a viaduct, and in a different texture, say brown stone, it would give an entirely different impression from that given by my little bridge. Such is the subtle brilliance of these kits!   

 

Anyway, you can see, I hope, why I enjoy playing with these textures and kits; like good old Bilteezi, you can go a lot of different ways from the same starting point. 

[Annie]

16 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Thank you all, though as I think I mentioned before, it's really just an adaptation of the Smart Models kit. 

 

 

 

Adaptation is probably too grand a word, because these downloadable kits are by their nature very easy to manipulate.

 

 

A kit it might be James, but what we celebrate is your skill in seamlessly modifying and adapting the kit to suit your purpose. 

[Edwardian]

Inspired by James Harrison's Brilliant Post

 

Three Men in a Tripod (To say nothing of the Martian)

 

(as adapted by the BBC)

 

We were all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite nervous about it.  Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of post-colonial guilt come over him at times, that he hardly knew when to insert a suitable monologue into the action; and then George said that he too had fits of Imperial Angst, but hoped that joining the Fabian Society and Living in Sin would cure it.   With me, it was my Martian physiology that was out of order.  I knew it was my Martian physiology that was out of order, because I had just been Googling "Martians - proneness to disease", where links detailed the various bacteria that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.  I had them all.

[Hroth]

2 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Three Men in a Tripod (To say nothing of the Martian)

 

(as adapted by the BBC)

 

First broadcast on BBC1

Repeated on BBC iii

 

[Edwardian]

6 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

First broadcast on BBC1

Repeated on BBC iii

 

 

Different channels, different audiences.

[Regularity]

9 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

First broadcast on BBC1

Repeated on BBC iii

 

 

2 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Different channels, different audiences.

Aye.

A worse occurrence (and this does seem to happen) is 

First Broadcast on BBC iii,

Repeated on BBC 1.

[Hroth]

19 minutes ago, Regularity said:

 

Aye.

A worse occurrence (and this does seem to happen) is 

First Broadcast on BBC iii,

Repeated on BBC 1.

 

If I see that anything has "originated" on BBC iii, I tend not to watch it.  To be honest, WotW was probably BBC iii material to start with, which would explain a lot of things...

 

In other business, the Accounts and Ways and Means Department have just informed me that my railway now has more locomotives than passengers.  Is this a bad thing?

[Donw]

50 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

If I see that anything has "originated" on BBC iii, I tend not to watch it.  To be honest, WotW was probably BBC iii material to start with, which would explain a lot of things...

 

In other business, the Accounts and Ways and Means Department have just informed me that my railway now has more locomotives than passengers.  Is this a bad thing?

 

Not if you are modelling an engine servicing point.

or you have lots and lots of wagons

if neither I would advise keeping Mr Beeching well away

 

Don

 

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

I assume that you then also have lots of coal wagons to justify those locos. And not too many carriages. There were plenty of railways with NO passengers (and I don't mean branch lines in the 1950s) and plenty of others, such as the TVR,which avoided providing decent passenger services as long as possible. 

Quite the opposite of the L&M in its early days, of course, which felt that moving coal was really rather beneath it. (of course there was quite a lot beneath it but that is another story)

Jonathan

 

[Donw]

By the third episode of WotW I was so disencharted (aka p*ssed off) so I didn't watch although Marion did.  For me they had destroyed any sense of drama and any empathy with the characters. Fom what I have heard about the last episode the business of the Martians changing the flora to something poisonous to all native plants suggests a rather different physiology for the Martians so the concept of a disease which targets our physiology being their nemesis sounds unlikely  something that little affects us being fatal for them would seem more logical to me. 

 

On a different matter. You may well have adapted a kit to create the bridge but the way you have adapted it and set it into the landscape is masterly. Height of the path through the small arch is just what one would expect.  And we know from your other work you are quite capable of building the bridge from scratch.

 

Don

[Annie]

My GER & Affiliated (Imaginary) Railways layout is always well patronised by folk wanting to travel by train.  Right from the start I made the decision to layout the roads so that if they actually go anywhere useful they go by the longest route possible and if I was forced into providing a more direct route I made it little better than a narrow cart track.

Folk caught attempting to promote improved roads are immediately taken in for questioning by the constabulary on suspicion of modernism and are sentenced to hard labour dismantling captured buses until they come to their senses.

[Edwardian]

14 minutes ago, Annie said:

My GER & Affiliated (Imaginary) Railways layout is always well patronised by folk wanting to travel by train.  Right from the start I made the decision to layout the roads so that if they actually go anywhere useful they go by the longest route possible and if I was forced into providing a more direct route I made it little better than a narrow cart track.

Folk caught attempting to promote improved roads are immediately taken in for questioning by the constabulary on suspicion of modernism and are sentenced to hard labour dismantling captured buses until they come to their senses.

 

What a great idea.  I'm sure this must also prove true of the topography of West Norfolk.

 

As for the proper fate of passenger stealing 'buses ....