Castle Aching

[Donw]

Some years ago I worked shifts in an office which overlooked a timber yard. When the yard closed for the day the cats would appear to hold a meeting to discsss life and the nights activities in particular. Some would slink off from time to time to go wandering. There was definitely a strict protocol about how much space to leave to the nearest other cat and some obviously high status ones would choose a spot and inferiors would have to edge away. Not much different to people methinks.

 

It is good to see a number of us do contribute to wikki. I like the thought that we are prepared to chip in and not just be spongers.

 

Don

[Annie]

Yes I donate to Wikipedia from time to time.  When it comes to researching 19th century railways I don't expect Wikipedia to give me the whole answer, but it does often give useful pointers as to which direction to go next.

[CKPR]

39 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

You put Christmas decorations on your CATS???

 

 

 

Definitely not worth the risk in my book !

[brack]

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

 

Yes the odd somnolent moggy scattered about the sofa makes a house looked lived in.  

No politics....

although for some reason that particular individual hasn't been allowed out for some weeks.

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

1 minute ago, brack said:

No politics....

although for some reason that particular individual hasn't been allowed out for some weeks.

 

From some experience of Moggs and moggs I am inclined to think that if politicians were more like cats they would actually do a better job of being indolent layabouts. In the case of the latter I mean that in the kindest way for who can find fault in a creature that generally speaking is content to be a good companion and comes equipped with self-cleaning as well ........ 

[brack]

Really, I'm not so sure our current 'leader' could possibly be more like a tomcat...

[Nearholmer]

I'm seriously considering donating our neighbour's cat to wikipedia.

[drmditch]

Re: Cats

If I understand correctly, there are some 40 species (kinds/types?) of cats on the planet. They all need to sleep for about 18 hours out of the 24. They are all 'obligate carnivores', in that they eat only prey animals and all of their prey animals. There are several important amino acids such as taurine which they only get from eating animal tissue. (Modern cat foods have to replicate this. We learned this when my mother tried to feed her cat on dogfood 'because it was cheaper'!)

I do not share my house with a cat at the moment, but I miss my last cat very much. He was an excellent railway cat, and would inspect new constructions and sometimes follow the passage of trains with great (apparent) interest. When he was young he would wait beside a tunnel mouth for a train to emerge, although he learned quite quickly not to do this.

 

He did also like foodstuffs not normally associated with feline diet. I can appreciate why he liked taramasalata, but cheese seemed quite odd. Many cats it seems go quite mad about Twiglets!

 

He was a magnificent large ginger cat, was excellent company, appeared to be more interested in green engines than black ones, and I still miss him whenever I find one of his long ginger hairs.

[wagonman]

17 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Re: Cats

He did also like foodstuffs not normally associated with feline diet. I can appreciate why he liked taramasalata, but cheese seemed quite odd. Many cats it seems go quite mad about Twiglets!

 

 

I had a cat years ago – also a ginger tom – who was very partial to Marmite sandwiches...

 

 

[brianusa]

23 hours ago, robmcg said:

 

 

 

I tried to read Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca'   set in pre-Brunel deepest Cornwall and there was no room in the coach for fundamentalism, every character was 100% pure unalloyed miserable... 

 

Still, they had workhouses then. Everything is relative.  That last statement was told to me by an older brother who is a usually right. Or was when I was a child. I didn't know quite what he meant then. I still don't.  But I get the sentiment.   IOW  'mustn't grumble' and so on.  Oops I'm raving. Again.

 

Better go and create a picture, or watch the sleeping cat.

 

I tried to read Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca'   set in pre-Brunel deepest Cornwall.

 

A bit later actually!

    Brian.

[robmcg]

11 hours ago, Northroader said:

The painting of the GC/LNE train that appeared a while ago is Manchester London Road (Piccadilly these days) there’s quite a distinctive office block at the end of the station. It’s also a more direct route going east than heading out from the Central.

 

Thank you yes the pic of the ex-GCR 4-6-0 is leaving Manchester London Road, that building is the giveaway, which I might have changed a bit. The shape and texture of the main roof is the same, too.

 

As I recall the train was heading to places east, too.

 

Thanks.

[Andy Hayter]

24 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Re: Cats

I

 

He did also like foodstuffs not normally associated with feline diet. I can appreciate why he liked taramasalata, but cheese seemed quite odd. Many cats it seems go quite mad about Twiglets!

 

 

 

I think I can perhaps beat that.  We once had a cat that would sit on his haunches and beg for melon - seriously melon preferably charantais orange melon.

 

We currently have several who will eat cheese (soft goats cheese being preferable - sorry form Wright writes that should be "goats'  " cheese)  despite adult cats supposedly being lactose intolerant.  

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

11 minutes ago, wagonman said:

 

I had a cat years ago – also a ginger tom – who was very partial to Marmite sandwiches...

 

 

 

I recall my mother had a cat that liked cabbage sauteed in butter - there is no accounting for taste, nor my mother actually feeding the cat cabbage.   

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

Though on the subject of cats and dairy products which vets say is not good for them - apparently as a cat is a carnivore the dairy products (including milk) have a meaty taste to them. Old Fluffy Bum aka SWMBO isn't fed any dairy products and seems to do quite well. Certainly she doesn't suffer from insomnia.  

[nick_bastable]

A much missed puss  only once stole from the kitchen her own specially cooked goose giblets  many a tears shed when she went 

 

A change of circumstances later I relented and agreed to housing Madam a proper sh&t pot whom we both love deeply and makes life just a little better as she sleeps 20 hours a day and demands playtime @ midnight

 

Nick

[Annie]

My silly old moggy died around the same time as I started to get ill and I really miss him.  He was a really wonderful affectionate companion, but I dare not get another cat now since I'd end up on the floor too often from tripping over it.

[Edwardian]

With apologies to cats, and other Animals ....

 

There is a mouse in New Orleans

They call Three-Whiskered Jean

He's been the ruin of many a poor cat

And God, I know, I'm one

 

My mother was a Tortoiseshell

A lady of some means

My father was a Ginger Tom

Down in New Orleans

.....

[Hroth]

9 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

We currently have several who will eat cheese (soft goats cheese being preferable - sorry form Wright writes that should be "goats'  " cheese)  despite adult cats supposedly being lactose intolerant.  

 

We don't need to worry any more, the "The Apostrophe Protection Society" is giving up.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50692797

 

Let RMweb be an apostrophe-free* zone!

 

* Unless you are a Grocer....

 

 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

7 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Let RMweb be an apostrophe-free* zone!

 

 

Well ain't that the cat's pyjamas' of'n idea ........

[Nearholmer]

Thought for the day (well, tomorrow actually):

 

Whatever else might be happening, remember that the most important thing about Thursday 12th December 2019 is that it is Railway Modeller publication date.

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Nearholmer

[RedGemAlchemist]

I myself love my cats. And no, they are not decorated, sorry if I didn't make myself clear there :p

 

Just now, Nearholmer said:

Thought for the day (well, tomorrow actually):

 

Whatever else might be happening, remember that the most important thing about Thursday 12th December 2019 is that it is Railway Modeller publication date.

Are you by any chance a time traveller? 

 

And unless you're a subscriber like me, where you got yours a couple days ago. 

[Hroth]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

Thought for the day (well, tomorrow actually):

 

Whatever else might be happening, remember that the most important thing about Thursday 12th December 2012 is that it is Railway Modeller publication date.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I'm all sorted for tomorrow so the most important thing on my to-do list is preparing for visitors. 

[Nearholmer]

Red

 

in that case accidentally (slightly) old-fashioned.

 

Corrected.

 

Kevin

[Northroader]

It’s the Incontinental Modeller I’m looking out for.

[Compound2632]

Well, at least this time around we're agreed what day of the week it is - or at least, will be tomorrow. 

 

I've failed to find any reference to Midland Railway cats, either staff or passenger - they don't figure in the table of rates, though dogs get half a column. Midland Style has a photo of Damems station (K&WVR) with staff and terrier. It may be that the cat community didn't consider Midland red an appropriate colour with which to associate. The black of the LNWR was evidently more the thing. There's a good bit in F.W. West's 1907 description of the Crewe tranship shed*:

 

"the men are ... unfastening the doors of the covered vans. As one ... is opened a cat walks out, and with tail erect it rubs itself familiarly against the unloader's leg. The van has come from Aberdeen, and so has the cat. But the explanation is quickly to be seen, for inside there is a little Shetland pony in a crate consigned to Swansea, and pussy, whose mission in life was presumably to keep down the mice at the granite city's station, has evidently stuck up an acquaintanceship with the pony, upon which the doors of the van were unexpectedly closed. Her fate is quickly sealed by adding her to the feline staff of the Crewe Shed, while the pony is taken out of his crate and given a walk in an adjacent paddock."

 

F.W. West was Goods Agent at Crewe. His article originally appeared in The Railway Magazine; I have it reproduced in E. Talbot (ed), The LNWR Recalled (OPC, 1987).

 

Skimbleshanks is evidently a West Coast cat:

 

You were fast asleep at Crewe and so you never knew
That he was walking up and down the station;
You were sleeping all the while he was busy at Carlisle,
Where he greets the stationmaster with elation.

 

though his train takes the 'Sou-West route:

 

But you saw him at Dumfries, where he speaks to the police

 

This is post-grouping LMS - late 30s; is Elliot reporting the route of an actual night train or is he simply scrabbling around for place names he can rhyme with?