Castle Aching

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

Speaking of ducks every year in October I get a pair of these Pacific Black Ducks paying a visit to my back yard. They nest in a nature reserve near where I live and do the rounds of the neighbourhood looking for food. 

 

 

[Annie]

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

Sitting in a class room in the 1950s learning how to calculate multiples of weights and measures or how to multiply sums of money was the pits.

I can certainly remember the emphasis on what was called 'mental arithmetic' where the ability to calculate sums in our head was drilled into us.  Of course the arrival of calculators swept all that away and my children were always amazed that I could figure things out in my head without a calculator.  Dark barbed sarcasm and occasionally the strap across our hands pretty much forced the ability to do such things into us back then.

I do agree though that the arrival of antibiotics  made life less perilous. and I certainly heard plenty of tales from family while I was growing up about the horrors of blood poisoning.  Most probably also the reason why every scratch I got when I was small was swifty anointed with iodine.  I hated how it stung, but I was always firmly told it was 'for my own good'.  Lots of things seemed to be for our 'own good' when i was growing up.

[Compound2632]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Oh, I don't know ...

 

 

 

But that's an improved Great Western engine in more ways than just the colour. Once the Derby LDO got hold of and fully digested the Swindon ideas W.H. Stanier brought along, weeded out the things that didn't work so well and added the best bits of Derby practice* they produced some exceptional locomotives. 

 

*vide the motion of the Royal Scots, ultimately derived from the compounds through the work done on the proposed big compounds of the 1920s, and also aspects of the 2-6-4T. 

 

Though I do have to say that the Jubilees and rebuilt Royal Scots look best in BR green. Red doesn't really suit very large engines. 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Compound2632

[sem34090]

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

 

 

Personally, although I'm an archaeologist and historian, I have no illusions about the past despite the current state of the world being a bit depressing at times.

More than a bit...

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

But that is actually far better than what it was like before WW2.

I see it as depending on what areas of life one looks at - some were very much better pre-WWII, some were very much worse.

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

There were no adequate social services.

In terms of adequacy in some places it isn't a vast improvement on 'none at all'.

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

In health terms the slightest abrasion or cut could lead to blood poisoning which before penicillin couldn't be treated - I lost an uncle aged only 14 years to blood poisoning in the early 1930's. Then there were all the endemic diseases like TB, syphilis, small pox, polio etc. with no vaccines

What's so different now? And I don't just mean Covid - Some countries haven't eradicated all the nasties yet.

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

or anti-biotics, combined with hopelessly low wages, none or scanty unemployment benefits, limited housing etc.

Again, there are plenty of places in the world where that problem is still current. Limited housing is even considered to be an issue over here, though that's by Western standards.

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

Add to to those real life threatening menaces the use of a medieval system of money and weights & measures just about summed up the glories of the past.

A cruel judgement, I feel. There have been improvements, aye and many of them too, but I think many of us around here certainly wouldn't consider everything to have been worse then and everything to be better now otherwise I suspect that the escapism element of modelling something beyond ones memory would be potentially lacking.

 

Or perhaps I'm wrong - I very often am.

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

Sitting in a class room in the 1950s learning how to calculate multiples of weights and measures or how to multiply sums of money was the pits. Especially as decimalisation swept all that way when it came in.

I know a couple of people who swear that they think pre-decimal made more sense and was more logical (and only learnt it in the 60s). I wouldn't know, personally, though I do seem to have a half crown in my wallet (I don't know why it's there either).

 

As for measurements, I use a strange mix of imperial and metric but struggle to convert between them. For small distance measurements I invariably use millimetres, never use thou. or centimetres, and above that exclusively imperial. Weight tends to be imperial, and volume is either millilitres or pints!!! That's probably because my school insisted on teaching only in metric and wouldn't answer me properly when I asked "What's that in feet/inches/yards/miles?" as that's what was always used at home - I just got laughed at. I think railway modelling and my first stint as a heritage railway volunteer is how I really learnt how to measure stuff, thus the weird mixture I use.

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

People live in the conditions of the society of their time but that doesn't mean that things can't be improved.    

Things can always be 'improved'...

 

But I think most involved with art and design from the 1950s into the 1980s amply demonstrated that sometimes what is seen as an 'improvement' is anything but.

 

Actually, anyone who was involved that to 'improve' our lives nations would come to be built around the motor car during that same time period also proved that 'improvement' isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be.

[Edwardian]

4 hours ago, nick_bastable said:

actually that's a lucky man as I spy two sheds 

 

Nick B

 

 Trigger words for ...

 

 

[Edwardian]

On 03/05/2020 at 16:18, uax6 said:

Could you not just put the Dodo illiterate symbol on and a number?

 

 

Something like ....

 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

3 hours ago, sem34090 said:

More than a bit...

I see it as depending on what areas of life one looks at - some were very much better pre-WWII, some were very much worse.

In terms of adequacy in some places it isn't a vast improvement on 'none at all'.

What's so different now? And I don't just mean Covid - Some countries haven't eradicated all the nasties yet.

Again, there are plenty of places in the world where that problem is still current. Limited housing is even considered to be an issue over here, though that's by Western standards.

A cruel judgement, I feel. There have been improvements, aye and many of them too, but I think many of us around here certainly wouldn't consider everything to have been worse then and everything to be better now otherwise I suspect that the escapism element of modelling something beyond ones memory would be potentially lacking.

 

Or perhaps I'm wrong - I very often am.

I know a couple of people who swear that they think pre-decimal made more sense and was more logical (and only learnt it in the 60s). I wouldn't know, personally, though I do seem to have a half crown in my wallet (I don't know why it's there either).

 

As for measurements, I use a strange mix of imperial and metric but struggle to convert between them. For small distance measurements I invariably use millimetres, never use thou. or centimetres, and above that exclusively imperial. Weight tends to be imperial, and volume is either millilitres or pints!!! That's probably because my school insisted on teaching only in metric and wouldn't answer me properly when I asked "What's that in feet/inches/yards/miles?" as that's what was always used at home - I just got laughed at. I think railway modelling and my first stint as a heritage railway volunteer is how I really learnt how to measure stuff, thus the weird mixture I use.

Things can always be 'improved'...

 

But I think most involved with art and design from the 1950s into the 1980s amply demonstrated that sometimes what is seen as an 'improvement' is anything but.

 

Actually, anyone who was involved that to 'improve' our lives nations would come to be built around the motor car during that same time period also proved that 'improvement' isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be.

 

Or to be realistic, I'm in my mid 70s. I have a day job which I have mentioned previously (a few thousand pages back ) is Secretary of a very large antique and historical arms collecting club, so my historical interests are both professional and private. 

 

In that job I correspond with or answer phone and online enquiries from members and also people who would like to join us. I am frankly horrified at the number of people in my age cohort who are proud of the fact that they have no internet access and are not willing to learn. Yet I see the same people at club meetings with the latest smartphone (which is really a portable PC) of which to them its only use is as a mobile phone. 

 

How on Earth they expect to keep up to date in such a specialised area as that area in which I work is beyond me. A typical inquiry might run along the lines of "I've just bought a ......... and I'm trying to find out some information about it", my reply is to suggest that they first do an online search or consult a basic published hard copy resource of which I might be aware of.

 

I then usually get the response "Ummm... I don't have a computer, me and wife aren't interested, and I don't know have that book, article whatever, could you tell me what it says?" Recently (pre lock down) I was asked a question by one such person who was wielding his smartphone, and when I suggested he used that device to seek out the answer on the internet he looked at me in absolute amazement. 99.99% of the capability of the device he was carrying was a complete mystery to him. 

 

In reality what they are saying is that they are functionally illiterate and the mere thought of sitting at a key board even typing out a simple one line query or response is beyond them. Yet they have over the years amassed enough money to be able to outlay large sums of money for things (we're talking thousands of dollars) that they have bought on a whim without knowing a thing about it, its provenance and most importantly if it isn't a fake (as Barnum said there's one born every minute).

 

We are using an online system to talk. We exchange information or opinions or jokes or whatever - yet there are people who still regard this convenient means of communications as something to be avoided at all costs, not because of cost or lack of access but because of some inherent fear. In this little forum we as a group, and this applies right across the spectrum, are people of varying formal qualifications and backgrounds and I admit I was in my late 40s when I was forced into the computer age. Do I yearn to go back? not on your life. Do I yearn for life as it was in the immediate post-war years - good heavens at the first sign of that here's a gun shoot me. 

 

So as far as I am concerned sometimes government has to dragoon people into the present for their own good. The world isn't going to suddenly embrace 19th century arithmetical practice and its associated manual processes, or are there always going to be people like ourselves willing to provide free information to people either too lazy or unwilling to look it up for themselves. So people really ought to try and keep up after all it's in their own interests. Yes we are interested in history but it is far more comfortable, and easier, to have that interest in the 21st century than in the Dickensian world of the 19th.

[Hroth]

10 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Oh, I don't know ...

 

 

In many ways, Stanier was a carrier of Swindonitis!

Apart from the colour, and the pustule behind the topfeed, Leander wouldn't look out of place in a GWR engine shed...

 

 

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Nothing screams "Made in the US of A"  more than a cowcatcher.

 

(Which was invented by Charles Babbage)

 

Cowcatchers mainly remind me of those deviced used for slicing hard-boiled eggs.

 

5 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Red doesn't really suit very large engines. 

 

I rest my case.... 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Hroth

[Edwardian]

57 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Apart from the colour, and the pustule behind the topfeed, Leander wouldn't look out of place in a GWR engine shed...

 

 

 

 

57 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Cowcatchers mainly remind me of those deviced used for slicing hard-boiled eggs.

 

 

I call those "knives"

 

57 minutes ago, Hroth said:

I rest my case.... 

 

 

Yeah, about that big locomotives in red point ....

 

[Donw]

I my opinion the people of my Grandparents generation (born late victorian/edwardian) were just as happy  as their childrens generation who were just as happy as my generation. However the younger gerations seem less happy.  I do wonder that having been reared on TV it has created expectations that cannot be matched.

True there was disease in the old days and the NHS has made things better but we now have other diseases and problems. Obesity and auto immune diseases are major problems. I am forever being targeted by scammers. Even worse Finance companies can leagally rob your pension pot before you get it by simply charging so much that it seriously reduces the value.

And now we have the even more serious issue of Global warming forget whether it is due to excess comsumption of fossil fuels. The changes that seem to be occurring may be more serious than anything we have experienced.

It must be something to do with the people you come across  because I know plenty of oldies who are into skype, zoom, socal media etc. I only know one or two who have no email.  

I truly believe what matters is what you make of the times you have. I do not think much of those who expect someone else to sort out their problems.  Make the effort yourself.

 

Don

[Edwardian]

Breaking news ...

 

The recovery will be V-shaped.

 

[Dave John]

I had one of those egg slicer things. They are crap for slicing up balsa for making bases for rodding stools.

 

The voice of inexperience ..... 

 

 

 

 

[Anotheran]

Strange goings on in RMWeb world... my Content I Follow feed now has this for some reason...

 

 

I have a hard enough time keeping up with one Castle Aching!

Best thread on the web though

 

Kind regards, Neil

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

The recovery will be V-shaped

He wisely seems to be frequenting a purveyor of disinfectants.

 

Or, maybe buying a small petrol engine.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

[brack]

Diesel fuel?

 

Try welsh steam coal.

[Annie]

10 minutes ago, brack said:

Diesel fuel?

 

Try welsh steam coal.

Yes I did wonder about that.  It's not my image I only 'borrowed' it.  The idea of idiots munching on coal does somewhat appeal though.

[nick_bastable]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Breaking news ...

 

The recovery will be V-shaped.

 

so  as anticipated we are all fudged  (or something similar to fudged)

 

Nick B

[Edwardian]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

 

Very near to the truth, unfortunately.

 

Is there room to add "I heard the iceberg escaped from a Lab in China"?

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Very near to the truth, unfortunately.

 

Is there room to add "I heard the iceberg escaped from a Lab in China"?

 

 

And.

"its (insert name of political party last in power 3 to 4 years ago - eg  US Democrats, Aust Labor party etc) fault!"

[Annie]

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Very near to the truth, unfortunately.

 

Is there room to add "I heard the iceberg escaped from a Lab in China"?

Unfortunately there's no vaccine for stupidity.  I posted the picture because while it was amusing it was also so very close to the truth.

 

Here we're already starting to see folk of very little brain beginning to belittle our prime minister and her team's efforts in keeping NZ safe from a runaway epidemic.  And a lot of the things they are saying are in a similar cast to that Titanic picture I posted.

[jcredfer]

19 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Very near to the truth, unfortunately.

 

Is there room to add "I heard the iceberg escaped from a Lab in China"?

 

Surely the "Iceberg" escaped from an American mouth...

 

Julian

 

[Hroth]

Far too many of the UK tabloids were inadvisably promoting the abandonment of lockdown this morning. 

 

Scary.

 

Anyhow, I participated in a 30 minute queue at our local Tesco this afternoon......

 

[Donw]

Most of the time I believe if a goernment was not alllowed to tinker we would probably go on all right. Facing this pandemic is a different kettle of fish.  Things have to be different. I doubt that anyone in the government has faced such a major pandemic before so they are trying their best based on the advice they have been given.  Of course there are problems but there would have been whoever was in power. I heartily dislike those who ask questions in a way that implies the government should have known better or there is some political motive behind things. I know little of the NZ government but I believe they will be doing what they believe is for the best. 

Don

[Donw]

17 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

 

Surely the "Iceberg" escaped from an American mouth...

 

Julian

 

 

Choose your own demon there are plenty to choose from.

 

Don