Castle Aching

[rocor]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Colburn's original drawing can be found here  on page 174   https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021736437&view=1up&seq=23

 

Unfortunately like many digitalised books not much care was taken to smooth most of the drawings out properly.

 

It appears that the original book is is still available in paper form.

 

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30591120204&searchurl=an%3Dzerah%2Bcolburn%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3Dlocomotive%2Bengineering%2Band%2Bthe%2Bmechanism%2Bof%2Brailways&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

[Nearholmer]

That is a digital copy from an original - a real copy of Colburn would cost a lot more than that, but you could probably get one via someone like the guy at Stamford.

 

I have only ever bought one of those digital copy jobs, via Blackwell's in Oxford no less, and it was utter rubbish, so poorly scanned that it was genuinely illegible. They sent a replacement, and that was rubbish too, so I got my money back, and then, eventually, found a high-quality scan on-line through an American library for free!

 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

That is a digital copy from an original - a real copy of Colburn would cost a lot more than that, but you could probably get one via someone like the guy at Stamford.

 

I have only ever bought one of those digital copy jobs, via Blackwell's in Oxford no less, and it was utter rubbish, so poorly scanned that it was genuinely illegible. They sent a replacement, and that was rubbish too, so I got my money back, and then, eventually, found a high-quality scan on-line through an American library for free!

 

 

A quick look around on the internet and I found prices for an original copy in tatty condition starting at £248 and heading skywards from there depending on condition, quality of binding etc.

[Adam88]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

... the guy at Stamford.

 

Tut, tut.  That's no way to refer to the esteemed Mr Humm.

[Nearholmer]

Yes, well, my mind went even blanker than usual, and I couldn’t recall his name.

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, well, my mind went even blanker than usual, and I couldn’t recall his name.

An ever more frequent occurrence in my experience! 

 

Jim

[drmditch]

20 hours ago, Annie said:

Colburn's original drawing can be found here  on page 174   https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021736437&view=1up&seq=23

 

Unfortunately like many digitalised books not much care was taken to smooth most of the drawings out properly.

 

Is there not a problem also with binding?

One doesn't want to 'force flatten' a book if that would damage it.

 

Any printed works that I have where required drawings cover two pages gets handled carefully, with any measurements 'across a page' taken from quoted figures and then lined up with a reference point on the same side as the page.

 

Also, I am experiencing an increasing problem with my RCTS 'Green Books'. They live in my bedside-reading bookcase, and get taken care of. Even so, one or two of the most used volumes are showing some deterioration of the spines and binding.

 

(The essential reason for them being bedside books is that if afflicted with sleeplessness (an unfortunately increasing problem for me), a slow study of Gateshead/Darlington boiler types and the number of tubes/stay-tubes/flues is interesting without being exiting.)

[Nearholmer]

Are you talking about what I think is called "perfect" binding, which really means stuck together, and to a feeble spine, with a dollop of glue?

 

Not durable at all. To last, books need to be sewn together, and probably ideally printed on vellum, although that might be a bit OTT for the sort of material you mention.

 

[webbcompound]

33 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

To last, books need to be sewn together, and probably ideally printed on vellum, although that might be a bit OTT for the sort of material you mention.

In the post armageddon world of "A Canticle for Liebowitz" technical knowledge is kept alive through the dark ages in monastries where surviving blueprints and circuit diagrams are carefully hand transcribed onto vellum, (with of course the addition of marginalia and illuminated capitals). Wait a few months and we might yet get there.

[Regularity]

16 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

In the post armageddon world of "A Canticle for Liebowitz" technical knowledge is kept alive through the dark ages in monastries where surviving blueprints and circuit diagrams are carefully hand transcribed onto vellum, (with of course the addition of marginalia and illuminated capitals). Wait a few months and we might yet get there.

A superb book.

And a terrifying possibility.

[Annie]

53 minutes ago, webbcompound said:

In the post armageddon world of "A Canticle for Liebowitz" technical knowledge is kept alive through the dark ages in monastries where surviving blueprints and circuit diagrams are carefully hand transcribed onto vellum, (with of course the addition of marginalia and illuminated capitals). Wait a few months and we might yet get there.

I absolutely loved that book,  I must've read it over 25 years ago.  Unfortunately I don't have it anymore.

[drmditch]

On ‎17‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 12:06, Nearholmer said:

Are you talking about what I think is called "perfect" binding, which really means stuck together, and to a feeble spine, with a dollop of glue?

 

Yes, and I never understand why it's called 'perfect'.

[sem34090]

Good Heavens - 5 Days without posts!

 

I would ask about what the world is coming to but I think that would be a fairly redundant question. Anyhow, I came here because short of starting a new thread (which I may do in due course) I felt this was the most appropriate place for my latest ramblings. 

 

I had been planning for my next project to be something completely different to anything I've done before. At the time I began planning it, I was set to be on the Isle of Wight for the 2nd and 3rd of January representing my preservation group, the London Transport Traction Group over what was shaping up to be something of an EMU enthusiasts' convention. We were thinking of arranging with South Western Railway to have a stand at one of the stations on the Island Line to publicise our project to take one of the current ex-LT 1938 Tube trains (483006 in our case) back to the mainland to run off batteries in preservation. I'm sure I must've mentioned it around here before, but I can't remember.

To go on this stand, I decided to take my Pirate Models 1938 Tube Stock Set and set about modifying it into a model of 483006 as she is currently running on the Island. Faced with nowhere to run it I decided that a micro layout based on the premise of Ventnor surviving the final cull of the Island's network was in order, set loosely between 1990 and the present. Given I've never modelled anything post-1960 before this will be quite the change. Anyway, Ventnor has had all the materials purchased for its construction and was all set to materialise at some point... then the tiers started going up in number and the Island plans have all had to be shelved so it is a little bit redundant for the moment. And then my partner and I went shopping. We went to a model shop. And I bought this.

Or at least something rather like it, unpainted, and another larger one also unpainted. Ideal early Christmas present for my partner (not terribly into such things myself). Cut forward a few days and we go to Brighton, and in the toy museum shop I spot one of these for £5, with not a great deal wrong with it:

So of course I bought it, and ordered new motor brackets - It would've been rude not to at that price. But I already have a serviceable Hornby T9. With a wide cab, a 6-wheel tender and the number 312 on it. So, as some of you know, I began contemplating what I might be able to do with it other than simply restore it to running order as a Urie-condition T9. The answer may have revealed itself when we went shopping, again. And we went into another model shop. This time, I bought some platform bits for Ventnor and a couple of Parkside wagon kits. My partner had already bought my Christmas present, but we left the shop with one of these:

It was a rather good price, and I should add that I've been told that it certainly is not mine. This all appears to have combined into a loose idea for a vaguely Scottish-and-Narnia-when-they-first-go-through-the-wardrobe-and-it's-all-wintery*-with-more-than-a-hint-of=fantasy-and-some-steampunk=influences-for-good-measure micro layout using one of the three equally-sized boards I have had built to fit on a shelf in my university accommodation (one being a fiddle yard board, one being for Ventnor and one seemingly being for this project). I therefore now have several questions to put the the parishioners:

1. Any ideas for North British 4-4-0s that this T9 could be loosely bashed into? No need for complete dimensional accuracy, but I'm thinking that it would be good for at least some of the loco fleet on this layout to have a family resemblance. I did some googling and it seems there may be some contenders but I suspect people round here would have more idea than I do.
2. Do I investigate doing Stirling-esque cabs on these or is the NBR C not really the right size to gain one of these?
3. Any ideas for some slightly more... interesting... steampunk-inspired locos? Unlike Hornby, we're definitely going for some degree of elegance I think (I've been told that the C is not to be touched other than maybe the cab conversion, possibly a snowplough and some relatively minor livery alterations because it looks too nice to ruin, and I concur with that) and maybe sticking with something of a shared Drummond influence a Triang 'Nellie', CR 123 or M7 may be good places to start?
4. Any suggestions for combining the fantasy and altogether more realistic elements of this idea together into something that could work as a 3ft 6ins long layout? Ventnor was enough outside my modelling comfort zone for being set in a vaguely modern period - To diverge away from the real world is an altogether new experience for me really so any suggestions would be appreciated. My partner obviously has some but A.) I'm struggling to visualise them currently and B.) I was wondering what the folks of Castle Aching would come up with, if anything.
5. Any ideas of how to incorporate a Castle**, or elements to suggest a Castle** on a 3ft 6ins board?

Apologies for the waffle, but hopefully this is suitably whimsical as to provide a nice distraction from the world that's falling apart around us!

 

*(you can tell how much of the films I watched...)

** Not the GWR variety, or the Highland one for that matter, before somebody tries to be clever...

Edited December 24, 2020 by sem34090

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, sem34090 said:

1. Any ideas for North British 4-4-0s that this T9 could be loosely bashed into? No need for complete dimensional accuracy, but I'm thinking that it would be good for at least some of the loco fleet on this layout to have a family resemblance. I did some googling and it seems there may be some contenders but I suspect people round here would have more idea than I do.

 

Reid's Class J (Scott class) is probably dimensionally nearest, either the original engines of 1909-11 or the superheated engines of 1912-20, but they're not very like your wide-splashered T9 - the narrrow-splashered T9 might be a starting point. It's worth having a look at the Scottish special interest sub-forum; there have been some clever bashes there but leaning more towards Caledonian and Highland prototypes.

 

4 hours ago, sem34090 said:

1. Do I investigate doing Stirling-esque cabs on these or is the NBR C not really the right size to gain one of these?

 

The Hornby model is of Class C as reboilered by Reid from 1913 onwards. The new boilers were larger diameter and I believe higher-pitched than the originals, so no go. Which is a shame because the engines as built were real sweeties.

 

The term you are looking for there is Holmes cab. This is sui generis to Cowlairs and any resemblance to a design of cab originiating at the Kilmarnock drawing office is purely accidental.

 

4 hours ago, sem34090 said:

1. Any ideas of how to incorporate a Castle**, or elements to suggest a Castle** on a 3ft 6ins board?

 

Static model at Gauge 3?

 

Happy Christmas!

[Nearholmer]

5 hours ago, sem34090 said:

elements to suggest a Castle*

An English Heritage sign board, some vague humps and a grassy knoll, three re-enactors running about brandishing swords and shouting, while being filmed by a bloke with a beard.

 

(You may be too young to remember 1960/70s public information films, but there are others here who will)

 

Is Edwardian alright? 
 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

8 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is Edwardian alright? 

It's certainly been a while since we last heard from him.

[Compound2632]

26 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is Edwardian alright? 

 

Last visited RMWeb on Tuesday evening. I think a fellow's allowed to go off for a whole day.

[Nearholmer]

I hadn’t ‘seen’ him for a week or two.

[Caley Jim]

Perhaps a tower house rather than a castle would take up less space and be more appropriate to the Scottish theme?

 

Jim

[ian]

Given the space constraints I'd suggest that the castle should be in the distance on the backscene seen through the trees. This would allow for something that is 'large and imposing' but not overwhelming.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by ian

[sem34090]

That was one of my thoughts, the other being to go to the opposite extreme and use elements of the castle to form a backdrop, possibly with a Conwy/York-inspired arch as the scenic break.

Maybe even hem the station/yard (undecided) area in with castle walls to disguise the small area? A bit like I might do with retaining walls and warehouses on a more conventional micro-layout.

 

More thought required. Of course I mention a Scottish theme, but that's only really been derived from the wintery elements and the fact my partner bought an ex-NBR loco!

 

As for the T9 I may be able to print a new body, or maybe get hold of one of the narrow-cab bodies, to go on the chassis.

 

Any ideas about somewhat more weird and wonderful, but probably still Drummond-influenced, locos that could be built for such a scheme as this?

 

 

[Compound2632]

Perhaps go back upthread and look at Castle Aching itself?

[Northroader]

How did they let you out of Wales, Sem? Smallest bit of castle with a railway connection:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton_Castle

For lo, let us go unto Barney Castle and see this thing which has come to pass:

[Annie]

13 minutes ago, Northroader said:

How did they let you out of Wales, Sem? Smallest bit of castle with a railway connection:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton_Castle

For lo, let us go unto Barney Castle and see this thing which has come to pass:

Gosh that's a bit reduced in its circumstances.

[Northroader]

Off to the Furness Railway, a branch line on a causeway to Roa Island to a really small terminus, with close by a sort of small castle, termed a watch tower and customs post, for a ferry to Piel Island and a proper castle.