Castle Aching

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

9 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Spiders in cars .... 

 

In the Caribbean where I lived, there was nothing that could actually kill you, but a few things that could seriously ruin your day.

 

Tarantulas I had a great affection for.  They used to live in holes in the bank at the back of the house. In the day you'd just see their legs at the mouth of the holes; like most UK spiders, they come out to hunt at night.  They are rather shy and retiring, not the slightest bit aggressive to humans, and you'd have to work really quite hard to get bitten by one.

 

There were some long-legged bright orange b8ggers, though, that were really territorial and aggressive and they were bl00dy fast. leaping in great bounds right at you. They scared the bejeezus out of me.

 

One day, while driving so Ford SIV (which handled on the hairpin mountain roads like an ocean liner handles on hairpin mountain roads) when one of these orange b*ggers shot at high velocity out of the blower and pinged around the car.

 

How I didn't crash, I'll never know, but we've never exited a car faster than we did that day! 

 

Reminds me of one day when I was doing archaeological surveys out the back of beyond. It was late in the year and the local grasshoppers were all hatching. These are really big, not your average garden variety. My driver/field hand was fresh out jail and covered in prison tats. Actually not a bad bloke, just trying to go straight.

 

Anyway we're belting down this very rough track when all of a sudden he takes both hands of the wheel and starts slapping himself and screaming "get it off me get it off me!!!". The 'it' was one of these huge grasshoppers which had flown in the window. I had three choices, grab the wheel, fall about laughing or try and locate the grass hopper. So I grabbed the wheel while this great tough looking ex con frantically finds the offending bug. Turns out he was afraid of grass hoppers. 

 

The other big spider I like are the Golden Orb spiders. Another harmless breed but with their colouring and size quite dangerous looking. They used to create these vast webs in the scrub and sit right in the middle waiting for dinner. The web itself is very strong and when you walk into one it's a hell of an effort to get it off, let alone worry about where the owner has scuttled off to. 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

Just to add to the previous mention of Golden Orb Spiders, this is one -

 

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

Remakes ......

 

Apropos Mad Max, I imagine it would be rather hard for Ms Theron to out-do Tina Turner in chainmail. 

 

Apropos The Railway Children, there was a 2000 version in which I believe JA played the mother.  Judging from the train in shot, I'd guess this one was filmed on the Bluebell.

 

 

Apparently I had family members as extras in the original, filmed on the K&WVR, but all those who could point them out with any certitude have long-since joined with them in the choir immortal (or whatever Methodists have). 

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Judging from the train in shot, I'd guess this one was filmed on the Bluebell.

 

SECR locomotive livery and Metropolitan teak can pass for MS&L / GC!

[Regularity]

6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

SECR locomotive livery and Metropolitan teak can pass for MS&L / GC!

Something to do with Sam Fay...

[James Harrison]

51 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Something to do with Sam Fay...

I think you mean Edward Watkin.

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

I think you mean Edward Watkin.

 

In that he had more than a finger in all those pies? (Well, SER not SECR.) 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Compound2632

[James Harrison]

Well, those three and more.  I think it would be quicker to list the railways he wasn't involved with in some way or another. 

[Compound2632]

4 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

Well, those three and more.  I think it would be quicker to list the railways he wasn't involved with in some way or another. 

 

Midland (and surrogates thereof).

[Regularity]

28 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

I think you mean Edward Watkin.

Thank you, I did mean him, the arch-nemesis of James Staats Forbes.

25 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

In that he had more than a finger in all those pies? (Well, SER not SECR.) 

I think it more a case of him wanting them all in the same pie!

 

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Regularity said:

Thank you, I did mean him, the arch-nemesis of James Staats Forbes.

 

I rather think it was the other way round, since Forbes outlived him. Though I think there's some circumstantial evidence that Forbes was a running dog for Derby. It's unclear to me exactly how Forbes got to be so very wealthy on the back of the LCDR. When he died, his executors sold his art collection off over several years, to avoid depressing the market. 

[Edwardian]

34 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

I think you mean Edward Watkin.

 

The "Old Gentleman"

 

In 1970, this was William Mervyn (who, of course, played the Bishop in All Gas & Gaiters) .....

 

 

 

.... and in 2000 by Dicky Attenborough.

 

[Compound2632]

As I recall the Marple excursion, the suggested prototype for the Old Gentleman was Edward Ross, the long-serving Secretary of the MSLR, who lived at Beechwood Manor, adjacent to Marple station.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Compound2632

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

It's unclear to me exactly how Forbes got to be so very wealthy on the back of the LCDR.

He took that role instead of becoming General Manager of the GWR!

Also had some connections with the Rhenish Railway in the Netherlands.

Maybe the family already had some money, and/or he had a very good eye for art?

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Regularity said:

he had a very good eye for art?

 

He certainly did. His collection included a number of Whistlers. 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

He certainly did. His collection included a number of Whistlers. 

 

He collected canaries? 

[Compound2632]

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

 

He collected canaries? 

 

Blue and Silver: Boat Entering Pourville

Blue and Silver: Trouville

The Girl in Red 

Grey and Brown: The Sad Sea Shore

Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville

 Violet and Blue: The Red Feather

The Widow

 

Also Corot, e.g. Avignon from the West, and other members of the Barbizon school. His nephew, Stanhope Forbes, was a founding member of the Newlyn school. Stanhope's elder brother William had a career in management on the LCDR before becoming general manager of the LBSCR in 1899 up to the grouping.

 

But it's his patronage of Whistler that adds to my suspicion that James Staats Forbes was a Midland running dog. Whistler's paintings provoked some violently-worded criticism from Ruskin, resulting in a celebrated libel trial; the Midland had form in riling Ruskin, with the Rowsley and Buxton line. 

 

Is there any evidence for Watkin collecting Pre-Raphaelite paintings, thereby putting him in the Ruskin camp?

Edited May 8, 2021 by Compound2632

[Hroth]

8 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

He certainly did. His collection included a number of Whistlers. 

 

A bit advanced for the times?

 

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

He certainly did. His collection included a number of Whistlers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPoBhiMkgs

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35RE31piSZY&list=OLAK5uy_nGk4M61mLB2WWid_eHqZZE2SlDPTOGjOs&index=1

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by St Enodoc

[Hroth]

51 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPoBhiMkgs

 

 

A very rare bird!

 

[rocor]

12 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

He certainly did. His collection included a number of Whistlers. 

 

So did his railways (Ba dum tss!).

[Regularity]

18 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

His collection included a number of Whistlers. 

Have a fond spot for the class 40 as well...

[Guy Rixon]

On 07/05/2021 at 17:49, Compound2632 said:

 

I rather think it was the other way round, since Forbes outlived him. Though I think there's some circumstantial evidence that Forbes was a running dog for Derby. It's unclear to me exactly how Forbes got to be so very wealthy on the back of the LCDR. When he died, his executors sold his art collection off over several years, to avoid depressing the market. 

The profits of the LCDR in the early days all went to the contractors who built the line. Did Mr. Forbes hold a stake in those companies?

[Compound2632]

49 minutes ago, Guy Rixon said:

The profits of the LCDR in the early days all went to the contractors who built the line. Did Mr. Forbes hold a stake in those companies?

 

Wikipedia says:

 

"in 1840 was taken on as a draughtsman in the office of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, at that time chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. In 1841 Forbes joined the Great Western as a clerk, and in a short time rose to goods manager. In 1857 Forbes went to the Netherlands to join the Dutch–Rhenish Railway, where he soon became general manager. He was offered the position of general manager of the Great Western, but instead took over the failing London, Chatham and Dover Railway, then in receivership, where he was general manager and, from 1873, also chairman" until 1899.

[Edwardian]

Some modelling ....

 

Here are my GER D16s thus far. ... the braked side is shown.

  

 

This is Holden's first 15'6" high-sided (5-plank) general merchandise open for the GE, built from 1885 or 1887 to 1893, after which 5-planks had rather Great Western steel channel u/fs with a 9' w/b (Dia.17).  The Dia.16 uses the same 9'6" wooden u/f as Worsdell's pre-diagram 4-plank, with which it also shares the principal body dimensions.  

 

The total number of Dia.16 is given variously as 3640 or 3740; 3,000 examples were still in revenue-earning service at Grouping.  For prototype detail, see the excellent Basilica Fields blog.

 

 

Only one model is the Hen's Teeth D&S kit. 

 

The others are based on 3D bodies and u/f components printed, once upon a time, by Coastline Models (Shapeways). Of these, the two primed ones have now had the buffers I first used replaced by some longer ones, closer to GE pattern.  These are 51L-Wizard NE buffers.  I have also now added safety loops to the brakes.

 

The un-primed example I've just finished putting together.  I managed to find the bits I needed to complete a third by cutting off the axleboxes on my remaining Coastline u/f (I think the they were GN axleboxes) and replacing them.  This involved using etched W irons, in this case from the 51L-Wizard  pre-Grouping set.  The door stops and safety loops are from scrap styrene.