Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

13 hours ago, uax6 said:

Can you just say that l was right again please? Being a married man l obviously am not used to being right, and have to bask when l can.....

 

Andy G

 

Marriage, noun, a temporary alliance between natural enemies

 

You are not supposed to be right! It's one of the rules women never tell you about in order that you can be in trouble for not knowing it. 

 

23 minutes ago, Northroader said:

So you’re going to leave your little 2-4-0T as it is, and have a nice little branch line station up in the mountains with Mount  Fuji in the background? I see the trend has already reached Milton Keynes, don’t get left behind.

 

Tempting, but no.

 

I could, instead, join the 3mm society, purchase 14.2mm track components and wheels (near as dammit) and model Japanese 3'6" gauge in 4mm scale!

 

More projects I do not need.

 

Besides, Japanese railways would have to join the 'different gauges' queue behind Brunel, Irish and Indian. 

 

EDIT: Then again

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Edwardian

[Nearholmer]

Japanese model trains are seriously good, especially the pieces of jewellery that they produce in H0e, which is very popular as a ‘craft’ format over there, because layouts can be very small (vanishingly so, in some cases).
 

I really like the way that they import their small/miniature garden and temple traditions into layouts, so that their model landscapes are composed so cleverly, and the way that some modellers tip over into comic-book art and/or machine-anthropomorphism - they do it genuinely artistically, in great contrast to the club kilt formulaic look of much steampunk. Incredibly good craftsmen too, doing things in the 1960s that looked MRJ c2000.

 

Go on; you know you want to!

[Edwardian]

Well, this is as far as I've got.  As the West Norfolk does not name its locomotives, I fear her name must be unofficial, but, given her diminutive size and her Anglo-Japanese genesis, I thought Titwillow.

 

 

[ian]

The tit-willow in questioin was, according to the song, masculine.

 

But it does seem to fit her well. She must be the subject of the unfortunate paramour's blighted affection.

Edited June 13, 2021 by ian

[Northroader]

 

 

Confucius say “seek enlightenment in simplicity”

 

 

[Edwardian]

22 minutes ago, ian said:

The tit-willow in questioin was, according to the song, masculine.

 

But it does seem to fit her well. She must be the subject of the unfortunate paramour's blighted affection.

 

Also, the dates don't work. She is based upon a Vulcan Foundry engine of 1871, though I daresay a similar locomotive could have been built into the 1880s.

 

The Mikado opened in March 1885.

 

This would be another factor militating against an official name*.

 

However, West Norfolk tradition has it that the Vulcan came to the line as a cancelled order from Japan**, and, at some point after the advent of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera, she became affectionately and unofficially known as Titwillow. 

 

* The original Castle Aching & Birchoverhams Railway locomotives, mainly E B Wilson products, were named.  Around the time company adopted the title the West Norfolk Railway, in 1863, the practice ceased.

 

** Though the author has found no evidence of this, and it seems more likely that Vulcan either built to order, or, as no record of such an order is to be found in the West Norfolk papers, built a similar locomotive to that ordered by Japan speculatively, for stock.

[Nearholmer]

45 minutes ago, ian said:

The tit-willow in questioin was, according to the song, masculine.

Surely ‘Tit-Willow’ was the one he was singing about?

 

Anyway, I remember from when our music teacher, Mr W, bouncing around on the balls of his feet, and dressed like an earlier-day Michael Portillo, tried to ram this bit of middlebrow culture into us semi-feral, mostly rural, oiks, that the bird beats its chest. How?! And, has sweat on its brow. Again, how?!

 

8/10 for amusingness. Null point for ornithological exactitude.

 

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Surely ‘Tit-Willow’ was the one he was singing about?

 

Anyway, I remember from when our music teacher, Mr W, bouncing around on the balls of his feet, and dressed like an earlier-day Michael Portillo, tried to ram this bit of mid NLR brow culture into us semi-feral, mostly rural, oiks, that the bird beats its chest. How?! And, has sweat on its brow. Again, how?!

 

8/10 for amusingness. Null point for ornithological exactitude.

 

Good point. I was assuming the bird, like the narrator, was male, but I'm not sure the lyrics say so.  Tut, tut, Edwardian, recklessly gendering fictional fowl!

 

EDIT: No the bird's a 'he'

Edited June 13, 2021 by Edwardian

[Nearholmer]

I’m pretty sure he’s a ‘Tom tit’ (que tittering from boys whose dads use the army slang at home), and I got the impression that ‘titwillow’ was his unrequited love, but maybe I got it wrong.

[Edwardian]

28 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I’m pretty sure he’s a ‘Tom tit’ (que tittering from boys whose dads use the army slang at home), and I got the impression that ‘titwillow’ was his unrequited love, but maybe I got it wrong.

 

Yes, though I do not know that the Tom-tit appellation applies only to the male of such species, it sounds like it ought to. Anyway, the suicidal bird is male. I thought that titwillow was his call and it has never occurred to me that it might have been the name of his beloved.  Mind you, there might not be a difference if you're a bird. 

 

The longer w/b 4' Sharps, as well as like the Vulcan original all had the running plate at full height.  Only the smaller Sharp 4' locos had the buffer beams slightly raised. 

 

With the running plate at the correct height, here is what she looks like with some 1870s-type coaches.  I think the proportions work.

  

 

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Edwardian
spelling!

[ian]

He was indeed a little tom-tit but the precise meaning in English (or Japanese for that matter) is never elucidated and one only has the narrator's conjecture on which to go.

 

Obviously the chest and brow are merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.

Edited June 13, 2021 by ian

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, ian said:

 

Obviously the chest and brow are merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.

 

Is this a time for airy persiflage? 

[Northroader]

Is she Hairy Percy Flage?

[Edwardian]

The last pictures of Titwillow were not of a functioning loco; as predicted, I needed longer screws (now found) and to fit new pick-ups that reach the wheels (now done).

 

So, we now have a fully functioning loco in its new configuration.  What I have not yet done is fit washers as advised (I do not have anything remotely suitable), but I assume that this will improve running further.

 

The pleasurable task of detailing now awaits.

 

 

 

EDIT: A rather pleasanter sound is to be found below: 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Edwardian

[Caley Jim]

10 hours ago, Edwardian said:

You are not supposed to be right! It's one of the rules women never tell you about in order that you can be in trouble for not knowing it. 

Correct!  Even when you are right, you're still wrong!

 

Jim

[Compound2632]

37 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Correct!  Even when you are right, you're still wrong!

 

Smugness is its own reward.

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Correct!  Even when you are right, you're still wrong!

 

Jim

 

Should she ever turn out to be wong that will be your fault anyway.

 

Don

[monkeysarefun]

13 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Japanese model trains are seriously good, especially the pieces of jewellery that they produce in H0e, which is very popular as a ‘craft’ format over there, because layouts can be very small (vanishingly so, in some cases).
 

I really like the way that they import their small/miniature garden and temple traditions into layouts, so that their model landscapes are composed so cleverly, and the way that some modellers tip over into comic-book art and/or machine-anthropomorphism - they do it genuinely artistically, in great contrast to the club kilt formulaic look of much steampunk. Incredibly good craftsmen too, doing things in the 1960s that looked MRJ c2000.

 

Go on; you know you want to!

Up until at least  the early '90's Australian RTR was very limited,  imported Japanese brass models of Australian prototypes helped fill the void, the detail is quite exquisite, this is  HO...

 

 

 

I think Bergs Hobbies  at Parramatta commissioned a Japanese manufacturer to produce them?

 

They were/still are  amazingly exxy though, the unpainted tarnished second hand one below is going for $995 or  550 knickers or whatever you call your currency - I learned my English terms  from old episodes of "Minder"...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, ian said:

He was indeed a little tom-tit but the precise meaning in English (or Japanese for that matter) is never elucidated and one only has the narrator's conjecture on which to go.

 

Obviously the chest and brow are merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.

A bit harsh! It's a deceptively simple tune and a very pretty song (most songs in triple time are, I think. Discuss).

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Correct!  Even when you are right, you're still wrong!

 

Jim

As we all know, there are but two rules:

 

Rule 1: Your other half is always right.

 

Rule 2: If your other half is wrong, see Rule 1.

[Regularity]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

As we all know, there are but two rules:

 

Rule 1: Your other half is always right.

 

Rule 2: If your other half is wrong, see Rule 1.

There is also the fundamental rule for happiness:

 

Rule 0: Accept that you are wrong, but that you don't know why (yet).

[Edwardian]

I may have mentioned before that my apparent ability to win arguments was ascribed to my legal training and was, therefore, an unfair advantage that amounted to cheating, so I was disqualified and, therefore, still wrong.

 

The possibility that I might have won an argument because I was right was never for a moment considered. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by Edwardian

[Edwardian]

Thanks again to Adam88 for the tip.

 

I think this is just the sort of book parishioners would love:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Edward]

15 hours ago, Northroader said:

Is she Hairy Percy Flage?

"In Munchen stadt ein Hofbrauhaus.........." indeed Sir.  As for "suffa" that lot would defeat many a man.

[Martin S-C]

On 02/06/2021 at 10:59, Edwardian said:

This is as good as my sticking bits of plastic together efforts ever got.

 

 

That looks okay. I'm not so sure about the curious articulated chassis system you've mounted it on but the body is fine