Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

“He had been pulling dead vermin from his toilet before falling ill.”

 

I’ll be careful not do do that then.

 

Best leave 'em be.

[Adam88]

Railroad-Mans-Magazine-Jan-1911.pdf

 

Here's another deep rabbit-hole. 

 

Here we have interesting observations on naming Pullmans uniquely when they were churning out over 1000 cars/year; a tale about three boys riding on the pilot of a Boston and Albany express for ninety miles and nearly freezing to death; an American's observations on UK and European railways - quite dismissive in most cases; supplying a bridge to get Kitchener's army cross the Atbara 'to chase the Mahdi out of the Sudan'; a letter discussing the use of Walscheart's valve gear on the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad in 1874; requirements for ever more powerful locomotives, etc, etc.

 

Was there ever a balloon-powered railway in Austria - I find it hard to believe?

 

I imagine that this magazine was sold to travellers to while away the journey, an in-flight magazine of its time but with a rail-focused theme.  It's all quite fascinating.

[Donw]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

“He had been pulling dead vermin from his toilet before falling ill.”

 

I’ll be careful not do do that then.

 

47 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Best leave 'em be.

 

Aye you dont want to mess with the rat catchers mean brutes.

 

Don

[Cunningham Loco & Machine Works]

1 hour ago, Adam88 said:

Railroad-Mans-Magazine-Jan-1911.pdf 8.74 MB · 1 download

 

Here's another deep rabbit-hole. 

 

Here we have interesting observations on naming Pullmans uniquely when they were churning out over 1000 cars/year; a tale about three boys riding on the pilot of a Boston and Albany express for ninety miles and nearly freezing to death; an American's observations on UK and European railways - quite dismissive in most cases; supplying a bridge to get Kitchener's army cross the Atbara 'to chase the Mahdi out of the Sudan'; a letter discussing the use of Walscheart's valve gear on the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad in 1874; requirements for ever more powerful locomotives, etc, etc.

 

Was there ever a balloon-powered railway in Austria - I find it hard to believe?

 

I imagine that this magazine was sold to travellers to while away the journey, an in-flight magazine of its time but with a rail-focused theme.  It's all quite fascinating.

No; I believe that, as evidenced by the title, it was originally intended as entertainment for railway staff, though it subsequently morphed into a magazine of railway-themed fiction, and then, in the 1930s, into something very like our modern "enthusiast" magazines, but with a selection of said railway fiction.  As near as I can ascertain, the magazine had its heyday through the 1950s, declining thereafter until it merged with "Railfan" magazine in the mid 70's.

 

Spoken as someone who, living in America, has more knowledge of this (and an incomplete collection of the magazine from WWII on).

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

12 hours ago, TheQ said:

Should be interesting for the farms an property owners that stradle the border.. there's bound to be some..

 

As I mentioned one of the restrictions is no travelling between suburban municipal areas unless work related. That's sort of ironical in a way for me because my suburb straddles two municipal council areas. And I have to go from the one where I live, which is basically on the border, to the shops which are just a short walk away in the other. This had never struck me during the first restrictions from March to mid-June.   

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

13 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I concur with all the above except the last sentence. I believe that we must plan and proceed on the basis that there never will be an effective vaccine.

 

I tend to agree - these respiratory virus are basically like flu. They just keep mutating as some of the virus population is able to survive a vaccine. It is always on the cards that this will be one of those things where like flu it needs an annual vaccine just to cope. The major problem with it is that its fatality rates and demographics are unpredictable. There appears to be a rise in younger people succumbing whereas when it began it was the elderly who were at most risk (plus of course those with other medical conditions). In the end there are a lot of people who are just going to have to accept that social distancing and avoiding unnecessary contact is going to be with us for a while.

 

However I do note that there can be pluses - one of the most boneheaded national leaders, the President of Brazil, has caught it. Darwinian selection at its finest?    

[TheQ]

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

 

As I mentioned one of the restrictions is no travelling between suburban municipal areas unless work related. That's sort of ironical in a way for me because my suburb straddles two municipal council areas. And I have to go from the one where I live, which is basically on the border, to the shops which are just a short walk away in the other. This had never struck me during the first restrictions from March to mid-June.   

There was a piece on the BBC news this morning about a twin city with the Murray river between forming the state border. 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

14 hours ago, webbcompound said:

 This sale  appears to be a result  of a bidding war between 2***6 and u***c which started when one of them bid £100. Three days, and 40 bids later they had reached £450 at which point r***4, who had started the bidding at £40 and then dropped out jumped back in with 5 seconds to go on the clock and bid £460.  Most of the bidding took place around breakfast time each day, so them being drunk seems unlikely. Perhaps they were teenagers, just about to go to school, with access to dad's ebay account. That still doesn't account for r***4 sniping at the end, unless he had put the wrong settings in his sniping software. All in all a stunning microcosm of human folly.

 

Well I must take care not to be critical - once I typed in a bid of $12.50 for something. It wasn't worth a great deal but it was scarce and a couple of others were bidding against me.

 

Well I thought I'd typed in $12.50. Small error - I'd typed in $1250.00. I only realized after an hour then quickly contacted Ebay and they very kindly deleted the bid. I think it eventually went for around $20.00, however I wasn't going anywhere near it again. 

 

It's easy to do - our club is currently processing the annual membership renewals. Our non-Metropolitan rate is $45.00 and about 6 weeks ago I had a panic stricken phone call from a country member who had done it by bank transfer online and had mistakenly typed in $4500.00. I did offer him unlimited life membership but he wanted his money back  so we refunded the overpayment.  

 

   

Edited July 8, 2020 by Malcolm 0-6-0

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

2 minutes ago, TheQ said:

There was a piece on the BBC news this morning about a twin city with the Murray river between forming the state border. 

 

Yep that's Albury-Wodonga. Albury is in NSW while Wodonga is in Victoria. They're really just one big town.

 

Before the standard gauge connection between Sydney and Melbourne in the 1960s if you went by train you had to change there - not the best in the early hours of the morning or very late at night. NSW is standard gauge, while in Victoria we have the Irish 5 '3" gauge. Now there is a standard gauge connection between the two cities.   

[Edwardian]

6 hours ago, Adam88 said:

Railroad-Mans-Magazine-Jan-1911.pdf 8.74 MB · 5 downloads

 

Here's another deep rabbit-hole. 

 

Here we have interesting observations on naming Pullmans uniquely when they were churning out over 1000 cars/year; a tale about three boys riding on the pilot of a Boston and Albany express for ninety miles and nearly freezing to death; an American's observations on UK and European railways - quite dismissive in most cases; supplying a bridge to get Kitchener's army cross the Atbara 'to chase the Mahdi out of the Sudan'; a letter discussing the use of Walscheart's valve gear on the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad in 1874; requirements for ever more powerful locomotives, etc, etc.

 

Was there ever a balloon-powered railway in Austria - I find it hard to believe?

 

I imagine that this magazine was sold to travellers to while away the journey, an in-flight magazine of its time but with a rail-focused theme.  It's all quite fascinating.

 

Atbara - a significant victory on the way to  Omdurman.  Those squeamish concerning colonial adventures may think in terms of the suppression of a Nineteenth Century ISIS.  Also, of course, the name of a class of of GWR 4-4-0s from the turn of the century.

 

 

Thus, I opened the link to your Railroad Man's Magazine with interest, only to discover that, not for the first time, I was shocked by the relative candour of North Americans, in this case advertising:

 

Sexology (Illustrated) by William H Walling AM MD

 

Really!

 

I mean, really!

 

 

                 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Edwardian

[Nearholmer]

The most similar magazine to that US one that I can think of is La Vie de Rail, which started as an SNCF in-house publication, but has been independent since the early 1950s. Its a mix of railway-specific, general light-chat stuff, and stories, and certainly used to include TV listings, recipes etc, all very much intended for railway workers rather enthusiasts. I checked the website and it claims a circulation of 100 000 per week even now. 

 

Rail Staff News in Britain is a tiny bit similar, but somehow manages to look and feel as if it is still being produced by the British Rail personnel department c1975, even though, from what I can work out, it was actually founded as an independent successor to the BR in-house publication, and isn't a "privatised version" of it. It somehow feels more "corporate" than the French one, a lot of material that is obviously based on press-releases, possibly because the latter is part-owned by railway staff mutual societies. Still has adverts for the same seaside guest houses as it did >40 years ago, though!

 

. 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Nearholmer

[St Enodoc]

19 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I am certain that what I say will never be listened to or acted upon, I feel completely free to spout whatever nonsense enters my head.

Me too. Luckily, as a consultant, I get paid for so doing.

[St Enodoc]

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

 

I tend to agree - these respiratory virus are basically like flu. They just keep mutating as some of the virus population is able to survive a vaccine. It is always on the cards that this will be one of those things where like flu it needs an annual vaccine just to cope. The major problem with it is that its fatality rates and demographics are unpredictable. There appears to be a rise in younger people succumbing whereas when it began it was the elderly who were at most risk (plus of course those with other medical conditions). In the end there are a lot of people who are just going to have to accept that social distancing and avoiding unnecessary contact is going to be with us for a while.

 

However I do note that there can be pluses - one of the most boneheaded national leaders, the President of Brazil, has caught it. Darwinian selection at its finest?    

The reason I mentioned the common cold was because it, unlike the flu, is also a coronavirus. There is no vaccine for the common cold (anyone remember the Common Cold Research Unit on Salisbury Plain - or, even better, did anyone spend a free two-week holiday there?) and my empirical/anecdotal opinion, entirely unsupported by evidence (see above)  is that there won't be one for COVID-19 either.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

The most similar magazine to that US one that I can think of is La Vie de Rail, which started as an SNCF in-house publication, but has been independent since the early 1950s. Its a mix of railway-specific, general light-chat stuff, and stories, and certainly used to include TV listings, recipes etc, all very much intended for railway workers rather enthusiasts. I checked the website and it claims a circulation of 100 000 per week even now. 

 

Rail Staff News in Britain is a tiny bit similar, but somehow manages to look and feel as if it is still being produced by the British Rail personnel department c1975, even though, from what I can work out, it was actually founded as an independent successor to the BR in-house publication, and isn't a "privatised version" of it. It somehow feels more "corporate" than the French one, a lot of material that is obviously based on press-releases, possibly because the latter is part-owned by railway staff mutual societies. Still has adverts for the same seaside guest houses as it did >40 years ago, though!

 

. 

Rail News was never the same after they stopped printing the "Ward on the Line" cartoons.

[Annie]

Here in NZ we've had two cases of citizens returning from overseas 'going over the wall' to escape from quarantine.  They have both been charged and could face either 6 months in jail or a $4000 fine.  One of them was virus positive so I guess down at the courthouse they'll be getting some key throwing practice in so they can throw away the cell door key when they lock him up.

Our Defence Force is now supervising quarantine and they are being totally unsmiling towards anybody who tries to break the rules.  This new lot of returning citizens we've had lately seem to be finding it difficult to get the concept that now they're home they have to obey the rules.

 

In other news two senior members of our Tory party, - one of them an MP, - have just been sacked for passing on private information to the media about those who are presently infected with COVID-19.  After braying for weeks about how they could do a better job than our present government the Tories have suddenly gone silent.

Edited July 8, 2020 by Annie
Inexcusable error in the use of the English language.

[Edwardian]

6 minutes ago, Annie said:

Here in NZ we've had two cases of citizens returning from overseas 'going over the wall' to escape from quarantine.  They have both been charged and could face either 6 months in jail or a $4000 fine.  One of them was virus positive so I guess down at the courthouse they'll be getting some key throwing practice in so they can throw away the cell door key when they lock him up.

Our Defense Force is now supervising quarantine and they are being totally unsmiling towards anybody who tries to break the rules.  This new lot of returning citizens we've had lately seem to be finding it difficult to get the concept that now they're home they have to obey the rules.

 

In other news two senior members of our Tory party, - one of them an MP, - have just been sacked for passing on private information to the media about those who are presently infected with COVID-19.  After braying for weeks about how they could do a better job than our present government the Tories have suddenly gone silent.

 

Please tell me it's still the Defence Force.

 

Can't have all English spelling going seppo.

[Regularity]

9 minutes ago, Annie said:

After braying for weeks about how they could do a better job than our present government the Tories have suddenly gone silent.

You are lucky.

The Tories are our present government, and it wouldn’t be difficult to do a better job.

And they aren’t silent.

[Annie]

4 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Please tell me it's still the Defence Force.

 

Can't have all English spelling going seppo.

My ability to recognise bad spelling goes out the window when I'm sleepy James.  It is still the Defence Force.

 

http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/

Edited July 8, 2020 by Annie
fumble brain

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Regularity said:

You are lucky.

The Tories are our present government, and it wouldn’t be difficult to do a better job.

And they aren’t silent.

 

If one is pathologically incapable of apology, at least more circumspection on the subject of Care Homes would seem appropriate.

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Annie said:

My ability to recognise bad spelling goes out the window when I'm sleepy James.  It is still the Defence Force.

 

Apologies and thank goodness for that.  I feared that, at some point between 1909 and the present, the Websterists had got at them! 

[runs as required]

10 hours ago, Cunningham Loco & Machine Works said:

Spoken as someone who, living in America, has more knowledge of this (and an incomplete collection of the magazine from WWII on).

Thank you, I enjoyed that signing off explanation.

I have somewhere a few copies of my wife’s stepfather’s LMS magazine from the late 1930s. He went straight From school in Peak Forest into Peak Forest Box on the Derby-Manchester mainline at 15/16 and worked there right through the war until he retired in the 1970s.

The LMS magazine looked very low cost Art Deco In presentation with stylised ink drawings of stripey streamlined trains.

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Luckily, as a consultant, I get paid for so doing.

 

That really made me chuckle, given that I'm in a similar situation on a part-time basis now. 

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

anyone remember the Common Cold Research Unit on Salisbury Plain

 

My working assumption has always been that that was actually Porton Down trying to learn from the common cold in order to weaponise it, but I'm no more than a conspiracy theorist in-the-making.

 

BTW, Porton Down had a very nice 2ft gauge light railway linking it to the main line in its earlier years.

[Hroth]

12 hours ago, Adam88 said:

Railroad-Mans-Magazine-Jan-1911.pdf 8.74 MB · 14 downloads

 

Here's another deep rabbit-hole. 

 

Here we have interesting observations on naming Pullmans uniquely when they were churning out over 1000 cars/year; a tale about three boys riding on the pilot of a Boston and Albany express for ninety miles and nearly freezing to death; an American's observations on UK and European railways - quite dismissive in most cases; supplying a bridge to get Kitchener's army cross the Atbara 'to chase the Mahdi out of the Sudan'; a letter discussing the use of Walscheart's valve gear on the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad in 1874; requirements for ever more powerful locomotives, etc, etc.

 

Was there ever a balloon-powered railway in Austria - I find it hard to believe?

 

I imagine that this magazine was sold to travellers to while away the journey, an in-flight magazine of its time but with a rail-focused theme.  It's all quite fascinating.

 

The European Railways Horror Stories was a particularly good read!

Very Trumpist in approach......

 

15 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

For Sydneysiders, this pestilence kerfuffle is   all just so  very 1900..

 

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/bubonic-plague-sydney-how-a-city-survived-the-black-death-in-1900/news-story/f36b9184eba49c72ae9791c574f7b826

 

Ah, 1900 - when our rat-catchers dressed better than  todays public figures and PPE was not a thing because we had that Fishers Phospherine stuff from a few pages ago..

 

 

 

 

Whats for tea tonight, mum?

 

 

[wagonman]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

 

BTW, Porton Down had a very nice 2ft gauge light railway linking it to the main line in its earlier years.

 

I remember as a spotty erk cycling to Porton station in 1956 and taking some (long lost) photos on my Brownie 127. No trains, just the track in the goods yard.