Castle Aching

[Edwardian 35,958]

As we know, railway companies would maintain their own poster boards at locations on other railways.  I posit this is where another company could offer a railway's passengers a useful onward connection and that the practice was less likely in the case of competing routes.

 

The West Norfolk would probably feature posters advertising other railways, each on their own company poster boards, for the Great Eastern, Midland and Great Northern (including joint ECML posters) at least. 

 

For its own timetables, posters and notices, I need WNR boards, and I am in the process of arranging this with Sankey Scenics.

 

If you have a station that might host a WNR board and WNR poster, please let me know via PM if you are interested in a pack and I will order a quantity to include one for you.

 

 

[Annie 11,660]

My stations will definitely have West Norfolk boards James, but it would be difficult to glue them onto a digital station.  At least I will be supporting you in spirit even if I won't be buying one of the packs

Edited July 31 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Hroth 10,134]

If you need cheering up around lunchtime today...

 

 

13:30 on BBC2

 

 

[ChrisN 4,415]

I am trying to think why a station in mid-Wales would have a West Norfolk advertisement, unless it was an exchange for a Cambrian one.  (A very long way though.)  The mailted barley for the brewery comes from that part of the world so perhaps.

[Nearholmer 27,379]

Did they pay one another for advertising space, or work on an exchange basis? I’m tempted to think the latter, but somebody must have studied the subject to PhD level.

[nick_bastable 2,119]

Mr Mayor given her obvious interest in vintage railways perhaps she could be invited to open the NG line ?

 

 

 

Nick B 

[Donw 13,656]

I am minded that while the major railways would have a department to deal with posters small railways might well have used an agent. Such an agent would be pointing out that taking some poster boards from his other clients would reduce the overall cost of getting poster boards of their own erected.  Indeed the agent might well rent poster board space from all sorts of railways which he would then rent out to other railways. It might also be the answer to how those posters got updated he may have had employees who would go to a station and replace posters on a number of boards for several companies on the same trip.

Otherwise I cannot think it would pay the WNR to send employees all over the place. To Norwich and Kings Lynn yes but to Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham etc. where there may only be one board at the place.

I suppose alternatively posters could be sent to stations for the local staff to post on their board. Would it be done timely?

 

Don

 

ps I would like one or two posters 0 gauge size but would they need to go on a WNR board?

 

 

[joppyuk1 142]

On 31/07/2020 at 02:05, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

On the subject of battleship history, I suggest this -

 

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22817327182&searchurl=an%3Doscar%2Bparkes%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3Dbritish%2Bbattleships&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2

Or, to go strictly Victorian, try - The Black Battlefleet, by Admiral J.G.Ballard.

[webbcompound 1,444]

20 minutes ago, Donw said:

I suppose alternatively posters could be sent to stations for the local staff to post on their board. Would it be done timely?

i have a recollection that a cache of various quite old posters was found in a station attic/cupboard/mystical wardrobe or something somwhere or other (note use of accurate research referencing here). That would imply that the posters were posted to station masters, and that what was put up depended on the whim, chracter, or interest of the official involved.

 

If they had been put up by roving agents you would think such a person woukld have appeared in popular fiction of the railway/detective/romantic sort, as featured on station bookstalls in yellow paper covers

Edited August 1 by webbcompound

[webbcompound 1,444]

9 minutes ago, joppyuk1 said:

Or, to go strictly Victorian, try - The Black Battlefleet, by Admiral J.G.Ballard.

A Victorian fleet magically disappears and resurfaces in a drowned future version of London in this tome I imagine. Or do you mean Admiral G.A. Ballard?

 

Edited August 1 by webbcompound

[Nearholmer 27,379]

26 minutes ago, nick_bastable said:

perhaps she could be invited to open the NG line

 

Ah, but in the tradition of her TV programmes, the event would then very likely become about her, and her love of dressing-up, more than the opening of the railway.

[Compound2632 23,743]

17 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

the event would then very likely become about her, and her love of dressing-up

 

That's not in itself such a bad thing and is what makes her programmes so watchable.

[jcredfer 4,110]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Ah, but in the tradition of her TV programmes, the event would then very likely become about her, and her love of dressing-up, more than the opening of the railway.

 

Really?  Just who might such a facile tradition be based around?

 

Julian

 

[brianusa 12,193]

She can do no wrong!

     Brian.

[Edwardian 35,958]

On 30/07/2020 at 20:28, Hroth said:

 

Does it list the ironclad torpedo ram "HMS Thunder Child"?

 

And, more to the point, given this interest in Victorian Naval Adventurism, is the WNR going to serve a small (yet perfectly formed) East Coast Naval Base, lost down the ever present fold in the map, or chart since we're talking about tarry seafolk?

 

 

Good to see you back at the helm. Things have been odd in these parts while you were absent on AP caring duty....

 

 

The Navy Lark ...

 

I confess I saw no application to CA in a study of the Victorian Navy.  You've got me thinking, though ....

 

I started off last year with the Osprey volume on the Black Battle Fleet, by way of introduction, and ever since have been toying with graduating to the Friedman volumes, the first of which I am steadily ploughing through at a rate of knots that would not embarrass a Victorian steam frigate (though will I also lack endurance under steam?).

 

The Victorian Navy saw such rapid change - technological change in hull construction and armour, boilers and engines, and ordnance, and evolving tactical and strategic considerations - that ships became obsolete long before they became worn out.  I'm reading the Cruisers volume at the moment and it seems that if a ship remained in commission for 15 years, it was doing pretty well.

 

The classic look that I love for the late Victorian Navy - black hulls, white super-structure and buff funnels - had gone to be replaced by all-over grey in 1904. Further, 1905 is the last pre-Dreadnought year.  There followed the fleet that Jacky Fisher built and the extinction of Victorian ships of the smaller classes was accelerated by Fisher's 1905 cull of all ships 'too small either to fight or run away'. Of course, such ships had always been key in 'showing the flag' to maintain order on the sea in far-flung places where a battleship was not normally needed, but the Navy baulked at the cost of maintaining them, rather thinking that the Foreign Office ought to do so (which, of course, it never did).  

 

I quite like this, though, HMS Bellona (1890).  She was withdrawn in 1906, but spent most of 1899-1905 in the Fishery Protection Squadron.  The focus was protecting the Newfoundland fisheries from the Americans and the French, but I can imagine her patrolling home waters in 1905, albeit reduced to boring grey.

 

   

 

 

[Edwardian 35,958]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

The Navy Lark ...

 

I confess I saw no application to CA in a study of the Victorian Navy.  You've got me thinking, though ....

 

I started off last year with the Osprey volume on the Black Battle Fleet, by way of introduction, and ever since have been toying with graduating to the Friedman volumes, the first of which I am steadily ploughing through at a rate of knots that would not embarrass a Victorian steam frigate (though will I also lack endurance under steam?).

 

The Victorian Navy saw such rapid change - technological change in hull construction and armour, boilers and engines, and ordnance, and evolving tactical and strategic considerations - that ships became obsolete long before they became worn out.  I'm reading the Cruisers volume at the moment and it seems that if a ship remained in commission for 15 years, it was doing pretty well.

 

The classic look that I love for the late Victorian Navy - black hulls, white super-structure and buff funnels - had gone to be replaced by all-over grey in 1904. Further, 1905 is the last pre-Dreadnought year.  There followed the fleet that Jacky Fisher built and the extinction of Victorian ships of the smaller classes was accelerated by Fisher's 1905 cull of all ships 'too small either to fight or run away'. Of course, such ships had always been key in 'showing the flag' to maintain order on the sea in far-flung places where a battleship was not normally needed, but the Navy baulked at the cost of maintaining them, rather thinking that the Foreign Office ought to do so (which, of course, it never did).  

 

I quite like this, though, HMS Bellona (1890).  She was withdrawn in 1906, but spent most of 1899-1905 in the Fishery Protection Squadron.  The focus was protecting the Newfoundland fisheries from the Americans and the French, but I can imagine her patrolling home waters in 1905, albeit reduced to boring grey.

 

   

 

 

 

Royal Navy Fishery Protection off the East coast in 1905 ....

 

I rather thought I'd set things up for a cruising presence in the wake of the The Dogger Bank Incident, but, surprisingly, no one else has chipped in with it, so I thought I'd mention it!

 

 

 

Apart from anything else, the farcical performance of the Comic-Opera Russian fleet during the "incident" shows exactly why it was subsequently annihilated by the Japanese (doubtless in their Tyne-built Armstrong ships).

 

Bringing us back to the Victorian Navy. While an occasional threat to be countered arose every time the US built fast, commerce-raider frigates, the chief concern throughout the Nineteenth Century was French and Russian aggression in concert, leading the British to attempt to maintain naval dominance over the combined Franco-Russian fleet strength.  Judging by the performance of the Russian fleet when it finally encountered another modern navy in 1904-1905, British navy planners needn't have worried!

 

See also British Sea Fishing 

 

Any how, I can see a case for increased RN Fishery Protection patrols in the North sea and off the east coast in 1905, if only to reassure the public!

 

So, the RN may yet touch upon the world of Castle Aching.

[Nearholmer 27,379]

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

Anyway, something that you might wish to include on the layout is a very large eagle.

 

On Thursday, early evening, we were driving along a straight road near Grimston and up a head I could see a great botheration of rooks circulating around around a clump of large trees. As we came under the trees, about 100m ahead of us and about 50m up a bl00dy enormous eagle with a white tail crossed left to right. It was big enough to look about the size of a man with wings.

 

Having Googled since, it appears that I probably wasn’t hallucinating ...... such birds do visit Norfolk.

 

 

[Northroader 11,219]

Yes, there was a film about it wasn’t there?

[Edwardian 35,958]

54 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

Anything is possible!

 

54 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

I could see a great botheration of rooks circulating around around a clump of large trees.

 

While 'parliament' seems to be the most common collective noun applied to rooks (a building and a clamor receive honourable mentions), it was clearly a botheration in the circumstances you describe!

 

Since you've circumvented parliament, I offer a collective noun for special advisers; a sinister of special advisers. 

 

54 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

As we came under the trees, about 100m ahead of us and about 50m up a bl00dy enormous eagle with a white tail crossed left to right. It was big enough to look about the size of a man with wings.

 

Having Googled since, it appears that I probably wasn’t hallucinating ...... such birds do visit Norfolk.

 

 

 

Pretty impressive.

 

I'm bound to echo Northroader and ask if it laneded!

[Hroth 10,134]

Just now, Northroader said:

Yes, there was a film about it wasn’t there?

 

By Jove, Carruthers!  Thats a biggun!!!

 

(but not much of a catch to be recommended by the Express...)

[Hroth 10,134]

1 minute ago, Edwardian said:

Since you've circumvented parliament, I offer a collective noun for special advisers; a sinister of special advisers. 

 

How about a Slime or Slough of special advisers.

 

Or perhaps a Blindness thereof?

 

[Nearholmer 27,379]

Its quite a good "long, boring train ride" book, but I've never seen the film, the cast of which seems to have included St JA and Larry Hagman, which seems a really strange combination.

[RedGemAlchemist 4,456]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

Anyway, something that you might wish to include on the layout is a very large eagle.

 

On Thursday, early evening, we were driving along a straight road near Grimston and up a head I could see a great botheration of rooks circulating around around a clump of large trees. As we came under the trees, about 100m ahead of us and about 50m up a bl00dy enormous eagle with a white tail crossed left to right. It was big enough to look about the size of a man with wings.

 

Having Googled since, it appears that I probably wasn’t hallucinating ...... such birds do visit Norfolk.

Cool. Didn't realise white-tailed eagles had returned to this area. I'll have to tell my family's resident twitcher (aka my Nan).

[Hroth 10,134]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

It would have been nice, but the K class steam submarines were 1913 era devices, though the Holland class subs were active in the early 1900s and were actually deployed to deal with the Russian Fishing Boat Sinking Fleet in 1904 but withdrawn before making an attack on the Russkies.

 

Holland class submarines  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Holland_1

 

K class submarines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_K-class_submarine

 

The Ks were intended to be Fleet submarines and intended to be able to keep up with Dreadnaughts and Battlecruisers...  Their main drawback was the time taken to shut down the boilers and strike the funnels before diving!

 

It would be interesting for the WNR to serve a base specialising in dodgy early submarines and fishery protection vessels...

[Schooner 629]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

The Victorian Navy saw such rapid change - technological change in hull construction and armour, boilers and engines, and ordnance, and evolving tactical and strategic considerations - that ships became obsolete long before they became worn out.  I'm reading the Cruisers volume at the moment and it seems that if a ship remained in commission for 15 years, it was doing pretty well.

 

Something I thought I had a fair handle on, but underwent something of an epiphany when introduced to Rule the Waves. Not that any of us need another time-sink, and I appreciate it's not a core interest for parishoners, but I can wholeheartedly endorse the favourable review, linked. The successor is just as brilliant, if even more complex.

 

Fascinating subject, I wish you joy of your studies