Castle Aching

[drmditch]

I agree about spending too much time on-line.

I've had a low spell as well, but making progress now.

Little tasks, one-at-a time.

Currently improving a junction which was first laid about 1985.

 

Your railway(s) is(are) your railway(s).

Progress is to suit you.

[Regularity]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

If you go the Queensland option you do get to spend 2 weeks in quarantine watching Big Brother Australia though.

Who says that Australia (or at least, Queensland) isn't still a penal colony?

[St Enodoc]

15 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Who says that Australia (or at least, Queensland) isn't still a penal colony?

Well, we're not allowed to go anywhere else (except New Zealand, which doesn't count) at the moment, so in practical terms it is.

[Annie]

We don't want anyone to come here.  This latest opening borders malaky and creating a 'safe' travel corridor with Australia will all end in tears.  We've already had someone lie their face off about where they've been and stroll on in, and if it happened once it will happen again.

 

 

[CKPR]

17 hours ago, CKPR said:

must assume that you are unacquainted with the sheets of etched brass formerly sold as 'kits' by Jidenco...

To be fair, it is possible to make a passable model from the etched brass supplied by Jidenco - I bought three  of their 'kits' (LNWR chemical pan wagon, APOC twin tank wagon and LNWR 'combination' van) from W&H Models when they were selling them off at three for £10 in the late 1980s. Two were eventually sold on but the bodywork of the LNWR van formed the basis for a rather nice semi-scratchbuilt NPCS vehicle . I would like to think that such a vehicle might have made its way to the WNR via Cambridge, possibly conveying a new fangled motor auto-car from Coventry  but this one is permanently on milk duties on the CK&PR itself (return instructions not withstanding !).

Edited April 29, 2021 by CKPR

[Donw]

James do you recognise that like many of us you are somewhat of a butterfly  flitting from one idea to another. WNR one moment SE&CR another this is good because you are passionate about all these. However it can slow progress on any one thing. The Rev Denny built a magnificent layout but he did stick to the basic idea. Personally I work in 0 gauge 2mm and 16mm. I have been develving into DCC and writing software so there is less to show of any one thing. Not to mention other things like a large garden massive DIY projects and now problems with Arthritis which curtail the time for modelling.

 

Don 

[CKPR]

6 hours ago, Edwardian said:

The Agony and the Lethargy ....

 

I don't know what's wrong with me these days, but I seem to be perpetually on the Brink of Despair and it takes almost nothing to tip me over the edge.

 

Recently I received a kind and flattering invitation to contribute to a modelling showcase being organised by a line society. I do struggle for motivation, and I welcomed the kind invitation to contribute as a way to get my modelling back on track.  Last night I learnt that there is a cut-off for contributions of 30 May. None of my chaotic modelling is complete enough for display and it is most unlikely that anything would be ready by the end of next month. I have to take advantage of the lifting of lock-down restrictions in the second half of May to spend time with my parents, so I will have even less time for modelling than usual. So, the timing just doesn't work for me.  Even if I do have something, it will be too paltry to represent a significant body of work worthy of display.  So, I've had to tell them to count me out. 

 

This lack of a commitment to work to now completely robs me of all motivation and now I just don't feel like doing anything. I really have to be realistic about my failure to achieve anything tangible after five years and, again, want nothing more than to sack the whole sorry business! A ridiculous see-sawing from hope to despair, I know that, but I cannot seem to help it. The prospect of further modelling is now ashes in my mouth. What's WRONG with me?!?

 

Sorry. Rant over. 

 

Thanks and best wishes to all of your.

 

 

 

 

 

I've always had another hobby on the go and my focus has alternated over the years between model railways and tinkering with analogue hi-fi equipment, rebuilding vintage amplifiers, turntables and loudspeakers. Even another form of modelling (I like early pre-WWII AFVs and have been known to paint the occasional model soldier, etc ) can be good and it certainly saves on tools, etc ! The reason I'm posting this is that we can all get fed up of model railways and having another interest that one can pick up and put down again seems to help to rekindle the old model railway enthusiasm.

 

Edited April 29, 2021 by CKPR

[Schooner]

Apparently there's a 'delete entire post' on my phone. Good to know. Nicely complements the auto-incorrect...

 

Anyway, I just wanted to mention the research you a) do and b) share. Of immense to help to commercial projects and RMWebbers alike. Certainly I've benefitted greatly from your help. 

 

There's also the curation of the Parish, and all that goes with it. A cursory glance at this thread shows it to be a rip-roaring success (no mean achievement given the rather niche premise). Add to that the frequent interactions with other threads and projects, all to their benefit and your credit. 

 

...and then there's the smile-inducing modelling, with which recent videos prove remarkable progress. Okay, so it doesn't fulfil the one criterion that matters to you at the moment, but "nothing tangible"? I think not.

 

Keep up the sterling efforts, across the board, and thank you.

 

Schooner

 

Ps. And if you don't fancy doing something, then fk it, go and do something else! Enjoy Didcot

[Northroader]

Sit down and I’ll tell you a story. This morning I decided to take my life in my hands and venture into Swindon for the first time in eighteen months. Drive in, the road layout has been changed and the car park I was going to is now permanently closed. (Just as well, it’s more of an alky’s home than a car park) Finally reach the model shop, in I go with me mask on, and find the Humbrol paint rack. Two shades I want missing, match up one alternative. “Where do you put the Plastikard now?” “All we got is there” -about five thin sheets. “Well, I’m running stock down, I’m retiring in two months, as I’m 69, and Bob (his assistant) is coming as well, as he’s 75” “Oh, no rail joiners?” “Peco get all their nickel silver from the continent, the lorry drivers are three days waiting to make up a load, so they’ve stopped getting it” “How about Mekpak?” “Right out” So out I come with four tins of paint.

Right now, I’m considering taking up moggy ranching.

p.s.heres a Bridge Base for Stephen.

[Compound2632]

20 minutes ago, Northroader said:

p.s.heres a Bridge Base for Stephen.

 

 

A very fine one. North country, was my first thought, but maybe a bit too much moss for that - somewhere milder? Single line, I'm sure.

 

Note the pairs of hole in the capstones of the retaining wall on the left. To do with gripping the stones as they were lifted into place, I think.

[Northroader]

Caption says Railway to a quarry on Dartmoor. So well done for deciding it’s too lush for the North.

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, CKPR said:

To be fair, it is possible to make a passable model from the etched brass supplied by Jidenco

I think the key to success is encapsulated there: if you treat them as parts towards making a model, rather than as a kit which easily assembles into a finished model (which is my definition of a kit - anything less is just a starting point!) then you may make a good model from their etchings.

Mind you, some of the parts are so far from being dimensionally accurate, that they go straight in the bin...

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

Sit down and I’ll tell you a story. This morning I decided to take my life in my hands and venture into Swindon for the first time in eighteen months. Drive in, the road layout has been changed and the car park I was going to is now permanently closed. (Just as well, it’s more of an alky’s home than a car park) Finally reach the model shop, in I go with me mask on, ....

You're lucky to have a model shop within easy distance!  my nearest one is Harburn Hobbies in Leith Walk, Edinburgh.  An hour's bus journey (wouldn't even consider taking the car into central Edinburgh as I'd need to see the bank manager first for the parking) then another 15minute walk from the bus station.  Probably have to wait an hour= for the next bus back!

 

Jim

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Note the pairs of hole in the capstones of the retaining wall on the left. To do with gripping the stones as they were lifted into place, I think.

The holes for gripping the stones were more often on opposite sides as they were lifted with a 'sugar tongs' type device.  Did it have railings down it at one time?

 

Jim

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

The holes for gripping the stones were more often on opposite sides as they were lifted with a 'sugar tongs' type device.  Did it have railings down it at one time?

 

That was bugging me but the holes don't look regular or aligned enough for a railing and what purpose would a railing serve in that location? But a bit of googling suggests that the masons may have been a lewis (or pair thereof) of the split pin or St Peter's keys* type - the sugar tongs type being an external lewis. 

 

*Tu est Petrus etc. 

[Donw]

I wonder if that is part of the Lee Moor Tramway

 

Don

[Nick Holliday]

Could those cap stones be re-cycled stone sleepers, the holes being for the spikes holding the rails?

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Nick Holliday said:

Could those cap stones be re-cycled stone sleepers, the holes being for the spikes holding the rails?

 

I read that the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway was originally (1823) laid on stone blocks, though there's no statement as to what was used on the Lee Moor extension, opened in 1855. That bridge has much more of a look of the early 1850s than the early 1820s about it, to me. So I suppos it's a possibility, though it seems unlikely: the rest of the stone for the bridge would have been quarried locally, so why carry these blocks up the hill? They also look to me to be the wrong shape (curved top) and size, but I've no information on the chair-bearing blocks to compare with.

 

But this does raise the question of how the chairs were secured to the blocks. With wooden sleepers, chairs are secured by through bolts, sometimes supplemented by screw bolts. I suppose I would assume that through bolts would be used for stone sleepers but having now read up on lewises I wonder if the St Peter's keys would have been the solution that would have come most naturally to stonemasons. 

 

How was the hole in the block undercut? Or does a lewis rely solely on the friction between the metal and the rough stone surface? 

 

 

[Andy Hayter]

Essential they rely on friction rather than a specific undercut.  Do remember that these blocks were not polished face blocks nor were holes bored into the stone so small natural protuberances would act as the undercut that you are expecting and would stop the block slipping between the "hands" of the Lewis.   

[Schooner]

'Pram?

 

P'ram.?

 

Anyway:

 

(Come for the opening bass-rage, stay for the redemption...although actually leave because of the bleeding ads and find an unblemished version elsewhere)

[Annie]

18 minutes ago, Schooner said:

(Come for the opening bass-rage, stay for the redemption...although actually leave because of the bleeding ads and find an unblemished version elsewhere)

uBlocker is your friend when it comes to Youtube videos.

[TT-Pete]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

uBlocker is your friend when it comes to Youtube videos.

 

Or Adblock if you are on Firefox.

[Edwardian]

Happy Mayday

 

[Hroth]

12 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Happy Mayday

 

 

Few look pleased to be participating...

 

Mayday! Mayday!!!

 

The may has been out for ages...

Source: https://treegrowing.tcv.org.uk/identify/hawthorn

 

[Edwardian]

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Few look pleased to be participating...

 

Mayday! Mayday!!!

 

The may has been out for ages...

Source: https://treegrowing.tcv.org.uk/identify/hawthorn

 

 

Blossom still slowly emerging here