Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

The Captain and the Tradesman

 

2 more of the Preiser 1/72nd set:

 

1. A Captain of the Achingham Troop of the King’s Own Royal Regiment Norfolk Imperial Yeomanry. Slightly mixed dress with Sam Browne, buff breeches and brown boots combined with blue patrol jacket, but these were years of transition for British military dress and I do not see it as an improbable combination.  Further, I recall that, as a young Yeomanry subaltern, we regarded it as a point of honour that no two of us turned up to a Drill Night attired the same way.   Had this unlikely event ever occurred, we would have experienced all the horror of two girls who turned up to a party in identical frocks!  Anyway, he has the all important chainmail shoulder pieces, the preserve of the Yeomanry and regular cavalry. 

 

2. A tradesman, who should accompany a horse-drawn delivery van.  Achingham is a bustling market town, and would doubtless have baker's and other delivery vans, both 2 and 4-wheel, clopping about the town.

 

Again, at 1/72nd, they stand a little taller than the Staddens, but, I trust, are not too tall. 

[Edwardian]

Looking at what Don, Kevin and Andy G are suggesting, it looks as if, having left the WNR mainline in the vicinity of Flitching, the line to the west coast of Norfolk must now fork. The southern fork would be the GER tramway, through pleasant orchards, to Bishop's Lynn and its guano and whale oil plant!  The northern fork would be striking for our coal wharf and failed resort beyond the villages of Ingoldstone, Snettisthorpe and Frimham.

 

If there is going to be mineral traffic, the GER might loan a No. 552 class, otherwise confined to ballast trains.  These locomotives are so ugly that they actually have an attraction.  I imagine Q1s affect Southern fans in a similar way!

 

Picture from the GERS site.

[Donw]

I like the figures. I would agree with you about the wellingtons. The better off may have had good leather riding boots but the lad holding the horse would not have afforded such luxury. 

Don

[uax6]

That loco reminds me of Hornby's Thomas!

 

Minerals to include gravel, flint and carrstone then?

 

Andy G

[Nearholmer]

Liking the emerging population, although, if I may suggest, shouldn't a tradesman's dust coat be pale brown?

 

They probably came in all colours, but brown has stuck in my mind from the ironmongers, the timber merchants, and the seed and feed place when I was a boy. Grey dust coats were worn in the two light engineering factories. OK, that at was only fifty years ago, but I'm guessing that tradition ruled in the colour of dust coats.

 

(All of those premises, and pretty much the rest of the high street in the small town where I grew up, are now charity shops or estate agents!)

 

Especially liking that bizarre locomotive with mudguards. ( although, as I spotted straight away, and is confirmed by a quick google, its wheels are too large for the intended duty)

 

The need for a map is becoming pressing, though, because the wanna-be civil engineers among us are desperate to look at contour maps, start calculating gradients, amounts of cut and fill etc.

 

K

Edited July 13, 2016 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Liking the emerging population, although, if I may suggest, shouldn't a tradesman's dust coat be pale brown?

 

They probably came in all colours, but brown has stuck in my mind from the ironmongers, the timber merchants, and the seed and feed place when I was a boy. Grey dust coats were worn in the two light engineering factories. OK, that at was only fifty years ago, but I'm guessing that tradition ruled in the colour of dust coats.

 

 

Thanks, Kevin.  Actually, that coat is painted with brown paint, and is supposed to look brown, but if my attempted muting of the colour has caused it to look too grey, I apologise.

 

The need for a map is becoming pressing, though, because the wanna-be civil engineers among us are desperate to look at contour maps, start calculating gradients, amounts of cut and fill etc.

 

 

 

[Gulp]

[ChrisN]

The advantage of using Milliput for ladies skirts is that if they are too tall they can lose their feet and still stand up.  This of course gets more difficult the more you get into the 20th century and the hem lines rise.

 

Very nice figures.

[Donw]

This is Norfolk and whilst there may be small hills and some gradients, major earthworks are not going to be a feature. Every bit dug out will be useful to raise the line in the flat wettish bits. Just inland from the photo of the beach near Snettisham the line to Hunstanton was crossed by a road bridge. I see from the OS map the Area was called Shepherds Port  the railway ran on a low embankment behind the lagoon shown Wooferton creek wasjust off that beach. It continued northwards on the low embankment with water filled ditches on the inland side. I should have taken more photos. 

Don

[Edwardian]

This is all I have had time to do.  The first map shows West Norfolk as it really was.  MGN in ochre, GER in blue.

 

The second suggests where the crowded southern section of the WNR might run.  Routes are approximate.  Included is the GER's tramway to Bishop's Lynn.  I have not filled in the blanks to the north, but at least 3 places need to be fitted in; the inland market town of Birchoverham Market, the minor port Birchoverham Staithe, and the genteel resort, Birchoverham Next the Sea.

 

Also to be sketched in is the line to the Wash coast and the points of connection with the MGN and the GER. 

[Donw]

That looks right to me the route north is headed for Great Bircham  the line would go on to cross the GER  near Docking then on to the Birchamoverhams which inexplicably seem to be missing from google earth just to the east of the Holme Dunes a little west of Brancaster.

 

Don

[uax6]

Would the WNR have been around before the M&GN, if so would the M&GN re-use parts of the WNR, therefore shaking it out of its sleepiness?

 

Are you sure that Castle Aching isn't the other side of Gayton?

[Edwardian]

Would the WNR have been around before the M&GN, if so would the M&GN re-use parts of the WNR, therefore shaking it out of its sleepiness?

 

Are you sure that Castle Aching isn't the other side of Gayton?

 

Yes, the Lynn and Fakenham Railway (subsequently part of the MGN) was authorised in 1880 (see post 1160 on page 47).

 

No,  I had only the vaguest notion that it must lie somewhere between Rising and Acre.  I have not done so on the map, but I had considered using 'expandable geography', i.e. inserting an additional slither of Norfolk that would avoid trampling over any real places!

[uax6]

Would that be the slice of Norfolk which has the coal fields and gold mines in it?

 

Andy G

[Edwardian]

Would that be the slice of Norfolk which has the coal fields and gold mines in it?

 

Andy G

 

Well, it has a guano and fish oil plant, and, as Kevin discovered, now redundant coprolite mines.  Thus proving that, whilst all that glitters is not gold, where there's muck there's brass.

 

I suspect that a passing relationship with the real Norfolk ought to be maintained!

[Nearholmer]

Allow me to present my card, Sir.

 

I have taken the liberty of conducting, at my own cost, a preliminary survey of both the intended enlargement of Wolferton Harbour, and the possible routes for a railway to it.

 

My recommendation is for a route running south of the Sandringham eminence, situated just above the northern edge of the flood plain of the Babingley River and the Coalyard Creek, so that the former may be bridged where it still nought but a stream. The GER would be crossed on the level to the south of Wolferton, and a station for passenger trains would be provided at the crossing of the Lynn to Hunstanton road (provisionally to be called 'Babingley and Castle Rising Road').

 

I anticipate certain difficulties in negotiating matters with the GER, so suggest that, for the purposes of plans, the railway should be described as three parts, one East of the GER, one West thereof with the crossing treated separately, by which means it ought to be possible to proceed. The passenger trains of the WNR might, at least be permitted to interchange passengers with those of the GER, once a platform is made for that purpose, and, if negotiations regarding the crossing founder, goods trains might be shunted from the harbour line to the eastern part of the WNR by of the GER metals.

 

I look forward to receiving your instruction to go further with the survey of this route, to prepare plans and sections, and to any receiving any instruction in respect of an alternative route, to the west of Sandringham, which I have also given some small attention to, although I advise against it on grounds of greater expense.

 

Yours, Theo. O'Doolight

[DaisyDots]

Hi Edwardian,

Congrats on reaching your first 50 pages. Hoping all your problems will soon be resolved and the modelling restarted.

Regards, Chris. (Daisydots)

[Nearholmer]

Mr O'Doolight is unstoppable today; he just rushed into the room, disturbing my sandwich, brandishing a rolled-up plan.

 

He has chosen to rename the station at the road crossing, to reflect that of a nearby hamlet.

 

K

Edited July 14, 2016 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Brilliant, Kevin.  All praise and thanks to Mr Doolight, who must considered himself engaged. 

 

I like the idea of the station hard by St Peter's churchyard.  'Cat's Bottom' is an excellent name for a station.

 

However, the WNR appears to be going to a real place, which both the WNR and the other companies associated with the Grand Eastern Trunk Railway scheme have hitherto assiduously avoided! 

 

It may be necessary, either to cross some unpopulated tract, or to introduce a further slither of 'Expandable Norfolk' in order to avoid Wolferton, and, instead, pass through a fictionalised version of the place; Wolfingham?

 

If so, do we include a junction where the line turns east to the wharf so as to continue the line further north to a failed resort between the sea and the villages of Ingoldstone, Snettisthorpe and Frimham?

 

I am conscious that Mr Doolight may go to a lot of trouble for a location unlikely to be reproduced in miniature form!

 

EDIT:  A thought occurs.  Depending upon how soon after the opening of the Castle Aching to Birchoverham section the line to the Wash was built, it could have preceded or coincided with the building of the Lynn to Hunstanton Railway in the early '60s.

 

In other words, the GER line at Wolferton was not necessarily there first!

Edited July 14, 2016 by Edwardian

[Edwardian]

Hi Edwardian,

Congrats on reaching your first 50 pages. Hoping all your problems will soon be resolved and the modelling restarted.

Regards, Chris. (Daisydots)

Congrats on reading them!

 

Thanks for your good wishes and look forward to your next post.

[Donw]

I thought that the line up to Wooferton creek was not going to be actually modelled and was being fleshed out to help generate clear ideas of the traffic into Castle Aching. If so it could be a real place or are you thinking you might build it at some stage. At this rate if I get to venture into Norfolk again ( I rather like Norfolk but it is a long way from West Somerset) I shall be looking for sign of the old trackbed of the WNR

Don

[Nearholmer]

Edwardian

 

No need to concern yourself about Mr O'Doolight wasting his time; he uses the latest technology, which enables him to complete his jottings during dull train journeys (when he should really be reading reports, minutes of meetings etc!).

 

As regards extending the line to a failed resort: have you ever been to Snettisham Beach? It has the look of a place where a railway company might have built a huge hotel, in the middle of vast expanse of shingle, in the vain hope that people would be desperate enough to holiday there. So, an ideal inspiration.

 

Kevin

[Fenman]

Edwardian

 

No need to concern yourself about Mr O'Doolight wasting his time; he uses the latest technology, which enables him to complete his jottings during dull train journeys (when he should really be reading reports, minutes of meetings etc!).

 

As regards extending the line to a failed resort: have you ever been to Snettisham Beach? It has the look of a place where a railway company might have built a huge hotel, in the middle of vast expanse of shingle, in the vain hope that people would be desperate enough to holiday there. So, an ideal inspiration.

 

Kevin

In the lovely Betjeman film about the Lynn-Hunstanton railway line he correctly informed us that the normal way to pronounce the name of this village was "Snet'sham". Which is true. Although most of us locals who don't live there simply call it "Snet". I can't think of a more appropriate sounding word for it.

 

With apologies to any residents...

 

Paul

[Donw]

Edwardian

 

No need to concern yourself about Mr O'Doolight wasting his time; he uses the latest technology, which enables him to complete his jottings during dull train journeys (when he should really be reading reports, minutes of meetings etc!).

 

As regards extending the line to a failed resort: have you ever been to Snettisham Beach? It has the look of a place where a railway company might have built a huge hotel, in the middle of vast expanse of shingle, in the vain hope that people would be desperate enough to holiday there. So, an ideal inspiration.

 

Kevin

 

See my Photo above at the end of Beach Road as I mentioned the OS calls it Shepherds Port.

Don

[Shadow]

Think I must have a different version of the local OS map.

 

 

 

Looks like the WNR followed this path, with the factories and a new enlarged harbour just downstream from Kings Lynn, and the resort of Wolfingham Regis on the dredged out Babingly River discharges into the Wash.

 

Edited July 14, 2016 by Shadow

[Nearholmer]

This is all beginning to remind me very strongly of ........

Edited July 15, 2016 by Nearholmer