Dapol Announce New OO Gauge Functioning Water Tower

[Harlequin]

A Dapol water tower embiggens the smallest station.

 

[truffy]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

I can use real clinker from the fire basket or the ‘cue. 

 

Good, good. Another man who knows the value of a proper BBQ, rather than those pointless gas burner things.

 

Have to say, though, I'm a little worried about your sheep/dog/sheepdog between the lines. One false move, and it could well end up on someone else's BBQ.

 

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

A Dapol water tower embiggens the smallest station.

 

Ooer missus! You got that line from a Carry On film, didn't you?

[The Johnster]

He got it from 'The Simpsons'

 

To paraphrase a little, 'See that train of Jebediah Spingfield 

                                        Watch those min'ral wagons roll

                                        That a water tower might embiggen a BLT

                                        That Johnster might embiggen his...'.

[big jim]

it’s a perfectly cromulent word! 
 

 

[The Stationmaster]

14 hours ago, truffy said:

 

Good, good. Another man who knows the value of a proper BBQ, rather than those pointless gas burner things.

 

Have to say, though, I'm a little worried about your sheep/dog/sheepdog between the lines. One false move, and it could well end up on someone else's BBQ.

 

 

Ooer missus! You got that line from a Carry On film, didn't you?

The clever thing about those sheep is that that they aren't in the four foot - they must be a lot brighter than real ones because they were always getting in the bl**dy four foot.

[The Johnster]

They are about to get in the four foot, Mike; they are simply waiting for a train to show up...

 

There are a couple on the platform, probably travelling without tickets, and one has clearly just come out of the gents; what she was doing in there we don't know, and don’t want too!  Truffy is clearly unfamiliar with the valleys, where sheep get everywhere, raid bins, hold up street traffic, and one once went into great-aunt Nell’s kitchen in Tonypandy.  Anything prepared to dispute with Nell is not anything I ever want to have to deal with! 

[The Johnster]

They are about to get in the four foot, Mike; they are simply waiting for a train to show up...

 

There are a couple on the platform, probably travelling without tickets, and one has clearly just come out of the gents; what she was doing in there we don't know, and don’t want too!  Truffy is clearly unfamiliar with the valleys, where sheep get everywhere, raid bins, hold up street traffic, and one once went into great-aunt Nell’s kitchen in Tonypandy.  Anything prepared to dispute with Nell is not anything I ever want to have to deal with! 

[truffy]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Truffy is clearly unfamiliar with the valleys, where sheep get everywhere,

 

I was led to believe that they largely hang around under street lamps.

[Steamport Southport]

7 minutes ago, truffy said:

 

I was led to believe that they largely hang around under street lamps.

 

Tied to a lamp post....

 

 

 

 

Jason

[tomparryharry]

Feral sheep will congregate wherever its warm at night. If tarmac warms up during the day, then it'll become the sheeps' bed for the night. 

[The Johnster]

They behave unlike any other beastie when confronted with a train.  Everything else, dogs, cats, foxes, cows, horses, duck billed platypi, will run off to one side or other when the horn is blown.  A sheep will look up, make an incorrect assessment of how much time it's got, and carry on doing whatever it was doing.  So, you blow the horn again.  It looks up, re-assess how much time it's got and walks away from you.  You are closing rapidly and blow the horn again, by which time the sheep realises it's in trouble, so it tries to outrun you.  A panicking ovine on wet sleepers can make about 15mph; even with the brakes on you are doing 40 when you catch up with it.  

 

At this point it does what it should have done in the first place and gets out of the way into the 6 foot or the cess.  But it still has another level of stupidity to deploy, and this will finish it off; it turns to ensure that it is clear.  At this point, it is brained, if you can use that term for an animal that clearly doesn't have much of a brain, by the cab steps, and rolls down the embankment with it's legs so stiff they break.  As this is the Valleys, the passengers clap and cheer, and will award you points for a clean and graceful kill.  

 

This was a fairly common feature of Valleys work at any time, but especially during the very hot summer of 1976 when they came down from the off the mountains looking for better grass and trying to get away from the fires.  I was one of group of Valleys guards who chalked  them up fighter ace style on the cab doors as confirmed or unconfirmed kills; this was considered bad taste by the nice people from Radyr or Dinas Powys and we were told off for it!

 

Drivers had to report killing sheep, as the local sheep farmers were not above putting long dead animals they'd found on the mountain on to railway tracks so that trains could run over them and they could claim compensation from the railway.

 

I have a feeling that this stupidity may be a ruse to lull us into a false sense of security, and that they are in fact a highly intelligent Borg-like collective plotting our overthrow and enslavement.  Just look into one's eyes.  It's cold, dead, eyes...

Edited May 9, 2020 by The Johnster

[Darius43]

Beware the clever sheep...

[The Johnster]

Now, if I can just find one that looks like Seven Of NIne...

[Ian Hargrave]

21 hours ago, The Johnster said:

They are about to get in the four foot, Mike; they are simply waiting for a train to show up...

 

There are a couple on the platform, probably travelling without tickets, and one has clearly just come out of the gents; what she was doing in there we don't know, and don’t want too!  Truffy is clearly unfamiliar with the valleys, where sheep get everywhere, raid bins, hold up street traffic, and one once went into great-aunt Nell’s kitchen in Tonypandy.  Anything prepared to dispute with Nell is not anything I ever want to have to deal with! 

You’re ( almost ) making me feel a twinge of nostalgia. Thing is the same bewildering behaviour also applies to road traffic....or did. Hit one with a locomotive,sheep expires.Locomotive proceeds with probably minimal damage whereas your car is immediately rated an insurance job and sheep may sustain only minimal damage should you hit the beast .

Valleys sheep would get you in other unsubtle ways with ruined sleep due to midnight trash bin raids or terrify you by pouncing in front of you on a foggy night’s drive by the roadman’s hut on the Rhigos . They were intelligent enough to camp outside always on the scrounge.If the falling rocks didn’t get you first...... You simply could not differentiate.They were the same colour as the fog.

 

[The Johnster]

In a heavy mist on the Beacons while hill walking many years ago, I was walking to a compass bearing and took a sighting on a boulder, which promptly stood up, bleated, and walked off.  

 

I hit a dog with a mini once in Llantwit Major, which led to a bit of an adventure.  I caught a movement in the corner of my eye and, as I'd registered a couple of kids on the pavement just before the bump, I feared the worst.  Stopped and got out, kids were screaming but there were the right number of them (phew!), and a black labrador was getting up, shaking himself off, and looking at me reproachfully as if it was my fault.  He'd stove in a headlight, but was otherwise undamaged.  Stove doesn't look right there, how about stoven?  

 

Now, one has to report hitting a dog to the 5 oh, so I reported in to the police station.  Copper behind desk says 'dya kill it?' and I said 'no', so he said 'where didn't you kill it?, so I said 'on the Boverton road by the playing fields'.  At this point the phone went and he answered it, told the other end he was on his way, and said 'dya know where Ham  Lane is?'  As it happened, I did, so he says 'come on, show me, there's a burglary in progress and next thing I'm in the panda with the nee nar going.  

 

He explained that the regular bloke was on course and he was a relief drafted in from Bridgend, and didn't know the area.  At the location (oh, year, I knows all the jargon, I does) he told me to stay in the car, which I was a bit miffed about in case any passerby thought I was a perp.  He came back with the real perp a few minutes later, and turfed me out, so I had to walk back up to the police station car park to pick my car up; I bought a new headlight on the way. 

 

I never heard any more about it.

[Francis deWeck]

Reminds me of an incident up by the Monsal Head Hotel: Myself and a buddy had embibed some of its precious liquors, returned to car and then when leaving the side road turned onto the main road and on doing so a ewe and a couple of lambs cleared the wall and jumped into the front of the car. Well, we were young then, much hippy types in appearance, so the local peeps thought we must be guilty. They would have lynched us in former times. Can't help remembering the incident when I am walking up there on occasion.

[truffy]

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

He'd stove in a headlight, but was otherwise undamaged.  Stove doesn't look right there, how about stoven?  

 

Stoved.

 

While cycling through part of Holland, a friend and I decided to take a route through a field (it was a recognised public way, including cycles). There were sheep in the field that were spooked by our presence. So they flocked...into our freakin' path! Damned creatures are too stupid to even run away in the right direction! 

 

Still, I've enjoyed eating lamb much more since then.

[Francis deWeck]

On 09/05/2020 at 20:26, truffy said:

 

Stoved.

 

While cycling through part of Holland, a friend and I decided to take a route through a field (it was a recognised public way, including cycles). There were sheep in the field that were spooked by our presence. So they flocked...into our freakin' path! Damned creatures are too stupid to even run away in the right direction! 

 

Still, I've enjoyed eating lamb much more since then.

Always shout 'mint sauce' in their direction. Useful to the nth degree.

[truffy]

1 hour ago, Francis deWeck said:

Always shout 'mint sauce' in their direction. Useful to the nth degree.

I would normally, but at the time the Dutch for 'mint sauce' clear escaped me!

[SRman]

On 09/05/2020 at 11:40, Darius43 said:

Beware the clever sheep...

 

 

Walter!

" 'E's that rare beast, a smart sheep."

Edited May 11, 2020 by SRman

[Adrock]

I notice the colours of the water towers are all described as GWR.  What colour would these have been by late 50s / early 60s WR?

 

thanks. 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Adrock

[Free At Last]

1 hour ago, Adrock said:

I notice the colours are all described as GWR.  What colour would these have been late 50s / early 60s WR?

 

thanks. 

GWR and late 50s/ early 60s WR sheep were the same colour.

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, Adrock said:

I notice the colours of the water towers are all described as GWR.  What colour would these have been by late 50s / early 60s WR?

 

thanks. 

They seem to have usually been painted in all over 'cream' - which weathered down to quite a pale colour.   I certainly never saw one with a different coloured top part and I can't recall seeing a photo of one painted like that - which of course doesn't mean there wasn't one painted like that.   The bottom part of the leg was sometimes done like the watercranes with an area painted in 'chocolate' and often with a scalloped top edge instead of a straight border with the cream - there is good illustration of one at Torre on this page -

 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/newton-abbot-to-kingswear-also-brixham-branch.html

 

Note that in BR times the practice of painting various ribs etc on the tank in contrasting colour does not appear to have taken place - so don't be misled by what some preservationists have done

[Steam here!]

Hi, to any who has the newly released Dapol water towers, would someone be kind enough to measure the base in cm or mm.

 

Thanks

Steam here!

[greatcoleswoodhalt]