Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Nearholmer]

Not feeling up to much today, so hid in the study and wasted the afternoon compiling a timetable for "Birlstone as Buckingham 1950s".

 

This assumes that the line to Aylesbury via Verney Junction remained open (it closed to passengers in 1936), and that the Banbury (WR) and Beltchley (LMR) services operate largely for the convenience of each region, rather than the passengers, which seems about right. 

 

Using the 1910 Bradshaw for running times, approximate arrivals and departures, and plausible connectivity (surprisingly little changed over forty years!), this gives a fairly good service to and from Aylesbury (effectively a shuttle) with onward connections to London, four trains a day to/from the West Midlands, one through train to Euston and back, and a sporadic service to Bletchley (with some trains assumed to ramble onwards to Northampton Derngate). A total of sixteen passenger arrivals and departures each weekday.

 

Goods needs a bit of thought. One train a day on each of the WR and LMR routes seems about right, and there is a suitable hole in the timetable late-morning to early-afternoon.

 

One train from the 1910 service that I left out because I can't imagine it lasted long really intrigues me: a motor train service from Bletchley out to Buckingham at the dead of night (arr. 01:50) on Friday mornings only. Why? It connected with a late service from Euston, so maybe this was the one chance a week to go to the theatre in London, wife meet hubby after the office closed, getting home terribly late and having a lie-in until lunchtime on Friday. But that seems the wrong day; surely it should be Saturday. Maybe The Duke came down to the country after dinner on Thursday evening? Who knows? Must have been a very strange turn for the train crew, out through the pitch-dark countryside with only foxes and owls for company, and think of the unit cost of running it.

 

 

 

Timetable will be tested when circumstance permits.

Edited June 12, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Milk transport by rail is one of my minor obsessions, and any layout should have some of it IMO, so I've also been delving into the history of the rail-served "milk factory" at the real Buckingham, in the hope that it might have sent out tankers, but I don't think it did. Seems that it sent out vast quantities of tins of condensed and "peptonised" (whatever that is) milk, so presumably a lot of van traffic by goods trains. Probably some churn traffic inwards in earlier years, but a 1925 town guide talks of collection from local farms by "road motors".

 

PS: peptonising seems to amount to artificially semi-digesting food, to make it suitable for people with weak digestive systems. https://chestofbooks.com/health/nutrition/Diet-Sickness/Peptonised-Foods.html All sounds a bit disgusting to me!

 

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by Nearholmer

[GRASinBothell]

Maybe in your version of "Buckingham" the milk factory expanded its production, and started sending tankers to London...

I believe Rule 1 applies in such cases!

Gordon

[Simond]

More faintly disturbing folk remedies here...

 

https://www.henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/potter-comp/rest_dige-ferm.html

 

I rather suppose the result is not unlike yogurt, so it’s probably not all that unpleasant, and people have consumed the most bizarre things over the course of history in the pursuit of self improvement, or culinary delight.

 

another dormouse, anyone?

bon appetit

Simon

[St Enodoc]

25 minutes ago, Simond said:

another dormouse, anyone?

I'd prefer a bat, thanks.

[Hroth]

9 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'd prefer a bat, thanks.

 

Why not try a toad?  They're not good for much.....

I suppose Wallfruit are acceptable.

 

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Milk transport by rail is one of my minor obsessions, and any layout should have some of it IMO, so I've also been delving into the history of the rail-served "milk factory" at the real Buckingham, in the hope that it might have sent out tankers, but I don't think it did. Seems that it sent out vast quantities of tins of condensed and "peptonised" (whatever that is) milk, so presumably a lot of van traffic by goods trains. Probably some churn traffic inwards in earlier years, but a 1925 town guide talks of collection from local farms by "road motors".

 

PS: peptonising seems to amount to artificially semi-digesting food, to make it suitable for people with weak digestive systems. https://chestofbooks.com/health/nutrition/Diet-Sickness/Peptonised-Foods.html All sounds a bit disgusting to me!

 

 

 

I've a copy of that mid-Victorian tome "Enquire Within Upon Everything".  There is a completely disgusting method for making Beef Tea, again for those with weak digestion.  I think the idea was to put the weakly digested out of their misery. Eventually.

 

Passing onto milk and its transport, apparently the last use of milk churns was in the early 1970s so on my most recent "project", the one I got the bits for and then put to one side, I'm going to have a Series 1 Landrover delivering a few to the Halt...

 

[Nearholmer]

3 hours ago, Simond said:

More faintly disturbing folk remedies here..

Utterly stomach-churning, but then that seems to be what they are intended to achieve.

 

I suspect that these things, or artificially bred enzymes of the same sort, are still used, but like so much food preparation technology, shrouded behind factory walls and incomprehensible names in lists of ingredients.

[Hroth]

13 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

shrouded behind factory walls and incomprehensible names in lists of ingredients.

 

Usually in the e xxx section.

 

The best obfuscation is usually the first ingredient, Aqua.....

 

[GRASinBothell]

Ptobably labelled as probiotics these days...

Gordon

[brumtb]

My Great Grandfather's dairy advertising.  I'm not sure how valid the health claims were.

 

[Nearholmer]

The risks posed by unpasteurised milk in the days when cows carried a good old load of bugs was discussed in another milk-focused thread, so the health claims are probably in the "on the one hand; and, on the other" category.

 

Splendid memento to have. So politely phrased too.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The risks posed by unpasteurised milk in the days when cows carried a good old load of bugs was discussed in another milk-focused thread, so the health claims are probably in the "on the one hand; and, on the other" category.

 

Splendid memento to have. So politely phrased too.

"Hello Bruce".

 

"'Ello Sis".

[Nearholmer]

There's an awful lot of talk among some RMWeb members at the moment about "closed system" model railways, scenic fiddle-yard-junction and similar stuff, which has put back into my mind a possibility that I thought about a while ago: an alteration to my layout that might make it "feel better" from a conceptual viewpoint.

 

The track alteration would be from this:

 

To this:

 

 

 

I need to treble-check, but I think it could be made to fit.

 

Why bother, especially since it doesn’t actually alter the running significantly? Well, it would, mentally at least, turn Birlstone into one of those termini that has two lines into it, one from Elsewhere and the other a branch that serves some sort of hinterland. My layout would then be the branch serving the hinterland. There is a passing loop in the fiddle-zone, which is the passing station on the branch, and the hatched section of track would be deemed not to exist (although it would actually be used for circulation thereby prolonging the run to the passing place. Paltry Circus probably wouldn't be in London any longer, but its already temporarily moved to Northampton and seems happy to wander about the map.

 

Assuming it could actually be made to fit, what do people think?

 

K

 

PS: One day, if I bashed a hole through the wall, Elsewhere could be out in the garden, but I'm not sure I'd get away with that.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

35 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

There's an awful lot of talk among some RMWeb members at the moment about "closed system" model railways, scenic fiddle-yard-junction and similar stuff, which has put back into my mind a possibility that I thought about a while ago: an alteration to my layout that might make it "feel better" from a conceptual viewpoint.

 

The track alteration would be from this:

 

To this:

 

 

 

I need to treble-check, but I think it could be made to fit.

 

Why bother, especially since it doesn’t actually alter the running significantly? Well, it would, mentally at least, turn Birlstone into one of those termini that has two lines into it, one from Elsewhere and the other a branch that serves some sort of hinterland. My layout would then be the branch serving the hinterland. There is a passing loop in the fiddle-zone, which is the passing station on the branch, and the hatched section of track would be deemed not to exist (although it would actually be used for circulation thereby prolonging the run to the passing place. Paltry Circus probably wouldn't be in London any longer, but its already temporarily moved to Northampton and seems happy to wander about the map.

 

Assuming it could actually be made to fit, what do people think?

 

K

 

Well I like it.

 

You are allowed to say "Castle Aching"; it's only if you say it three times without crossing your fingers and throwing salt over your left shoulder that you become trapped in an indefinite digression. 

 

 

35 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

PS: One day, if I bashed a hole through the wall, Elsewhere could be out in the garden, but I'm not sure I'd get away with that.

 

Room for a little lean-to to fiddle in?

 

 

This preserves the 'scenic purity; of the closed system, because the offstage section would be, well, offstage.

[Nearholmer]

The discussion is in CA, several of the 628 Minories-related threads, and a thread about scenic FYs, so its the Meme of the Week. And, about time too. Death to over-weening fiddle-yards!!

 

3 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Room for a little lean-to to fiddle in?

 

Well, the "bikes and masses of other stuff" shed is next door, and that is so full that the spiders moved out due to claustrophobia, so it would probably need a lean-to on the lean-to ........ a better idea might be to go along the garden and then dual-gauge the small garden railway so that it could act as a balloon return loop. But, none of this is going to happen.

[Northroader]

No, eh? You’ve lost your oval run, and when you’ve built an oval, it’s just nice to let something run untrammelled with the wind blowing round it’s smokebox and the sun twinkling off the spokes and the happy clatter of little clattery bits.

[Nearholmer]

No losing the oval. The hatched track would continue to exist in reality for the very reasons you mention, but would be deemed not to exist.

 

I couldn’t do without a circuit, if for no other reason than that a circulating toy train is a great tonic after a busy day, or at coffee break in normal times when I’m the only one at home on weekdays.

[Annie]

8 hours ago, Edwardian said:

You are allowed to say "Castle Aching"; it's only if you say it three times without crossing your fingers and throwing salt over your left shoulder that you become trapped in an indefinite digression. 

Oops..........

 

9 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Elsewhere could be out in the garden,........

I did build a layout once that had a line to Erewhon and then there's the Sumwheir District Railway I also built  (Which I have been shockingly neglecting.)  When I first moved out into the rural countryside I was going to build an 'O' gauge railway out in the courtyard (posh name for a patch of flagstones surrounded by weeds), but for reasons which you've all heard before it didn't happen.  Being the 'domestic authority' in my own house is awfully useful though since nobody can cast a veto vote at anything I want to do.

 

Back to Elsewhere though I think it is good to have a line coming in and making a junction with an otherwise closed system layout even if it is a just a short stub that the occasional goods van or sheeted open wagon arrives from since it gives the layout more of a purpose than just endlessly handling local traffic.

[rockershovel]

On 13/06/2020 at 08:39, Hroth said:

 

Why not try a toad?  They're not good for much.....

I suppose Wallfruit are acceptable.

 

 

I've a copy of that mid-Victorian tome "Enquire Within Upon Everything".  There is a completely disgusting method for making Beef Tea, again for those with weak digestion.  I think the idea was to put the weakly digested out of their misery. Eventually.

 

Passing onto milk and its transport, apparently the last use of milk churns was in the early 1970s so on my most recent "project", the one I got the bits for and then put to one side, I'm going to have a Series 1 Landrover delivering a few to the Halt...

 

 

When I was living in West Cornwall in the mid 1970s, milk churns were one of those generic items, cheap, readily available and useful for all sorts of unrelated purposes. One house we rented as a student, had one as a rainwater butt; I remember seeing one as an umbrella stand somewhere. 

 

They must still be fairly common, because a quick google reveals numerous adverts for hiring them as decor for village fetes, registrar tables at outdoor weddings etc. 

[Nearholmer]

Yes, we had one round the house that was used for umbrellas and miscellaneous sticks when I was a boy; my mother might still have it.

[St Enodoc]

49 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, we had one round the house that was used for umbrellas and miscellaneous sticks when I was a boy; my mother might still have it.

So you used the elephant's foot to keep the milk in?

[Nearholmer]

A bit of a “Somewhere in England” moment today due to a slight expansion in the military locos strand.

 

If ever I can progress the tiny rural essay, this can help-out when things are in military guise. Small daughter and I have been looking at trees and clouds and practising our back-scene painting skills today, so getting ready to work on the rural ambience.

 

The real loco upon which this ETS-WJV-Raylo model is based is here http://www.swindonsotherrailway.co.uk/oops.html

 

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Nearholmer

[GRASinBothell]

So, you finally broke down and got yourself a Sentinel. Now you'll need a WD bogie bolster and/or some of those WD tank wagons Paul has...

Gordon

[Nearholmer]

I did; I did. You share some of the blame I think.

 

I don't intend to go too mad on WD-specific wagons, because (a) I've got more wagons than I really need already, and (b) the cistern wagons (WD called them that to avoid confusion with "wagons, tanks for the transporting of.") are really more appropriate to a munitions factory than a stores/camp operation where most of the traffic would be in railway company vans.

 

Another furtively-taken photo shows a rather worryingly-titled van, and an pillbox brake, which was the standard WD item, built for them by the SR. I guess the military ones were always green, and I think they had no sand-boxes, but two vacuum brake cylinders on one verandah. The military used them on passenger trains as well as goods, which obviated the need for brake coaches.

 

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Back to the little rural thing for a moment: on 25 October 2018, I posted a set of possible track plans, and everyone voted in favour on Plan 3. So, I ignored that advice and fiddled around with a hundred other options, and used the baseboards to start the 00 1963 BLT.

 

Well, nearly two years later, I’ve decided to take the advice. That is the plan that will get screwed-down.

 

 

I ignored the advice because this plan doesn’t accommodate my old BL station, which is about 40mm too deep to fit, but I’ve decide that is a sacrifice that has to be made.

 

It does allow a loco to run round three six-wheelers, or two bogie coaches, or four wagons and a van.

 

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go to the IoW and ride on this train?