The Night Mail

[polybear]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

regarding WW2 bomb damage, it is still clearly visible in some areas of the UK, if you know the signs. There is, for example, an obvious infill building in Chiswick High Road (near Turnham Green station) where a bomb demolished a single house in a terrace. Plymouth town centre is now much changed, but the Charles Cross roundabout still features a burnt-out church as a memorial and the approaches to the Chain Ferry show an obvious pattern of infilled bomb sites. The inner suburbs of Coventry show similar patterns, in places. Cardiff, I don't know .... Liverpool is now so reconfigured that there is little left from that era. 

 

And some cities looked better with the bomb damage than they do now that the "Architects" have worked their dubious magic.....

[Happy Hippo]

4 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Could be. The trick might be to just breeze in wearing dirty overalls and look like your boss sent you with a note that says something like,

 

"Six inches of 3" diameter CRS" (cold rolled steel)

 

They probably don't like amateurs like us fumbling around asking a lot of questions but if you have a good credit card and you can tell them exactly what you want they are very unlikely to turn down your business. The good (or very bad) thing about the US is, it's all about money, and time is money

Around here, you'd probably pick that size up from the local merchant's scrap bin for a few pounds.

 

I used to buy 12 foot lengths of non ferrous bar stock at the price the ME suppliers would charge for a 24" length.  I also used to ferret around in the scrap bin  and come away with odd strips and bits of brass and copper sheet which was charged by weighing it and being sold at scrap weight.

 

I used to produce wheels for 7/8ths narrow gauge:  Solid disc, 3 and 4 hole disc and curly spoked wheels. the latter being turned rims and injection moulded hubs. the disc wheels were all insulated by a bush on the shoulder of the axle.  I say produce... I did the CAD and then got the discs and rims CNC machined.  I did originally also get the axles turned in bulk, but the turn over of stock was slow in those far off days, so once the initial batch of axles had gone, it was not difficult to make up what axles I needed from bar stock.

 

I used to fit then sets together using the lathe as a very slow spinning press tool.  This allowed a wobble free fit.

[AndyID]

22 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Around here, you'd probably pick that size up from the local merchant's scrap bin for a few pounds.

 

I used to buy 12 foot lengths of non ferrous bar stock at the price the ME suppliers would charge for a 24" length.  I also used to ferret around in the scrap bin  and come away with odd strips and bits of brass and copper sheet which was charged by weighing it and being sold at scrap weight.

 

I used to produce wheels for 7/8ths narrow gauge:  Solid disc, 3 and 4 hole disc and curly spoked wheels. the latter being turned rims and injection moulded hubs. the disc wheels were all insulated by a bush on the shoulder of the axle.  I say produce... I did the CAD and then got the discs and rims CNC machined.  I did originally also get the axles turned in bulk, but the turn over of stock was slow in those far off days, so once the initial batch of axles had gone, it was not difficult to make up what axles I needed from bar stock.

 

I used to fit then sets together using the lathe as a very slow spinning press tool.  This allowed a wobble free fit.

 

The outfit in town does have a scrap bin but I've found it's really doesn't save that much. The scrap is sold by weight as is the stock material and there isn't such a big difference in price. But of course that might just be a local thing.

 

There was an outfit in California I used a while ago that was effectively a retail metal supplier. They had all sorts of pre-cut bars, tubes etc. You simply picked up the bits you wanted and took it to the counter where a cashier weighed it and took your money. Pretty much like going to Tesco

Edited October 6, 2021 by AndyID

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Corner of Ferry Road and Holmesdale street in Cardiff.

 

Grangetown has changed a lot since the 1940's.  The terraces of Holmesdale Street have been demolished and replaced with newer housing.

 

What we called the 'step houses' along Ferry Road are still extant.

 

In many cases rendering has concealed the ornate brickwork that these building were constructed with.

 

Funnily enough, this area was part of br2975's beat.

 

Edited October 6, 2021 by Happy Hippo

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, rockershovel said:

regarding WW2 bomb damage, it is still clearly visible in some areas of the UK, if you know the signs. There is, for example, an obvious infill building in Chiswick High Road (near Turnham Green station) where a bomb demolished a single house in a terrace. Plymouth town centre is now much changed, but the Charles Cross roundabout still features a burnt-out church as a memorial and the approaches to the Chain Ferry show an obvious pattern of infilled bomb sites. The inner suburbs of Coventry show similar patterns, in places. Cardiff, I don't know .... Liverpool is now so reconfigured that there is little left from that era. 

St.Lukes Church in Liverpool, left as a bombed-out shell and still used for some memorial services, is one of the more obvious signs of WW2-related damage.

[jamie92208]

A quick good moaning to one and all.  Off back to the hospital with Beth, however the day has a potential bonus.  The minor procedure that she's having will possibly take an hour or two and the hospital is close to the station.  I feel some trainspotting coming on.  It's an ill wind.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

St.Lukes Church in Liverpool, left as a bombed-out shell and still used for some memorial services, is one of the more obvious signs of WW2-related damage.

 

I used to walk past St. Luke's church every day on my way to and from grammar school in the City. At that time (late '50s / early '60s) there still seemed to be bomb sites all over Liverpool but compared with what was apparent in my very early days the process of redevelopment was getting well under way. It's just a pity that the 'architects' who were entrusted with the City's redesign at that time didn't seem concerned with looking after its heritage and were allowed to inflict what Prince Charles christened 'carbuncles' on the landscape.

 

The severity of damage to Liverpool was, I believe, grossly underplayed by the government during the blitz as it was deemed advisable not to let the Germans know just how much effect the raids were having on what was the major British port for receiving supplies crossing the Atlantic. The same understatement was, I am led to understand, applied for similar reasons to places such as Clydebank, Hull, Cardiff and other sites of critical importance.

 

Regarding Douglas' wheels dilemma, I would have thought that the easiest and most cost-effective option would be to purchase ready to roll items from Slaters, providing of course that they make suitable ones.

 

No news yet for us concerning 'flu or Covid booster vaccinations.

 

Dave

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

16 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Regarding Douglas' wheels dilemma, I would have thought that the easiest and most cost-effective option would be to purchase ready to roll items from Slaters, providing of course that they make suitable ones.

 

 

 

 

Since Douglas is building in 2" gauge, I don't think the Slaters wheels(which would be my go-to) are physically big enough.  I suspect that he's looking at Walsall's Gauge 1 collection to get something of sufficient diameter.

[Northroader]

On the jabs front, a couple of weeks ago the surgery texted “don’t ring us, we’ll ring you” then on top of that “delays due to distribution”. Then we got the ok to book flu jabs at the surgery, then email from the nhs to book Covid jabs, offering nearby places including Lyneham, which we did, then the surgery offered Covid jabs at the Memorial Hall, then the missus went to the surgery on another job and the nurse said I’ll do your flu jab while you’re here, and I must get my prostap jab before the end of the month as well, so there’s a lot of it about, are they on piecework?

Edited October 6, 2021 by Northroader

[Happy Hippo]

The Accucraft Ruby  that I was asked about last Saturday, will be arriving this coming Saturday for repairs to it's smokebox door. 

 

There are no suitable spares in the UK for this particular loco, although after a chat with  my old friend Dave down at Abbeybach Engineering, we came up with a simple solution.

 

I'd best get all the other partially finished jobs off the bench, especially the N gauge Hall!

[PhilJ W]

When I first visited Germany in the early 70's we stayed with our German hosts in Ludwigshafen opposite Mannheim on the river Rhine. Our host took us into the city a couple of times and pointed out a building that was pockmarked by shrapnel. This was the only building in central Mannheim that survived the allied bombing. I visited Gettysburg when I visited the US a few years later and there were several houses there that had evidence of the battle. Even that is recent compared to the Siege House in Colchester that still bears the scars of the English civil war.

Edited October 6, 2021 by PhilJ W

[Oldddudders]

Every year the French surgeon-general or whoever sends me a voucher for a flu jab, and this year is no different. The take-up date is from 26th October. Sadly I am booked on Eurostar back to the UK on 20th Oct - my first time on UK soil since 25th August 2020 - so I will be a bit late getting my jab. I expect to be back mid-November. Obviously while in the UK I can call into Boots or whoever, and pay for a jab, which I would do - but I know that would mean I'd never again get the offer in France. The form is in multiple parts - one for the dispensing pharmacy, one for the nurse who injects me. If those two parts don't end up back at paper-shuffle HQ I just know that will be that. 

 

Having rung my doctor for an appointment just before lunch on Friday, I was seen at 17.30 that afternoon. Cool, eh? The x-rays done early last week show several places with an elevated risk of fracture. Nice. She has given me a letter of introduction to a rheumatologist of my choice, so I chose Clinique du Pré in Le Mans, which despite its name is actually a large hospital with theatres etc, and rang them on Monday. I now have an appointment for 4th Feb next year.....

[Oldddudders]

4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

When I first visited Germany in the early 70's we stayed with our German hosts in Ludwigshafen opposite Mannheim on the river Rhine. 

At about the same time I managed to be on a train, probably from Köln, that called at Ludwigshafen, and I walked across to Mannheim and stayed overnight in the station hotel. Next day I caught a train - was it the Metropolitano? - onwards to Basel. Free and easy times. 

[simontaylor484]

6 hours ago, rockershovel said:

regarding WW2 bomb damage, it is still clearly visible in some areas of the UK, if you know the signs. There is, for example, an obvious infill building in Chiswick High Road (near Turnham Green station) where a bomb demolished a single house in a terrace. Plymouth town centre is now much changed, but the Charles Cross roundabout still features a burnt-out church as a memorial and the approaches to the Chain Ferry show an obvious pattern of infilled bomb sites. The inner suburbs of Coventry show similar patterns, in places. Cardiff, I don't know .... Liverpool is now so reconfigured that there is little left from that era. 

In Pontefract we have some war damage still evident English Civil war All saints church not far from me was hit by cannon fire. Part of the church was rebuilt inside the ruins but a lot of it is a smaller scale version of the old Coventry Cathedral.

Jamie will know it too

[simontaylor484]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And some cities looked better with the bomb damage than they do now that the "Architects" have worked their dubious magic.....

Unfortunately after the war there were several Architects who had utopian dreams or visions about how communities would live. The GLC employed quite a few of these architects such as Goldfinger who designed Trellick tower.as did other local authorities so we ended up with Park hill flats in Sheffield. 

 All was well until 

A) they were not maintained properly 

B) the councils started "dumping " louts on to the estates.

Then they became crime ridden warrens. 

Not withstanding that Brutalism is a marmite type of architecture 

 

[PhilJ W]

38 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

At about the same time I managed to be on a train, probably from Köln, that called at Ludwigshafen, and I walked across to Mannheim and stayed overnight in the station hotel. Next day I caught a train - was it the Metropolitano? - onwards to Basel. Free and easy times. 

Unfortunately we didn't travel by train but once we arrived there we hardly used the car but went everywhere by tram. There was, and is a very extensive metre gauge tramway system operated then by five different operators. It extended from Bad Durkheim in the west to Heidelberg in the south east with two lines to the north east into the Black Forest (Since joined to form a loop). The most interesting is the Rhein-Haart-Bahn that goes to Bad Durkheim. It starts out as a street tramway then becomes a twin track 'main line' with its own right of way through open country but when it came to some villages it reverted to street tramway often single track.* Like a cross between some of the Irish narrow gauge lines and the WCML. *Some my have since been bypassed.

 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Bad_Dürkheim–Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

 ...snip... Not withstanding that Brutalism is a marmite type of architecture 

 

I first read that as maritime.

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

The severity of damage to Liverpool was, I believe, grossly underplayed by the government during the blitz as it was deemed advisable not to let the Germans know just how much effect the raids were having on what was the major British port for receiving supplies crossing the Atlantic. The same understatement was, I am led to understand, applied for similar reasons to places such as Clydebank, Hull, Cardiff and other sites of critical importance.

Dave

 

 

Strangely  enough a quiz question last night was "Which was the most bombed city in the UK after London". I insisted that it was Liverpool against some opposition but persevered and we got a point.

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

In Pontefract we have some war damage still evident English Civil war All saints church not far from me was hit by cannon fire. Part of the church was rebuilt inside the ruins but a lot of it is a smaller scale version of the old Coventry Cathedral.

Jamie will know it too

Yes I had a mark on the tower pointed out to me where a cannon ball fell out of the wall some years ago. It was lucky that no one was standing below it at the time.  The cause of death would have been interesting and who would the ambulance chasets sue if it happenned today. Oliver C has already been dug up once.

 

Jamie

[bbishop]

31 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Strangely  enough a quiz question last night was "Which was the most bombed city in the UK after London". I insisted that it was Liverpool against some opposition but persevered and we got a point.

Yes I had a mark on the tower pointed out to me where a cannon ball fell out of the wall some years ago. It was lucky that no one was standing below it at the time.  The cause of death would have been interesting and who would the ambulance chasets sue if it happenned today. Oliver C has already been dug up once.

 

Jamie

Archbishop of York, presumably.  Bill

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Yes I had a mark on the tower

I initially concluded having not read further that you had in fact made said mark. I was not aware that the Midland Railway had any followers who fought in the English Civil War, although it may explain the move to France.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Northroader]

At Dunstable priory, the church door has  musket ball holes in it from when it was attacked in the Civil War.

[bbishop]

Guys, most of us learnt our British history from "1066 and all that", Douglas's primer is The Night Mail.  Bill

[Florence Locomotive Works]

3 minutes ago, bbishop said:

Guys, most of us learnt our British history from "1066 and all that", Douglas's primer is The Night Mail.  Bill

Fear not, my parents educated me on their own time in English history since technically I’m a citizen. Same for New Zealand. 

[Tony_S]

52 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

technically I’m a citizen.

Since the law changed in 1982 (I think) if Douglas  has a British born parent or grandparent he would find it easier to get a British passport than quite a few people born here in the UK after that date. I have no idea why when we wanted a first passport for Matthew the paperwork kept going back and forth as the passport office wanted more obscure details like the date and place of Aditi’s parents marriage. Matthew qualified as British just by my citizenship and ancestry. I think someone was being difficult. 

[jamie92208]

My brother had difficulty getting a US visa in 1967 as he was born when mybparents were working in eastern Nigeria, which was Biafra at the time, and my mother was born in Nina taal when my grandmother had been sentbup to thevhill station with the other memsahibs. She was usually pregnant in the summer.

 

Jamie