Wright writes.....

[Atso]

2 hours ago, JamieR4489 said:

Good evening Tony,

 

I thought you might like to see my latest engine. The LRM D2 I showed a few months ago.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

 

Lovely work Jamie and nice work on the lining! 

[Willie Whizz]

On 28/05/2020 at 22:46, Northmoor said:

1st paragraph; I absolutely agree.

2nd paragraph; everything I have read about Thompson suggests he had none of the interpersonal skills to manage and more importantly, to LEAD a large team of people.  People will do things for a good Leader even though they might disagree with them.

I have worked for good Leaders who devolved authority to good Managers and also for some good Managers who would never have been good Leaders.

 

That, I think, demonstrates the difference between ‘management ‘ and ‘leadership’ - a good leader can often persuade people to do things they’d rather not, and do them well. If a manager who is no leader alienates his team, no amount of laying down the law will ever get better than mediocre results. Thompson clearly had the right credentials for the job, but his leadership skills were presumably too weak to overcome the resistance his appointment generated and win his colleagues round. 

[Tony Wright]

Last two from the 'far side' for today.......

 

 

Class A1 60128 BONGRACE (DJH/WRight/Rathbone) has charge of the Up 'Yorkshire Pullman'. There is coal in the tender, honestly. 

 

Because the lighting isn't as strong on this side (I'm hard against the Down kick-back sidings getting these shots), then, even with pulses of fill-in flash, the pictures are a bit 'flat' compared with what I'd normally expect. In some ways, they're almost contre jour, which is not a feature I have much time for. That said, I think they do illustrate details which are normally unseen by visitors, and I'll try some more in due course.

 

Finding new angles to illustrate the railway is becoming more difficult, and I don't want to bore folk with repetition.

 

Any ideas, please? 

[JCL]

7 hours ago, PJT said:

 

Yes, but if we're playing by the Yorkshire Variation Rules, then surely you must be in Nidd at the moment.

 

Pete T.

 

I’ve learnt something today. I always thought it was nip.

[Tony Wright]

12 minutes ago, Willie Whizz said:

 

That, I think, demonstrates the difference between ‘management ‘ and ‘leadership’ - a good leader can often persuade people to do things they’d rather not, and do them well. If a manager who is no leader alienates his team, no amount of laying down the law will ever get better than mediocre results. Thompson clearly had the right credentials for the job, but his leadership skills were presumably too weak to overcome the resistance his appointment generated and win his colleagues round. 

I think it's widely accepted, even by those who have sympathy with Thompson, that his 'people' skills were very limited. 

 

It's on record that his dealings with union members were often fraught with tension.

 

It's also interesting that he fragmented Gresley's team on attaining the post of CME, scattering some to far-flung places on the LNER. Interestingly, Peppercorn brought them back together after ET's retirement. 

 

It's been discussed on this thread time and time again, and the for/against camps are probably too entrenched now. Most authors have not been too kind to ET, and his big engine legacy was to produce the poorest Pacifics ever to be built for the LNER. Perhaps it's best to remember him for the B1 - arguably, and certainly at the time, the most-useful all-round loco the LNER ever had.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

[Atso]

10 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I don't want to bore folk with repetition.

 

Not possible Tony. Little Bytham is an exceptional layout, please keep the photos coming; it provides me with endless inspiration.

[Tony Wright]

1 minute ago, Atso said:

 

Not possible Tony. Little Bytham is an exceptional layout, please keep the photos coming; it provides me with endless inspiration.

That's very kind of you, Steve,

 

I'll have a think what future pictures I can take. Anything you'd particularly like? 

 

One thing I am noticing is that, even though there might be 50+ trains to take pictures of, and near 200 locos, repetition naturally occurs. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[t-b-g]

17 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

That's very kind of you, Steve,

 

I'll have a think what future pictures I can take. Anything you'd particularly like? 

 

One thing I am noticing is that, even though there might be 50+ trains to take pictures of, and near 200 locos, repetition naturally occurs. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Perhaps you should ration us! Even with a layout with the scope and size of Little Bytham, a creative photographer and all that stock, eventually you will reach the stage where you will take a view and think "Have I already done that one?" If you put one photo a day on, instead of 6 or 8, then it will be a lot longer before you run out of new angles or trains to show us.

 

I don't know if that is a sensible idea or not but I will put it up for discussion!

[dibateg]

I was experimenting today with my camera ( whatever it is! ) and tried some low level shots to see what they would look like. Forgive the clutter and lack of any backscene - I'm still track laying and none of it is wired up yet. I shall put up something for a backscene once the track is tested and running. This would be the view looking up from Vernon Road although the down platform would be in the way of the wagons on the right...

 

The tipplers are nearly all ABS and you might be aware that Adrian Swain sadly passed away very recently. Apart from the curious drawing pin buffers, all of the ABS kits I've come across consisted of very well crafted white metal castings.

 

 

I have along long way to go to get anywhere near the quality of Bytham, and probably will never get there, but at least it will be fun trying.

 

 

I originally designed the layout to come to pieces, but for certain parts it is just not practicable to do so as several turnouts will straddle board joins and I've been agonising over various solutions.. I had to call on the expertise and highly regarded opinion of 'er indoors.  'Why would you ever need to take it to pieces? - Don't over think it and just do it!' I can think of many layouts that are not designed to come to pieces.. looks like I am joining them...

 

Oh yes - and I do remember those big cameras Tony - especially the one  'Yoom could be a spy with that! '

 

Regards

Tony

 

 

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

Has anyone else experienced this rubber

degradation with recent-ish consumer products?

I've experienced exactly that with a pair of binoculars (cheapish) and a head lamp (very cheap). I just put it down to the eternal price/cost/value triangle and chucked them away.

[St Enodoc]

17 hours ago, PJT said:

 

Yes, but if we're playing by the Yorkshire Variation Rules, then surely you must be in Nidd at the moment.

 

Pete T.

 

 

10 hours ago, JCL said:

I’ve learnt something today. I always thought it was nip.

I'd cleverly avoided Nip but overlooked that we were playing the Yorkshire Variation, so inadvertently found myself in Nidd.

Edited June 1, 2020 by St Enodoc

[robmcg]

7 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I think it's widely accepted, even by those who have sympathy with Thompson, that his 'people' skills were very limited. 

 

It's on record that his dealings with union members were often fraught with tension.

 

It's also interesting that he fragmented Gresley's team on attaining the post of CME, scattering some to far-flung places on the LNER. Interestingly, Peppercorn brought them back together after ET's retirement. 

 

It's been discussed on this thread time and time again, and the for/against camps are probably too entrenched now. Most authors have not been too kind to ET, and his big engine legacy was to produce the poorest Pacifics ever to be built for the LNER. Perhaps it's best to remember him for the B1 - arguably, and certainly at the time, the most-useful all-round loco the LNER ever had.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

 

Were not his O1 2-8-0 rebuilds more highly favoured by crews at Annesley than the 8Fs which replaced them?

 

Just a thought.

Edited June 1, 2020 by robmcg
typo

[great central]

3 hours ago, robmcg said:

 

Were not his O1 2-8-0 rebuilds more highly favoured by crews at Annesley than the 8Fs which replaced them?

 

Just a thought.

 

I seem to remember reading something like that somewhere, but given the way that Annesley and the GC in general was treated after the dark side took over it's no real surprise. 

Some of the O1s were condemned only a few weeks after shopping according to Yeadon, and as for the Royal Scots imposed on the depot.......

If you've not seen it before there's a whole heap of photos and stories about the place and line here

http://www.annesleyfireman.com/

In the last week or so I've found a bit of time to walk in the country park created on the former pit tips and marshalling yards, it's quite surreal to think how it would have been 60 years ago.

[Tony Wright]

3 hours ago, robmcg said:

 

Were not his O1 2-8-0 rebuilds more highly favoured by crews at Annesley than the 8Fs which replaced them?

 

Just a thought.

Good morning Rob,

 

Probably, but that might be down to partisanship more than anything else. Annesley was an ex-LNER shed, so interlopers from a rival railway would be viewed with suspicion. Anyway, both those 2-8-0 classes paled into 'insignificance' when the 9Fs arrived. The O1s on the Tyne Dock-Consett run suffered the same fate. 

 

Railway history is littered with locos being loved at some sheds and the same type being loathed at others. The Brits are a case in point; anywhere on the ex-GE thought them the best steam locos they'd ever had, yet anywhere on the ex-GW (with the exception of Canton) hated them.

 

Ex-LNWR sheds didn't like the Midland 2Ps, yet ex-G&SWR sheds drove the pants off them! 

 

Occasionally, locos arriving from elsewhere were viewed with deep suspicion, until their true capabilities became known - the double chimney A3s on the Settle and Carlisle, for instance - then it was realised how much better they were than that which had gone before. The opposite, of course, could be true - the Scots on the ex-GC for example. Granted, they were run-down and life-expired by this time. The LMS Black Fives did better. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Atso]

10 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

That's very kind of you, Steve,

 

I'll have a think what future pictures I can take. Anything you'd particularly like? 

 

One thing I am noticing is that, even though there might be 50+ trains to take pictures of, and near 200 locos, repetition naturally occurs. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

The only thing I can think of to suggest is to maybe experiment with a mirror or two to get even closer to ground perspective. I appreciate that this would probably cause new problems in taking photographs of models. 

[Tony Wright]

9 hours ago, dibateg said:

I was experimenting today with my camera ( whatever it is! ) and tried some low level shots to see what they would look like. Forgive the clutter and lack of any backscene - I'm still track laying and none of it is wired up yet. I shall put up something for a backscene once the track is tested and running. This would be the view looking up from Vernon Road although the down platform would be in the way of the wagons on the right...

 

The tipplers are nearly all ABS and you might be aware that Adrian Swain sadly passed away very recently. Apart from the curious drawing pin buffers, all of the ABS kits I've come across consisted of very well crafted white metal castings.

 

 

I have along long way to go to get anywhere near the quality of Bytham, and probably will never get there, but at least it will be fun trying.

 

 

I originally designed the layout to come to pieces, but for certain parts it is just not practicable to do so as several turnouts will straddle board joins and I've been agonising over various solutions.. I had to call on the expertise and highly regarded opinion of 'er indoors.  'Why would you ever need to take it to pieces? - Don't over think it and just do it!' I can think of many layouts that are not designed to come to pieces.. looks like I am joining them...

 

Oh yes - and I do remember those big cameras Tony - especially the one  'Yoom could be a spy with that! '

 

Regards

Tony

 

 

Good morning Tony,

 

You say that you have a long way to go to match the 'quality' of Little Bytham, but that's only in time. 

 

A fair bit of what runs on Little Bytham was built by you, anyway, and (if I may be so bold?) the standard of your modelling in O Gauge is higher than it was in OO. So, by the time you've finished your layout, I'd venture to state that it'll be of higher quality than LB, at least with regard to locos and rolling stock.

 

Another significant factor is that you're doing all yours yourself. LB was built by a team (of which you've been part); a highly-skilled team at that. OK, a team working together, pooling abilities and trading those skills in the main, but still a group effort. I have the greatest admiration for those who do it all themselves. 

 

Yes, the wedding 'incident'. I was taking pictures of a friend's wedding, using a Pentax 6X7 (as I always did for weddings) and one of the guests thought I was into espionage. 'Yo'm (I think that's right - the West Midlands' equivalent of you are) a spy!' brought absolute hoots of laughter. It would be difficult to find a less-suitable camera for spying.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

8 minutes ago, Atso said:

 

The only thing I can think of to suggest is to maybe experiment with a mirror or two to get even closer to ground perspective. I appreciate that this would probably cause new problems in taking photographs of models. 

That's a thought. Then, flip the image in Photoshop. 

 

I'll see what can be done, but it might be wise to limit the number of pictures I post. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

10 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

Perhaps you should ration us! Even with a layout with the scope and size of Little Bytham, a creative photographer and all that stock, eventually you will reach the stage where you will take a view and think "Have I already done that one?" If you put one photo a day on, instead of 6 or 8, then it will be a lot longer before you run out of new angles or trains to show us.

 

I don't know if that is a sensible idea or not but I will put it up for discussion!

It's probably a very sensible idea, Tony.

 

The number of pictures I've taken of LB has increased considerably because of lockdown; there has just been more time, even though I've been squeezing-out locos at a much-greater rate as well. Has this reached saturation point then? 

 

Of course, when I set up for photography, it's pointless taking just one picture. So, I end up with several. It's the same when they're processed - it's wise to do several at the same time, having 'boiled up the chemicals'. 

 

Anyway, this is the last picture taken using my latest 'gadget'.

 

 

Class A1 60146 PEREGRINE (Crownline/Wright/Haynes) heads the morning Hull/York combined express. 

 

The picture for the day, then.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[CUTLER2579]

Tony, your remark about being thought of as a Spy reminded me of the Lady in "Roy 34F's" local Newsagents/Sub Post office. she kept insisting that I was a Russian ( I have a Peckham style /London accent) as you know.

The Royal Mail changed their rules on the contents of parcels and staff had to ask about the contents of said parcels.

I jokingly said it contained "Semtex" and my dear Lady went into panic mode and told Stu who runs the Post Office. Eventually the calm of a village Post office returned, but the next time I went in I asked her if she could help poor Russian visitor who's english is not very good in a poor attempt at speaking Russian. She told her colleuge Allison I was the brother of the Russian and we looked so alike we could be twins..

The funny thing is she used to own the local grocery store and served me in there umpteen times. Roy, if you read this   just ask her about her Russian Spy next time your in there.

Edited June 1, 2020 by CUTLER2579
Add comment.

[Headstock]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Rob,

 

Probably, but that might be down to partisanship more than anything else. Annesley was an ex-LNER shed, so interlopers from a rival railway would be viewed with suspicion. Anyway, both those 2-8-0 classes paled into 'insignificance' when the 9Fs arrived. The O1s on the Tyne Dock-Consett run suffered the same fate. 

 

Railway history is littered with locos being loved at some sheds and the same type being loathed at others. The Brits are a case in point; anywhere on the ex-GE thought them the best steam locos they'd ever had, yet anywhere on the ex-GW (with the exception of Canton) hated them.

 

Ex-LNWR sheds didn't like the Midland 2Ps, yet ex-G&SWR sheds drove the pants off them! 

 

Occasionally, locos arriving from elsewhere were viewed with deep suspicion, until their true capabilities became known - the double chimney A3s on the Settle and Carlisle, for instance - then it was realised how much better they were than that which had gone before. The opposite, of course, could be true - the Scots on the ex-GC for example. Granted, they were run-down and life-expired by this time. The LMS Black Fives did better. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Good morning Tony,

 

it wasn't down to partisanship. When the Annesley men first heard that they were getting 8F's, they thought that they were getting a good deal, thinking that the Stannier locomotives were newer than the O4 rebuilds. To their surprise, the 8F's proved inferior in a number of respects to the O1, that made them not such good candidates for the Annesley Woodford runners. The consensus was that turn round time was double that of the O1and that the 8F gobbled coal and water, made worse when trying to run fast. They could pull as well as the O1, once you got them going, but they were less sure-footed, leading to slipping when trying to start or accelerate a heavy load to maintain time. The O1's steam brake seems to have given them an advantage over the 8F in stopping a fast heavy train, in the original trials, they were the only locomotive to do so from speed within section. The exacting working conditions of the Annesley Woodford runners found a lot of locomotives wanting. Prior to the introduction of the much larger 9F's, only the Thompson O1 successfully met all the needs of the service.

 

P.S. The 8F's came to Annesley some years after the 9F's. The Royal Scots were universally detested, due mostly to their poor condition.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Headstock
O1 not 01 replace tests with trials

[thegreenhowards]

11 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

That's very kind of you, Steve,

 

I'll have a think what future pictures I can take. Anything you'd particularly like? 

 

One thing I am noticing is that, even though there might be 50+ trains to take pictures of, and near 200 locos, repetition naturally occurs. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Tony,

 

Not really a different viewpoint, but you could try making up some new formations. You have always said that your sequence is a small snapshot of the daily traffic and that works for your normal modus operandi of running through the full sequence with visitors. But while in lockdown, you could have a go at creating some of the other (several 100?) trains which would have run through Little Bytham on a typical day. This could either be trying to recreate a particular photo at LB (as you have done before, but with some different trains) or just trying to recreate some new realistic formations.

 

Andy

[Denbridge]

12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Last two from the 'far side' for today.......

 

 

Class A1 60128 BONGRACE (DJH/WRight/Rathbone) has charge of the Up 'Yorkshire Pullman'. There is coal in the tender, honestly. 

 

Because the lighting isn't as strong on this side (I'm hard against the Down kick-back sidings getting these shots), then, even with pulses of fill-in flash, the pictures are a bit 'flat' compared with what I'd normally expect. In some ways, they're almost contre jour, which is not a feature I have much time for. That said, I think they do illustrate details which are normally unseen by visitors, and I'll try some more in due course.

 

Finding new angles to illustrate the railway is becoming more difficult, and I don't want to bore folk with repetition.

 

Any ideas, please? 

I could never tire of seeing such wonderful pictures. They are always a joy, More so in these troubling times. Please keep them coming.

[James Fitzjames]

12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

One thing I am noticing is that, even though there might be 50+ trains to take pictures of, and near 200 locos, repetition naturally occurs. 

I, for one, don't think there's a problem with repetition, even were it to be noticed. Viewing pictures of LB has become part of my Lockdown routine.

[Tony Wright]

37 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Tony,

 

Not really a different viewpoint, but you could try making up some new formations. You have always said that your sequence is a small snapshot of the daily traffic and that works for your normal modus operandi of running through the full sequence with visitors. But while in lockdown, you could have a go at creating some of the other (several 100?) trains which would have run through Little Bytham on a typical day. This could either be trying to recreate a particular photo at LB (as you have done before, but with some different trains) or just trying to recreate some new realistic formations.

 

Andy

It's a possibility, Andy,

 

And one I haven't given much thought to. 

 

As you suggest, I could look at prototype shots (I've used all those up at LB itself), and attempt to make-up the sets shown in those. 

 

However, one thing I heartily dislike is the repeated handling of stock. In the days when much of Bytham's stock went out to exhibitions to run on Stoke Summit or Charwelton, on return (despite its being very sturdily-made), there'd usually be a knocked-off detail (bogie footboards being particularly vulnerable, even those soldered in place). This was an inevitable consequence of exhibiting, and accepted as a tiny price to pay for having had so much fun.

 

Grated, there wouldn't be much 'transportation' involved in my shuffling stock around on LB, so I might do it. 

 

Of course, many of the trains are 'dedicated'; that is built-up to represent an actual formation, complete with carriage destination boards. Muddling those up might be fun. 

 

Anyway, I'm diverting my attention in the next week or two to more loco-building.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

[jacko]

16 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

. Oddly enough, I

also had it happen with a pair of guitar stands which had rubbery claws to grip the neck. It turns out that it wasn't me, or anythin

 

 

 

I'm willing to bet these were Hercules stands. I had an identical problem with two of my Bass stands. Hercules replaced them under warranty as they admitted they had used a bad batch of rubber - the bassist forums were flooded with angry comment at the time. One or two folk still turn up with the problem but I believe it's too late now to make a claim.

 

Graeme