Castle Aching

[Killian keane]

Would I be correct in guessing the tender behind no. 20 is a new build?

[Edwardian]

Would I be correct in guessing the tender behind no. 20 is a new build?

 

Couldn't say, I'm afraid

 

 

The Mid Wales railway had some with the toolbox at the rear. The Cambrian had no toolbox on theirs but did absorb the Mid Wales railway later. The SS 6 wheel tenders were similar. I have a couple of each to build from Etches.

 

Don

 

Those supplied to the Lynn & Fakenham with the ex-CMR tanks (so also used with the 2-4-0 rebuilds) lacked the rear tool box, which is a pity, because I always find these sloping rear tool boxes at tender or bunker rear to be an attractive feature.

 

With the standard Sharp 2-4-0s and 0-6-0s, I have that option, however.

 

I note that there are no rivets marking the internal divisions on the Furness tender, as there are on the picture below.  It will also be seen that that there are two basic variations in the framing, with either a double or, as in the case of the EMR locos, single slot.  I rather prefer the two-slot variety, so, again, this is a variation I could use for the 2-4-0 and 0-6-0 Sharps in due course. Knuckles caters for both types of frames. 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Edwardian

[NeilHB]

Would I be correct in guessing the tender behind no. 20 is a new build?

Yes the tender is a new build. I recall it was at least partly assembled by one of the local colleges in Barrow, but will check the book that was produced about the restoration when I get home tonight to confirm.

[Les le Breton]

The good news is that smaller Lego ice-palaces are available ..... we've not got the whopper one.

 

The bad news is that, once a fitness regime enters the house, it is hard to survive unscathed. The disgusting grey semi-liquid stuff only lets up when it is replaced by disgusting green semi-liquid stuff.

 

I recommend cycling, because it is about the only pleasant form of outdoor exercise open to the middle-aged man, but, more importantly, a means of escape, and can easily be arranged so as to include interesting things like exploring the routes of long-closed, or never-actually-built, railways and tramways, and visits to rural tea shops.

Hi RMweb readers, I concur with most of this post.

 

My two grand-daughters have a number of small Lego ice palaces which they love; they are well designed, if you like that sort of thing.

As for a fitness regime, one can survive unscathed and fitter, if you find a regime which suits you. I have lost four stones over two years with the 5/2 diet.

 

I also recommend cycling. When the weather is fine, it is uplifting at many levels. However, with the ghastly weather inflicted on G.B. recently I have been grateful to use a gismo which enables me to use my bicycle indoors. It is much safer than slippery, potholed roads. I have my bike facing my layout, with headphones on. This juxta-positioning for an hour of cycling allows me to scribble ideas whilst pedalling. It is surprising how many revelations are found, good and bad, which help my railway modelling.

 

The hardest part of learning to ride a bike is the pavement.….Anon

[Nearholmer]

Yes, this winter-spring thing we’ve been having has rather cut my bike riding back ...... every week I think ‘next week’ for a decent ride, and every week some new variety of cr*p weather gets delivered to us. This week, as a change from Siberian blizzards, it seems to have rained continuously, and not in a good way.

 

Maybe next week The Real Spring will arrive.

[RedGemAlchemist]

Yes, this winter-spring thing we’ve been having has rather cut my bike riding back ...... every week I think ‘next week’ for a decent ride, and every week some new variety of cr*p weather gets delivered to us. This week, as a change from Siberian blizzards, it seems to have rained continuously, and not in a good way.

 

Maybe next week The Real Spring will arrive.

As someone who enjoys going for long walks in the countryside I can sympathise. Weather has been rather hit-or-miss here in mid-Norfolk.

Edited March 29, 2018 by RedGemAlchemist

[TheQ]

As someone who enjoys going for long walks in the countryside I can sympathise. Weather has been rather hit-or-miss here in mid-Norfolk.

With amount of rain and the beet lifting, it's slip or mess, on the road and paths here in North East Norfolk..

[corneliuslundie]

I can concur on the pleasures of cycling as long as one does not get mowed down or blown off the road by a massive 44 ton artic. Round here there are also a few hills which means that cycling, other than on he towpath, consists typically of an hour walking up hill pushing the bike followed by ten minutes freewheeling downhill. However, a rather nice run was from the top of the Kerry Ridgeway to Clun, downhill all the way, or at least no need to pedal. And Clun is a very nice place to arrive at. But the reason for the post is that two days later I visited the otherwise unknown (to me) Bog Visitor Centre. Before your imagination runs away with you, The Bog was a mining village on the west side of the Stiperstones, and the visitor centre celebrates that industry - including the Snailbeach District Railways (I know that is dangerously near to being on topic). Well worth a visit if you are in the area, and it is a very interesting area as a whole (even if it is over the border in England).

Jonathan

PS One of our club members has a very nice model of a small part of the SDR).

[Compound2632]

typically of an hour walking up hill pushing the bike followed by ten minutes freewheeling downhill. 

 

As a teenager, I went Youth Hostelling by bike a few times with my father - a keener cyclist than I... I recall cycling home from Bridges Youth Hostel, on the west side of the Long Mynd - pushing up to the top, then walking down to Church Stretton as our brakes weren't up to the descent. We must have got some pedalling in after that but the other bit I remember is pushing up the hill out of Bridgnorth. We'd probably pushed up Wenlock Edge too, but I don't remember that. My father had a talent for picking Youth Hostels at the top of long hills, though I'll admit the rain probably wasn't his fault.

[Hroth]

It is a wonderful idea!

 

Thank you

 

So, we have a fine stone neo-Jacobean station at Beal, built by the Newcastle and Berwick in 1847 and forming part of the ECML (http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/beal/), from which runs a short tram or Light Railway style branch to Holy Island.   

 

It could be and remain an independent line, like Easingwold or Nidd Valley, or feature NE equipment.

 

The big question is when is this branch built?  It could be anytime between 1847 and the early 1900s.  It is important to understand which, as this will determine the whole character of the line.

 

There might be a branch engine and a passenger shuttle from Beal to Holy Island, and, perhaps, mixed trains.  Given the orientation of the junction, might there also be through passenger services between Holy Island and Berwick?

 

I might even get away with a family expedition there (because not even the Memsahib would suspect a railway motivation!)

 

But I must get back to work!

Sorry to come back to this, but I've found it a very interesting proposition...

 

I see this as lurking in Col Stevens territory, like another example of his railway empire, the S&M with its terminus hard under the walls of Shrewsbury Abbey. This means that any old locos could end up on it...

 

 

Unlike modern sensibilities, the ancients never worried about getting close to historical fabric (like the Stephensons lopping the corner off Chester City Walls) so a station on Holy Island parked up against the Priory would have raised no eyebrows whatsoever.

 

Pondering onwards.....

[Compound2632]

Sorry to come back to this, but I've found it a very interesting proposition...

 

I see this as lurking in Col Stevens territory, like another example of his railway empire, the S&M with its terminus hard under the walls of Shrewsbury Abbey. This means that any old locos could end up on it...

 

shrewsbury abbey station small.jpg

 

Unlike modern sensibilities, the ancients never worried about getting close to historical fabric (like the Stephensons lopping the corner off Chester City Walls) so a station on Holy Island parked up against the Priory would have raised no eyebrows whatsoever.

 

Pondering onwards.....

 

Shrewsbury Abbey was an early victim of road development - Thomas Telford had much of the surviving Norman abbey buildings demolished to make way for the Holyhead Road in the 1830s - between the abbey and the station, in the photograph.

[Hroth]

Yes, when I visited Shrewsbury a few years ago, I was surprised how circumscribed the Abbey was.

 

The final gasp of the station was in the early 60's so I suppose the road-wideners of that era grasped the opportunity with both hands!

[Compound2632]

The carriage nearest the camera is presumably one of the NSR 4-compartment 4-wheeled composite carriages that arrived on the line sometime between 1915 and 1919, which may help date the photo. From the shape of the ducket, the third carriage could well be one of the two ex-Midland D529 4-wheeled brake vans, which Col. Stephens bought along with some elderly Midland bogie carriages when he re-opened the S&M in 1911.

[Caley Jim]

Unlike modern sensibilities, the ancients never worried about getting close to historical fabric (like the Stephensons lopping the corner off Chester City Walls) ........

Or the NER knocking a hole through York's city walls!

 

Jim

[corneliuslundie]

There is still the stone lectern from Shrewsbury Abbey refectory on the site of the former S&M station. There used to be a Cadfael Experience nearby but that has closed. And there are still a few building on that side of the road which may possibly be from the Abbey but they don't look much like it.

Now Shrewsbury station, that is something else.

Jonathan

[Hroth]

An impressive frontage.  A pity the LNWR rail approach wasn't as elegantly thought out.  The tight curve approaching Shrewsbury was a key factor in the wreck of the West of England Mail in October 1907*. The other key factor was the speed at which the train approached the curve!

 

* Always have a copy of Red For Danger to hand....

[RedGemAlchemist]

An impressive frontage.  A pity the LNWR rail approach wasn't as elegantly thought out.  The tight curve approaching Shrewsbury was a key factor in the wreck of the West of England Mail in October 1907*. The other key factor was the speed at which the train approached the curve!

 

* Always have a copy of Red For Danger to hand....

Yeah. The LNWR weren't exactly known for being careful route planners as far as memory serves...

[Northroader]

The one strange thing about Shrewsbury station frontage is that the upper two storeys were built first, the entrance awning is at the platform level. Then it was developed by being built downwards, with the forecourt being scooped out, and the lower storey being added below the other two.

Now, Jonathan mentioned the Snailbeach District this morning, permission to bore the pants off everyome, my captain, by putting this link in. Post 202. (More cycling round Shropshire, a long, long time ago)http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124063-tall-tales/page-9#ipboard_body

Edited March 30, 2018 by Northroader

[Northroader]

Yes, here we are, what it looked like soon after opening in 1848,then halfway through the job I described in 1901

[Nearholmer]

Fascinating.

 

I wonder what odds the betting office so prominently signed was offering on whether the whole facade would collapse.

 

EDIT: actually, maybe it say ‘booking office’.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Donw]

As a teenager, I went Youth Hostelling by bike a few times with my father - a keener cyclist than I... I recall cycling home from Bridges Youth Hostel, on the west side of the Long Mynd - pushing up to the top, then walking down to Church Stretton as our brakes weren't up to the descent. We must have got some pedalling in after that but the other bit I remember is pushing up the hill out of Bridgnorth. We'd probably pushed up Wenlock Edge too, but I don't remember that. My father had a talent for picking Youth Hostels at the top of long hills, though I'll admit the rain probably wasn't his fault.

 

There was/is a Youth Hostel in Widerhope Manor on the slope of the Wenlock Edge. We lived in Easthope nearby. At the time. Easthope had one bus a week giving you about an hour and a half in Bridgenorth. If the Car was off the road I would have to cycle into Much Wenlock requiring a steep climb up to the edge and down again at the other end. On a split turn I could cycle in walk about 5 miles at work cycle back for lunch and maybe a bit of building work before cycle back in driving 50 miles with frequent stops to get out before cycling back. 

 

Don

[RedGemAlchemist]

There was/is a Youth Hostel in Widerhope Manor on the slope of the Wenlock Edge. We lived in Easthope nearby. At the time. Easthope had one bus a week giving you about an hour and a half in Bridgenorth. If the Car was off the road I would have to cycle into Much Wenlock requiring a steep climb up to the edge and down again at the other end. On a split turn I could cycle in walk about 5 miles at work cycle back for lunch and maybe a bit of building work before cycle back in driving 50 miles with frequent stops to get out before cycling back. 

 

Don

Been across most of Europe and even to the US and Africa, but not been to a youth hostel. I don't know, I just don't trust the places.

Also I don't own a bike so as fun as this sounds I can't.

Edited March 31, 2018 by RedGemAlchemist

[Nearholmer]

The guys that amaze me are the ones that I call ‘wire men’, on account of them being made entirely of steel hawsers. These are old boys in their seventies and eighties who can still knock through a hundred miles, and happily plug away up those hills that used to be marked with two arrows on OS maps.

 

It’s totally humiliating to be overtaken, while puffing and groaning up a hill, by a bloke almost old enough to be your dad, who turns and gives a cheery ‘lovely morning for it!’ as he flashes by and disappears over the crest.

[corneliuslundie]

Wilderhope Manor is not just any old youth hostel

I stayed there a good many years ago. I am glad it is still open as I seem to have the kiss of death on youth hostels: I stay and then they close.

The hostel behind Long Mynd Bridges, actually in Ratlinghope)  is now private though still in the handbook. A very nice warden. I stayed there last summer.

I take the view with hills that it is an opportunity to exercise some different muscles. I see no point in struggling up a hill at 2 mph when I can walk at 3 mph using less effort.

Not quite sure how this fits in the Castle Aching thread unless our host intends including a youth hostel in the village/town. There are plenty of attractive buildings to choose from if one delves back into history. Or there could be the local cycling club assembled at a road junction looking at maps.

Jonathan

[Compound2632]

Not quite sure how this fits in the Castle Aching thread unless our host intends including a youth hostel in the village/town. There are plenty of attractive buildings to choose from if one delves back into history. Or there could be the local cycling club assembled at a road junction looking at maps.

 

No indeed - the YHA was founded in 1930. Edwardian lady cyclists? - quite properly not cycling on the station platform.