Castle Aching

[Hroth]

If I ever model Birchoverham next the Sea, I'll be sure to include a desirable seaside villa with 39 steps down to the sea .....

 

Perhaps that armada of flat-bottomed boats was bound for the Wash?

 

Perhaps there is a devilish plot to kidnap the King from Sandringham?

 

Perhaps I could be an Agent of a Foreign Power?

 

Perhaps Conrad Veidt could play me in the film version ...?

 

Oh dear, that whole division between fantasy and reality is becoming blurred again .... Nurse! 

 

With your luck, its more likely to be Peter Lorre......

[Regularity]

Honestly! Turn your back for an afternoon and this thread has moved on two pages!

Moved on, yes.

Moved forward? Perhaps.

 

Please note that I did not provide the photo.

Although I am not complaining about it.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Regularity

[Regularity]

Oh for Heaven's sake you chaps!

 

Oh, go on, then ...

  

Moving on: how's the wiring going?

I noticed the very brief time between these two posts.

 

Mr. Compound is not spending enough time genuflecting at the altar of our modern-day* vision of Aphrodite.

 

* Modern is relative. In this case, compared to the ancient Greeks**.

** Whatever that actually means.

[sem34090]

The alchemist of the parish was asking as to what SOS Junction is.

 

It is a rather unconventional thread under 'Layout topics' in which railways are mentioned even less than here... and Female Actresses rather more...

[Nearholmer]

C’est impossible!

 

PS: is it possible to be an actress without being female?

Edited April 3, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

On 03/04/2018 at 22:20, Regularity said:

Mr. Compound is not spending enough time genuflecting at the altar of our modern-day* vision of Aphrodite.

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Compound2632
image re-inserted

[sem34090]

LBSCR Fanatics were spending too much time drooling over 'Jenny Lind':

[Hroth]

"The Swedish Nightingale"

 

A sort of 19th Century version of the dark one in Abba.......

[Nearholmer]

Have any of you folks seen the “Greatest Showman” film, about P T Barnum? Even if not, you’ve probably heard the song that Jenny Lind sings in it, perhaps without knowing that it supposed to be she, because it gets a lot of play on the radio at the moment.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ9pHBEUWPo

 

The film is quite good if you dismiss from your head any idea that it might be an accurate and nuanced documentary, well before watching it. HM Queen Victoria figures in it too, but see previous sentence.

 

PS: the actress isn’t doing the singing, the voice is dubbed and is a singer who won a US TV talent show (or something like that ..... you can google it)

Edited April 3, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Regularity]

4-4-0_Midland_Beatrice_1757.jpg

Nice curves...

[Compound2632]

LBSCR Fanatics were spending too much time drooling over 'Jenny Lind':

 

 

A great success on the North Midland too. 

[Killian keane]

LBSCR Fanatics were spending too much time drooling over 'Jenny Lind':

Whilst others drool over her brother, the Earl of Oxford, I however enjoy Jenny's long wheelbase

[Compound2632]

Sem, I do wish you'd learn how to compress jpegs before posting - I'm having difficulty taking the Swedish Nightingale in in one go.

 

As to the Swan of Avon, Paul Merton summed up the supposed authorship controversy very simply: snobbery. Some people are just unable to accept that the greatest works in the English language were written by someone who spoke with a West Midland accent.

 

Lily Langtry, anyone?

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Compound2632
image re-inserted

[Donw]

C’est impossible!

 

PS: is it possible to be an actress without being female?

 

 

Almost certainly in these days when it seems acceptable in some quarters to be legally whatever sex you want. In 1903 I could imagine some serious subterfuge would be needed.

 

Don

[Edwardian]

I blame the Daily Mail (and who wouldn't?)

 

The serialisation by the Daily Mail in 1906 of "The Invasion of 1910", commissioned by Alfred Harmsworth (a name to conjour with!) and written by that inveterate invasion threat author William Le Queux built up "mass alarm" by dressing the Mails London newspaper vendors as Prussian soldiers complete with pickelhaube helmet and placards showing maps of where the 'troops' would be next day.  It definitely made lots of money for Le Queux!

 

Perhaps one of the "target" towns could be Castle Aching? 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invasion_of_1910

 

The only thing you need to know about the Daily Hate is that it supported the BUF in the 1930s.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, it is an organ that plays to the worst instincts of the readership, generally by stoking its readers' sense fear and outrage and then presenting them with a convenient scapegoat. I apologise to any Mail readers in the parish, but, really, it can only poison your soul in the long run, so you should stop reading it now! 

 

Judging from the Christopher Andrew book I mentioned, even by the amateur standards of the Edwardian secret service, William Le Queux seems to have gained a surprising degree of credibility and influence in such government circles.

 

 

 

Excellent!

 

Here another one for the fans of Edwardian spy stories http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5815/5815-h/5815-h.htm#link2HCH0001

 

The only worrying thing about all this “there’s an east wind coming” stuff is that it seems rather too relevant right now.

 

 

Read that!  Really, really enjoyed it.  I think I have confessed before that I have a weakness for "shockers" of the Bulldog Drummond and Richard Hannay variety. This one is actually quite a decent bit of novel-writing and well worth a read.  Perplexingly, until the truth is revealed, there is also a potentially supernatural Hound of the Baskervilles -type strain that runs through it, in addition to all the glorious 'pluck in the face of the dastardly Hun' stuff.

 

Which brings us to Holmes and his east wind.  Well, it blew into Salisbury, didn't it?  

 

For all that 99% of spy fiction will only ever be complete tosh, every so often, some malign force will introduce a poisoned umbrella tip or a nerve agent attack that will keep the thriller writers going for another decade.

 

Judging from the Andrew's book, for all that 99% of espionage is undoubtedly totally unremarkable and no doubt deeply dull, the 1% is so bizarre that you couldn't make it up!  

[Edwardian]

With your luck, its more likely to be Peter Lorre......

 

Oh, I don't know, that's not too bad ...

 

"Ah, Mr Bond, we have been expecting you ..."

[Donw]

Many years ago I was working with a team on certain circuits. There was a call out but as the circuit involved didn't have priority status and the fault was not simple it was pegged out to be sorted in the morning. Out of the blue the team leader was invited to a pub lunch by what turned out to be a US Colonel. Apparently the circuit involved was actually used to control US forces in Germany but that information was deemed too secret to tell anyone. It had been decided that the colonel should 'leak' the information to the engineers as it would take too long to vet the and the vetting would probably rule them out!

Nearly as good was the chap I spoke to on the phone. I had called to advise that a certain would be interrupted during a cable swap out. How did you get this number he demanded it is a secret. Avoiding the obvious remark 'Not to me' I explained it was there for engineers to advise of a problem. After some discussion in which he revealed it involved the control of our nuclear subs it was clear there was a back up circuit so despite his objections I advised the circuit would swapped over that morning and ended the call.

 

Don

[Edwardian]

Many years ago I was working with a team on certain circuits. There was a call out but as the circuit involved didn't have priority status and the fault was not simple it was pegged out to be sorted in the morning. Out of the blue the team leader was invited to a pub lunch by what turned out to be a US Colonel. Apparently the circuit involved was actually used to control US forces in Germany but that information was deemed too secret to tell anyone. It had been decided that the colonel should 'leak' the information to the engineers as it would take too long to vet the and the vetting would probably rule them out!

Nearly as good was the chap I spoke to on the phone. I had called to advise that a certain would be interrupted during a cable swap out. How did you get this number he demanded it is a secret. Avoiding the obvious remark 'Not to me' I explained it was there for engineers to advise of a problem. After some discussion in which he revealed it involved the control of our nuclear subs it was clear there was a back up circuit so despite his objections I advised the circuit would swapped over that morning and ended the call.

 

Don

 

Our lives in your hands, Don!

[Edwardian]

Oops, cross-topic contamination again: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130022-secr-traffic-on-the-tonbridge-cut-off/?p=3114569

 

But, apropos discussion of Sir Edward Watkin's scheme for a channel tunnel, there is an espionage scare angle: https://invasionscares.wordpress.com/page/3/

[Nearholmer]

Yes, ‘the great impersonation’ is well-written isn’t it? And Norfolk too.

 

A footnote about Jenny Lind: Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Snow Queen after she cold-shouldered him, so, indirectly, we get two ‘small girl singalong’ films, and a load of Lego Crystal Palace’s from one opera singer.

[Regularity]

Sem, I do wish you'd learn how to compress jpegs before posting - I'm having difficulty taking the Swedish Nightingale in in one go.

I would like to go on record as not having risen (descended?) to this one.

As to the Swan of Avon, Paul Merton summed up the supposed authorship controversy very simply: snobbery. Some people are just unable to accept that the greatest works in the English language were written by someone who spoke with a West Midland accent.

 

Also, several bawdy/rude jokes only work if delivered in such an accent!

Which if they had told us at school, would have made it more fun.

Lily Langtry, anyone?

Oh yes.

Played by Francesca Annis: another lovely leading lady.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Regularity

[Nearholmer]

Re: Lillie Langtry.

 

Just struck me while about other business that there is a dead easy way to get a Jersey Lillie onto any layout set in the late C19th to early C20th: she appeared in zillions of Pear’s Soap adverts, so you can put a poster on your station.

 

She led a quite amazing life, total counterpoint to Lind’s amazing life, and I think a good way to find out about her would be to buy a biography, and go and read it in the pub named after her that is right outside West Brompton station. It used to be a bit of a sticky-carpet place, but it’s been fancied-up in the past few years. The Underground station there is nearly pure C19th, much less altered than most, so gives a good flavour of the Met/District before electrification, and Brompton Cemetry, also next door, is interesting too.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Nearholmer

[webbcompound]

Almost certainly in these days when it seems acceptable in some quarters to be legally whatever sex you want. In 1903 I could imagine some serious subterfuge would be needed.

 

Don

Or indeed Edwardian times. This is F.Scott Fitzgerald in 1916 starring in a college musical.

[Edwardian]

Or indeed Edwardian times. This is F.Scott Fitzgerald in 1916 starring in a college musical.

1910-F.-Scott-Fitzgerald-Retronaut.jpg

 

Cross dressing certainly could lead to confusion in those days ....  

[DonB]

Many years ago as a 20-something year old, I applied for a job within the UK atomic authority. A first interview went OK, and couple of days later I was met at the works gate by a couple of smartly dressed men who introduced themselves as "National Security" quizzed me on my political leanings, and disappeared. I was offered the job a couple of days later. Got knocked off my Motor bike a week or so later and although the job was held open for me for 3 months, I was hospitalised for 6 months and lost a well paid job..

 

An erstwhile neighbour bought a S/H LandRover through an advert in Autotrader, about 6/7 years ago. It arrived on a flat-bed truck from a dealer in Ipswich. Followed the next day by a visit from a guy from "Special Branch", The vehicle was previously registered to the Royal Household !

 

There is a Lily Langtry lounge in the Christopher Hotel in Eton high street, just over the river bridge from Windsor Castle. I wonder why she chose to stay there?