Castle Aching

[Michael Crofts]

14 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

Also, according to my late mother, who was a child in Maidstone before WW1, it was not unusual for small urban dairies to keep cows in a yard at the back of the premises, presumably fed on hay.

One memory leads to another. Before milk was "homogenised" one could tell when cows had left their winter quarters and feed and were out in the pastures eating the first flush of spring grass. The bit of cream on the top of the milk was fatter and there was more of it, some days it was thicker than single cream. Yum! I do hope the person who invented semi-skimmed homogenised milk spends their time in purgatory trying to drink the stuff while watching the chosen few enjoying the real thing.

I like the engine shed.

[Matloughe]

9 hours ago, Michael Crofts said:

One memory leads to another. Before milk was "homogenised" one could tell when cows had left their winter quarters and feed and were out in the pastures eating the first flush of spring grass. The bit of cream on the top of the milk was fatter and there was more of it, some days it was thicker than single cream. Yum! I do hope the person who invented semi-skimmed homogenised milk spends their time in purgatory trying to drink the stuff while watching the chosen few enjoying the real thing.

I like the engine shed.

I must be a wierdo, brought up on Semi-Skimmed "Green Milk" as we called it. Whenever we have to buy Full-Fat "Blue Milk" I always complain that I am chewing my milk with the difference in texture. My partner is partial to some "Gold Topped" Milk occasionally and its so thick it turns my stomach!

For those who might not be aware, the colours I describe the milk as refer to the coloured tops of the bottle or labels - I'm sure everyone knows that but just in case things are done differently elsewhere in the world. I didn't want people to think I was drinking Blue Milk like Blue Cheese! 😁

Kind Regards,
Gary

[Nearholmer]

I’ve bored with this before, but I can’t stomach full-fat milk, probably because we were compelled to drink the blasted stuff every day at school, after it had spent a good hour or two sitting in a crate next to a boiling-hot radiator. Truly vile!

 

I will use, as in coffee or on muesli, semi-skimmed milk, but even that I’m suspicious of. I periodically get in trouble for “throwing out perfectly good milk”, which to me tastes in the first stages of “off”.

[Edwardian]

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I’ve bored with this before, but I can’t stomach full-fat milk, probably because we were compelled to drink the blasted stuff every day at school, after it had spent a good hour or two sitting in a crate next to a boiling-hot radiator. Truly vile!

 

I will use, as in coffee or on muesli, semi-skimmed milk, but even that I’m suspicious of. I periodically get in trouble for “throwing out perfectly good milk”, which to me tastes in the first stages of “off”.

I enjoy drinking milk - but only when it's ice-cold, for the same reason as you, Kevin.

 

Did yours come in those little 1/3 pint bottles?

[ianathompson]

13 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I’ve bored with this before, but I can’t stomach full-fat milk, probably because we were compelled to drink the blasted stuff every day at school, after it had spent a good hour or two sitting in a crate next to a boiling-hot radiator. Truly vile!

 

"You were lucky!", to quote Monty Python.

Ours was left outside, even during the Winter, and was often given to us frozen solid!

I must admit that I was never overly keen on drinking the stuff in the summer when it had been standing in the sun for a couple of hours.

 

On the other side of the coin I was sent to the Parish Church school which would now be called a deprived inner city school.

Most of the kid's families struggled to cope so they probably saw the milk as a good thing.

 

Ian T

[monkeysarefun]

13 hours ago, ianathompson said:

Ours was left outside, even during the Winter, and was often given to us frozen solid!

I must admit that I was never overly keen on drinking the stuff in the summer when it had been standing in the sun for a couple of hours

On Sydney's  summer days our crates were left in a lightly shaded spot until the 1000HR  drinking time. 

 

We also had to pledge allegiance to the Queen and salute the flag every morning. None of that "God Save the Queen The Fascist Regime!......No Future!!" stuff of the time  for us down here. 

[Donw]

I remember being offered tea by a countrywoman.  I'm sorry about the milk she said the cows have been turned onto the mangles. At infants school in the winter the frozen milk was put by the radiator to thaw and curdle.

 

Don

[Edwardian]

The Borrows type.

 

Well, the Peckett chassis is not going to work:

 

 

Nevertheless, I shall see Brother Schooner right over the chassis because I will retain it for a future project. The one shown is that used for the Neilson Box tank, but the spare Peckett can now one day be Percy!  

 

So, back to the Pug chassis it was designed for. The Peckett wheel swop does not seem as straightforward as advertised. 

 

[Schooner]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

not as straightforward as advertised

 

For planning purposes, I've found this also applies to the Neilson Box body.

 

Correct buffer centreline is the inside edge of the lower set.

 

Trying to match photos for overall impression has required some surgery to both shell and chassis.

 

Experiments continue. Will share useful learnings if any turn up!

 

 

[Edwardian]

I suspect mine does not sit so low as yours. I trimmed the black plastic on the motor mount down to the height of the motor and took a little off the inside of the tank top.

 

The main surgery, however, was in making the body sit further forward so that the smoke box was better aligned with the cylinders.

 

 

Elsewhere, however, a problem has arisen.

 

There is a delay in the builders yard. I have been experimenting with different papers to get the best effect with the colours I want. Rather annoyingly, bog-standard supermarket printer paper is looking better than various photo-papers. Thinking that I am getting closer to what I want, I then realised that another problem has arisen without me noticing it.

 

Somehow, in the process of importing and exporting the files in and out of GIMP for texturing, it's changed size and is now too small!

 

 

I will start fiddling in the various stages of the process until it's right!

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Edwardian
spelling

[RodneyS]

There are some rather nice old locos in this video.

 

 

[Edwardian]

So, considering livery for the Norfolk Minerals Railway.

 

I am not persuaded that this line really needs a standard livery, so, perhaps 'liveries' might be more apt?

 

For the rebuilt long-boiler tank, I always had in my mind a red or crimson. I don't know why.

 

 

The Borrows type might look good in crimson, but I am thinking that I would like to try reproducing Windle, though a 1909-build, in her light green. We'll see. 

 

 

Lest crimson become the standard, I cannot convince myself of a Neilson Box tank in Crimson. I can see it in something other than plain black, and the photographs show there were lined examples. The default loco livery tends to be a shade of green, so I am thinking of putting the Neilson in what was used by the Liverpool & Manchester, a dark green, lined black. This nods to the Todd Kitson Laird 0-4-2 Lion type model we have for the line.

 

Specifically for the box tank I am considering dark green with single black line with incurves to form tank-side lining panels, which I think will be suitably subtle.

 

What do folk think?

 

 

 

[Annie]

4 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Specifically for the box tank I am considering dark green with single black line with incurves to form tank-side lining panels, which I think will be suitably subtle.

 

What do folk think?

Subtle sounds good to me.  

[Caley Jim]

Wot! No blue with lake below the footplate? 🤥

 

Jim 

[ChrisN]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

So, considering livery for the Norfolk Minerals Railway.

 

I am not persuaded that this line really needs a standard livery, so, perhaps 'liveries' might be more apt?

 

For the rebuilt long-boiler tank, I always had in my mind a red or crimson. I don't know why.

 

 

The Borrows type might look good in crimson, but I am thinking that I would like to try reproducing Windle, though a 1909-build, in her light green. We'll see. 

 

 

Lest crimson become the standard, I cannot convince myself of a Neilson Box tank in Crimson. I can see it in something other than plain black, and the photographs show there were lined examples. The default loco livery tends to be a shade of green, so I am thinking of putting the Neilson in what was used by the Liverpool & Manchester, a dark green, lined black. This nods to the Todd Kitson Laird 0-4-2 Lion type model we have for the line.

 

Specifically for the box tank I am considering dark green with single black line with incurves to form tank-side lining panels, which I think will be suitably subtle.

 

What do folk think?

 

 

 

 

I think the mineral railway is the perfect excuse to have eac loco in the colour that you would want it.  Dark green and black lining sounds good.

 

[Edwardian]

So here's the really odd thing.

 

I drew up the engine shed by hand and used this version as the template for the components.

 

Then I imported into GIMP for texturing.  

 

Now, it just so happened that I decided to make a change to the office front after I had textured it, replacing the card panel. This is why this section is in (B&W) texture, but it came out the correct size.

 

Similarly, I had no problems with the station building. Here there is an un-textured section, the Gentlemen's loo and Porter's Room. There was, again, no size discrepancy between the textured and un-textured parts.

 

 

Obviously I have checked and double checked the settings to ensure the cover layers for the engine shed is the right size. Whether I print at "actual size" or 100%, it makes no difference. Too small!

 

 

Before contemplating fiddling with the files, I thought I might as well try printing out at 101%. This came out too big!

 

I have tried 2 PCS, the printer driver of one of which had some button to disable an App, which resulted in it printing a bit larger, but still not full size. 

 

!

 

More head scratching to do.

 

 

 

[ChrisN]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

So here's the really odd thing.

 

I drew up the engine shed by hand and used this version as the template for the components.

 

Then I imported into GIMP for texturing.  

 

Now, it just so happened that I decided to make a change to the office front after I had textured it, replacing the card panel. This is why this section is in (B&W) texture, but it came out the correct size.

 

Similarly, I had no problems with the station building. Here there is an un-textured section, the Gentlemen's loo and Porter's Room. There was, again, no size discrepancy between the textured and un-textured parts.

 

 

Obviously I have checked and double checked the settings to ensure the cover layers for the engine shed is the right size. Whether I print at "actual size" or 100%, it makes no difference. Too small!

 

 

Before contemplating fiddling with the files, I thought I might as well try printing out at 101%. This came out too big!

 

I have tried 2 PCS, the printer driver of one of which had some button to disable an App, which resulted in it printing a bit larger, but still not full size. 

 

!

 

More head scratching to do.

 

 

 

 

Am I right in saying the height is correct, but it is too short?

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Before contemplating fiddling with the files, I thought I might as well try printing out at 101%. This came out too big!

 

I have tried 2 PCS, the printer driver of one of which had some button to disable an App, which resulted in it printing a bit larger, but still not full size. 

 

!

 

More head scratching to do.

Recently I tried resizing a loco drawing in Paint.NET and had a similar problem with not being able to resize the drawing properly to the size I wanted.  It was almost as if something within Windows was messing up the printer software.  In the end I used a graphics program called IrfanView to resize the drawing and that did work correctly.  My printer is a Brother HL1210W .

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, ChrisN said:

 

Am I right in saying the height is correct, but it is too short?

 

No, both dimensions are out. 

[ChrisN]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

No, both dimensions are out. 

 

Can you increase the print size by single percents?  You could try 105% and work from there.

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, ChrisN said:

 

Can you increase the print size by single percents?  You could try 105% and work from there.

 

See above.

 

I tried reprinting at 105% as a quick fix. It came out huge, so I tried 101% and still too big!  That made no sense to me, it was as if it had printed out at actual 101%, not 101% of the undersized print! 

[Edwardian]

Oh f-g Hell! I actually entered a competition to win some soulless diseasel train set just because I was so damn sick of the irritating pop up ad. for it. 

 

 

But it's not gone away!

 

The fact that tin cans are, apparently, now available in red in no way improves them in my eyes.

 

  

 

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Edwardian

[Player of trains]

I say if you win it strip it and turn it into the guts of a steam railmotor

[Edwardian]

6 minutes ago, Player of trains said:

I say if you win it strip it and turn it into the guts of a steam railmotor

 

I was thinking more of selling it on the Bay of Fleas and using the proceeds to fund the motive power of the WNR, but your suggestion also good!

 

I never win anything, mind you, so it would be just my luck to win a wretched diseasel!