Castle Aching

[TT-Pete]

3 hours ago, Northroader said:

Metrication? Pah!!!  They never seem to want to metricate time, do they?? Eh?? Blasted foreigners!!!

 

Mais non mon ami, they tried exactly that after the French revolution:

 

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

[NeilHB]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Moving on, thank you to everyone for thoughts on, and examples of, tare weights.  For a series of numbers in a very small and relatively hard-to-read font that no-one will notice, read, or care less about, I think we've done as much as we need.

 

The outstanding issue for the wagon transfer sheet is running numbers.  How would the WNR have arranged this?

 

Well, when it was something about the size of the K&ESR, 1 to whatever would have done.  Since then ambitions have soared and we have opened a line to GER Magdalen Road then south to Bury St Edmunds ,and a line to Norwich. adding a branch to Fakeney and developing Birchoverham-next-the-Sea into a major resort. 

 

We have 27 locomotives in the roster, plus 3 for the tramway, and 9 dedicated goods/mineral locomotives with at least 1 mixed trafic type likely to be rostered on goods working at any given time.

 

Wagons will be predominantly general merchandise, with a 4:1 ratio in favour of opens.  There will be a number of open minerals, mainly older wagons, a reasonable number of livestock wagons, bolsters for Baltic timber etc. 

 

My thoughts, so far, are:

 

In the 1880s, when the WNR started to build its own goods stock and opened its diagram book, it probably instituted a numbering scheme.  I suggest this could have been by blocks, and that it could have gone something like:

 

Brake Vans:  1 to whatever

Pre-diagram/old/second-hand wagons: 0 prefix, thus available numbers 001-099

General merchandise opens (including bolsters?), available numbers 100-299

Covered wagons, available numbers 300-399

Livestock wagons, available numbers 400-499

Mineral wagons, available numbers 500-599

Special/fitted wagons, available numbers 600-699

 

Is this at all appropriate as a scheme?

 

How might departmental stock be numbered?

 

 

 

James, 

 

I seem to recall that we had discussed previously the ratio of opens to covered wagons (somewhere within the depths of the Parish Council minutes), and that generally there was a greater number of opens to covered and livestock wagons?

 

In view of that, I would be inclined to group your covered and livestock wagons together into one series - say the 300-399 series, thus allowing you to maintain that ratio.  

 

I would assume that the West Norfolk's traffic manager would like to keep an eye on where their stock ended up, particularly livestock wagons which usually ended up off-system (I am reminded here of the Mid-Suffolks cattle vans which were the only items of their stock permitted off-system) and that it would be easier to maintain control over a smaller pool of these? 

 

I would agree in terms of numbering the departmental stock with a D at the front. But, and this is personal choice, I would also be inclined to paint them in a different colour to ensure that they were not accidentally sent out by those employees who perhaps were not as edumacated as the rest of their peers? 

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

So marshalling a departmental train would be "Getting all your ducks in a row"?!

 

Surely that should be "Getting all your dodos in a row" when referring to the West Norfolk? 

[Hroth]

1 minute ago, NeilHB said:

 

Surely that should be "Getting all your dodos in a row" when referring to the West Norfolk? 

 

There was some discussion deep within the thread about the appearance of the dodo on the company crest, somewhat similar to the contention that the LNWR had a "cauliflower".  Company tradition would therefore be to call the poor creature a duck for evermore!

 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

Having spent my basic education years in the pre-decimal days I can say with certainty that decimalisation was one of the more sensible things that any Australian government ever undertook. 

I miss the half crown, - now there's a coin to respect.  I still have some stashed away for old times sake.  And silver florins as well.

 

The modern stuff looks cheap and nasty and i don't like it.

Edited May 6, 2020 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

What never?

Well, hardly ever.

[Donw]

4 hours ago, Lantavian said:

 

The Labour government announced the UK would decimalise four weeks before the election of 1966, when it was re-elected with a much bigger majority. I don't know if you were old enough to vote in 1966....

 

 

No I didn't have the opportunity to vote then.  I do remember those days going metric was not a burning issue for the people I met at work or in the pub (whoops not old enough to vote but drinking ). As has been mentioned  you vote for a party offering a packcage of proposals and not particular policies. Given a choice of Ted Heath or going Metric it would be hard to tell which was the lesser evil.

Besides I cannot remember any party winning the election with over 50% of the votes cast so nothing ever has the proven support of the majority electorate.

I also remember well all the promises made about how it wouldn't change our lives but step by step over the years the enforcement has been increased. About the only promise kept was that we could still buy a pint. 

Of course the other thing was the football we were going to give those foreigners what for. Perhaps the real shock that year was that we actually did.

 

Don  

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, wagonman said:

 

Every four weeks usually...

Tonight's the night!

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

it took a while to get round to re-defining the metre in a similar way, this time in terms of the distance travelled at the speed of light in a vacuum, which is invariant with location.

 

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Hi Simon, I evidently didn't express myself clearly enough. It is the metre that is defined in terms of the speed of light and the second:

Well, no you didn’t!

[Regularity]

27 minutes ago, Annie said:

And silver florins as well.

Ironically, Annie, these were introduced as an intended precursor to decimalisation, being 1/10 of a pound.

[Edwardian]

15 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Well, hardly ever.

 

I haven’t any sympathy for ill-bred taunts!  No more have my sisters, nor my cousins, nor my aunts.

[Hroth]

55 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Ironically, Annie, these were introduced as an intended precursor to decimalisation, being 1/10 of a pound.

 

Ruddy Victorians.... 

[Edwardian]

20 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Ruddy Victorians.... 

 

Back to ducks, then ...

 

[Nearholmer]

On the day that lock-down started in earnest, a Mandarin duck arrived in our neighbourhood, and has taken up residence with "the local gang", who use the pond outside our house and one about 50 yards away. Its out there have a bath now.

 

I have to try quite hard not to view the duck as being some sort of augury, given its (probably long-distant) Chinese ancestry and the date of its arrival. When in a particularly bad mood about the bl**dy virus, I've considered killing the duck, in the hope that might dispense with our present trouble, but having swotted-up a bit, it seems that augury is all about observation, rather than influence, so that won't work.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Nearholmer

[sem34090]

Does that count as a racial-motivated attack? Would you consider attacking, say, an Italian or Spanish Duck, or a British Duck? Or, indeed, any other duck?

 

(A Great Western one, for instance)

[RedGemAlchemist]

...we have mallards in the pond at the end of the garden... 

[Nearholmer]

2 minutes ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

...we have mallards in the pond at the end of the garden... 

 

What do you think that's telling you?

 

3 minutes ago, sem34090 said:

Does that count as a racial-motivated attack?

 

The motivation wouldn't be the race of the duck in itself, but a belief that the activities of birds provide an indication of good or bad fortune, so that influencing their movements (in this case very decisively) should influence our fortunes.

[Annie]

6 minutes ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

...we have mallards in the pond at the end of the garden... 

Must be a big pond.

 

[Hroth]

There used to be a Mandarin Duck in the pond at the bottom of the road.

 

 

Terribly difficult to peel... 

 

(No ducks were harmed in creating this post...)

 

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Ruddy Victorians.... 

Going around the world like they owned more of it than anyone else, imposing their (their? shome mistake shurely?) modern ideas on us...

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

On the day that lock-down started in earnest, a Mandarin duck arrived in our neighbourhood, and has taken up residence with "the local gang", who use the pond outside our house and one about 50 yards away. Its out there have a bath now.

 

I have to try quite hard not to view the duck as being some sort of augury, given its (probably long-distant) Chinese ancestry and the date of its arrival. When in a particularly bad mood about the bl**dy virus, I've considered killing the duck, in the hope that might dispense with our present trouble, but having swotted-up a bit, it seems that augury is all about observation, rather than influence, so that won't work.

 

 

 

"Nearholmus, are you saying that this will protect us from the pestilence?"

 

"Probably not, but it will make me feel better!"

 

 

[Donw]

MAndarin Ducks nest in trees it seems very odd seeing one of these brightly coloured ducks up in the pine trees.

 

Don

 

[wagonman]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

I miss the half crown, - now there's a coin to respect.  I still have some stashed away for old times sake.  And silver florins as well.

 

The modern stuff looks cheap and nasty and i don't like it.

 

Even the modern coins will be the stuff of nostalgia when then whole economy becomes cashless. It won't be long...

[brack]

2 hours ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

...we have mallards in the pond at the end of the garden... 

But do you have them on your statue? That's the more controversial question.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Must be a big pond.

 

 

Meanwhile, in a field near Darlington ...

 

 

 

[sem34090]

That thing is signposted for miles around and is very underwhelming once reached, in my opinion.