Castle Aching

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

A piece from here, a piece from there... I can relate to that!

 

It also fits well with what appears to be a group of old Ford Falcons parked outside your station rendering too.

The 2 door hardtop in my render is the mighty XB GT,  what the Mad Max interceptor was built from. 

 

Bought cheap second hand in the 80's by people like my mates to crash into things in the wet, the survivors are few and subsequently now rendered pixels is the closest I'll get to owning  one.

 

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

45 minutes ago, TurboSnail said:

SketchUp works in a different kind of way and I don't have space inside my head for learning many more bits of software!

It is probably the best of them for adding materials to surfaces though I reckon 

 

 

Eg heres a picture of my house I done.

 

 

 

I add materials from the SketchUp library...

 

 

I open the renderer and replace the bricks from Sketchup with some in the rendering library which have attached bump and displacement maps so that the rendering will be more realistic, and render.

 

 

I overdid the bump map values to emphasise the 3D effect that the rendering adds to bricks.

 

Of course, rescaling THIS output correctly makes Gimp seem simple!

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

Spot the difference ....

 

Now I know the software will allow me to do what I want, the next task is to work on the drawings to be used.

 

Here we see the original and a tidied up version.  This should ensure that all areas intended to accept textures are property contained, with no broken lines. I have removed extraneous features, such as rain downpipes, and attempted some alterations to the platform-side first floor fenestration in order to accommodate the trainshed roof.

 

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

31 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

It is probably the best of them for adding materials to surfaces though I reckon 

 

 

Eg. here's a picture of my house I done.

Working in Blender which is the 3D tool of choice for Trainz (for some unknown reason) seems to involve pacts with the devil signed in blood as far as I can see.  Some older creators for Trainz still use 3DMax which seems to be more sensible to my way of thinking.

 

I agree about the ease of adding materials to surfaces in Sketchup as even I seem to be able to do that with some degree of success.

 

36 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Now I know the software will allow me to do what I want, the next task is to work on the drawings to be used.

 

Here we see the original and a tidied up version.  This should ensure that all areas intended to accept textures are property contained, with no broken lines. I have removed extraneous features, such as rain downpipes, and attempted some alterations to the platform-side first floor fenestration in order to accommodate the trainshed roof.

What an absolutely lovely station building.  Could this be the beginning of a cottage industry?

[16Brunel]

On 23/04/2022 at 08:39, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

That nearest car is a Holden HQ (probably a Kingswood). Ford and General Motors Holden were/are mortal enemies down here.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_HQ

 

22 hours ago, Annie said:

What an absolutely lovely station building.  Could this be the beginning of a cottage industry?

 

Looks a bit big to be a cottage...

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, 16Brunel said:

That nearest car is a Holden HQ (probably a Kingswood). Ford and General Motors Holden were/are mortal enemies down here.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_HQ

 

You're right with the HQ but it's a Monaro GTS. Probably purple, and I drew a little T-bar in there so it's an auto.

[Edwardian]

This is time consuming, but rather relaxing.

 

Today I have altered Wateringbury's platform elevation to accommodate the trainshed.

 

Wateringbury:

Castle Aching:

 

The grey line indicates where the roof starts.

 

[MrWolf]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

You're right with the HQ but it's a Monaro GTS. Probably purple, and I drew a little T-bar in there so it's an auto.

 

I've always liked the old Holdens and the Australian built Vauxhalls, such as the Vagabond.

My eldest cousin's first car in about 1980 was a Holden HD, which I always thought was a stylish old barge, but then I have owned several examples of the Vauxhall FC 101.

 

No surprise that I'm also enjoying the stylish over the top architecture too.

 

[Edwardian]

I have to produce the elevations that need to be printed, hence, now, I have drawn up the end wall of the ladies' waiting roof

 

[Nearholmer]

Cars?

 

I saw a posse of CA period horseless carriages when I was out on my bike this morning. Phone cam only got to the third.

 

 

True style, because they progress at a human-scale speed and allow the users to enjoy the fresh air.

 

 

[alastairq]

One needed to avoid grinning too much.....Usually resulted in having to floss flies from one's teeth..

[monkeysarefun]

8 hours ago, MrWolf said:

My eldest cousin's first car in about 1980 was a Holden HD, which I always thought was a stylish old barge, but then I have owned several examples of the Vauxhall FC 101.

Has he still got it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Down here we are apparently (or so we are alway being told) so flush with cash thanks to the pandemic, because everyone not working for months on end and no interrnational visitors coming and spending money does such amazing things for our bank balances that I cant figure why they havent made the arrangement permanent and now what with the war everyone is buying our stuff instead of stuff they usually get from Russia, I guess Vegemite Vodka and those little stringed guitar things that they play on Fiddler On The Roof but anyway I digress we are all rolling in it and so are rushing off to buy the cars of our youths, or the cars of our parents to remind us of the times that we were car sick on the way back from the coast or got 3rd degree burns on the back of our legs from the vinyl seats in summer and what with Holden being but a memory the prices are going mental and ...breathe.

Edited April 24, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Regularity]

5 hours ago, alastairq said:

One needed to avoid grinning too much.....Usually resulted in having to floss flies from one's teeth..

And on that point, m’lud, the defence rests it’s case…

[Edwardian]

I have recently been weak, having been unable to resist this .....

 

 

No. 55 built in 1869 as one of a dozen No.6 Class 7' singles. Incidentally, she was the first of the second 6, so the first not to have originally sported a porthole cab.  They were built without brakes, a feature faithfully reproduced on the model!

 

Originally allocated to Doncaster and at Retford by the '90s where she remained, No. 55 was still going in 1905 as she was not withdrawn until 1906.  She would not have looked like this, however, as she had received a domed Ivatt boiler in 1903.  There were several class members still extant in 1905 that had not received domed boilers by this time, but I will not renumber the model.  In any case I would need to fit a blanking plate behind the splasher slots for Edwardian condition (though I note the splasher slots on the model are unlined, as was the case only after blanking them off (classmate No.4's slots remained lined after blanking)).

 

There is a photograph of No.55 in 1904 in the RCTS GNR Stirling volume.  She has a flush, non-slotted splasher and a domed Ivatt boiler.  She looks the model of Edwardian purposeful elegance. I'm going to stick with Victorian prettiness, however.

 

In a parallel universe, all things are possible ....   

[Compound2632]

Does it run nicely?

 

I'm struck, looking at that, by how much the Great Northern fitters must have loathed Patrick Stirling - every single bearing spring is tucked away behind the framing and below the footplating. Compare (without any degree of prejudice) this Kirtley 2-2-2, built three years earlier (though here depicted as rebuilt by Johnson):

 

[woodenhead]

23 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

They were built without brakes, a feature faithfully reproduced on the model!

 

 

How did they stop?

[Edwardian]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Does it run nicely?

 

 

 

 

Apparently. but have no means of testing at present.

 

Description read "Built by RG BAILEY Runs well .Tender permanently attached as tender pick up. Lovely old model. lightly lubed", emphasis added.

 

2 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

How did they stop?

 

Tender hand brake!

 

The introduction of continuous braking must have come as a great relief.

 

Interestingly, this very loco, 55, participated in the BoT's Newark continuous brake trials of 1875, fitted with Smith's vacuum brake, which was to become standard, fitted to GNR passenger locos between 1876 and 1881. 

 

Thus, an important milestone loco, even if not for something glamorous like going dangerously fast!

 

 

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

How did they stop?

 

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Tender hand brake!

 

Also by whistling for brakes - prior to the introduction of continuous brakes, there would have been a brakesman travelling in each brake van in addition to the guard in the rear brakevan; there would be a certain proportion of brakes to passenger-carrying carriages, though I read one BoT accident report recently where the inspector commented that the company in question had too low a proportion of brake vans. 

 

Even after the 1889 Act made continuous brakes mandatory on passenger trains, the rule remained that a terminal station had to be approached at a speed low enough to stop the train by means of the hand brake alone, although accident reports give a picture of this being a rule more honoured in the breach, for example the an accident at St Pancras in August 1894 - Col. Marindin's report here - in which habitual disregard of this rule combined with greasy rails lead to disaster. The greasy rails were the result of a fish train having earlier been unloaded at the same platform. There's a humdinger of a letter from S.W. Johnson to the Locomotive Committee of the Board transcribed into the minutes, in which he berates the Traffic Department for not having sanded the rails after the fish train had stood on the line, the which failure he had complained of several times before...

[Regularity]

22 hours ago, woodenhead said:

How did they stop?

Slowly…

[Edwardian]

No one, I think, has had any reason to re-visit the opening post, but, prompted by the loss of the original images there, I have tried to jolly it up with replacements and to make good on some of the more obvious gaps in WNR lore. I hope to introduce more images relating to the WNR as things progress, but for now we at least have a little more West Norfolk with a few more illustrations.

 

  

 

EDIT: Not sure why the thumbnail currently shows CA so 'Bible Black', it's not Under Milk Wood!

 

Perhaps when it's daytime on page 1, it's already night on page 1292.

 

Perhaps this will change, negating the above comments.  perhaps, one day, the lost images in this topic will return!

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Edwardian

[Hroth]

When viewing on a tablet, the first page of a thread is sometimes displayed.  It's either fat finger syndrome or just that the software can't be bothered going to the most recent post.

 

Whatever, it's not CA's fault, it happens with tedious regularity with other discussions!

 

Anyhow, I think the view of the village is very postcardesque!

 

When it's not the dead of night.....

 

 

[Northroader]

You’ll have to go back to Barney Castle and have your eyes tested?

[Schooner]

On 26/04/2022 at 11:53, Edwardian said:

I have tried to jolly it up with replacements and to make good on some of the more obvious gaps in WNR lore

 

Consider this a success - I've been much jollied catching up on the revised opening post. Top stuff :)

[RedGemAlchemist]

Been a while since I've been on this thread. Nice to see you have things moving again James. The station looks very nice, as does that Single!

[Compound2632]

I hope I'll be tolerated, posting these here, as it's of Norfolk railway interest, though in a parallel universe in which the West Norfolk Railway failed to exist.

 

Nigel Digby's Guide to the M&GNJR is exactly that. On the rolling stock front, it has little to say about the Eastern & Midlands. He divides the passenger stock into three periods, his early period beginning in 1893, with the statement: "The stock of the early period was basically the same as that of the E&M, except for some old 4-wheel Midland and North London carriages which were immediately withdrawn." [p. 146] The North London carriages have been discussed in this thread, the body of one having been spotted lurking around Norwich shed. A day at TNA with the MR Carriage & Wagon Committee minutes sheds some light on the Midland vehicles and also shows that William Marriott was well-known at Derby long before his railway got taken over.

 

In July 1886, Thos. Clayton reported to the Committee that he had been approached by Marriott on behalf of the Directors of the E&M to see if he could buy some withdrawn carriages - he was after three old third class carriages for conveying platelayers and an old first for "other purposes". Clayton had such vehicles to hand, with scrap value of £20 each for the thirds and £50 for the first. He suggested these be offered to the E&M for £50 each and £100, respectively - an offer that Marriott was sanctioned by his Directors to accept.

 

The Directors, or at least Marriott, must have liked what they got since they came back for six more thirds in August, at the same price. In November, he came back for more: two more thirds at £50, a couple of firsts at £130 each and another at £100, and a passenger van for £30. There had been large numbers of 4-compartment thirds built in the middle 1860s by Gloucester and Oldbury; there were large numbers of 31 ft 5-compartment thirds built in the mid-80s as renewals, so I suspect those old Kirtley carriages were the thirds in question. Kirtley-period firsts were not so numerous but there were 20 built by Metropolitan in 1866, with three compartments, though I wonder if the two £130 carriages were slightly later vehicles with four compartments. A lot of these Kirtley-era carriages had been working in block trains in the Leeds and Bradford area until replaced by new close-coupled sets of 6-wheelers in 1882-3. 

 

The July of the following year, 1887, Marriott visited Derby again, offering for more carriages that he had inspected - eight more thirds at £50 each, a saloon at £150, and a composite at £50. It seems that these carriages were sold but when Marriott came back for more in August, Clayton reported that the cupboard was bare. 

 

The following February he was back for another dozen but in April had to write to Clayton that his Directors "were not at present able to take any". That seems to be the end of the story.

 

I make that 19 thirds, 4 firsts, a saloon, a composite, and a brake van - 26 vehicles in all, clearly not all for the use of platelayers!