Castle Aching

[runs as required]

How is the snow up North? Or is this a rare instance of more snow to the South than to the North of Watford?

                                                                       0300H   27/02                                                                                      1030H  27/02

As you can see the only inhabitant who has ventured out in 75mm (3") of snow is Mungo the cat.  It is snowing again now - and supposed to again (according to my iphone) @ 1500H.

 

Glad the Grand Opening of the WNR was yesterday and not today

As it was I felt it the better part of valor to use the motorway and not risk the exciting upland cross Northumbria dales road from Tyneside (NW Durham) to Teesdale (SW Durham) yesterday - which above Stanhope (in Weardale) at the one time Blanchland (Parkhill) station of the former Stanhope & Tyne/Stockton & Darlington, crosses the formation of the Rookhope Railway the highest standard gauge track in the UK at Boltaw.. 

 

dh

(Sorry for post Gouping  24 hour clock rather than "morn" and "aft")

[TheQ]

Well the 24 hour clock is a bit older than railways, the pharaohs used it, the British military from WW1.

[Hroth]

There’s always Britannia from Sky...

From the trailer I saw, it looked a bit like "Xena: Warrior Princess" with added Romans.

[Adams442T]

8 inches of snow here in Slapding!  Never seen the like!  Ah well that's my excuse for not venturing out until, oh, about Saturday........

[Regularity]

From the trailer I saw, it looked a bit like "Xena: Warrior Princess" with added Romans.

Not aware that it quoted the New Testament!

[Nearholmer]

My mother is marooned by six inches and rising of the stuff in Sussex, and already talking about having cabin fever after half a day - she does not like being cooped-up!

[Hroth]

My mother is marooned by six inches and rising of the stuff in Sussex, and already talking about having cabin fever after half a day - she does not like being cooped-up!

Ours has mostly melted, though its currently attempting a spirited comeback.

 

Snow doesn't go well with maritime air!

[Edwardian]

Snow in the south!

 

Call in the troops!

[Nearholmer]

Ooh, I understand now .........

 

I thought that you were talking about your mother.

[Andy Hayter]

 cattle trains, once they got moving, would travel at more than 15 mph, and an average speed of 20-25 mph is quite realistic.

 

While I do not disagree with you thoughts, the problem when looking at animal welfare is that the average speed once they got going is unimportant.  The average speed from loading to unloading is the critical number.

[Regularity]

While I do not disagree with you thoughts, the problem when looking at animal welfare is that the average speed once they got going is unimportant. The average speed from loading to unloading is the critical number.

A couple of hundred miles seems achievable. Loaded on the Highland, maybe stopped and watered, etc, in Edinburgh, then York. Down the GE/GN joint, with a layover again if required at Spalding, then on to CA. A shade over 36 hours, maybe, including stops.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Regularity

[Edwardian]

A couple of hundred miles seems achievable. Loaded on the Highland, maybe stopped and watered, etc, in Edinburgh, then York. Down the GE/GN joint, with a layover again if required at Spaulding, then on to CA. A shade over 36 hours, maybe, including stops.

 

That sounds feasible.

 

It struck me that the GE/GN Joint line, a criminally under-considered modelling subject BTW, could be the most obvious source of coal traffic.  The other source is my coastal colliers to Wolfringham staithe, of course.

 

I wonder, therefore, whether colliery wagons from, say, the Doncaster area night be strangely appropriate for CA?

[Regularity]

Yes. Also coal traffic from the LDEC, which had such a close working relationship with the GER that they used the latter’s wagon designs. (I also suspect that the GER would have rather liked to have got their hands on it, rather than the GCR.)

[Edwardian]

Yes. Also coal traffic from the LDEC, which had such a close working relationship with the GER that they used the latter’s wagon designs. (I also suspect that the GER would have rather liked to have got their hands on it, rather than the GCR.)

 

 

Some research is called for!

[Regularity]

The steel underframed GER 5 plank wagon is the one the LDEC used. I did do one in S, which I gave to a friend some years ago. No idea what has been done with it (and I can’t even remember which friend had it!) I used the HMRS LMS pre-group wagon transfers to letter it: L from LYR, D and E from the Midland E D letters, and C from the Maryport and Carlisle. They seemed to be the same font!

 

Funny thing, we ran it on East Lynn whilst at Chesterfield in the late 90s, and a lot of visitors noticed it, as it was very much “their” railway, but very rarely modelled. I couldn’t help but wonder why, if it was so cherished, none of them actually modelled it themselves.

[Compound2632]

Yes. Also coal traffic from the LDEC, which had such a close working relationship with the GER that they used the latter’s wagon designs. (I also suspect that the GER would have rather liked to have got their hands on it, rather than the GCR.)

 

Interesting. I thought the LDEC was one of those smaller lines that the Midland was rather happy about, like the Hull & Barnsley and the M&SWJR.

[Nearholmer]

The GER opening bid to purchase the shares of the LD&ECR.

[Regularity]

The GER opening bid to purchase the shares of the LD&ECR.

I think that was the problem...

 

Purchase of the LDEC, which connected with the “Joint line” near Lincoln, would have significantly improved the GER’s medium and long term financial security (as would have purchase of the LTSR 5 years later*), providing freight revenues from coal to London. As it was, the traffic went onto the GCR metals once they had acquired it.

 

As a might have been, though, “Chesterfield Great Eastern” is an extremely viable layout scheme - much more probable than “Buckingham GC” - and I am surprised it hasn’t been done.

 

* Am I alone in connecting these two failures (in the eyes of the board) with the fact that the GER changed their General Manager after the second instance?

[Edwardian]

The steel underframed GER 5 plank wagon is the one the LDEC used. I did do one in S, which I gave to a friend some years ago. No idea what has been done with it (and I can’t even remember which friend had it!) I used the HMRS LMS pre-group wagon transfers to letter it: L from LYR, D and E from the Midland E D letters, and C from the Maryport and Carlisle. They seemed to be the same font!

 

Funny thing, we ran it on East Lynn whilst at Chesterfield in the late 90s, and a lot of visitors noticed it, as it was very much “their” railway, but very rarely modelled. I couldn’t help but wonder why, if it was so cherished, none of them actually modelled it themselves.

 

I had read that there were essentially similar GN and GC wagons.

 

I suppose the GC are the LDEC examples.  They would likely be GC constituent wagons, as it's an 1880s design.  The steel u/fs first appeared on the GE versions (Diagram 17) in a test batch in 1886, but the main building spanned 1893-1903 and saw 12,000 built. 

 

Quarryscapes produces the body for this (assuming that it is the same as the LDEC version).  What I'm missing is a quick and convenient route to multiple steel u/fs, given the 9'6" w/b. 

 

 

As a might have been, though, “Chesterfield Great Eastern” is an extremely viable layout scheme - much more probable than “Buckingham GC” - and I am surprised it hasn’t been done.

 

 

 

That would be splendid.  I sounds really incongruous, but no more so than GE traffic to Doncaster, and would probably annoy and confuse exhibition goers in equal measure!

[Poggy1165]

The LDEC had strong GE connections; indeed both the GE and the GN had, and exercised, extensive running powers over it. Someone showed me a photo of one of the collieries it served, and very prominent in the photo were a couple of GE steel loco coal wagons. 

 

The GC nipped in and bought it by giving the Directors a better deal than the GN had offered.

 

The LDEC, circa 1907, would be a cracking prototype. You could have locos in LDEC, GC, GN, GE, and MR liveries. Indeed, you could even have some GC engines in LDEC livery, because as I have mentioned before, Tuxford continued to paint every loco it received (including standard GC types) in LDEC style, with just the company markings changed and numberplates added. 

[Poggy1165]

NRM York has most, if not all, of the LDEC wagon drawings. Some were certainly based on, if not identical to, GE designs. I would hesitate to say in every case, not knowing enough about the GE. Also the LDEC hired in a lot of coal wagons from the usual suspects. (It was like the GC in that policy.)

 

One of the most interesting wagons - and it would make a great kit - was the LDEC cattle van. Reason being that some were converted, very simply, to covered wagons for general traffic, and so you'd get two types for the price of one set of moulds. 

 

Sadly, photos of LDEC wagons are quite rare, especially good ones. 

[Edwardian]

What a difference a day makes  ... good decision to have made the soldering session yesterday.  

 

By the way, I remain convinced that the widespread reporting of snow in the South East is unreliable, if only because journalists from London will have no idea what snow actually looks like.  Possibly an explosion in an expanded polystyrene factory in Kent has been misreported.

 

So, for the record, this is what snow actually looks like ....

 

https://vimeo.com/257734842

Edited February 27, 2018 by Edwardian

[runs as required]

What a difference a day makes  ... good decision to have made the soldering session yesterday.  

 

By the way, I remain convinced that the widespread reporting of snow in the South East is unreliable, if only because journalists from London will have no idea what snow actually looks like.  Possibly an explosion in an expanded polystyrene factory in Kent has been misreported.

 

So, for the record, this is what snow actually looks like ....

Yes, I agree:

a) that is indeed what snow looks like

b) it was a god thing the soldering session was yesterday

 

And another thing

Once you are able to get into Barnard Castle go and have a look into several of those "pound shops" opened up recently for miserly Yorkshire tyke tourists.

They tend to have those electric tester things on sale quite cheaply for testing red and black 'continuity' with that rewarding bleep after a bit of hard to get at soldered linking up.

 

Keep warm

dh

[sem34090]

To be fair had a forecast for sleet here, but I don't remember sleet settling in thick enough layers to be rolled into balls and chucked around by children!

 

But I agree, it wasn't proper snow. We have a forecast for heavy snow on Thursday.

[runs as required]

Smee again

This time fretting about livestock transit.

These cattle/sheep trains you are all waxing lyrical about - what was reckoned to be a reasonable loss rate in transit?

 

For example in the stop mentioned at Banbury to deal with 'animals not standing'. Not only would a railwayman/porter be required to be adept at herding beasts in and out of wagons and catlle pens (as I remember witnessing in 1940s LNER childhood days at Epping) - but how might a porter deal with lugging out and disposing of a dead Aberdeen Angus bullock?

Secretly with a friendly butcher, or would the Stationmaster demand his cut?

 

Consider a trip from the Irish West to London Smithfield, Manchester or Glasgow first by narrow gauge SL&NCR or CDRJC ; changeover to GNR 5' 3",  then, say via the LNWR to Greenore (gauge ?) and finally some very seasick beasts travelling on from Holyhead and there would surely be lots of shenanigans with animals at breaks of gauge, change of mode etc.

???

dh

 

Edit No wonder the GCR concentrated on high speed transport of dead fish !

Edited February 27, 2018 by runs as required