Castle Aching

[jcm@gwr]

Want!!!

 

We'll also need some boxed sets of the Army of the Antichrist too.  Something along the lines of swarming creatures in Field Grey bearing Panzerfäuste...

 

OTOH I can see the Salvation Army in the guise of a troop of Horse Artillery!

 

Many years ago, I was having a drink with a mate of mine, when the

Salvation Army came into the pub, waving their collection bucket (and

probably trying to save some souls!).

My mate refused to donate to their cause, she asked why and you should

have seen the look on her face when he told her that he 'objected to 

funding para-military organisations'!

[jcm@gwr]

Remember that various clergy have been noted members of the railway and model railway fraternity.

Rev Peter Denny is probably the most noted recent modeller (now deceased though his layout lives on in the care of T-B-G of this parish).

Then Eric Treacy comes to mind, along of course with W Awdry, but there are several others.

Which brings me to perhaps my biggest complaint about Wales(!!!!) Civil Parishes were replaced by "Communities" and CinW parishes are being superseded by Mission Areas. Centuries of history thrown away.

Jonathan

PS The gentleman below really is a Bishop.

 

Don't forget the Rev 'Teddy' Boston.

[RedGemAlchemist]

Don't forget the Rev 'Teddy' Boston.

 

Oh, and the inevitable elephant in the room of course, a certain vicar from Ampfield.

[Caley Jim]

Don't forget the Rev 'Teddy' Boston.

And the Rev Edward Beal of West Midland fame!

 

Jim

[Regularity]

There’s also the too-often overlooked Rev. Canon Ian Pusey.

[phil_sutters]

Might I draw your attention to my Reverend Father, John Sutters, who laid the track for Coleford (Somt), using ready made points (the make eludes me as it was it was well over 50 years ago) and hand built spiked plain track. He also converted a Hornby Dublo R1 into a GWR half-cab (again I can't remember the number or the class, although 638 has just popped into my head.) These can be seen in my album of early Sutters' layouts and in particular this shot http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/82037-coleford-station-early-1960s/. Having said that - that was about the limit of his modelling skills, although took many railway photos.

Other notable clerical railway enthusiasts included the Reverend Alan Newman, who doesn't seem to have done any modelling, but took some excellent photographs including this one http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/77658-a-newman-lswr-02s-ryde-shed-1964/ 

An earlier photographer, who was also a clergyman, I believe, was A.H.Malan, who took this photo http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121161-and-the-next-photo-will-havereal-railway-version/page-7&do=findComment&comment=2670583

Edited July 7, 2018 by phil_sutters

[St Enodoc]

I think the Celts were ahead of the Saxons. Our local Church is St Decuman's he apparently  was born in Pembrokeshire and wishing to escape from Worldly companions set off in a raft with a cow. On arriving in Somerset he was healer and pastor to the locals. Near to the church is St Deumans Well.

 

Don

What happened to the cow?

[St Enodoc]

I might have got confused, but I’m pretty sure that a key early ‘Railway Reverend’, before most of those mentioned so far, was Rev Thomas Parley, who was photographing trains at speed on the GNR in 1902, and a bit later had a huge clockwork garden railway at, I think, Tivetshall St Mary. He appeared miles back up this thread, or perhaps in mine, modelling the approved summer apparel for model railway operating. Some of his models are still in active use, a century after he built them, and a lot of them served on the famous Crewchester layout in the meantime.

 

There was an even earlier Reverend, who wrote a non-technical book about owning and operating live steam model locos, which probably meant c2.5” gauge then, in the 1870s or 1880s, but, although I’ve seen the book, I’m blowed if I can remember his name.

 

And, just yesterday, I bought a loco from the Reverend who is a well-known Leeds Model Company collector.

There's a lot about the Revd. Parley and his locos in Jack Ray's book "A Lifetime in 0 Gauge".

[Hroth]

Might I draw your attention to my Reverend Father, John Sutters, who laid the track for Coleford (Somt), using ready made points (the make eludes me as it was it was well over 50 years ago) and hand built spiked plain track. He also converted a Hornby Dublo R1 into a GWR half-cab (again I can't remember the number or the class, although 638 has just popped into my head.) These can be seen in my album of early Sutters' layouts and in particular this shot http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/82037-coleford-station-early-1960s/. Having said that - that was about the limit of his modelling skills, although took took many railway photos.

Other notable clerical railway enthusiasts included the Reverend Alan Newman, who doesn't seem to have done any modelling, but took some excellent photographs including this one http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/77658-a-newman-lswr-02s-ryde-shed-1964/ 

An earlier photographer, who was also a clergyman, I believe, was A.H.Malan, who took this photo http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121161-and-the-next-photo-will-havereal-railway-version/page-7&do=findComment&comment=2670583

 

The Malan photo is a good catch as it shows that 3021 could make it through Box without derailing!  Ok, I know that was an axle failure but the photo must have been taken before April 1893 as that tree to the right is bare, and Wigmore Castle failed in September 1893.

[Donw]

Might I draw your attention to my Reverend Father, John Sutters, who laid the track for Coleford (Somt), using ready made points (the make eludes me as it was it was well over 50 years ago) and hand built spiked plain track. He also converted a Hornby Dublo R1 into a GWR half-cab (again I can't remember the number or the class, although 638 has just popped into my head.) These can be seen in my album of early Sutters' layouts and in particular this shot http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/82037-coleford-station-early-1960s/. Having said that - that was about the limit of his modelling skills, although took took many railway photos.

Other notable clerical railway enthusiasts included the Reverend Alan Newman, who doesn't seem to have done any modelling, but took some excellent photographs including this one http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/77658-a-newman-lswr-02s-ryde-shed-1964/ 

An earlier photographer, who was also a clergyman, I believe, was A.H.Malan, who took this photo http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121161-and-the-next-photo-will-havereal-railway-version/page-7&do=findComment&comment=2670583

 

the 633 class were GW side tanks with an open cab. Alan Brackenborough scratchbuilt one. Which was described in the Gauge 0 Gazette for May 2000 (vol14/7) 

 

There is the Rev Nigel Adams not one of the earlier modelling priests but notable for his book on small layouts and his appearance at many exhibitions

 

Don

[corneliuslundie]

So when is the first meeting scheduled for the North Norfolk Ecclesiastical Model Railway Society - at Castle Aching Drill Hall of course?

Jonathan

[Talltim]

After it’s built, presumably

[martinT]

An earlier photographer, who was also a clergyman, I believe, was A.H.Malan, who took this photo http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121161-and-the-next-photo-will-havereal-railway-version/page-7&do=findComment&comment=2670583

 

Malan was active from 1883 if not earlier. The Wild Swan book 'Broad Gauge Final - compiled from the photographs & notes of the Revd. A H Malan' (1985) is worth getting hold of. His photos include many moving trains - esp. around Uphill Junc - as well as posed loco shots. He must have been granted a lineside permit to take most of them.  It also includes his description (9 pages) of a return footplate trip he made on 'Iron Duke' from Newton Abbot to Bristol & back on 'Rover' (the trains being the Up & Down 'Dutchman'). No date is given for the trip but the book includes a photo dated 6 July 1886 shewing 15 (named) enginemen at Bristol shed so that may be a clue!. Malan had a 2 hour wait at Bristol & spent the time 'looking in at the engineman's cabin, inspecting the Running Sheds, & having a chat with an an engineman standing pilot' (sic).

 

I'd also like to mention Revd. Canon Roger Lloyd (1901-1966) author of 'The Fascination of Railways' (1951), 'Railwaymen's Gallery' (1953), & Farewell To Steam' (1956) - all largely forgotten now, a pity because his writings were wide-ranging & elegant.

 

Martin

[Tom Burnham]

Rev Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch - not a modeller but a prolific contributor to the Railway Magazine in its early days, when he was trying to earn a bit to supplement his stipend as a curate in Willesden.  His contacts there enabled him to write about the Irish Mail, for example.  Perhaps best known as a novelist, but most of his earlier fiction was short stories, generally with a railway setting.  The detective ones generally featured his amateur detective Thorpe Hazell, a railwayac who was on pally terms with inspectors on all the main railways.  There was also Koravitch, an exiled Russian revolutionary, who was very good at cunning plans to delay or divert trains in the furtherance of his plots!

[Nearholmer]

I would wish to assure readers of the Mr O’Doolite thread that I’ve never heard of the above, or his books, even if I do seem to be writing the plot of one!

[sem34090]

Ah, O'Doolight is a Missenden Mystery!!!

[RedGemAlchemist]

Ah, O'Doolight is a Missenden Mystery!!!

...well, technically speaking...

[Andy Kirkham]

Not forgetting the Reverend Canon Brian Arman, president of the RCTS, whose 7mm scale broad gauge layout I have been privileged to visit http://lightmoor.co.uk/books/the-broad-gauge-engines-of-the-great-western-railway/L8368

Nor the Reverend John C Gibson, author of this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Western-Locomotive-Design-Gibson/dp/0715386069 who began his career as an apprentice at the Cirencester works of the Midland & South Western Junction before being transferred to Swindon at the Grouping. 

[Regularity]

There’s also the too-often overlooked Rev. Canon Ian Pusey.

Having just been shown the last S4 Newsletter, it’s a shame that when absorbing a lot of Ian’s pioneering work on scale standards (which he did for S gauge), the self-styled “Model Railway Study Group” didn’t pay closer attention to the design and construction of track gauges, and steered clear of roller gauges...

 

Here’s a DIY version, using threaded rob, studding, nuts, appropriate thickness metal, and epoxy resin to hold everything in place once correctly adjusted:

[richard i]

Then there are the present day monks of Ampleforth Abbey who have a model railway. If only I had known to ask to see it back in the 1990s .

[wagonman]

Then there are the present day monks of Ampleforth Abbey who have a model railway. If only I had known to ask to see it back in the 1990s .

 

 

Mmmm, maybe not. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/03/police-arrest-man-alleged-sexual-abuse-ampleforth-college-goddard-inquiry

[Annie]

Reports like that one so wound my heart.  

[Edwardian]

Mmmm, maybe not. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/03/police-arrest-man-alleged-sexual-abuse-ampleforth-college-goddard-inquiry

 

A friend of mine once taught at Ampleforth.  He found the Monks incredibly arrogant, cruel, and hypocritical in that they lived extremely comfortable lives and blatantly free-loaded off the local Catholic laity.  In contrast, they treated the lay teachers at the school like dirt.  His views, not mine, as reported to me some 20-30 years ago; I have no first hand knowledge of the place, though Parishioners may forgive me if I view somewhat askance an institution that made a friend and a Good Man so very miserable.

 

He and his fellow lay teachers developed a simple survival strategy to preserve their sanity whilst planning their escapes to other schools.  They simply substituted the word "F-" for the word "Monk".  Thus, upon, say, stubbing one's toe one might cry "Monk, that hurt!".  If one wanted to dismiss someone with vehemence, one might tell them to "Monk off!"  I suppose they found the whole institution completely Monked up.

 

By this means, tension was eased and life made just bearable enough to keep a lid on things while they tunnelled out.

 

I came across a similar sanity preservation strategy in the army - the infamous "Pants of Power" - but that, as they say, is another story!

[wagonman]

A friend of mine once taught at Ampleforth.  He found the Monks incredibly arrogant, cruel, and hypocritical in that they lived extremely comfortable lives and blatantly free-loaded off the local Catholic laity.  In contrast, they treated the lay teachers at the school like dirt.  His views, not mine, as reported to me some 20-30 years ago; I have no first hand knowledge of the place, though Parishioners may forgive me if I view somewhat askance an institution that made a friend and a Good Man so very miserable.

 

He and his fellow lay teachers developed a simple survival strategy to preserve their sanity whilst planning their escapes to other schools.  They simply substituted the word "F-" for the word "Monk".  Thus, upon, say, stubbing one's toe one might cry "Monk, that hurt!".  If one wanted to dismiss someone with vehemence, one might tell them to "Monk off!"  I suppose they found the whole institution completely Monked up.

 

By this means, tension was eased and life made just bearable enough to keep a lid on things while they tunnelled out.

 

I came across a similar sanity preservation strategy in the army - the infamous "Pants of Power" - but that, as they say, is another story!

 

 

I have no knowledge of Ampleforth but among the schools with which we vied to be rubbish at rugger, hopeless at hockey and calamitous at cricket (not the official line of course, just my personal take) was Downside Abbey. My brief acquaintance with some of their boys made me very glad my parents weren't catholic. Didn't stop me from being thrashed for skipping church...

[Hroth]

Must be near the quarter mile......

 

 

But not yet!

Edited July 10, 2018 by Hroth