Castle Aching

[Hroth]

Mysteriously the child appears to be wearing... a pyramid.

 

The plot thickens.

Small children of that era (of both sexes) often did.  Apparently it was a "self parking" aid, and meant that small chairs were not required.

 

If you wish to thicken a plot, small amounts of cornflour slowly stirred in will often help!

[Nearholmer]

I wondered myself, because, spookily, given the date the photo was taken, the age of the child, and the pyramidic overcoat, it could be.

 

The coat was a thick wool cloth thing, in a sort of fawn, cream and brown tweed/check, with brown leather buttons, which served myself and my two brothers in turn.

[wagonman]

A lot of modellers do Irish lines in OO, just for the pure convenience of having a RTR base to work from. 

 

 

And bl**dy ridiculous they look too, since 00 track is exactly half way between the narrow 3' gauge and the broad 5' 3". With steam engines you end up with driving wheels inside where the frames should be. Utterly ludicrous.

[/rant mode]

[Donw]

I had the good fortune to see the multi station Castle Rackrent. Wonderful modelling and trains that went somewhere. Had Edinburgh being nearer I would have loved to join the operating sessions. I have a feeling Caley Jim may have had that pleasure.

 

Don

[phil_sutters]

A little bit more 'in period', as China Station gun boats go ....

Sorry I haven't been paying attention - too many non-railway things going on. If you want a really classy gun-boat try this one preserved at Chatham. Technically I think she is a screw sloop - as opposed to a sail or paddle sloop I guess - but she was used in much the same way around the empire. She was commissioned in 1878 and saw service into the early 1900s. She even has a railway connection, according Wiki - 'In the autumn of 1900, Gannet was leased to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway Company as an accommodation hulk at Port Victoria railway station on the Isle of Grain.'

 

 

Edited September 21, 2018 by phil_sutters

[corneliuslundie]

For those without Welsh dictionaries, the translation is Ladies of the Dawn - so not to be trifled with (wawr = gwawr mutated), as their image suggests.

I have always been surprised, since when modelling Irish railways it is necessary to scratch build much anyway, that modellers do not stick to standard track gauges and use scales to suit - 3.2 mm/ft for 16/5 mm track or 6 mm/ft for 32 mm track, if my calculations are approximately correct.

I would add my vote to Castle Rackrent as being an excellent layout, and one which my wife also remembers.

And I am not sure that I can see a place for a gunboat at Castle Aching, unless there has been a very high tide on the Norfolk coast and much of it has washed away, Dunwich style.

Back to that town, would there have been a purpose built Post Office at that date? Most of those I can think of are from between the wars if the design is anything to go by.

And who owns the local bank? There were lots of East Anglian Quakers with an interest in money.

Jonathan

Edited because I posted before I had finished

Edited September 21, 2018 by corneliuslundie

[brack]

Figures and accessories are tricky in dodgy scales, though 1:50/6mm would work well for figures and vehicles. However since slaters make all the common wheel sizes for 7mm and offer the right axles and you'd be scratch building most of it anyway, I'd suggest it'd be easier to just do it in 7mm (then you get the alphagrafix kit range).

[Edwardian]

 

And I am not sure that I can see a place for a gunboat at Castle Aching, unless there has been a very high tide on the Norfolk coast and much of it has washed away, Dunwich style.

Back to that town, would there have been a purpose built Post Office at that date? Most of those I can think of are from between the wars if the design is anything to go by.

And who owns the local bank? There were lots of East Anglian Quakers with an interest in money.

Jonathan

Edited because I posted before I had finished

 

For Post Office, I though a PO combined with ship might as well poach the Castle Acre version.

 

A bank is probably for Achingham, but, yes, should have a local private bank.

[Edwardian]

Sorry I haven't been paying attention - too many non-railway things going on. If you want a really classy gun-boat try this one preserved at Chatham. Technically I think she is a screw sloop - as opposed to a sail or paddle sloop I guess - but she was used in much the same way around the empire. She was commissioned in 1878 and saw service into the early 1900s. She even has a railway connection, according Wiki - 'In the autumn of 1900, Gannet was leased to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway Company as an accommodation hulk at Port Victoria railway station on the Isle of Grain.'

 

HMS Gannet from HMS Cavalier Chatham 31.7.07.jpg

 

I like those Victorian Sloops; just the thing for hunting East African slavers ....

 

EDITL Added dynamic illustration od a steam pinnance for luck!

Edited September 21, 2018 by Edwardian

[Hroth]

For Post Office, I though a PO combined with ship might as well poach the Castle Acre version.

 

A bank is probably for Achingham, but, yes, should have a local private bank.

So, a mobile post office?  

[Edwardian]

So, a mobile post office?  

 

The 'i' and the 'o' are, of course, next to each other on the keyboard and both have worn away, making confusion inevitable. Si, thos happens a lit.

[Hroth]

The 'i' and the 'o' are, of course, next to each other on the keyboard and both have worn away, making confusion inevitable. Si, thos happens a lit.

I know, but it was too good an opportunity to miss!

 

Like the Victorian Naval Sloops, its a pity they're too big to get up the Bure to Wroxham to deal with the Zombies, though that numbered river patrol boat might have suited....

[wagonman]

Cley had a branch of Barclays Bank, open for a couple of hours on Tuesday afternoons from memory, the name perpetuated in Bank Cottages. One of the constituent parts of Barclays Bank was, of course, the Gurney's Bank in Norwich. They survived the debacle of their cousins at Overend, Gurney & Co and traded successfully until 1896 when they merged with Barclays. Surely Castle Aching would have had a branch too?

[wagonman]

I know, but it was too good an opportunity to miss!

 

Like the Victorian Naval Sloops, its a pity they're too big to get up the Bure to Wroxham to deal with the Zombies, though that numbered river patrol boat might have suited....

 

I think the Nar, or a previously undiscovered tributary (that damned crease again), is more likely the river of CA, though not navigable to anything larger than a canoe.

[wagonman]

Not to be outdone with this naval hardware, I must point out that our own dear Glaven River also saw the occasional gunboat...

 

 

 

 

 

[TheQ]

And they developed into...

A particularly lunatically fast Norfolk punt sailing boat...

[Martin S-C]

Not going to bag many ducks with that, unless the plan is to overtake them and run them down with sheer speed.

[Talltim]

I think the Nar, or a previously undiscovered tributary (that damned crease again), is more likely the river of CA, though not navigable to anything larger than a canoe.

Do you get whales in the Nar?

https://youtu.be/dP2lyc53qtI

[St Enodoc]

For those without Welsh dictionaries, the translation is Ladies of the Dawn - so not to be trifled with (wawr = gwawr mutated), as their image suggests.

I have always been surprised, since when modelling Irish railways it is necessary to scratch build much anyway, that modellers do not stick to standard track gauges and use scales to suit - 3.2 mm/ft for 16/5 mm track or 6 mm/ft for 32 mm track, if my calculations are approximately correct.

I would add my vote to Castle Rackrent as being an excellent layout, and one which my wife also remembers.

And I am not sure that I can see a place for a gunboat at Castle Aching, unless there has been a very high tide on the Norfolk coast and much of it has washed away, Dunwich style.

Back to that town, would there have been a purpose built Post Office at that date? Most of those I can think of are from between the wars if the design is anything to go by.

And who owns the local bank? There were lots of East Anglian Quakers with an interest in money.

Jonathan

Edited because I posted before I had finished

Oh, I don't know. Boats can turn up well inland:

 

https://www.weekendnotes.com/holbrook-submarine-park/

[Hroth]

Not to be outdone with this naval hardware, I must point out that our own dear Glaven River also saw the occasional gunboat...

 

 

Glaven gun boats.jpg

As well as converting the ducks to pate, it also functioned as an early jet engine.....

 

 

I think the Nar, or a previously undiscovered tributary (that damned crease again), is more likely the river of CA, though not navigable to anything larger than a canoe.

 

Probably, I was just reflecting on the Wroxham Zombie Apocalypse of 1909 that we (briefly) discussed almost 1 year ago, the Navy must have sent a gunboat, surely...

 

(Starting on the bottom of page 219, believe it or not!)

Edited September 22, 2018 by Hroth

[Hroth]

Oh, I don't know. Boats can turn up well inland:

 

https://www.weekendnotes.com/holbrook-submarine-park/

Or the Berouw, a Dutch gunboat which was washed inland by the tsunami generated by the eruption of Karakatoa in 1883

 

[Edwardian]

I think the Nar, or a previously undiscovered tributary (that damned crease again), is more likely the river of CA, though not navigable to anything larger than a canoe.

 

Yes, I thought in terms of little more than a stream, which can make an appearance running under the East Barsham-type trestle bridge. I tentatively referred to it as the Aching Brook (later giving rise to the title of General, Lord Achingbrooke, who successfully masterminded the defence of the Leeward Islands against the Romanian Navy during the Second World War), bur it stuck me that "brook" might not be Norfolk usage?

 

It was "brook" in my native Leicestershire and "beck" in my adopted country. Is "brook" normal for Norfolk? 

 

Not to be outdone with this naval hardware, I must point out that our own dear Glaven River also saw the occasional gunboat...

 

 

 

 

 

Glaven gun boats.jpg

 

Duck shooting from punts also being a Fenland activity.

 

The Glaven River made me think of the Gladden River; you'd certainly want a gunboat to clear the banks of orc-infestations!

 

 

Probably, I was just reflecting on the Wroxham Zombie Apocalypse of 1909 that we (briefly) discussed almost 1 year ago, the Navy must have sent a gunboat, surely...

 

(Starting on the bottom of page 219, believe it or not!)

 

No, but an RN ship could dispatch an armed steam pinnance up river?

[Nearholmer]

Very pretty boat.

 

Somewhere, in a Decauville catalogue, I’ve got a picture of an expedition up some heart of darkness river, with boats being ported across difficult stretches by a portable narrow gauge railway that the men in topis brought with them, but I can’t find a copy on line, so here is a railway being ported by elephant instead. Norfolk Himalayas, I think.

[Hroth]

Very pretty boat.

 

Somewhere, in a Decauville catalogue, I’ve got a picture of an expedition up some heart of darkness river, with boats being ported across difficult stretches by a portable narrow gauge railway that the men in topis brought with them, but I can’t find a copy on line, so here is a railway being ported by elephant instead. Norfolk Himalayas, I think.

One wonders if the locomotive was named "Jumbo"...

[Hroth]

 

No, but an RN ship could dispatch an armed steam pinnance up river?

I've got that Billings kit (from a charity shop for the princely sum of £3.50, complete) but I haven't built it yet...