Castle Aching

[Martin S-C]

Not sure if I should mention it here: after all, “buying = modelling” is a more common mindset outside of this forum, and the layout is definitely set post 1924 due to the modelled condition of Carlisle, yet the real Bishop’s Castle Railway was never grouped (and is therefore neither pre- nor post- grouping... ) But absent a “light and independent railways” forum, this seems the best place for mentioning it.

 

It needs some minor attention and titivating*, but my aim is to take it out on the road a few times a year, to promote both the BCR and S Scale, and their respective societies. As it happens, I already have some suitable additional rolling stock built over the years, which is a bonus, but I shall gave to grit my teeth and build half a dozen cattle wagons at some point in time.

I had a quick Goggling session for the layout and saw a group of people operating it in 2018 from the Bishops Castle Railway Society. Did you purchase the layout from them, Simon?

[phil_sutters]

No, that is Prince Albert. We also have the present and previous monarchs, and various portraits of officers associated either with the old 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot, which in Expanded Norfolk survived as The West Norfolk Regiment, or with the Norfolk Rifle Volunteers.  The latter are the chaps in grey and are taken from the group portrait of the Administrative Battalion. 

 

The small uniform plates also depict the 54th Foot and one post-Boer war print of what by then was The Norfolk Regiment (the old East Norfolk).

 

The circular portrait, showing general officer's uniform of the late Eighteenth Century, is of the founder of the Regiment, John Campbell,5th Duke of Argyll, by Gainsborough, no less (a copy, of course).

 

The portrait below shows Lieutenant John Reid of the 54th Foot, c.1835, wearing his Waterloo Medal.

 

The full length portrait is of Major General Sir Neil Campbell in the uniform of a Major of the 54th Foot (clearly Napoleonic in style). 

 

As we know, in the alternative history, the Second battalion of the 54th Foot was re-raised in 1803, a step that ultimately saved the regiment from extinction in the amalgamations of 1881. A third battalion of Norfolk Militia was also maintained. In due course this allowed the West Norfolk Militia and the West Norfolk Rifle Volunteers to form the Third (Volunteer) Battalion, The West Norfolk Regiment. The Battalion's HQ company is based at the Castle Aching Drill Hall. 

Given the generally flatish terrain of Norfolk I am surprised to find that there is no obvious provision for the regiment's bicycles. Obviously far too much had been spent on impressive portraits and not enough on new technology. https://cyclehistory.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/military-cycling-the-war-office-mark-bicycles/  Image was obviously more important than efficiency, especially if the cyclists that might be recruited had bad teeth! Was Gloucestershire particularly known for dental dereliction, one wonders?

Edited December 21, 2018 by phil_sutters

[Regularity]

I had a quick Goggling session for the layout and saw a group of people operating it in 2018 from the Bishops Castle Railway Society. Did you purchase the layout from them, Simon?

Yes, from the Bishop’s Castle Railway Society. Almost by accident, from a chance comment made on their Facebook page.

I did have to move my previous layout on to a friend, though, as I had no space for both and I was bored with my own layout (despite the fact that for the past 20 years it had belonged to someone else before returning to me), which also needed a touch up here and there. It also means that after many, many years of meaning to get around to it, I finally joined the BCRS!

 

Edit: I would create a new thread, but true to form, the BCR doesn’t really fit into any pigeonholes that apply to most other railways. It wasn’t a light railway. It was never grouped. It wasn’t industrial. It wasn’t Colonel Stephens. It wasn’t narrow gauge, and unlike the Easingwold and North Sunderland, didn’t survive long enough to hire BR locos, either. I suppose it should go into the layouts forum, where true to form it can disappear amongst all the noise of everything else.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Regularity

[Annie]

Just when I thought the drill hall couldn't get any better it did.  Well done James!

[St Enodoc]

Surely, that must have been gauge-widened from c600mm. It looks like one of the Couillet(sp?) locos that was used in Spain until the 1970/80s.

 

Edit: By St Leonard, not Couillet; regauged from 1000mm, not 600mm; and, it worked in Belgium, at a colliery, not Spain. So, I was wholly wrong.

You got "gauge-widened" right...

[Annie]

Given the generally flatish terrain of Norfolk I am surprised to find that there is no obvious provision for the regiment's bicycles. Obviously far too much had been spent on impressive portraits and not enough on new technology. https://cyclehistory.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/military-cycling-the-war-office-mark-bicycles/  Image was obviously more important than efficiency, especially if the cyclists that might be recruited had bad teeth! Was Gloucestershire particularly known for dental dereliction, one wonders?

areyoufondofcycling.jpg

Back when I was still doing Victorian Sci Fi and whimsical Colonial miniature wargaming I painstakingly assembled a bicycle unit from cut up 1/72 scale late 19th century British infantry and some small bicycle models I obtained  from somewhere.  Cyclist companies might seem odd to 21st century folk these days, but back then you have to remember the bicycle was right at the leading edge of technology so it was only natural the military would be interested in making use of bicycles.

[Edwardian]

Given the generally flatish terrain of Norfolk I am surprised to find that there is no obvious provision for the regiment's bicycles. Obviously far too much had been spent on impressive portraits and not enough on new technology. https://cyclehistory.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/military-cycling-the-war-office-mark-bicycles/  Image was obviously more important than efficiency, especially if the cyclists that might be recruited had bad teeth! Was Gloucestershire particularly known for dental dereliction, one wonders?

areyoufondofcycling.jpg

 

I love this photograph (a Yorkshire volunteer battalion). Note the cyclists. 

Edited December 22, 2018 by Edwardian

[sem34090]

Very nice!

I need a bike, preferably a period one.

[sem34090]

Classic.

 

South Western Railway don't seem to issue rail replacement bus drivers with any route knowledge, so I'm currently acting as navigator on an Ascot to Aldershot service...

Possibly in my SR uniform he thought I was an SWR official?!

 

Edit: Just about made my connection at Ash Vale. Talking to the replacement guard it seems there are some (well at least one!) railway enthusiasts amongst SWR's management, so there is hope yet...

Edited December 22, 2018 by sem34090

[Hroth]

Classic.

 

South Western Railway don't seem to issue rail replacement bus drivers with any route knowledge, so I'm currently acting as navigator on an Ascot to Aldershot service...

Possibly in my SR uniform he thought I was an SWR official?!

 

Edit: Just about made my connection at Ash Vale. Talking to the replacement guard it seems there are some (well at least one!) railway enthusiasts amongst SWR's management, so there is hope yet...

 

You looked more official than the officials!

 

 

Very nice!

I need a bike, preferably a period one.

 

A velocipede should do.....

 

 

(Safety Bicycles are for wimps)

[Hroth]

I love this photograph (a Yorkshire volunteer battalion). Note the cyclists. 

 

I see that the cycle troops have anti-aircraft mounts for their rifles....

[sem34090]

You looked more official than the officials!

 

 

 

A velocipede should do.....

 

The American Velocipede.jpg

 

(Safety Bicycles are for wimps)

Very kind of you to sat so, Sir!

 

I wouldn't fancy my chances 'Over the Alps' on one of those things!!!

Edited December 22, 2018 by sem34090

[uax6]

The Bardic isn't very pre-nationalisation is it?

 

Where's your oil hand lamp?

 

Andy G

[sem34090]

I'd rather have an oil lamp, to be honest, but the Bardic was all I could afford! Hoping that someone may have got me an oil one for Christmas, but I doubt it.

[Donw]

Good Grief I have actually caught up having usually been a page or two behind. I must agree with the concensus on the Drill Hall, as fine a piece of modelling as any I have seen. The interior is an undoubted bonus. BTW isn't it Vicky in the blue sash?

Anyway seasons greetings to one and all and hoping the new year will be better for all.

 

Don

[Annie]

I'd rather have an oil lamp, to be honest, but the Bardic was all I could afford! Hoping that someone may have got me an oil one for Christmas, but I doubt it.

On Ebay the prices wanted for a genuine pre-nationalisation lamp soar past £250, but Indian railways ones of undeniably British design seem to go for about £150.

 

[Compound2632]

No, that is Prince Albert. We also have the present and previous monarchs, and various portraits of officers associated either with the old 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot, which in Expanded Norfolk survived as The West Norfolk Regiment, or with the Norfolk Rifle Volunteers.  The latter are the chaps in grey and are taken from the group portrait of the Administrative Battalion. 

 

The small uniform plates also depict the 54th Foot and one post-Boer war print of what by then was The Norfolk Regiment (the old East Norfolk).

 

The circular portrait, showing general officer's uniform of the late Eighteenth Century, is of the founder of the Regiment, John Campbell,5th Duke of Argyll, by Gainsborough, no less (a copy, of course).

 

The portrait below shows Lieutenant John Reid of the 54th Foot, c.1835, wearing his Waterloo Medal.

 

The full length portrait is of Major General Sir Neil Campbell in the uniform of a Major of the 54th Foot (clearly Napoleonic in style). 

 

As we know, in the alternative history, the Second battalion of the 54th Foot was re-raised in 1803, a step that ultimately saved the regiment from extinction in the amalgamations of 1881. A third battalion of Norfolk Militia was also maintained. In due course this allowed the West Norfolk Militia and the West Norfolk Rifle Volunteers to form the Third (Volunteer) Battalion, The West Norfolk Regiment. The Battalion's HQ company is based at the Castle Aching Drill Hall. 

 

Thanks - I've had some fun tracking down the originals on line. Readers of George McDonald Fraser will know that the British Army in the 19th century was largely run by Campbells - the Junker class of Scotland, though I don't think Argyllshire otherwise resembles Prussia. 

 

I have to confess to having watched Lucy Worsley's reconstruction of the wedding of Albert Saxe-Coburg and Victoria Hanover (or possibly Conroy). As is usual with these programs, I'd have liked more detail and less repetitive Worsley froth. But what I think I really want to see is Jasdeep Singh given his own series on military uniforms.

[Hroth]

Thanks - I've had some fun tracking down the originals on line. Readers of George McDonald Fraser will know that the British Army in the 19th century was largely run by Campbells - the Junker class of Scotland, though I don't think Argyllshire otherwise resembles Prussia. 

 

I have to confess to having watched Lucy Worsley's reconstruction of the wedding of Albert Saxe-Coburg and Victoria Hanover (or possibly Conroy). As is usual with these programs, I'd have liked more detail and less repetitive Worsley froth. But what I think I really want to see is Jasdeep Singh given his own series on military uniforms.

 

I find that Lucy Worsley's programmes are mainly a chance for her to dress up and get over excited!

[Edwardian]

I find that Lucy Worsley's programmes are mainly a chance for her to dress up and get over excited!

 

Not seeing the problem here ....

[sem34090]

Agreed... And the problem there is?

 

(Speaking as someone who spends most days attempting some kind of period dress!!!)

Edited December 22, 2018 by sem34090

[Hroth]

Not seeing the problem here ....

As I said.... 

 

Though it IS the Panto season.   I bet her Twanky would go down well at the Christmas Party at the Drill Hall!

Edited December 22, 2018 by Hroth

[Hroth]

Agreed... And the problem there is?

 

(Speaking as someone who spends most days attempting some kind of period dress!!!)

Comment would be superfluous. 

[sem34090]

Ooft!

 

An unpopular man you may yet prove, Mr Hroth...

 

And what is wrong with period costume? Hmm?

Edited December 22, 2018 by sem34090

[Nearholmer]

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

 

I’m sure we’ve had bicycle troops, including that poster, before, but it’s an interesting topic, so ......

 

SEM - if you want to go any distance, you need a period (c1940s) touring bike, not a ‘sit up and beg’, and with one of those the ‘Alps’ should present no obstacle. But, they are very ‘sought after’, which is another word for expensive, because they are both very practical and very good-looking, and any resto would cost a fortune, because the parts are so hard to obtain. If you live roughly where I’m guessing, cycling time to Medstead is c3h 10m, with an impressive 1800ft of up-hill, compensated by c2000ft of downhill. Should be a good workout!

 

Cheap alternative is a brand new Pashley Clubman, which looks the part and is probably quite rideable, but only has three speeds.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Nearholmer

[corneliuslundie]

May I have the temerity to draw the attention of the management of the WNR and the leaders of the local volunteers to this:

http://www.lbscr.org/Models/Digest/LBSCR-Modellers-Digest-8.pdf

Although there may be a risk if deflecting interest to south of the Thames, i particularly want to draw your attention to the rail mounted gun. Not one of those First World War efforts but a much earlier one.You will also note a brief appearance by one of the CA parishioners.

Re where to put the BCR, I am having the same problem. As mentioned previously the club I belong to is working up a BCR layout, but since we want to be able to run both pre-grouping stock (exLNWR 4-wheelers) and post grouping (B&M, LSWR and H&B offcasts) since the infrastructure would have changed little, where does it fit? I too don't want to put a thread in the Layouts section. Suggestions please.

And Edwardian, words fail me regarding that interior. One question though? Will anyone be able to see it when the model is complete, or are you going to arrange virtual guided tours using a mobile miniature camera?

Jonathan