Castle Aching

[Regularity]

15 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

For religion to go bad, you only need it to be organised by people!

Actually, I think you are onto something universal, there.

As soon as anything gets organised by people, there is a risk (risk? Near certainty!) of creating in-group/out-group divisions, and thus we create the very intolerance we were hoping to avoid...

[Edwardian]

21 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Wasn’t there a WWI ship or two which were painted a greyish pink, and were very difficult to see at dusk/dawn?

 

Sounds like the ship that lead to the adoption of "Mountbatten pink"

 

Some Gen, including paint mix 

[Hroth]

Greyish Pink sounds rather dull.

 

 

I should imagine that a U Boat captain seeing this through his periscope would conclude that there had been something wrong with last nights sauerkraut, down periscope and slink away until his head felt better, and ships were an ordinary colour, not like that.....

[Guy Rixon]

...which would be a real shame for him. Legendary approach deep inside an enemy port, unequalled propaganda victory ... and then the target is nothing that anybody would believe even if he takes photographs. 

[Compound2632]

This just has to be shared, even though it's out of period for Edwardian - 1897. I came across it thanks to a link on the LNWR Society's Facebook page. I'll be posting the link on my wagon building thread, for reasons that will become obvious at around 30 s. Following on from the H&S discussion, note the bearded porter jumping off the footboard at the end of his conversation with the guard. The platform is low - about 2 ft above rail level. Dumb buffered PO wagons galore. But what I really like - the thing that makes me think I really ought to get on and do something with my stash of Andrew Stadden figures - is the variety of humanity - all heights and sizes, from the chap in the topper walking straight past in front of the camera to the old lady with her umbrella; the father with his daughter and son - their reaction to being on camera!

 

There's more. For something a bit more grittily northern, try this - note the NER coke hoppers.

 

At the other end of the social scale, Henley-on-Thames - has a higher platform too!

Edited May 16, 2019 by Compound2632

[RedGemAlchemist]

7 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Health and Safety is like everything else, it can be a force for good or for the absurdly restrictive pettifogging asininity of the mediocrity, empowered relative to you but who who fears the consequences of applying a modicum of intelligence to any given situation. 

 

I only had two accidents in the army.  One was turning a corridor in an unlit building (to save energy) and tripping headlong over a H&S warning tripod left to mark a long departed wet patch on the floor. 

 

I'll tell you how fearfully moronic it became in the army; putting big bright yellow warning rectangles on the night sight covers of camouflaged armoured fighting vehicles (Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR(T))s, which are essentially little tanks (as Lt. Gruber would say)).  All hope of realism in training gone. May as well have painted the whole f-g thing bright pink.

 

Mind you, that could work in the desert, but that's another story ....   

Brave man you are. Couldn't bear the thought of being in the armed forces. Very much a conscientious objector when it comes to war.

Give Peace a Chance, y'all. 

 

6 hours ago, Edwardian said:

It's all about how a thing is applied.

 

This week, commenting on events in the Alabama legislature (which tended to remind me of the Tom Lehrer lines "We'll try to stay serene and calm / When Alabama gets the Bomb"), my son dismissed religion wholesale as productive of nothing but harm.

 

Well, whether one has religious faith or not, I would advance the proposition that religious belief is not in itself a bad thing.  Generally most mainstream religious beliefs and ethics are above reproach. The question is how those religious beliefs are applied. For religion to go bad, you only need it to be organised by people! Religion can, and has, had good effects for humanity over the centuries. It can, however, be very, very badly applied. 

 

If you want a secular analogy, the French Constitution of 1793 was a model of democratic rationality. As, I'm sure, in theory, was Robespierre. 

 

I tend to tolerate the inanity of H&S because, taken as a whole, H&S policies have proved necessary and helpful.  Their application should not be above criticism, however, and, like that other Unthinking Man's excuse for idiocy, "data protection", H&S can be productive of frustration and absurdity. Precisely because I see the importance of regulation in this sphere, I'd rather poke fun at the inanities of the clip-board wielders than cavalierly breach safety standards. 

 

As I type, Kevin has said something not far off my conclusion; sound regulations unintelligently applied can be the bane of daily lives.  Satirising them, rather than breaking them, is, in my view, a useful safety valve!

I am and always have been an atheist. Believe whatever you want. I'll only get angry if you ram it down my throat all the bloody time. 

 

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Greyish Pink sounds rather dull.

 

 

I should imagine that a U Boat captain seeing this through his periscope would conclude that there had been something wrong with last nights sauerkraut, down periscope and slink away until his head felt better, and ships were an ordinary colour, not like that.....

"The Magical Mystery Boat is coming to take you away..."

 

1 hour ago, Guy Rixon said:

...which would be a real shame for him. Legendary approach deep inside an enemy port, unequalled propaganda victory ... and then the target is nothing that anybody would believe even if he takes photographs. 

Phrasing. 

[Andy Hayter]

52 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

This just has to be shared, 

 

"Location not authorised"   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

And The dreaded B has not even happened!

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

"Location not authorised"   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

And The dreaded B has not even happened!

 

Try going to the BFI site and drilling down?

[Andy Hayter]

BFIplayer is only available in the UK - apparently.

[Compound2632]

To further frustrate our overseas readers - the first bit of railway modelling (of sorts) on film?

[Andy Hayter]

I won't hold it against you.

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, Guy Rixon said:

Legendary approach deep inside an enemy port, unequalled propaganda victory ...

 

But the ferries draw so little that the torpedo would pass under the keel and he'd end up sinking the landing stage instead!

[Edwardian]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

Greyish Pink sounds rather dull.

 

 

I should imagine that a U Boat captain seeing this through his periscope would conclude that there had been something wrong with last nights sauerkraut, down periscope and slink away until his head felt better, and ships were an ordinary colour, not like that.....

 

We know a song about that, don't we Boys and Girls?

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

This just has to be shared, even though it's out of period for Edwardian - 1897. I came across it thanks to a link on the LNWR Society's Facebook page. I'll be posting the link on my wagon building thread, for reasons that will become obvious at around 30 s. Following on from the H&S discussion, note the bearded porter jumping off the footboard at the end of his conversation with the guard. The platform is low - about 2 ft above rail level. Dumb buffered PO wagons galore. But what I really like - the thing that makes me think I really ought to get on and do something with my stash of Andrew Stadden figures - is the variety of humanity - all heights and sizes, from the chap in the topper walking straight past in front of the camera to the old lady with her umbrella; the father with his daughter and son - their reaction to being on camera!

 

There's more. For something a bit more grittily northern, try this - note the NER coke hoppers.

 

At the other end of the social scale, Henley-on-Thames - has a higher platform too!

 

Brilliant films, Stephen,thank you.

 

Fascinating. I notice the inevitable MR 5-planks in the goods train and how clean the locomotives and passenger stock was. 

 

Someone needs to slap the 12-year old at BFI until he understands that it's a railway station, not a "train station".  

[RedGemAlchemist]

22 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

We know a song about that, don't we Boys and Girls?

I prefer Frankie Goes to Hollywood's version.

[Donw]

My view of religeons is that they should be tolerated to the same degree as they tolerate others. I really do not think much of people using religeon as an excuse to kill others. Those sort of people may believe their God wants them to murder others but that is not acceptable in a rather crowded world.

 

H & S is widely used as an excuse to stop things. A friend who had quite a background was working as a safty adviser for the building trade helping with risk assessments etc. HAd a way of dealing with silly H& S claims usually by challenging the person. Most would back down if as to sign a form saying that they would accept full responsibility for insisting such and such was necessary as he was advising it would actually inhibit safe working. He would also very strongly advise his clients when he felt the safty measured were reasonable and desirable.

 

On my part I once needed some bolts fitted in a manhole. These could be fired into concrete using a HILTI GUN. The Senior Tech brought one out to site and telling me how to use it as he had a back back handed it to me. I later found out that you need a licence as it uses explosive charges and I had broken the law using it. Okay I am a sensible chap and was careful but if it had gone wrong......

 

Don

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

12 hours ago, petethemole said:

Yet another retired archaeologist here, which must say something about H&S. It wasn't just about PPE in its various forms, which itself has saved limbs and lives (I remember people digging barefoot in the early '70s) but about safe working practices, for example shoring of excavations. Trench collapses killed several archaeologists and injured a lot more, as well as many construction workers. I had to dig someone out of a collapse in 1970, she was only buried up to the waist but her foot came out back to front.

 

Depends where you're working. Hi viz in some of the places I worked made you a good target.

 

Of course if an excavation is unstable then shoring would be necessary however if it is unstable then perhaps the archaeologist is at fault given the need for accurate sections. However that doesn't mean that the extremes of H&S lunacy are acceptable in any form especially when it has become the prime means by which jobsworths cling to employment when better more intelligent people miss out. And donning hi-viz just to talk in a museum is really on the extreme side of silliness. However it might be a subtle as yet not fully understood evolutionary phenomenon in that hi-viz allows the ready identification of the less than intellectually gifted amongst us.    

[Edwardian]

6 hours ago, Donw said:

My view of religeons is that they should be tolerated to the same degree as they tolerate others. I really do not think much of people using religeon as an excuse to kill others. Those sort of people may believe their God wants them to murder others but that is not acceptable in a rather crowded world.

 

 

I am once more put in mind of Tom Lehrer, who once said "There are people who do not love their fellow Man.  And I hate people like that!"

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

6 hours ago, Donw said:

My view of religeons is that they should be tolerated to the same degree as they tolerate others. I really do not think much of people using religeon as an excuse to kill others. Those sort of people may believe their God wants them to murder others but that is not acceptable in a rather crowded world.

 

 

 

Well there are some religions and sects who seem to have developed a monopoly on the art of door bell ringing. Whether that is a useful trade or not is probably beyond any religious belief to properly answer. 

[Hroth]

9 hours ago, Edwardian said:

We know a song about that, don't we Boys and Girls?

 

Unfortunately, yes......

(And if you go on a Mersey Ferry nowadays, it gets continuously blasted into your eardrums, interspersed by a flatulent commentary)

 

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

I am once more put in mind of Tom Lehrer, who once said "There are people who do not love their fellow Man.  And I hate people like that!"

 

That sounds a bit deep!

 

I prefer his songs that tell you what elements are known at Harvard, how to find out if you have an original sin, who'll have a device "transistorised, at half the price" or the simple pleasures of Avianicide.*

 

And getting back to philosophy, as it were, "Its not against any religion, to want to dispose of a pigeon"!

 

* Name them songs!

[Edwardian]

13 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I prefer his songs that tell you ... how to find out if you have an original sin,

 

Well, I've never poisoned pigeons in the park, but I did once sing the Vatican Rag in the presence of the Papal Nuncio (I was very, very drunk ...)

 

[Hroth]

8 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

I did once sing the Vatican Rag in the presence of the Papal Nuncio

 

One hopes that it was appreciated!

 

 

[drmditch]

19 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Sounds like the ship that lead to the adoption of "Mountbatten pink"

 

Some Gen, including paint mix 

Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten was not the most successful of naval commanders, although his father was probably more capable apart from an inability to cope with W S Churchill and rampant xenophobia. I'm sure I read recently that 'Mountbatten Pink' was regarded as very effective at dawn and dusk - admittedly when many naval encounters could take place - but shone very nicely in the mid-day sun. 

 

Perhaps that shows up the importance of the 'light gauge' - as at Coronel and Jutland - in pre-radar days.

 

I cannot see the value in camouflaging armoured trains though, or indeed the point of armoured trains at all!

Edited May 17, 2019 by drmditch

[Hroth]

19 minutes ago, drmditch said:

 

I cannot see the value in camouflaging armoured trains though, or indeed the point of armoured trains at all!

 

Churchill certainly knew from his experiences in the Boer War, that armoured trains were a bust, Its only despotic leaders that don't want to plummet to a fiery death in an aeroplane that value armoured trains...

[Nearholmer]

The father of a friend survived action, very heavy action, as a tank commander in every significant engagement involving British tanks through WW2, and he ascribed his survival to being colour-blind, because it allowed him to pick-out shapes, enemy tanks, emplacements etc, despite attempts to camouflage them.

 

Mind you, I conclude that he was simply lucky and bloody tough ....... he was captured a few days into Southern Italy, put on a German PoW ship, which was then sunk by a British torpedo in mid-Med, got out of the water into a lifeboat, which was then taken in-tow by an Italian fishing-boat, got ashore, was handed back to the Germans and put in a holding camp from which he escaped, and worked his way back to his unit across occupied territory using nothing but his wits.

 

Well into his eighties, he and his wife used to go camping all the time, well into the cold months, and we used to go with them some times. Every morning he would come out of the tent, light his pipe, do fifty press-ups in his Y-fronts, then shave with the mirror hung from the tent pole, all while still smoking the pipe! Hard as nails, and his wife was completely the opposite, a very rounded woman, with a lovely soft voice, curly grey hair and little gold glasses, who would bake cakes in the camp fire.

 

Sorry, reminiscing, but they were a quite amazing couple.