Castle Aching

[Regularity]

1 minute ago, Northroader said:

Inverness... ...then a whiff of fish from vans passing through...

Scary thought, it being a terminus...

[Northroader]

Fish vans could get shunted in and out of the terminus between trains, they didn’t all go through on the curve without a transfer.

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Scary thought, it being a terminus...

 

What goes in must come out.

 

You want to be careful unloading fish vans at a terminus.

[runs as required]

Another favourite night-time spot (in the days of railway owned hotels) was the back door of the great station hotel at York that opened out onto the platforms.

I'd surface at about 3-4 in the early hours and wonder what might be going on and descend with minimal over-cladding of night clothes to have a dekko, taking in the atmosphere. 

Strangely I would not be alone - there were others revelling in the "night-time on the railway" Edward Hopper like sounds and smells. None of us would talk, but all quickly scurried back up the great stair to our beds.

 

Do others have favourite old railway hotels?

I also loved Holyhead (I'm sure they dispatched their laundry up to Euston for laundering!)

dh

[Nearholmer]

The railway at night always is a different place, and even only a few decades ago used to be a seriously different place.

 

I might have related this before, but one incident that sticks in my mind from travelling, rather than working, at night, was on one of the 'wee small hours' newspaper, parcels and passenger trains, I think one that had a couple of sleeping cars bound for Liverpool, was a prolonged stop somewhere to load mail bags, where quite a few people got out for a stroll/smoke, and a guy emerged in pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, and a hair-net covering a big set of ginger locks that must have been an impressive coif by day.

 

The impressive thing was that he was totally un-self-conscious.

 

Illustration from my small daughter’s copy of ‘skimbleshanks’, the artist of which, one Arthur Robins, really ‘gets’ the old night railway.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Nearholmer

[lanchester]

6 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The railway at night always is a different place, and even only a few decades ago used to be a seriously different place.

 

I might have related this before, but one incident that sticks in my mind from travelling, rather than working, at night, was on one of the 'wee small hours' newspaper, parcels and passenger trains, I think one that had a couple of sleeping cars bound for Liverpool, was a prolonged stop somewhere to load mail bags, where quite a few people got out for a stroll/smoke, and a guy emerged in pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, and a hair-net covering a big set of ginger locks that must have been an impressive coif by day.

 

The impressive thing was that he was totally un-self-conscious.

 

Illustration from my small daughter’s copy of ‘skimbleshanks’, the artist of which, one Arthur Robins, really ‘gets’ the old night railway.

 

 

The railway at night? For me, wheel-tappers (last heard on some sleeping cars at Carlisle Citadel in 1975). Never saw or heard any wheeltapping during daytime for some reason.

[webbcompound]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 I think one that had a couple of sleeping cars bound for Liverpool, was a prolonged stop somewhere to load mail bags, where quite a few people got out for a stroll/smoke, and a guy emerged in pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, and a hair-net covering a big set of ginger locks that must have been an impressive coif by day.

Most of my night time train experiences involved staggering around bleary eyed at some unknown station in the cold after a night on uncomfortable seats. the single major exception was stepping off the Orient express at breakfast time in a siding amongst snow covered peaks in Lichtenstein, surrounded by an array of passengers including us, slumming it in the provided dressing gowns, whilst some people had clearly been on the train since the mid nineteenth century from their garb and jewellry.

[runs as required]

1

I'm surprised about taking the sleeper to Lime Street from Euston, the old trick as a student was to get on the train early and bag one of the net luggage racks in a non smoker - an excellent night's sleep could be guaranteed (though minus the attendant's wake-up tea and biscuits)

2

Quote

from Webbcompound

The single major exception was stepping off the Orient express at breakfast time in a siding amongst snow covered peaks in Lichtenstein, surrounded by an array of passengers including us, slumming it in the provided dressing gowns, whilst some people had clearly been on the train since the mid nineteenth century from their garb and jewellry.

Our experience of a honeymoon trip on the (Simplon) Orient Express was perhaps even more dreamlike.

By the time we were deep into the Balkans in Macedonia, the train had managed to flip day and night - so the the Restaurant car would be attached to our Blue  Wagon Lits cars and breakfast served in the early evening, lunch at about  23.00 local time and dinner (if you were lucky) around the time of an early breakfast !

A day and a half late at Sirkeji, we had tickets on from Haydarpasa to Aleppo but the young bride cried "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

 

About 6 months later "From Russia with Love" hit our screens, the northbound Orient Express was clearly a lot sharper. In Sophia - instead of the best part of a day we lurked (time enough for a trolley bus ride to the centre), northbound they stopped just a few minutes, time enough for a dastardly murder. 

dh

Edited March 6, 2020 by runs as required

[Nearholmer]

37 minutes ago, runs as required said:

I'm surprised about taking the sleeper to Lime Street from Euston,

I used to catch it from Euston as far as Crewe, going on via Shrewsbury into Wales, always bagging an ordinary compartment, pulling the blinds down, taking the light-bulbs out, and ‘sleeping’ under my coat along one seat (armrests up!).

 

Every compartment was similarly bagged by one or two people, but there never seemed to be territorial disputes.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

One night I was on the Bristol Newcastle Mail, nicely snuggled down, when the train gave a bit of a jolt starting away from somewhere, so I stirred, and realised we’d just left York, where I was getting off. Horror, next stop Thirsk. Ever been drowsing in a waiting room in the small hours waiting for the first morning train back when a Deltic comes through doing a ton?

[Nearholmer]

Falling asleep in stations; another memory stirrer.

 

Pal and I did a 'bash' to the Baie de Somme railway when it was morphing from 'working' to 'preserved', overnight boat, first train from Calais, walked the line to St Valery etc.

 

Come early evening, and post a bottle of homemade cider, we arrived back at the main-line station and promptly fell deeply asleep in the booking hall while waiting from the train.

 

The lady booking clerk had the Chef de Train hold the service for us, woke us up, and propelled us up the steps to get aboard, where we promptly fell back to sleep. Pretty good service, eh? (or maybe we looked like two down-and-outs that she wanted rid of!)

[runs as required]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

... I used to catch it from Euston as far as Crewe, going on via Shrewsbury into Wales, always bagging an ordinary compartment, pulling the blinds down, taking the light-bulbs out, and ‘sleeping’ under my coat along one seat (armrests up!) ...

 

Crewe was really poetic as a 'night owls' stop-over point. 

 

I did a year (while courting a Glossop schoolmistress) travelling the other way N to W through Crewe on the last train from Manchester - so as to arrive in Shrewsbury in time for work on Monday in 1959-60.

There was a beautiful old (ex LNWR Wolverton? because it had large square cornered windows) centre aisled corridor carriage with lavishly upholstered carved wooden seats always to be found in a north facing bay platform against the buffers, available for those to wishing to kip down between the last train in and the first out .

 

It was spectacular to witness the up night trains behind Class 8 Pacifics roll in, steam leaking up from heating pipes under the carriages like a black & white Anna Karenina film.

A bleary eyed squaddie once hailed me out of a window with "Hey Jock ! is this Glasgy?"

Preceded by his kitbag, he fell onto the platform just in the nick of time - opposite the all night tea buffet. He joined me in the dossers carriage to await his first train north,

dh

 

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, lanchester said:

Never saw or heard any wheeltapping during daytime for some reason.

A regular occurrence at York in my memory.

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I used to catch it from Euston as far as Crewe, going on via Shrewsbury into Wales, always bagging an ordinary compartment, pulling the blinds down, taking the light-bulbs out, and ‘sleeping’ under my coat along one seat (armrests up!).

 

Every compartment was similarly bagged by one or two people, but there never seemed to be territorial disputes.

 

 

A first-class compartment was best. You could prop one cushion up on the armrest on the corridor side then slide the other two along to make room for your feet.

 

Luxury!

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Northroader said:

One night I was on the Bristol Newcastle Mail, nicely snuggled down, when the train gave a bit of a jolt starting away from somewhere, so I stirred, and realised we’d just left York, where I was getting off. Horror, next stop Thirsk. Ever been drowsing in a waiting room in the small hours waiting for the first morning train back when a Deltic comes through doing a ton?

A long time (45 years) ago I had to get back from West Wales on a Sunday evening to Derby to start work on a Monday morning. Shouldn't have been a problem except that the DMU fug sent me to sleep until I was woken at Cardiff by a carriage cleaner, half-an-hour after my Bristol connection had gone. A friendly supervisor arranged for me to ride in the cab of a parcels train which the driver stopped at the North end of TempleMeads so that I could hop down, run across and get into my connecting train about a minute before it left.

[Buhar]

On 29/02/2020 at 13:02, Compound2632 said:

Midland Railway 890 Class 2-4-0 No. 68A as running in 1905, from the Ratio 2-4-0 kit.

 

That's enough for now; I'll come back to the tender later.

Hi Stephen,

 

Any developments on this interesting treatise?

 

And any thoughts on traction in respect of rice-pudding skin. 

 

Alan

[Compound2632]

44 minutes ago, Buhar said:

And any thoughts on traction in respect of rice-pudding skin. 

 

 The 890 Class were in inception an inside-framed version of the 800 Class and were in all respects their equals. Mechanically, they had a similar history - reboilered promptly by Johnson and given 18" x 24 in cylinders in the late eighties / early nineties. They started out working alongside the 800 Class on the principal expresses between London, Leicester, and Leeds, being gradually reduced to lesser express duties as the 4-4-0s and 4-2-2s became more plentiful in the nineties - spread around Buxton, Sheffield, Nottingham and Birmingham. So there's no evidence they were inadequate for the work they were being asked to do in the pre-corridor-carriage age. Bear in mind that they were bigger than the contemporary LNWR 2-4-0s. 

 

Of course if your idea of an express passenger engine is a Princess Coronation, they will appear pretty weedy, as will any nineteenth-century locomotive.

 

EDIT: here's one at Bromsgrove in early LMS days with eight on - around 180 tons. Admittedly she's just come down the Lickey but it's actually quite a steady climb up to Barnt Green from the Birmingham side. Possibly going on to Worcester. Scrolling down, there's a photo of No. 108 (old No. 131) in LMS 1928 red livery - which wasn't quite supposed to happen. Evidently someone thought it was the equal of a Royal Scot!

Edited March 7, 2020 by Compound2632

[Edwardian]

Second time lucky ....

 

 

Thanks to Rails of Sheffield my replacement Triang Limited Edition Pay-More-For-A-Red-Box set arrived today.

 

And the little Rocket chuffers away with a mesmersiing turn to its single wheels.

 

The coughing and other noises off are courtesy of Miss T, who is home from school with a temperature, sore throat and ear infection.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by Edwardian
spelling!

[Nearholmer]

It is so like a person propelling a wheel-chair.

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

The coughing and other noises off are courtesy of Miss T, who is home from school with a temperature, sore throat and ear infection.

 

 

She has my sympathy. It's an unpleasant time to be down with a non-covid19 illness with similar symptoms. I've still got the hacking cough that drags on for three weeks after my annual spring half-term cold. According to my father-in-law, who is not a medical doctor*, it's almost certainly an old strain of coronavirus. Sometimes there are benefits to not having the latest version of something!

 

*He's a retired Cambridge don - experimental psychology. His field is the fallibility of human judgement, his own excepted. 

 

Some interesting stock lurking in the background there. Has the WNR been buying second-hand Midland rolling stock? There seems to have been quite a lot of that going on in the early 20th century.

 

Nice little yellow engine too, though a bit out of period - 1980s would be more its heyday!

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

It is so like a person propelling a wheel-chair.

 

I've got one of those "slot-car" Racing Grannies in Wheelchairs things, the only problem is that with new batteries, they tend to come off at corners and with old ones they sulk and won't budge at all!

[RodneyS]

 

50 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Some interesting stock lurking in the background there.

 

Agreed.  Is that an Electrotren 2-4-0T with the red chassis

Rodney

[Compound2632]

Just now, Hroth said:

 

I've got one of those "slot-car" Racing Grannies in Wheelchairs things, the only problem is that with new batteries, they tend to come off at corners and with old ones they sulk and won't budge at all!

 

Sounds pretty realistic.

[Annie]

Excellent James, I'm glad you finally got a 'Rocket' that works.

 

And best wishes to Miss T for a quick recovery.  Keeping warm and plenty of orange juice should help with that.

[TT-Pete]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

The coughing and other noises off are courtesy of Miss T, who is home from school with a temperature, sore throat and ear infection.

 

Gosh. Not the dreaded Lurgi?!!