Castle Aching

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, NeilHB said:

They really are lovely photos Simon - thanks for sharing! 

 

The Eastern & Midlands stock in view in a couple of the photos does look remarkably like it is of Midland origin - or am I missing something? I'm wondering if I could get away with repainting a couple of 7mm Slaters kits...

 

I've posted before on the paucity of information about the goods wagons of the M&GN / E&MR - lack of information being correlated with the surprising smallness of the fleet for a line of 183 route miles - a little over 700 vehicles in 1893. The high-sided goods wagon in Simon's third photo is evidently based on a photo in N.J.L Digby, A Guide to the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway (Ian Allan, 1993) p. 152. Digby has a diagram of this type, a 4-plank wagon 15'6" over headstocks, 9'0" wheelbase, 2'10½" deep, really not very close to a Midland open. This must have been a relatively common type; by 1922 the M&GN goods fleet was down to 388 vehicles, of which 49 were of this type all surviving to be divided between the LMS and LNER in 1928. There's a photo of another example, No. 674, wearing the final style of livery with initials M&GN two planks high, in P. Tatlow, LNER Wagons Vol. 2 (Wild Swan, 2007) p. 193. 

 

According to the diagram in Digby, the drop-side wagon was closer to the Midland equivalent, 15'1" over headstocks, 9'0" wheelbase, 1'9" deep. Digby has a photo, p. 152, of a ballast train with several of these wagons in 1937 - service stock remained Joint property after 1928. Tatlow records 69 ballast wagons in 1928. The photo shows most of the wagons with the large M&GN lettering, although one at least just as the word BALLAST on the middle plank. As far as I'm aware, the wagon in Simon's second photo has been the object of a little modeller's licence, backdating this final M&GN style to E&MR in large letters. According to Digby, E&MR livery always had the company name in full on the top plank, per No. 107, with the first M&GN livery following this, with JTM&GN on the top plank; simplified around 1900 to M&GN on the top plank, with the larger lettering coming in some time in the first decade of the 20th century.

 

The provenance of these wagons does not seem to be known. The E&MR / M&GN did not have a carriage & wagon shop equipped to build new stock - it was Marriott's threat that this might become necessary that induced the Midland and the Great Northern to transfer some old carriages of their own to the Joint in 1903. So presumably goods wagons were originally built by outside firms - no record appears to have been traced. However, Digby records that the axleboxes of No. 107 carried the cast lettering E&MR A and that examples of these axleboxes could still be seen on service vehicles in the 1940s - so either the builders were casting axleboxes to Marriott's specification or Melton Constable was casting replacement axleboxes.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Compound2632

[webbcompound]

thank goodness some rolling stock is finally getting through the Castle Aching quarantine. I was getting to the stage where  I was almost ready to buy an Adams Radial and cut the bunker off myself.

[NeilHB]

22 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I've posted before on the paucity of information about the goods wagons of the M&GN / E&MR - lack of information being correlated with the surprising smallness of the fleet for a line of 183 route miles - a little over 700 vehicles in 1893. The high-sided goods wagon in Simon's third photo is evidently based on a photo in N.J.L Digby, A Guide to the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway (Ian Allan, 1993) p. 152. Digby has a diagram of this type, a 4-plank wagon 15'6" over headstocks, 9'0" wheelbase, 2'10½" deep, really not very close to a Midland open. This must have been a relatively common type; by 1922 the M&GN goods fleet was down to 388 vehicles, of which 49 were of this type all surviving to be divided between the LMS and LNER in 1928. There's a photo of another example, No. 674, wearing the final style of livery with initials M&GN two planks high, in P. Tatlow, LNER Wagons Vol. 2 (Wild Swan, 2007) p. 193. 

 

According to the diagram in Digby, the drop-side wagon was closer to the Midland equivalent, 15'1" over headstocks, 9'0" wheelbase, 1'9" deep. Digby has a photo, p. 152, of a ballast train with several of these wagons in 1937 - service stock remained Joint property after 1928. Tatlow records 69 ballast wagons in 1928. The photo shows most of the wagons with the large M&GN lettering, although one at least just as the word BALLAST on the middle plank. As far as I'm aware, the wagon in Simon's second photo has been the object of a little modeller's licence, backdating this final M&GN style to E&MR in large letters. According to Digby, E&MR livery always had the company name in full on the top plank, per No. 107, with the first M&GN livery following this, with JTM&GN on the top plank; simplified around 1900 to M&GN on the top plank, with the larger lettering coming in some time in the first decade of the 20th century.

 

The provenance of these wagons does not seem to be known. The E&MR / M&GN did not have a carriage & wagon shop equipped to build new stock - it was Marriott's threat that this might become necessary that induced the Midland and the Great Northern to transfer some old carriages of their own to the Joint in 1903. So presumably goods wagons were originally built by outside firms - no record appears to have been traced. However, Digby records that the axleboxes of No. 107 carried the cast lettering E&MR A and that examples of these axleboxes could still be seen on service vehicles in the 1940s - so either the builders were casting axleboxes to Marriott's specification or Melton Constable was casting replacement axleboxes.

 

Thanks Compound, that's very useful to know. Shall have to investigate purchasing a copy of LNER Wagons volume 2 - does it include many other E&M/M&GN wagons? 

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, NeilHB said:

LNER Wagons volume 2 - does it include many other E&M/M&GN wagons? 

 

No. What it does have is largely given in more detail in Digby, which appears to have the most information - but even that is only around three pages! I would only get the Tatlow book if your interests also include North Eastern or Hull & Barnsley wagons. On the latter he is more or less complete but generally his volumes covering pre-grouping wagons suffer from bias towards wagons that survived to grouping - I suppose the warning is in the title!

[NeilHB]

Thanks Compound, not one to add to the library then. I've got a copy of Digby (very well read and falling apart at the seams sadly!) so shall consult that. 

 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

7 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

 

It gets better, most of the soaps have cancelled filming. Who knew panic buying would cause the BBC to run out of Eastenders?

 

Gary

 

And from distant Australia the news is that the long lasting blot on our arts "Neighbours" has also suspended production.

[Nearholmer]

In China, they continued one of their soaps at this stage in proceedings by having one of the stars make and broadcast a sort-of blog from home during isolation, so maybe soap-o-philes will have their needs served similarly here.

 

I'd suggest a star to do the job, but its so long since I saw a soap that I have nasty feeling that all the stars I might name have either joined the choir invisible or grown-up and become Kylie.

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

We have another called "Home and Away" perhaps it will change to "Home and Quarantined"  

[Regularity]

58 minutes ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

We have another called "Home and Away" perhaps it will change to "Home and Quarantined"  

Maybe it should simply be “go home and stay away”?

(Probably what the indigenous people thought when the first settlers arrived!)

[monkeysarefun]

I pine for the good old days of January  when we only had bushfires to worry about.

 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

In China, they continued one of their soaps at this stage in proceedings by having one of the stars make and broadcast a sort-of blog from home during isolation, so maybe soap-o-philes will have their needs served similarly here.

 

I'd suggest a star to do the job, but its so long since I saw a soap that I have nasty feeling that all the stars I might name have either joined the choir invisible or grown-up and become Kylie.

Ah, my Minnie and my Ena long ago, long ago...

[Hroth]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Ah, my Minnie and my Ena long ago, long ago...

 

Oh hush...  You'll have folk sobbing into their milk stout, remembering watching Corrie on their 17" 405 line telly when Ena was dug out of the Mission after the train came off the viaduct...

 

Sort of on topic, there's a railway interest!

 

 

[Northroader]

Eh?

[Edwardian]

Well, apart from being exhausted and a sort of perambulating sack of mucus (apologies to any indulging in a late breakfast), I don't feel too bad today.  I am, at least, perambulating. 

 

I motored into town this am.  Having been unable to buy whole categories of goods for days, yesterday I was tipped off by our local supermarket staff that the Idiot Panic Buyers descend at 6.30 every morning to strip the place, so, this morning I resolved to beat them to it.  I am now the proud possessor of 4 loo rolls, though it took my best Paddington Bear stare, pregnant with the implied threat of breathing on her to get one geriatric hoarder with a trolley already bulging with a 9-pack to back off and leave a pack on the shelf. Sadly, before this is all over there will be people found dead in this town with cupboards full of unused loo rolls and hand soap, and their estates will make a killing on Ebay.

 

My biggest concern was the complete lack of any dog food yesterday.  Dogs panic buying, who knew? So my major and essential triumph this morning was a slab of tins and a bag of dry food.  i refuse to buy more than I usually do, so will need to repeat this morning's Supermarket Sweep in due course.

 

 

 

 

[Clearwater]

A friend of mine summarised it nearly on Twitter:

 

 

[Hroth]

9 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

My biggest concern was the complete lack of any dog food yesterday.  Dogs panic buying, who knew? So my major and essential triumph this morning was a slab of tins and a bag of dry food.  i refuse to buy more than I usually do, so will need to repeat this morning's Supermarket Sweep in due course.

 

With some people, you wonder just how much food a Yorkie can put away.

 

As for pit-bull owners, I'd have thought they just turn their "pets" out to forage off the neighbourhood cats and unsuspecting pedestrians....

 

[Northroader]

I got up early as well, trying out the Sainsbury’s 7-8 scheme for oaps. Busy as a Saturday morning, all checkouts staffed, quite a flow of people going through. It struck me several were taking grandad out to do their own shopping, and a lot of oldies with deep trolleys piled high who were unfamiliar with the shop layout. There’s a definite lack of stock on many items, empty shelves, and missing brands, also zilch toilet rolls. Wonder if things will calm down?

[Clearwater]

A friend of mine summarised it neatly on Twitter:

 

 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Clearwater
Pic and spelling

[Hroth]

13 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Wonder if things will calm down?

 

When (if?) the virus really starts to bite and the mortality rates are getting close to home.  My strategy for today was to have a look around for some essentials at about 11am, to allow for restocking and the possibility that the main rush would be earlier.  I'm fearing that this may be flawed.

 

Todays Metro newspaper has a photo on the front page of an old buffer, holding a shopping list, standing in front of a run of empty shelves at a supermarket.  The caption claims that the picture "went viral"....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-51955022

 

Perhaps we ought to be considering the 5:2 diet to cut down on the amounts we require to stockpile in case of extended self-isolation?

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Hroth
link to BBC newspaper review

[Edwardian]

For me, modelling has always been about trying to capture lost scenes of the past that we can barely now imagine.

 

Speaking of which ...

 

 

Perhaps it is these guys who have been panic-buying both loo rolls and dog food?

[Compound2632]

Apologies to all those who have already seen this on Early Risers:

 

https://howmuchtoiletpaper.com/

 

Shoppers should be required to use this app before security lets them into the loo roll aisle.

[drmditch]

21 hours ago, runs as required said:

I think the little soul looked prettier with her pair of cylinders instead of a black patch.

dh

 

Glad that you recognise that locomotives have souls.

How could one imagine heaven without them?

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

I have this dreadful sinking feeling that the human race will survive the current unpleasantness. Pangolins may not be so pleased.

 

So

 

[wagonman]

It's interesting to note that, while the English are panic buying toilet paper, the Americans are panic buying guns and ammo! Neither course of action makes any sense when the enemy is a 'flu virus...

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Still, makes a nice change from talking about Brexit all the blasted time .........

 

Actually, do you know? I rather miss those carefree days of summer and vicious squabbling whether or not we should ‘go it alone’.