RMweb Gold Donw Posted July 12, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 12, 2019 Could it be one placed on the 'wrong side' of the track for sighting reasons and so had the arm the opposite way round. Stionmaster Mike could probably quote some examples if that is the case. Don 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 12, 2019 Author Share Posted July 12, 2019 One thing I’m pretty certain of is that the signal is not original to the location, so it might have come from a rare application, but I’m sceptical ........ Mike is indeed the man to ask, so I will. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted July 12, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 12, 2019 4 hours ago, Nearholmer said: The signal really is “the wrong way round”. It looks like a real subsidiary signal of some sort, but if it is real, it’s very unusual, isn’t it? It looks like a bit of a mash-up Kevin. There's no lamp behind the arm and the post looks more like a lamp post than a signal post. With a lower-quadrant arm and spectacle like that I would expect to see the pivot on the left (as it is) and a lamp on the right of the post, with the whole arm and spectacle turned round to suit. Still, it's not my house and it's not my signal so who am I to say? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted July 12, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 12, 2019 1 hour ago, Nearholmer said: One thing I’m pretty certain of is that the signal is not original to the location, so it might have come from a rare application, but I’m sceptical ........ Mike is indeed the man to ask, so I will. I'm here - at last! My word what a bitsa - bitsathis and bitsathat. I couldn't quite make out if the arm is enamelled steel but if it is then it has been altered as the proportions in respect of the position of the white stripe are rather peculiar (something which generally happened where the arm had been shortened for some reason but that doesn't seem to have happened very often. The metal casting at the post end is very definitely to the standard Reading pattern (or a very good copy of one). The spectacle plate is definitely wrong for that arm although the very early enamel arms did use the previous pattern of spectacle formed out of metal strip but the proportions don't look quite right for the Reading design and it probably came from somewhere else. The finial is a not particularly convincing fake of a GWR finial of any type although it might possibly have come from somewhere else - I tend to think not as it simply doesn't look right to me. So overall an entertaining bit of fun and I suspect not really intended to be anything more. Anybody going to the trouble of having what looks like a pretty good reduced scale signalbox in their garden would probably have taken as much care with a signal so I reckon this one might be 'odd' on purpose (to discourage thieves??) 2 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 12, 2019 Author Share Posted July 12, 2019 Thank you. Rather as I suspected. Today’s signals are a lot better, but the bike is in the guard’s van at the moment. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted July 12, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 12, 2019 33 minutes ago, Nearholmer said: Thank you. Rather as I suspected. Today’s signals are a lot better, but the bike is in the guard’s van at the moment. Two photos, five signals and half a loco. You've got your priorities right. My favourite heritage railway (member since about 1969). 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 12, 2019 Author Share Posted July 12, 2019 Ditto. Having grown-up very nearby, I was aware of it almost from the start of preservation, and was a volunteer from the mid-70s until I moved away. The landscape of The Weald is woven into me too, so the combination of that with railway, and cycling there as I used to do, makes an irresistible combination ....... a giant nostalgiefest really. 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted July 12, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 12, 2019 Well that was a thoroughly entertaining read and corruption I've got some of the tinplate trams shown a few pages back and I'm looking for clockwork mechanisms or cheap battery mechs using the Tamiya gearboxes I've used in 16mm. They will go well with the Billerbahn stuff 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 It’s about time the railways were nationalised, it being ages-upon-ages since the 1950s trains came out. So, they have been. All very Hornby Dublin, eh? 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRASinBothell Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Alas, with nationalization the egregious Dr.B can't be far behind. I fear we shall be seeing notices going up at Paltry Circus about withdrawal of services... Gordon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 (edited) The calendar here never progresses much beyond about 1955 (although I'm suspicious of the lining on those suburban coaches), so this railway can continue to serve obscure destinations, while making huge operating losses, without the interference of keen-as-mustard outsiders. Incidentally, the two BL locos never cease to impress me. Clean the wheels, lubricate bearing sparingly, and they will growl into motion and trundle round with a train at c800mA, at 60+ years old, and with three-pole open-framed motors. Edited July 16, 2019 by Nearholmer 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRASinBothell Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Well, that's a relief! You could probably allow a couple more years of "progress" if you want to include the later BR emblem on your locos (and those lined suburban coaches), without having to allow for the Doctor. Get it up to 1959, and you can justify a mini on the overbridge (not that you could see it!). The only Doctor on my layout lives in a Tardis! Gordon 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted July 17, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 17, 2019 I say, look here, my man, I joined BR in 1956, you know, I hope you’re not possibly implying anything about the year it went to the dogs. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 Glad you found it interesting Neverwood. Do you not find that fine-scale wheel-sets tend to hit the crossing noses on SM32 (=coarse) points? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervyn Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 Good morning Neverwood can I ask how you got over the problem of insulating your points as i see that Peco dont do isolating fish-plates for their SM32 Track I was going to pursue the SM32 route for my coarse scale stock but as the points are electrofrog couldn't find a way of insulating the frog ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 22, 2019 Author Share Posted July 22, 2019 (edited) Yet again, not much to do with 0 gauge, although it is extremely old-fashioned ........ Ive long been aware of the plateway that existed 200+ years ago across the top of Blisworth Hill in Northants while the canal tunnel was dug and re-dug, but was interested today to see that the canal museum at Stoke Bruerne now has a better display about the topic ........ I’m still intrigued by what seem to be bits of very early edge-rail gubbins in the display, but the paintings are very good. Background reading http://www.blisworth.org.uk/images/TheHillRailway.htm Edited July 22, 2019 by Nearholmer 11 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRASinBothell Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 So, will Paltry Circus be morphing into the Birlstone and Paltry Circus Tramroad? Gordon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 22, 2019 Author Share Posted July 22, 2019 As ever, the challenge is to find a working one of these in 0 scale. Note this it is wearing “boat harness”. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRASinBothell Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Do it like the Festiniog, and only run the gravity-powered downhill trains, with the horse in a dandy cart, eating hay to prepare for exertions of the return journey! Gordon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 26, 2019 Author Share Posted July 26, 2019 (edited) Now, this is even less connected with the topic than plateways, but by golly is it old-fashioned cool: a 1940s lunar suit. Background https://www.bis-space.com/2019/07/18/22738/the-bis-lunar-spacesuit-national-space-centre Fits In well with the Eagle theme that somehow emerged in Martin’s thread. Notice Army Surplus camp bed in space ship! Edited July 26, 2019 by Nearholmer 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted July 27, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 27, 2019 Sound of tinny laughter..... 2 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 Another somewhat random thought (no picture this time, sorry): I've been reading-up on the subject of milk traffic on railways again, and stumbled upon possibly the most obscure, and evocatively named, timetabled stopping place on a British railway, in the form of Friar Waddon Milk Platform, on the GWR Abbotsbury Branch. It was probably no more than a wooden staging, set where an unsurfaced farm track crossed the railway on its way between two large dairy barns, but its name seems to say everything about the sort of railways that Betjeman eulogised (can objects be eulogised?). 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin S-C Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Something like this only without the attached station. Weren't there similar desolate places on the WC&PR? 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) Probably quite a bit bigger, but yes, that is roughly what I imagined. In the process, I've learned that the things at the roadside, where churns were collected from farms, are called "churn stands", whereas I could swear they were called "churn banks". Where in Arcadia is that station? PS: "Tell him to go to the WC&P." This 'station' certainly has the look of a back-garden convenience https://picclick.co.uk/Walton-Park-Railway-Station-Photo-Weston-Clevedon-264255783931.html#&gid=1&pid=1 Edited July 27, 2019 by Nearholmer 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 This is the US take on it in tinplate 0. The churns ‘self load’ into the boxcar under the action of a solenoid, which vibrates the platform! 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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