“BEYOND DOVER”

[Compound2632]

11 hours ago, SM42 said:

Looking at the map above it is shown by its German name of Stolpmunde.

 

One of the history boards around the town, showed an old picture of the docks with some interesting 6 wheel wagons in shot.

 

 

Are you sure that isn't somewhere on the Devon or Cornwall coast? Looks rather fishy to me...

 

Tadpoles?

[SM42]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Are you sure that isn't somewhere on the Devon or Cornwall coast? Looks rather fishy to me...

 

Tadpoles?

 

Definitely claims to be Ustka and the built in brakesman's hut on the left hand one says mainland Europe to me

 

Andy

[Northroader]

Now, Stephen, don’t start winding people up. We’ll get @Schooner saying the boys sitting in a Severn trow next.

[Schooner]

It's floating...makes it a duck, dunnit?

 

Lovely little catchup, Ett stykke af Odsherreds on the teatime playlist :)

[Morello Cherry]

On 20/12/2022 at 09:39, burgundy said:

Thank you. I was trying to figure this out, as the main part of Serbia had gone from being part of the Ottoman Empire to an independent kingdom after 1878. I had not realised that Serbia had gained a chunk of former Hungary at the same time that Transylvania went to Romania after WW1.

Best wishes

Eric

 

Apologies for being a bit late to the party and if this is a bit boring. It is even more complex than that. The Banat of Temesvar was part of Hungary until conquered by the Ottomans after the Battle of Mohacs in 1527. It was then reconquered by the Austrians who also claimed/took Hungary in the long Ottoman-Habsburg wars. Transylvania was taken by the Austrians in 1699. The Banat was taken by the Austrians in 1718. (If you go to Vienna you will see a statue to Eugene of Savoy outside the Hofburg erected to celebrate that). They claimed it as newly acquired territory and got rid of all the old structures. It was then under direct military rule from Vienna for a while. Then some of it reverted to local (Hungarian) control with the military border under control from Vienna until the 1880. After the Ausgleich in 1867 it was back under rule from Budapest but still part of the Austro-Hungary Empire. (Croatia was also under Hungarian rule, while Bosnia was under Viennese rule). After WW1, the Banat was divided three ways, part went to Romania, part remained in Hungary and went to Yugoslavia (Vojvodina and Backa) (which was then attached to Serbia). Don't forget Serbia and Yugoslavia gained land from Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria, Romania from Hungary, Austria (Bukovina), Bulgaria and the Russian Empire.

 

If you ever have the interest then the best book in English on the area is this:

 

To take it back to railways, the issues in Yugoslavia in 1918  after the creation of the state are rather nicely described by Marin thus:

 

Quote

“The Yugoslav state had to cope with eight different legal systems, six customs areas, five currencies, four railway networks, three banking systems plus several patterns of land tenure...

 

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Morello Cherry

[SteveyDee68]

On 23/05/2023 at 22:42, Compound2632 said:

Compare De Graafstroom, as seen (watched for hours) at the 2019 Uckfield exhibition:

 

 

There's only the stump of a windmill, in which the parents of one of the builders grew up.

Well, having picked my jaw up off my chest, have to say that this is an astounding piece of modelling! Not sure what I liked best, the swan serenely gliding along the canal or the boat moving in the opposite direction - which I could swear was rocking gently from side to side, too! 
 

Don’t know now whether to be inspired or throw the towel in! 🤭

 

Steve S

[Flying Fox 34F]

3 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Well, having picked my jaw up off my chest, have to say that this is an astounding piece of modelling! Not sure what I liked best, the swan serenely gliding along the canal or the boat moving in the opposite direction - which I could swear was rocking gently from side to side, too! 
 

Don’t know now whether to be inspired or throw the towel in! 🤭

 

Steve S

Be inspired and buy a Magnorail set, but slow the motor right down.

 

Paul

[Northroader]

“CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS”

 

Fancy a night out at the movies? I think everyone is familiar with “The Train”, about the retreating German Army making off with looted art treasures and being foiled by the French Resistance, led by Burt Lancaster. Also set in 1944, is another film with a lot of railway interest, set in German occupied Bohemia, made by the Czech film industry. Probably not as well known, as it’s fifty seven years old, and has English subtitles. A lot of the railway equipment that appears comes from pre WW1 Austrian setting, which is my justification for placing it on here.

 

 

[Compound2632]

As I remember the novel (read in English translation, I'm afraid) there is something of a feature made of the Imperial Austrian standard issue leather station office couches, each of which, at each station along the line, has been torn in the same way. But that's just one of the plot details that it would not be proper to go into here.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Compound2632

[Northroader]

ROME TERMINI 1868.
 

I came across a really nice old photograph recently. It’s not dated, I would hazard a very broad estimate of  the 1870s. It’s captioned as Rome Termini, and gives a very complete picture of the old terminus with a passenger longboiler 2-4-0 and a third class coach, and a great skyline of ancient buildings.

It would make the basis of a nice early era Minories type layout, and you don’t get many of these with a coach parked square across the running lines! Evidence of the early way of forming trains out of carriage sidings parallel with the platform lines using small turntables. “Termini” is a translation I can jump in with both feet, it doesn’t mean ‘terminus’, but in fact ‘hot baths’, as immediately outside the front of the modern marble and glass station there is the remains of a wall which formed part of the Baths of Diocletian, a juxtaposition which keeps happening all over Rome. The modern station, with its 33 platforms, is very much in the future for this view, this must be close to the original station built in 1868 by the Papal States before Italian unification.

Pope Pius IX initiated the Roman Railways, with three lines radiating away from Rome into the territory of the Papal States, and decided to have a single station to serve Rome, south east of the city centre. This had the curious effect if you’re on the “Rome Express” from Paris, say, coming down the west coast from Pisa, of seeing the dome of St. Peter’s several miles east of you, and realising you’re heading south past the city, then sweeping round in a great curve, being joined by more tracks and flying junctions, along  a section of the ancient Servian city wall to enter Termini.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

Rome. Another sleepy backwater that owes everything to the railway.

 

[Schooner]

[Pacific231G]

On 28/03/2023 at 08:28, burgundy said:

Fascinating!

I wonder where the hydravions landed/beached in the UK?

Best wishes 

Eric

PS I have a vague memory of cars being loaded and unloaded like that on the ferry to Stornoway somewhere around 1960. 

A rather belated reply but there was a seaplane base at Dover during WW1 with a take-off and landing area in the harbour. After the war civilian operators wanted to use it but the admiralty refused so they initially went elsewhere- possibly to Folkestone. In 1928 an air service was established between Dover and Calais by  Compagnie Aérienne Française as Channel Air Express and Dover Harbour Board  designated a seaplane anchorage east of the Prince of Wales Pier with landing runs of 1,000, 1,200, 1,600 and 1,800 yards. The Mémoire de Calais film mentions the passenger statistics for 1929 so presumably was made in 1930 so it would be that seaplane service it was referring to. There's much more about the Dover seaplane base here

https://doverhistorian.com/2018/07/06/seaplane-base-and-mote-bulwark-part-2/

For the aircraft shown, fifteen minutes for a flight from Calais to Dover would just about get you between the two harbours but no further and the service, which connected with boat trains, seems to have handled mail and express parcels more than the two or three passengers the earliest aircraft could take. 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Pacific231G

[Northroader]

ROMAN PAPAL STATES RAILWAY.
 

Around the years that railway routes were being developed in most European countries, Italy was still very divided politically, if not in language and culture. There’s a nice animated map showing the convolutions of this era:

 

https://www.vox.com/2014/12/1/7314717/italian-unification

 

You’ll see that the Papal States around Rome had shrunk during this time, but were the last to join the unified nation of Italy in 1870. Up until then the social structure of the States had been resembling mediaeval ideas, being governed by a church hierarchy, and the lower classes very dependent on charity. Pope Pius IX tried to modernise in some ways, introducing railway development radiating out from Rome, but resisting national unification, leading finally to a pitched battle to occupy Rome, and the Pope being confined to the Vatican. Here’s a map showing the extent of the Roman railways in 1870, and linking in with the Rome Termini picture previously shown:

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Northroader

[Northroader]

ROMAN RAILWAYS LOCOMOTIVES
 

So much for history, what about the Roman Railways engines? C.Hamilton Ellis did a book a while back, which featured an 1878 album from the system showing some of the fleet. There’s a nice cross section of types, all done in tasteful colours:

First there’s a 2-4-0 built in 1848, from Jones & Potts of Warrington, pretty well the standard passenger loco right across Europe.

Then, a local product, from Ansaldo of Genoa, a 0-4-2 of 1859.

Another Merseysider, a 2-2-2, from Peto, Brassey & Betts, of Birkenhead, 1863.
 

 

Here’s a lightweight duty job, an Adams 2-2-0T, from Bow in 1850,

followed by a transatlantic job, a 4-4-0 by Norris in 1850, but having a four wheel tender:

Edited July 6, 2023 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

A Norris old-timer in Italy, very confusing 🙂

 

Seeing this lot makes me wonder how they got there, i.e. how locos were moved around the world in the 1870s. By ship I suppose. But fully assembled?

 

[Northroader]

I’m fairly certain that they would be shipped. Photos taken much later show that a lot of smaller parts, such as the motion, went separately crated, but there must have been some fairly meaty dockside cranes, capable of a lift of thirty tons at least, to do the main assembly, frames, boiler, perhaps wheels.

[Northroader]

Much later on….

[TT-Pete]

Ooopsie...

 

 

 

 

[Northroader]

“L’AGE D’OR”
 

Going a bit commercial here, there’s a lavish book on upmarket French 0 models, coupled with the Museon di Rodo layout, has recently been published, which may be of interest. Nothing in it for me, I assure you.

 

https://camdenmin.co.uk/products/l-age-dor-de-lechelle-0-en-france-1930-1970?utm_source=camden-miniature-steam-services.myshopify.com+subscribers&utm_campaign=59d66a5bbb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_6_29_2023_22_0&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_58623a04eb-59d66a5bbb-59745284&goal=0_58623a04eb-59d66a5bbb-59745284&mc_cid=59d66a5bbb&mc_eid=d1fb588ca5

 

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Northroader

[Donw]

Unfortunately no video but in the early days a loco was shipped across to the Isle of Wight unloading it at St Helens it was dropped into the sea. 

Not sure if that counts as beyond dover but it was off the mainland.

 

Don

[sncf231e]

8 hours ago, Northroader said:

Going a bit commercial here, there’s a lavish book on upmarket French 0 models, 

 

 

I just finished reading it (and looking at all pictures). It is a great book, also available here: https://trains.lrpresse.com/A-20133-l-age-d-or-de-l-echelle-zero-en-france-1930-1970.aspx#

Regards

Fred

[NHY 581]

On 23/05/2023 at 22:42, Compound2632 said:

Compare De Graafstroom, as seen (watched for hours) at the 2019 Uckfield exhibition:

 

 

There's only the stump of a windmill, in which the parents of one of the builders grew up.

 

I have seen this before but I can watch it over and over again. Each time I see something new ( which perhaps speaks volumes regarding my ability to observe.....)

 

Beautifully executed. 

 

Rob. 

[NHY 581]

On 30/05/2023 at 15:24, Northroader said:

“CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS”

 

Fancy a night out at the movies? I think everyone is familiar with “The Train”, about the retreating German Army making off with looted art treasures and being foiled by the French Resistance, led by Burt Lancaster. Also set in 1944, is another film with a lot of railway interest, set in German occupied Bohemia, made by the Czech film industry. Probably not as well known, as it’s fifty seven years old, and has English subtitles. A lot of the railway equipment that appears comes from pre WW1 Austrian setting, which is my justification for placing it on here.

 

 

 

 

I know this film well, my wife being Czech. Quite excellent.  We have quite a collection of films from all eras, picking up a few each time we 'go home'.  Railways feature heavily in Czechoslovakian/Czech cinema with a lot of filming carried out on location, similar to the Ealing pictures. 

 

 

 

Needless to say, I have some Czech stock and would love to model the interwar era or early post war but sadly, due to the cost of models of the steam locos this is unlikely.....

 

Rob. 

[Schooner]

On 25/06/2023 at 13:19, TT-Pete said:

 

Nice gloss black on the underside of both, which wqs interesting to see. A little disingenous with the 'oops, it fell' title - defs looks like 'oops, I dropped it' territory!

 

On 30/06/2023 at 12:23, Northroader said:

...lavish book on upmarket French 0 models...

Yum :)