Schooner's (Mostly Maritime) Musings

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Northroader said:

You’m just being a lump-sucking scrimshanker, now.

 

I take it that's the nautical equivalent of calling someone a rivet counter?

 

4 minutes ago, Northroader said:

(Practising for Sept.19th)

 

I'm giving three short blasts of the horn every two minutes here, since I'm going backwards in a fog of incomprehension.

[Northroader]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day

[Schooner]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Was the term gollywobbler applied to the staysails of a square-rigged vessel?

No, they're refered to by their stay - main topgallant staysail etc. The inner-most headsail is still the 'fore topmast staysail' in full, and then the quiver of jibs (typically 'inner', 'outer' and 'flying') as we go from the bow towards the end of the bowsprit/jibboom. Gollys are a schooner thing, a development of the "fisherman's staysail" as used by the Grand Banks schooners, and yachts, with their (comparitively) large crews and need for speed.

 

Sounds like five short blasts would also be suitable...!

 

 

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Schooner said:

No, they're refered to by their stay - main topgallant staysail etc.

 

That's what I thought. I used to know names of sails from a teenage interest in clippers.

[Schooner]

Quite right too!

[Giles]

..... I don't recall any of this from The Art of Coarse Sailing?.......

[Michael Crofts]

14 hours ago, Giles said:

..... I don't recall any of this from The Art of Coarse Sailing?.......

Nor do I and I'm never going to comment on sails again, ever. Can't think why I did it in the first place. Madness. Or Taylors Reserve. One or the other. 

[Schooner]

On 04/09/2023 at 09:33, Giles said:

The Art of Coarse Sailing

Indeed, all sails dowsed here represent good sport!

 

 

...and/or at least passable eating.

[Schooner]

Blame Stephen :)

 

Wooster, pre-1910 (mostly)

[Fair Oak Junction]

A few more

 

[Schooner]

On 31/08/2023 at 09:42, Compound2632 said:

...nautical equivalent of calling someone a rivet counter?

 

"Captain" 

[Fair Oak Junction]

I promise not to take up any more of this thread on the topic, but in case it is useful to anyone

Bit more detailed shots of the cattle pens, cattle market, and engine shed/water tower

[Schooner]

Not to worry @Fair Oak Junction, insofar as there is a topic it's anything which includes railways and whale-ways in the same image/paragraph/fever dream. All your contributions are most welcome :)

[Compound2632]

25 minutes ago, Schooner said:

 

Like I sort of said, it's not saddle tanks we need so much as working sheep and sheepdogs. Some animals - notably cats - are well-adapted to static modelling on our layouts, but others are intrinsically active. One might get away with sound only, for sheep. We're up against Rice's Law.

 

That's quite some gradient on the duck-under for Worcester Bridge:

 

18 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

 

Oozing... well, just oozing. Wonderfully damp.

 

25 minutes ago, Schooner said:

 

That seems to be a standard GWR 4-plank loaded with timber, in the earlier lettering style with G.W.R at the LH end, but the runner appears to be a dumb-buffered one-planker. Equally dumb-buffered are the pair of gable-roofed lime (or salt?) wagons; a nice contrast in fresh-out-of-the-paintshop and in-traffic-for-a-while condition, right down to the faded and stretched tarpaulin cover. As for the barges with onboard huts...

 

25 minutes ago, Schooner said:

 

When was the Great Western bridge rebuilt? That looks from this distance to be a Dean Goods with original S2 boiler. But this photograph should warm the cockles of the heart of any would-be manufacturer of railway cranes, showing that for all the more interesting jobs you need a pair, not just one. I could multiply examples but they's all be Midland examples. The point is, things have to be picked up from both ends...

 

All this and vinegar too - albeit over the other side of town.

 

Not to mention Lea & Perrins, of Midland Road.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Compound2632

[Fair Oak Junction]

2 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

When was the Great Western bridge rebuilt? That looks from this distance to be a Dean Goods with original S2 boiler. But this photograph should warm the cockles of the heart of any would-be manufacturer of railway cranes, showing that for all the more interesting jobs you need a pair, not just one. I could multiply examples but they's all be Midland examples. The point is, things have to be picked up from both ends...

 

The original 1859 bridge was replaced with the current one in 1905.

Also yes, considering how often the Severn likes to flood I'm not surprised the track under the bridge was given a bath fairly regularly 😉

Even now the area around the old warehouses on the south side of the bridge can be under water when the river is particularly high.

[Fair Oak Junction]

Some pics showing the original bridge, new bridge (both with the Butts Spur running underneath), and then a nice shot from the other bank showing the rebuilding process

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

Some pics showing the original bridge, new bridge (both with the Butts Spur running underneath), and then a nice shot from the other bank showing the rebuilding process

 

Going to show that there's nothing new in elegance giving way to hideousness.

 

3 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

 

Saddle tank! (Which is where we came in.)

[Schooner]

20 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

 Dingdingding!

 

Excellent gate. Bonus points awarded!

[Schooner]

What a mess this thread is! Took a while to dig out this:

 

Which shows off just about all one could wish to model :)

 

6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Oozing... well, just oozing. Wonderfully damp.

Ew. (-zing)

 

6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Equally dumb-buffered are the pair of gable-roofed lime (or salt?) wagons; a nice contrast in fresh-out-of-the-paintshop and in-traffic-for-a-while condition, right down to the faded and stretched tarpaulin cover.

Nice aren't they, and I suspect salt. Is there anything to look for on the wagons which might give it away? The railway was in the process of taking over from 'wich barges in the period

which had run salt downstream from Droitwich (obvs, sorry) to Bristol and Gloucester for onward shipment. In Harriet's case, also direct to France (Le Havre in 1886 IIRC*), in a voyage reported but only indirectly documented: she got a kicking on her return voyage and was said to have finally lost to the floodwaters just past Worcester, making the helm's job easy by setting herself approximately one boatlength from the nearest bridge. Likely related to this photo, but...

 

*return cargo of gilt furniture and glassware, for sale at the Birmingham antiques shop owned by a member of the extended family. So goes the story I heard anyway!

[Fair Oak Junction]

That is a beautiful drawing of the Trow! It's tragic that only one survives to this day.

[Compound2632]

35 minutes ago, Schooner said:

Nice aren't they, and I suspect salt. Is there anything to look for on the wagons which might give it away?

 

 

I think lime.

 

 

Keith Montague's Gloucester book has three examples of lime wagons from the 1880s, all of which are similar in outline to these two, though two have sprung buffers and the dumb-buffered example has a sliding hatch rather than a tarpaulin cover. The light colour is also characteristic but these wagons differ from the Gloucester examples in having cupboard rather than drop doors.

 

The book has several examples of salt wagons of similar vintage; these are more-or-less ordinary opens though two have a timber sheet bar. They are painted black.

 

it may be that gable-roofed salt wagons came later. This photo shows ordinary opens and conventional covered wagons (vans):

 

 

[Embedded link to Railways in Worcestershire.]

[Schooner]

Persuasive as ever, that's me convinced!

 

In other news, anyone keen?

 

https://www.berrybrooksteam.co.uk/vehicles/full-size/gwr-railway-luggage-wagon-of-c-1900

[Mikkel]

The scruffy old bear awakes from his November sleep and drowsily sniffs the air: Is that proper GWR stock I smell? Thank you for those Worcester photos everyone, very appealing.

 

 Louis, is there a bridge like this in your plans, and if not then why?

 

15 hours ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

Some pics showing the original bridge, new bridge (both with the Butts Spur running underneath), and then a nice shot from the other bank showing the rebuilding process

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Mikkel
I did say drowsy

[Compound2632]

4 hours ago, Schooner said:

In other news, anyone keen?

https://www.berrybrooksteam.co.uk/vehicles/full-size/gwr-railway-luggage-wagon-of-c-1900

 

Hum. Provenance highly speculative and condition highly inauthentic. 

[phil_sutters]

Looking through my file of old prints, collected by my grandfather, to see if there were any trows in them, I came across this view of Gloucester Docks. I think that the Foster Brothers No.2 may be too small and un-named to be a trow. But it is an interesting scene.

Edited November 27, 2023 by phil_sutters