The Night Mail

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Just one point about terraces.  Certainly terraces in Yorkshire often had a somewhat larger  dwelling at one end where someone like a fireman or pit deputy would live. 

 

Jamie

 

The same happens in "railway towns" like Swindon, where end terrace houses were to a better spec, for workers with "responsibilities".  Port Sunlight on the Wirral, built by Lever for the workers in their soap factory exhibits similar differentiation, though that has more of a Garden City vibe, rather than mere rows of brick terraces!

 

[Winslow Boy]

1 minute ago, Hroth said:

 

The same happens in "railway towns" like Swindon, where end terrace houses were to a better spec, for workers with "responsibilities".  Port Sunlight on the Wirral, built by Lever for the workers in their soap factory exhibits similar differentiation, though that has more of a Garden City vibe, rather than mere rows of brick terraces!

 

 Same for 'mill towns' two up, two down houses. One side of the street would have a little garden at the front, whilst the opposing side didn't. The other alternative was a 'lobby', so that when you entered the house you weren't in the front room. Of course this all meant the land lords could charge more rent.

[Happy Hippo]

23 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

It's still everybody else's fault regardless. 

 

SOP  in politics worldwide

 

Andy

My lack of skill in the railway modelling department is all Dave Hunt's fault.

 

Perhaps I should change tack and start modelling the Midland Railway and then drag him down with me.

[Dave Hunt]

26 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

My lack of skill in the railway modelling department is all Dave Hunt's fault.

 

Perhaps I should change tack and start modelling the Midland Railway and then drag him down with me.

If this is the beginning of some devious plot to get me to start modelling the GWR out of sympathy it won’t work HH.

 

Dave

[skipepsi]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Just one point about terraces.  Certainly terraces in Yorkshire often had a somewhat larger  dwelling at one end where someone like a fireman or pit deputy would live. 

 

Jamie

In some development's the bigger house was for the builder's foreman.

[SM42]

24 minutes ago, skipepsi said:

In some development's the bigger house was for the builder's foreman.

 

In more modern times the show house. 

 

My last abode was the show house. 

 

Came with a garage you could fit a modern car in  ( and I did   along with two bicycles and other assorted stuff,) and a safe under the stairs. 

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,    

 

Today has not started well. 

Mrs SM42 declared the dishwasher broken, ( engineer due Tuesday) and I have just come back from the tip,  drenched. 

 

I opened one of those hoppers on the paper skip to find ot was full of water. 

 

It isn't anymore. 

 

Andy

Who's got to do the washing up by hand now.  

[Oldddudders]

35 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

If this is the beginning of some devious plot to get me to start modelling the GWR out of sympathy it won’t work HH.

Devious? HH? A scurrilous suggestion!

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

My lack of skill in the railway modelling department is all Dave Hunt's fault.

 

Perhaps I should change tack and start modelling the Midland Railway and then drag him down with me.

 

35 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

If this is the beginning of some devious plot to get me to start modelling the GWR out of sympathy it won’t work HH.

 

Dave

Maybe holding DH's children and grandchildren hostage might do the trick.

 

A bit drastic, perhaps. But guaranteed to work IF DH loves his sprogs and grandsprogs - but not all parents love their offspring.

 

Some have even been known to encourage junior to "play in traffic"

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

As I found out when doing research for the Georgian Terrace Houses I built, this was relatively common in London during Georgian times and beyond). Building would be built using the cheapest possible bricks for the majority of the construction, then when finishing the facade then either a skin of very high quality bricks or stone (sometimes a stone substitute like stucco or one of the fake stone mixtures).

 

Interestingly, I learnt that much of the Georgian housing still existant in London is “speculator’s rubbish” - never designed to be last as long as it has. I also learnt that a lot of the Georgian housing stock in London was built because of prostitution: smart, clever, attractive and (initially) penniless young women - with both luck and skill - could become successful and highly remunerated Courtesans and the really canny amongst them would invest in one of the few things women could invest in at that time: buildings!

The most famous example of Georgian jerry-building in London is number 10 Downing Street. It has been gutted and rebuilt several times so that only the original facade survives, plus a corner of Henry VIII's tennis court. Likewise the White House has been gutted and a complete new interior fitted (The first time was in 1812 when the British burnt it down). 

[polybear]

4 hours ago, bbishop said:

Ah yes, as usual a statement of "fact" without the supporting evidence.  

Google is your friend….

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Given how things have developed in the UK since the referendum, the origins of such problems are more probably Whitehall than Brussels.

 

Previously good paint becoming cr@p paint started long before brexit; Hornby enamels and Hammerite being fine examples.
 

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Maybe, maybe not.

 

I'm more inclined towards the quick dry = convenient  marketing angle. 

 

Add to that the house doesn't stink for 3 days. 

 

Both are good for marketing to the short of time modern DIYer. 

 

The mandated removal of some of the world's less friendly chemicals may have been a driver of change but I suspect that the marketing of quick* and less smelly was more of an incentive. 

 

Andy

 

* they don't mention you need more coats due to poor coverage though 

 

I far more prefer oil based that covers properly, is much more durable and doesn’t dry even before you’ve had a chance to get it off the end of a brush….

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

If this is the beginning of some devious plot to get me to start modelling the GWR out of sympathy it won’t work HH.

 

Dave

 

But green is pretty and restful for the eyes, unlike that harsh red colour!

 

Shades of Grey (Jasper Fforde)  describes the "restfulness" of green...

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

Even though I say so myself, green and yellow are also the colours of snot and suppuration.

 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Maybe holding DH's children and grandchildren hostage might do the trick.

 

A bit drastic, perhaps. But guaranteed to work IF DH loves his sprogs and grandsprogs - but not all parents love their offspring.

 

Some have even been known to encourage junior to "play in traffic"

He does call the the small pink terrorists. 

 

Jamie

[SM42]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

 

I far more prefer oil based that covers properly, is much more durable and doesn’t dry even before you’ve had a chance to get it off the end of a brush….

 

Different style of painting  required 

 

Paint into the wet edge not out of it. 

 

On the positive side, when you started at the doorframe and have worked round the skirting, you can accidentally lean against the door frame to admire the job.

 

Amdy

Edited May 17 by SM42

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Very nice work!

Edited May 17 by monkeysarefun

[New Haven Neil]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Just one point about terraces.  Certainly terraces in Yorkshire often had a somewhat larger  dwelling at one end where someone like a fireman or pit deputy would live. 

 

Jamie

 

We had one of those in South Shields, owned originally by the builder of the street, the end house was bigger, had taller skirting boards, fireplaces and chimney pots, all status symbols in 1914.  We bought it from the estate of his daughter, technically the second owner.  The front and full gable end side was high quality Ruabon style shiny pressed brick, the back was local stuff!  Grand old house.

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

 

Different style of painting  required 

 

Paint into the wet edge not out of it. 

 

On the positive side, when you started at the doorframe and have worked round the skirting, you can accidentally lean against the door frame to admire the job.

 

Amdy

Listen to this man he's painted a lot of wet wedges.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

He does call the the small pink terrorists. 

 

Jamie

I thought that was a term of endearment. You mean it's not.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Even though I say so myself, green and yellow are also the colours of snot and suppuration.

 

 

 

 

They also make sludge if that's any help.

[Winslow Boy]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

My lack of skill in the railway modelling department is all Dave Hunt's fault.

 

Perhaps I should change tack and start modelling the Midland Railway and then drag him down with me.

I always put your lack of skill down to the fact that you found it difficult to pick up the welding iron with your hooves but there again I could be wrong.

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Maybe holding DH's children and grandchildren hostage might do the trick.

 

 

Do you realise that would be a life sentence for me, as he'd never want them back!

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I don’t know how “old fashioned” HH’s approach is to modelling, but resin casting is definitely the way to go if you need to make a lot of copies of the same thing (as in a row of terraced houses) and you don’t want to go down the 3D printer route.

 

I made the fronts and roofs of the row of Georgian Terraced Houses (GTR) I built for my (now abandoned) country town layout project using resin (photos of which are somewhere on RMWeb - one from my files is beloe). The most time consuming part of this process is making the master (from which the silicon rubber moulds are made) and with two or three moulds you can produce a row of of resin cast fronts in about an hour or so. But as silicon rubber moulds will allow you to reproduce even the finest details, it’s really worth taking your time to create a high quality master.

 

A few “lessons learned” from that project:

1. Whilst you can reproduce some incredibly fine detail with this method, you do have to have a reasonable thickness otherwise your building fronts can (and will) distort when assembling the terrace. The fronts of the GTR were moulded to prototypical thickness, which wasn’t a good idea.
2. If creating a master for something like a row of houses, do something I didn’t: make sure you can interlock the pieces together using something like a comb joint or a mortise and tenon joint - it’s far sturdier than a plain edge to plain edge (which is what I did) And with minor modifications to the master you can then make the moulds for the handed end of row frontages.
3. Normally you need to make up a minimum amount of both the silicon rubber and (then) the resin and the minimum amount is often more than what is needed to make the mould/make the casting. Therefore to prevent waste, it’s best to have a number of masters (or things you want to duplicate) when making the moulds and then when casting.
4. Air bubbles are the curse of creating both moulds and castings - though modern silicon rubbers and casting resins are supposed to be more resistant to trapping air bubbles (my venture into casting was quite a few years back). “Slow and Low” pouring helps reduce bubbles (serious resin casters use vibration tables and vacuum chambers to remove air bubbles from their work).

This may all sound a little convoluted, but it beats doing it all by hand (leaving more time for other jobs - like eating cake!). 
 

In all it turned out pretty OK, despite my fumbling!

 

Alas, you have fallen into the same trap that got me. Silicon and silicone rubber are quite a bit different 😀

[Dave Hunt]

Jill has been on at me concerning the state of our paths and driveway, which I have to admit are somewhat weed strewn and mucky with moss in the gaps. I did have ideas about trying to do it myself once my back was better but today decided that would be some time off and the job really needs doing soon so best I get a man in to sort it. Ten minutes on the web, a few phone calls and some messaging and it’s arranged for next week. Luckily I wasn’t planning on getting the couple of Deltics anyway.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Jill went to Telfland hospital today to have a heart monitor fitted for a few days. Miniaturisation obviously hasn’t reached Telfland as the thing she has to wear is more like a brick than a small medical device. How much sleep she will get is open to debate, which means how much sleep I will get is likely to be somewhat variable too.

 

Dave

[polybear]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Jill has been on at me concerning the state of our paths and driveway, which I have to admit are somewhat weed strewn and mucky with moss in the gaps. I did have ideas about trying to do it myself once my back was better but today decided that would be some time off and the job really needs doing soon so best I get a man in to sort it. Ten minutes on the web, a few phone calls and some messaging and it’s arranged for next week. Luckily I wasn’t planning on getting the couple of Deltics anyway.

 

Dave

Two Deltics??

Jeez, just how many weeds have you got?  A few bottles of weed killer sounds a lot cheaper to This Bear....