Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[MrWolf]

Interesting (and a very nice job!) I'm not entirely sure what timber was used for wagon floors, but for decades lorry and trailer floors have been made from various hardwoods under the classification of Keruing.

 

Below is a typical colour of freshly machined timber. It rapidly turns through yellow to silver grey, but the depth of discoloration is minimal due to the density of the grain. Which means that abrasion from loads bring up the colour again. 

 

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Interesting (and a very nice job!) I'm not entirely sure what timber was used for wagon floors, 

 

Deal (pine or larch) - typically 7" x 2½" [Midland Railway Study Centre Item 88-D2113].

Edited May 19, 2021 by Compound2632

[Regularity]

10 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Interesting (and a very nice job!) I'm not entirely sure what timber was used for wagon floors, but for decades lorry and trailer floors have been made from various hardwoods under the classification of Keruing.

 

Thank you.

7 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Deal (pine or larch) - typically 7" x 2½" [Midland Railway Study Centre Item 88-D2113].

From photos - which is what I used to guide me - the interior of most railway wagons was very light in colour as a consequence of this material, but obviously would vary enormously due to loads carried.

[MrWolf]

12 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Thank you.

From photos - which is what I used to guide me - the interior of most railway wagons was very light in colour as a consequence of this material, but obviously would vary enormously due to loads carried.

 

Good point. Even the inside of coal wagons is never uniformly black. A lot of grey / beige showing.

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Good point. Even the inside of coal wagons is never uniformly black. A lot of grey / beige showing.

 

Far from it. Ingrained coal dust maybe, but at least for coal merchants and smaller industrial customers, thoroughly swept-out. Don't know about shipping coal though - I don't think those South Wales docks end tippers had a "thorough shake" step at the end of the tipping cycle.

[Regularity]

2 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Good point. Even the inside of coal wagons is never uniformly black. A lot of grey / beige showing.

Yes: also, I prefer to lighten colours slightly to create a slight distancing effect - an example is a preference towards (non-metallic) gunmetal over pure matt black, or adding dark earth to the latter.

I also prefer a pale grey to white - years back (like about 40) I used to add a drop or two of Humbrol "BR Coach Grey" to virtually every tinlet I opened, to create a unifying tint. Unfortunately, the pigment doesn't seem to be quite as fine as it was then. Not sure if that is cost-cutting, a supply problem, or changes in formulation due to the not unreasonable desire to cut down on nasty chemicals in the workplace (by which I mean, the production factory, not us at home!)

[MrWolf]

Very true. Colours become lighter with distance and therefore scale. Manufacturers of model paints do allow for this but the strident colours, brick red, grass green and black that dominate our landscape are often too strong in model form and need to be dialled back otherwise items stand out from the landscape too much, which reduces the illusion of reality.

 

One of the first things that they teach you even at O level art, is that although you can buy black and white paint, there is no true black or white in reality.

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by MrWolf
Forgot something!

[St Enodoc]

15 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Yes: also, I prefer to lighten colours slightly to create a slight distancing effect - an example is a preference towards (non-metallic) gunmetal over pure matt black, or adding dark earth to the latter.

I also prefer a pale grey to white - years back (like about 40) I used to add a drop or two of Humbrol "BR Coach Grey" to virtually every tinlet I opened, to create a unifying tint. Unfortunately, the pigment doesn't seem to be quite as fine as it was then. Not sure if that is cost-cutting, a supply problem, or changes in formulation due to the not unreasonable desire to cut down on nasty chemicals in the workplace (by which I mean, the production factory, not us at home!)

 

5 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Very true. Colours become lighter with distance and therefore scale. Manufacturers of model paints do allow for this but the strident colours, brick red, grass green and black that dominate our landscape are often too strong in model form and need to be dialled back otherwise items stand out from the landscape too much, which reduces the illusion of reality.

 

There was an article in the second MRJ Compendium on this, by Ian Huntley, circa 1992. He produced a paint called "scale colour tinter" which he sold through his Locotint range. I've no idea whether it's still available.

[MrWolf]

In the spirit of waste not want not, the water tank has been assembled and bits of plastruct dug out. The tank is a scale 13'6" square and will stand on a scale 20'0" high angle iron frame. 

That should keep things in proportion. 

 

I still don't know what it's for.

 

 

[Stubby47]

20 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

One of the first things that they teach you even at O level art, is that although you can buy black and white paint, there is no true black or white in reality.

 

Apart from on Chess boards.

 

And kitchen floors used for advertising Flash. 

[chuffinghell]

32 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

One of the first things that they teach you even at O level art, is that although you can buy black and white paint, there is no true black or white in reality.

 

 

 

First thing I was taught in Art was to stick to technical drawing instead 

[Regularity]

2 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

 

First thing I was taught in Art was to stick to technical drawing instead 

I failed my O level art, although my teacher did say that the grade I achieved - a D, so only just a fail - compared to ability was the best result he had seen in his career!

[Limpley Stoker]

I thought tank tops were an item of clothing I was too old to wear.

 

I was put off art after receiving a severe punishment for adding a speech bubble to a portrait I was painting : so much for free speech in the 1950’s

[MrWolf]

I got an A in O level art, an A in A level art, a Distinction at foundation level (one of only six that year) and a First at BA Hons.

 

And I'm still poor!

[chuffinghell]

I've got a BSC.............

 

............Bronze Swimming Certificate

[MrWolf]

I was pressured at one point into getting a proper job, so I took a BSc.

 

Still poor. 

 

 

[Regularity]

Most degrees seem to exist to qualify one to take another degree...

 

(My partner has two BScs, in different subjects, and can't get a job!)

[chuffinghell]

I've got a cSB and a certificate for overcoming dyslexia

[chuffinghell]

57 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I got an A in O level art, an A in A level art, a Distinction at foundation level (one of only six that year) and a First at BA Hons.

 

And I'm still poor!

 

The Applause was for the first sentence by the way 

[MrWolf]

They are apparently a measure of an individual's ability to learn, according to recruiters.

I, like most people 50 or less soon found that the idea of "Get a degree, you'll walk into any job" that we were sold is actually a bit of a fib.

What potential employers would say is "You're over qualified and under experienced" or too old to start at the bottom.

What employers actually seem to want is a sixteen year old on a government funded scheme who is already fully trained and has twenty years hands on experience. 

 

That said, the memsahib is working on her masters, as having done a little teaching, (she wsa kind of mythered into doing it.) realised that she can't abide children.

 

 

[Gedward]

[JustinDean]

52 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

They are apparently a measure of an individual's ability to learn, according to recruiters.

I, like most people 50 or less soon found that the idea of "Get a degree, you'll walk into any job" that we were sold is actually a bit of a fib.

What potential employers would say is "You're over qualified and under experienced" or too old to start at the bottom.

What employers actually seem to want is a sixteen year old on a government funded scheme who is already fully trained and has twenty years hands on experience. 

 

That said, the memsahib is working on her masters, as having done a little teaching, (she wsa kind of mythered into doing it.) realised that she can't abide children.

 

 

My partner is a secondary school teacher and from the stories I hear on a daily basis I think you need to be a masochist to do that job. 

[Limpley Stoker]

My wife taught in a middle school (9 -14 yr olds) for years, retired 12 years ago and has never really recovered. She acquired the skills of sarcasm wit and snappiness. Sadly only the latter remains!

[Alister_G]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

They are apparently a measure of an individual's ability to learn, according to recruiters.

 

 

Over the last ten or twenty years there seems to have been a concerted push to introduce university degrees for all sorts of careers which were once the realm of vocational training. A case in point is the NHS, where to be a Nurse or Ambulance Paramedic, you now have to attain a degree.

 

To me this seems to be an unnecessary barrier to what is essentially a physical hands-on job, and would seem likely to deter the sort of person who would be very good at the practical aspects, but not academically gifted.

 

I worked as a paramedic for twenty years without benefit of a university degree, and I don't think my patients suffered because of that. A relative of mine is just completing her nursing degree, and her dissertation is on "The social impact of staffing levels and shift patterns in nursing". Whilst an admirable area of research, I fail to see how that is going to help her care for patients on her ward.

 

I have met a number of young paramedics, fresh out of University, who have very little empathy and compassion compared to the majority of my former colleagues, some of whom were formerly miners, soldiers, etc.

 

I do wonder if patient care is being degraded in favour of academic achievement.

 

[Rant Over]

 

Al.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Alister_G

[MrWolf]

Agreed. It's also a measure of how a degree has been devalued that supposedly graduate level jobs don't command graduate level money.

Or, in the case of jobs like a paramedic, how they are underpaid.

 

It annoys me that a surgeon might earn £100,000 a year to save several lives a day, yet a mouth breathing idiot "earns" £100,000 a week to kick a ball around.

 

I once worked for someone who told me that my job didn't require anyone with a degree, but he wanted someone with a degree because it would look good to customers when I handed over a business card.

He didn't have a degree himself. 

 

The profanity filter prevents me from sharing my opinion of that particular "self made man" (One of the world's greatest lies.) well, not in a single sentence.

 

I didn't want to give her the doom, because I knew she could do a PGCE whilst brushing her hair in the morning, but I thought that she would struggle with 11-16 year olds.

 

I did a year or so of teaching and decided to return to war torn third world s###holes. 

 

At least you have an armed guard or two.