How to get lynched at a model railway show

[BG John]

It's designed for use at the rear of the vehicle as it's intended to fit into a standard (here in Oz, at least) socket for a demountable tow hitch.

 

Or am I taking the enquiry too seriously.....

I think you probably are . But I wouldn't like to be sitting on one out of sight of the driver when the vehicle moves off. Mind you, the terror of the experience would certainly resolve any problems I had performing in a very public place!

Edited August 25, 2016 by BG John

[Pacific231G]

Fender is the Yanks term for what Brits call a wing. A bumper sticker is common parlance both sides of the Pond.

 

I suppose if attached to the rear mounted spare wheel of an SUV, hub craps?

 

C6T.

You're quite right. The bumper was a 1901 British invention by  Frederick Simms who also gave British English the words petrol and motor car. The American words trunk, motor, and fender are also completely different (plus no doubt a few others)

In Australia I suppose it could be a "Ute chute". 

 

Getting back to railways (vain hope I know) it's always fascinated me how vague the words are for passenger vehicles. We seem to use carriage and coach more or less interchangeably but also refer to restaurant and sleeping cars. In American English "coach" was AFAIK a class of seating ("coach class" also used by US Airlines to mean economy class) but car is the generic name for both passenger and freight vehicles in American English (where it wouldn't be confused with automobile).

 

The Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-lits (et des Grands Express Européens) wasn't even consistent with its own name as sleeping cars were voitures-lits but restaurant cars were wagons-restaurant.

 

Car, meaning railway passenger vehicle, also has a fairly long usage in British English with "railcars" (same as in American English) and old Bradshaws do refer to the CIWL as the European Sleeping Car Company.

 

On the UndergrounD car is also used but  so are Westbound and Eastbound etc, and so were "motormen" (drivers) which are all American usages. Though the UndergroundD is now as iconic of London as red buses and black cabs, the deep level tube lines  were built by mainly American capital and there were fears of a creeping Americanisation with its open saloons and horror of horrors  no classes.

"We have scarcely yet been educated up to that condition of social equality when lords and ladies will be content to ride side by side with Billinsgate 'fish fags' and Smithfield butchers" The Railway Times: November 1890 

(Despite the Égalité in their national slogan, Republican France still had first and second class on the Paris Metro until 1991)

Edited August 25, 2016 by Pacific231G

[talisman56]

It's designed for use at the rear of the vehicle as it's intended to fit into a standard (here in Oz, at least) socket for a demountable tow hitch.

 

Or am I taking the enquiry too seriously.....

 

Slightly... I then thought it must be for the front, otherwise it'd get in the way of the tailgate bar-b-q...

Edited August 25, 2016 by talisman56

[PhilJ W]

Slightly... I then thought it must be for the front, otherwise it'd get in the way of the tailgate bar-b-q...

But if its a Land Rover the wire mesh radiator grill is used as the bar-b-q.  

[ian]

Slightly... I then thought it must be for the front, otherwise it'd get in the way of the tailgate bar-b-q...

Just make sure you sit on the right one...

[Horsetan]

....In Australia I suppose it could be a "Ute chute".....

 

...or just a "CHute"....but that would make it Swiss, no?

[TheQ]

But if its a Land Rover the wire mesh radiator grill is used as the bar-b-q.

Only the Series 1 and 2 After that they went to plastic grills (that looked the same)

[PhilJ W]

Only the Series 1 and 2 After that they went to plastic grills (that looked the same)

Australian Land Rovers (assembled in OZ) continued to be produced with the metal grill.

[Porcy Mane]

Australian Land Rovers (assembled in OZ) continued to be produced with the metal grill.

 

Still ok for doing sausages (and roo's I spose) then.

[5050]

Getting back to exhibitions instead of bodily functions, once upon a time I suggested that my next exhibition layout would be the Channel tunnel. It would consist of a washing up tub sitting on a table covered in fake grass. Simples.

Wakefield Show in 1971 had an underwater 'Channel Tunnel' layout in a fish tank using a Triang Jinty with a boat prow joined to the front.  After quite a few revolutions of the track it was removed, lubricated (with what nobody can remember!) and put back on the track the other way round to equalise the electrolysis effect on the wheels.  The resident club electrical genius of the day created it and we still don't really know how it worked!

 

Oh, and trolleys with square wheels won't roll backwards on a gradient.  That's a plus point!

 

(4 of them on square wheels and 3 on triangular )

[Pacific231G]

Wakefield Show in 1971 had an underwater 'Channel Tunnel' layout in a fish tank using a Triang Jinty with a boat prow joined to the front.  After quite a few revolutions of the track it was removed, lubricated (with what nobody can remember!) and put back on the track the other way round to equalise the electrolysis effect on the wheels.  The resident club electrical genius of the day created it and we still don't really know how it worked!

 

Oh, and trolleys with square wheels won't roll backwards on a gradient.  That's a plus point!

 

(4 of them on square wheels and 3 on triangular )

I've seen a layout (by Stuart Robinson) that depicted a flooded section of track. The water was just above rail height and the loco seemed to have no real problems. I guess you could do a completely submerged track in fresh water (though there would be a lot of current leakage) but the motor etc. would probably need to be insulated. You wouldn't want to use your favourite loco on it but in 1971 a Triang Jinty was probably expendable. The lubricant wasn't WD40 by any chance was it?

[5050]

 The lubricant wasn't WD40 by any chance was it?

It might have been - but I couldn't possibly comment

[F-UnitMad]

I recall a layout like that 'fish tank' one at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Show circa. 1980-ish. The tank was quite deep, too.

The Rev. Awdry gave a speech at that show too, no one seemed to pay a bit of notice! It was a sort of 'limbo' time for Thomas though, post-Books by some years, but pre-Hornby & TV Series.

[Penlan]

I'm surprised the models actually ran through water, and worked.

I recall back in the 80's when exhibiting at Nottingham, that we were in the hall where the floor covered the old swimming pool, and next to my layout was another one that had running water on it, presumably as a river scenic feature.

All I remember is that we (and other adjacent layouts) had no end of running problems from the moist micro-climate generated by the running water and apparently the former pool too.

 

Not entirely related, but at Blackburn, again in the 80's, they had live steam in the main hall and the water/oil combination output into the atmosphere was not very good for running conditions either.

[RJS1977]

I've seen a layout (by Stuart Robinson) that depicted a flooded section of track.

 

That would have been 'Splash' - which depicted, not a flooded section of track, but apparently a real-life location in North America where the track was laid through a river to avoid building a bridge!

 

I did try to convince him that his next model should be of the Rottingdean Tramway. He didn't go for it, but I think I have seen it modelled elsewhere.

[talisman56]

I've been to model railway exhibitions where a notice similar to this was needed...

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/PM7sy

[gismorail]

Following the recent Wigan show it occurred to me that to be critical of the famous pies would get one linched

[PhilJ W]

I visited the Peterborough show today, I thought I was in the wrong place as I didn't see a single knapsack and not even a whiff of BO.

[MarkC]

Following the recent Wigan show it occurred to me that to be critical of the famous pies would get one linched

Or indeed Uncle Joe's Mint Balls...

[andytrains]

I visited the Peterborough show today, I thought I was in the wrong place as I didn't see a single knapsack and not even a whiff of BO.

They offered all the BO people and knapsack people free admission if you paid in advance.

But they sent them tickets for the Dundee show.

 

(Sorry Dundee).

[Clive Mortimore]

I've been to model railway exhibitions where a notice similar to this was needed...

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/PM7sy

I am sure that the smelly brigade do wash, so think they are not part of the problem. And I honestly feel that they wouldn't be if they were to clean their coats every now and then. Having been involved with exhibitions and visiting for a number of years how many of the regular punters do you see wearing the same coat, come rain or shine. As they did when they had dark hair and more of it? How many times in the past 20+ years has their outdoor coat seen the inside of the washing machine? 

Edited October 16, 2016 by Clive Mortimore

[PhilJ W]

I am sure that the smelly brigade do wash, so think they are not part of the problem. And I honestly feel that they wouldn't be if they were to clean their coats every now and then. Having been involved with exhibitions and visiting for a number of years how many of the regular punters do you see wearing the same coat, come rain or shine. As they did when they had dark hair and more of it? How many times in the past 20+ years has their outdoor coat seen the inside of the washing machine? 

I have several near identical coats that do get washed, problem is I seem to have developed an attraction for wet paint that won't wash out. I usually wear a gilet with a sweater or jumper rather than a jacket, the gilets are easier to wash than the jumpers which I always manage to shrink.

I read somewhere that in Shakespears day that although most people bathed regularily they very rarely if ever washed their clothes. :stink:

Edited October 16, 2016 by PhilJ W

[kevinlms]

Trolleys with square wheels!? 

Well, Hornby did wheel sets for coaches & wagons in the 70s & 80s, with square axles. They were moulded along the centre line & so almost all of them failed to run true.

[AndrewC]

Sadly for me the chap that kept trying to push me out of the way at the Squires stall at Uckfield yesterday almost made me vomit. The smell was beyond the pale. Unwashed BO, stale fags, and something akin to p1ss. To quote Red Dwarf Eu de Yak urine.

[Tony Davis]

Sadly for me the chap that kept trying to push me out of the way at the Squires stall at Uckfield yesterday almost made me vomit. The smell was beyond the pale. Unwashed BO, stale fags, and something akin to p1ss. To quote Red Dwarf Eu de Yak urine.

I think he must have legged it down to Peterborough because I was standing next to someone of the same description.