webbcompound

3 hours ago, drmditch said:

They built some very long single-track railways though.

 

Which enabled them to smash trains together with surprising regularity. Though not surprising since instead of signalling they mostly seemed to employ a system that just involved guessing that the train in front had probably moved, or got out of the way. And an image search for "American train wreck" produces a disturbing number of modern ones implying that even with radios in cabs they don't appear to have completely got the hang of things.
 

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

The missing bit of the map is of course North America. The Russians (Bering, who named the Strait) first arrived in 1743, and rather short sightedly flogged the last of their holdings to the Yanks in 1867. These holdings included Alaska, also California (Fort Ross, Sonoma County) which they sold to a Mexican citizen in 1841, and Hawaii (Fort Elizabeth, Fort Alexander and Fort Barclay de Tolly) which was only briefly controlled from 1815 to 1817. A rich source for alternative history whatifism.

19 minutes ago, wagonman said:

Afghanistan. Where imperial overreach goes to die.

Apart from the Greeks. About 493BCE Darius the Great exiled the entire population of the Greek city of Barca to Bactria (aka today Afghanistan) They rapidly became the dominant group locally, and became rulers. When Alexander invaded the area in 326BCE the presence of Greek culture made things much easier. After Alexander the region was ruled by the Seleucids, then as that empire collapsed became the Graeco-Bactrians, and eventually the Indo-Greeks whose kingdom finally fell to the Scythians in AD10. So Greek control in Afghanistan lasted from c493BCE until 10AD, a period of just over 500 years.  Everyone since that time however...

* - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_railway_companies_involved_in_the_1923_grouping

** - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Class_I_railroads

I admit these lists do not seem to compare, but if you burrow down into the UK list you will find a lot of subsidiary companies, and a lot of independents, even at the grouping. On the other hand the US list includes a lot of duplicates where the same company is listed as a Railroad and then as a Railway, and quite a number that went out of business or were absorbed by other companies early on, so although there was a lot of local variety initially there were still only a handfull of major lines and groupings by WW2.

That aside there are five times as many people in the US, so for comparabilty the US list would need to be divided by five. I get the feeling that as a proportion of the population there are less modellers in the US than the UK.

Actually I'm using historic consist details and Union Sation Sides for my streamliners so I can be pretty confident of the accuracy. For the the havyweights and betterment cars I'm using the usual suspects (and converting where necessary). I know they have problems, but they are close enough. For my pre WW1 British stuff there are the same multiplicity of variations but I demand more accuracy. Why? because there appear to be far more suppliers of the varieties of stock for Britain than for the US. I find this strange. In principle there is a bigger market in the US than the UK, and for the pre groupinmg period in the UK there is just as wide a variety of companies and stock as for the pre WWII period in the US, but yet the range of models for the US is much more limited, and the specialist suppliers much more ephemeral.

4 hours ago, nathan70000 said:

Yup, on quite a few later streamlined cars as well right up to the Amtrak era. I don't see it modelled very often,

Aargh! A whole set of problems lies ahead of me now. I aim to build cars from the SF (Super Chief, El Capitan); NYC ( 20th Century Limited, James Whitcombe Riley); and PRR (Broadway Limited, Liberty Limited) from 1937-41 Cars are variously Pullman Standard, and Budd; plus PRR betterment, Pullman betterment and NYS betterment. I suspect that I have no chance of finding out which of these had tinted windows, and once they are in they won't be changeable.

This brass model of the 1940 City of Miasmi observation car appears to have tinted windows. Anyone know if this is correct? What about other early streamliners? 

36 minutes ago, Northroader said:

My mind goes back to Robin Cook (remember him?) pushing the joys of divergency, and come up with “Britain’s Favourite Dish”, and according to him it was “Chicken Tikka Marsala”. What? Anybody ever had it?

We may not have had it but it is very popular with the vast population of takeaway consumers.. Worse than that is the equally popular Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza.

"This Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza is a fusion of two takeout favorites."

And here is the recipe for you to make it at home.

I'm sure there is a source for different coloured venetian type blinds for streamline cars, but I can't find them. Anyone got a link?

I found them. Circus Decals do them as decals https://circusdecals.ecwid.com/search?keyword=blinds

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 My mother seems to remember an outbreak in the city in her lifetime, which I, frankly, struggle to believe. It is possible that there was actual or threatened smallpox infection from travellers from Karachi, where there was an epidemic in 1961-62,

This link takes you to an archive on the  1962 UK outbreak of smallpox I remember this because I had to have a smallpox vaccination to go to France.

58 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

My experience has suggested to me that there are a number of government ministers and civil servants who are, to adopt a phrase 'f-cking hopeless' and who deserved to be 'sacked multiple times'

I'm certain that all my bosses from the Lord Chancellor's Department, Court of Protection, are now dead, but as an example of the level of stupidity in the 70s I used to recieve documents relating to my caseload, which then had to be "sent up to be filed" (filing evidence is clearly important in legal matters). It took a day each way before the document was returned with its "filed" stamp and I could then action it if necessary. One day I had an urgent requirement to action something, so rather than wait two days I carried it up two floors to the evidence filing section. I handed it over and it was stamped and returned to me. "Don't you have to enter it in a ledger as filed?" I innocently asked. "Oh no. we just stamp it". I duly (and completely circumventing protocol) sent a note to the Master of the Court explaing how this was an unnecessary delay, and that maybe the case officers should stamp their own documents as recieved and filed. I was immediately summoned to the presence, and standing in front of the Master was told in no uncertain terms that filing evidence was of vital importance and I was too lowly to do it. Explaining that the procedure was an empty sham only got me in more trouble. I did not stay long.

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Delving a bit into the flood-damage in the flatter area in Germany, I think the area is very deep alluvial soil, so that rivers cut down into it, but only very slowly/gently at usual flow rates. With a massive dump of rain in a short period, the flow rates will have increased dramatically, causing even tiny tributaries to slice deeply back into the ground - the difference between running a trickle from a hose across a pile of sand, and firing the full force of the mains across the same pile of sand.

 

There must be places in the U.K. that would be vulnerable to the same, Leighton Buzzard area, Surrey Heaths, east of Kings Lynn etc, where the soils are very fragile unless we’ll covered with trees.

And as a result the usual warnings given to places known to be liable to flood would have been, and in future will be, irrelevant to these newly threatened areas. This example from 2009 in County Durham where torrential rain created a similar issue  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/8200932.stm

Of course all that fossil fuel we have been burning hasn't done the world any good. People hear "flooding" and think, that is terrible but at least it can be cleared up. Not if your entire landscape washes away though, like here in Europe, now.. When it happens in North Norfolk Castle Aching might be the only reminder of what was once there (even though strictly speaking it wasn't)

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Is that one of those Dnieper or Voschkod, or whatever they're called, BMW-alikes? Or, is it an actual BMW? Whichever, I rather like them for their retro-ness. A friend used to have one of the Russian ones, and with me on a CZ, a near-copy of a DKW in that case, we made a sort of East European WW2-derived engineering statement when visiting NG railways.

Yep. A Dneipr. BMW look-alike. 650 twin, kick start only, reverse gear to surprise idiots behind you, will travel at 55-60 for ever. I loved them.

Of course you don't need to have just two wheels to ride a motorcycle. This was my mount of choice for many years (not this one, I have no photos unfortunately). Nice and stable if you hit that patch of diesel and plenty of room for the shopping as well.

14 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

 

Moving from left to right I saw a 3rd class and then an 8th class. Who knows what the standard of accommodation would be in there. Probably just one big saloon compartment with no seats and straw on the floor. Then I noticed the tiny little gaps in the "8" and realised it was just a 3rd

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The English have had a reputation, and a track-record that is auditable through things like parish records, for that kind of behaviour for centuries - it’s as much part of our national character as all the bits of our character that we like to celebrate.

 

As far back as the middle ages, when being irreligious could get you in serious trouble, the English soldiery were known by the French as "Les Goddams" after their most frequent turn of phrase.

19 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Which is why concrete spur-posts are the better option. Countless grain stores have stood on staddles for centuries withoutsuffering wood rot.

You can even make your own staddles, if you don’t like spur-posts, by casting them in concrete in a plastic bucket, using scrunched-up chicken-wire as reinforcement.

and if they are the correct shape they will stop rats eating your layout...

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

That is my understanding - the company "hosting" the through carriage paid mileage in return for a mileage proportion of the receipts. If a passenger booked through from Euston to Aberystwyth, the RCH would calculate the proportion of the far to be paid to the Cambrian, irrespective of whether the passenger changed into a Cambrian carriage or travelled in a L&NW through carriage.

 

Almost sounds as if a company with a very short line, but lots of carriages, would do well, unless the big boys refused to accept their through carriages of course.

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 was also a charge to the company in terms of mileage rates paid on other companies' stock working through,

Do I understand this correctly? The owner of the track had to pay mileage to foreign companies when their passenger stock travelled on their metals?

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

At least in the nineteenth century and well into the Edwardian era, the gold lining was gold leaf - on the LNWR and I think on the GWR; certainly on the Midland. There was a gradual move to substitution of the gold leaf by paint, but this really was a late pre-Grouping thing. 

There is of course the scaling effect to consider. Very few modellers gloss varnish their coaches for the same reason. A non-gloss gold metallic effectively means a tan colour is a good equivalent to a semi-matt gold. Where there is a large area of polished metal (for example a dome) this wouldn't work as you would need to paint in reflections and then this would only work for one viewing direction, but for something as fine as lining this isn't an issue.

Ah, but this assumes that the train shed is the actual station. I'm using the Dearborn shed, and the pre-rebuild  Union Station layout. Although this is a terminus the tracks go right through the station, and trains can be longer than the shed. I don't have room for full length trains in H0, so all you will see is the front end of arriving trains, with locos detaching and shifters moving head-end cars; and the back of trains dragged in by shifters before departing;, (because this is an old train shed the trains are longer than the shed), the end of the shed is a vision block, and the roof is removable, covering the casette fiddle yard when there is no running. Or at least that is the idea.

1 hour ago, rocor said:

 

In the case of the British army, that was because they had the Corps of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), to keep everything in operation.

Yes indeed. My uncle was in a REME LAD, initially with 1st Armoured in France in 1940 (Before anyone says "ah, Dunkirk" this was after Dunkirk) when they had to burn their trucks before boarding a fishing boat in Brittany, then he was sent to North Africa where he was in time to retreat towards Egypt, during which time they had to burn their trucks; After which he was sent to the far East,  they landed in Malaya and had to retreat towards India, during which time they had to burn their trucks. His comment was "You can get fed up of burning trucks". Then he was off to Italy as a D-Day dodger. Since his job was repairing tanks on the battlefield with all that implies I don't think it did his mental health much good.

But this is a bit of a digression. The point is vehicles used to be easily repairable at large numbers of places across the country by large numbers of people. Wherever you were it wasn't far to find a little garage that could get you moving again. Now if they break (they still do) they need hauling many miles to the nearest specialist which usually means abandoning your original  journey, often ending up back where you started. And instead of a bolt, or a bit of tubing, you just have to have a whole subassembly replaced, with lots of perfectly good bits junked, thus depleting the (very finite) resources of the planet even further.

9 minutes ago, mdvle said:

The Library of Congress (LOC) and the Sanborn Fire Maps are potentially your friend - if what you want is old enough.

Thanks for this info mdvle. Excellent stuff. I'll have to see if I can access it from the UK, or if not via a VPN. Unfortunately maps and plans won't give me the height of the roof, which is what I will need to simulate it.

3 hours ago, long island jack said:

Have a read, there some size in text 

https://www.american-rails.com/dearborn.html

thanks Mr Jack. I had this info, but it only gives a size for the head end buildings. I'm trying to find (or work out) the height of the roof. I have an early  plan (which may not be entirely accurate for my time-slot) so using the dimensions of the head end building I can get a possible approximation of the length. I want to make a roof as part of my plan for the Union Station at Fort Dearborn (slight diversion along the time line means it isn't called Chicago, and the group of companies using the station aren't the same as the groups of companies using the various stations in Chicago). Basically I want to run my choice of streamliners and heavyweight consists circa 1938-42