webbcompound

I'm not in any way decrying your research and knowledge of Norfolk wagonman, just adding to it with regard to some of the other general comments that were made about sail being defunct by 1900. The schooner Kathleen and May is 137 tons, and was pretty big as far as coastal trade was concerned, most of the schooners calling along the West coast were smaller, being two mast, not three.

Edwardian coastal trade was sailing pretty well on the West coast. My own foray into modelling this is Connah's Quay which was the outlet for the brick industries and collieries of the Buckley district. Traffic was in schooners (c80ft long, two masts, or larger three masts) which crossed the Irish sea and ran up and down the coast; Mersey flats (c60ft long, single mast), the local barge type which ran between and around the Mersey and the Dee estuaries, as well as inland along the broad canals; and Welsh sloops which were single masted and sized between schooners and barges. Steam doesn't really appear except occasionally till after WW1. This photo is very clearly post 1900, and probably post 1906 as the wagons on the nearest quay are labelled GC and the railway was not absorbed by the Great Central till 1906. There are plenty of masts present. (Photo courtesy of Flint Archive Service) The Kathleen and May, which still survives, is a three masted topsail schooner which was launched by Ferguson and Baird at their shipyard at Connah's Quay in 1900.

The problem with Acetyline is that in the right conditions it can decompose explosively. As a result its use (apart from in welding) is now limited except in certain health and safety light regimes (such as the UK if we go into post Brexit freefall). Blowback into the containing cylinder is always a problem if the correct procedures are not followed, and I can remember having these drilled into me when I was being trained in the use of back-pack oxy-acetyline cutting equipment.

It would be wrong to assume that all the passengers were American tourists. Since liners were the only way to get across the Atlantic plenty of British people were making the crossing, some for family reasons, some for business reasons and some as tourists, and the vast majority of wealthy passengers came back as well. Only the people in steerage tended to travel in a single direction. Some of these were British, but lots were from Europe. These latter had crossed from Germany to Hull, and then traveled by Emigrant Special trains to Liverpool. Whether these were run by the L&YR direct, or by the NER with a change of loco midway, or both I don't know

And you can get the carriage in 4mm from Roxey. The diminutive size of these slip carriages (38'6 composite with four passenger compartments) is indicative of how much traffic the GWR expected on this route.

The GWR didn't run into Liverpool. They had a goods station, which still stands at Albert Dock, but no trains in. Nearest passenger service would be Birkenhead with a connection via the Mersey Railway under the river to Rock Ferry where you might pick up trains out of Birkenhead Woodside for Paddington (GWR) although you would be just as likely to get a train to Euston (LNWR). After 1910 you could get a train of LSWR stock to Bournmouth from Birkenhead Woodside, although it would be hauled by a GWR loco, or possibly a LNWR loco as far as Chester

So you would be trying to do this? Main difference is the shorter length of the smokebox, boiler and firebox. I cheated by just modifying the smokebox and firebox.My build is an early GCR one so I needed an early chimney and dome. The wider part of the footplate is in slightly the wrong place, and a new front end and buffer beam needs fabricating. Mine has Alan Gibson P4 wheels, but in 00 there is no need to change these. I used a drawing from a Millholme kit, Johnson's Locomotives of the Great Central Railway Volume 1, and an edition of Locomotives Illustrated which I can't lay my hands on so don't know which number it is. . I took 4mm off the firebox, 2mm off the smokebox, and the front footplate will be 7mm shorter.

And of course the West India Regiment which wore this uniform till the 1920s

When you set those hares running on here: I couldn't immediately find any early train related recordings. Mostly they were voice or instrumental, although there were some sound effect cylinders. So whilst the the population of Castle Aching scurry off to find the goodies and report back here is a little ditty recorded in 1907 on an Edison Black Wax cylinder . Just imagine an irritating youth getting in your compartment, winding up his phonograph, slipping on a cylinder and and playing this whilst you harumph and try to read the Times letter page. There is a scratch at the end which COULD be one of Mr Edwardians steam locos chuffing along. http://02e9244.netsolhost.com/edison/When_The_Sheep_Are_In_The_Fold.mp3

Xacto knife chisel blades from Eileens Emporium (and no doubt other places). Also excellent for carving/planing unwanted detail from plastic kits. And yes Mr Rixon is a saint. I floated a problem with making short wheelbase brake gear on another forum. Without me asking he had the design posted the same day, and I ordered the parts from his Shapeways shop within a week.

https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/trombone

Only on ebay. The actual toy is just called a "Martian Invader" and is a modern repro of a 1950s Japanese product of the same name.

See everyone is thinking inside the box where steepest is vertical. This is steeper, but unlikely in Norfolk I should guess..

Well that was in 1847. There is a booklet I got from Wisbech museum, but I can't find it now which goes into more detail. They have (or had) the contents of the pharmacy in the museum. (I think the tank was empty by then). The Laudanum was supposed to counteract the effects of hard physical labour, and of living in a malarial swamp. As for the poisonous qualities of Laudanum, I think they are a little overstated. A child aged one year was recommended to be given a spoonful every couple of hours. The preparation was from whole opium so included some nasty alkaloids which meant that if you had too much at one go you threw up. Despite the popularity of poisoning relatives in the 19th century this probably partly explains why Laudanum was not in use as a poison of choice. The other reason is down to its strength. Morphine is a refined form of opium, and the LD50 (lethal dose in 50% of cases) seems to be 200-300mg per kg. So to kill a grown man might need 20-30 grams or an Edwardian ounce of pure Morphine. Laudanum appears to be equivalent to 1% Morphine, so the LD50 would be 2-3 kilos.

Whilst reminding myself of past research, and pondering on the insane phantasies of our current government, and the possible reasons for them, I thought of an interesting piece of rolling stock that might have visited Castle Acre. During the late 19thC the use of Laudanum was so endemic in the Fens and East Anglia that the pharmacy at Wisbech dispensed 400 gallons a week from a specially constructed tank. When the law controlling opium use except on prescription was introduced (and here my memory fails me, but I think after 1900) an exception was made for this area. If it turns out that this had gone past by the time of Castle Aching then perhaps an old Laudenum tanker could be in use by the Engineers or others as departmental stock. No doubt the erudite researchers hereabouts of exotic railway structures and the like will be able to find an etching or photograph of such a wagon.

as always, things military were never this simple. Throughout the war the only headgear was the Cap, Service Dress, which was a stiff cap. In winter 1914 the knitted Cap, Comforter was introduced but it would not fit under the Cap,SD. A new soft cap with a fold down neck guard was rapidly introduced for wear at the front line, called the Cap, winter, Service Dress, or by sergeants the "Gor Blimey" because of its un-military appearance. When steel helmets were introduced in May 1916 the winter SD cap would not fit underneath and the Cap, Comforter was worn instead.In March 1916 a new soft version of the Cap, SD was introduced, and confusingly both this and the hard version were in use as Cap,SD. For the Highland Regiments a Khaki Balmoral cap was introduced in 1915 (similar to the blue 1903 Balmoral (which was a version of a Glkengarry) previously worn). This was rapidly deemed to be unsuitable and later the same year a khaki "Other Ranks TamO'Shanter" replaced it. This latter was the closest headgear to a beret, except it had a wide headband and a pom-pom on top. Officers had different equivalents of many of these hats. There. That wasn't too complicated, was it?

not just TE Lawrence. The driver of this WW1 train who should be an Engineer is wearing Royal Tank Regiment headgear (the black beret) which was in any case not adopted until 1924. Military modellers often criticise the poor quality of the people on model railways compared to their own output, but in this case the modeller has made a monumental error.

Why muck about with all that hypothetical passenger stock list stuff. Just use the Port Carlisle railway as your model. Standard gauge, 11 miles, proper goods service with a port and turntable at the end, but the passenger service was like this until 1914. So you can run horse drawn trams instead.

Murat, for it is he, may have been a dandy, but he wasn't a fop. He led what was probably the greatest single cavalry charge of the Napoleonic wars at Eylau, when he led 10,000 cavalry against the Russians (he rode in the line behind the first six of eighty squadrons). He was consistently in the lead in battles and was often criticized for reckless behaviour. At Liebertwolkwitz, he commanded the French forces in the largest cavalry action in European history, during which battle he was so far forwards that he was almost captured twice. So whatever else you may choose to accuse him of, not getting anywhere near serious cavalry action was not something of which he was guilty.

steam is always good for a smile, even if it is just the engine, not you.

but these are excellent! albeit only the LMS one is accurate from a livery point of view.

On the question of women at Earlstown: they might not have been mentioned due to contemporary cultural bias but there is a photograph (can't currently locate it) which shows that the stores was almost exclusively female (maybe it was observed that they could find where things had been left), and on the railway itself many station clerks were female as the teams tended to have a core staff consisting of all the members of a single family.

Thanks isambarduk NER green with black and white lining out seems like a good choice. Now I just have to scratchbuild the things!

I was once sent to Wigan to retrieve an archaeological project in MSC (manpower services creation) days. The director had lost control of his team and I was being sent to sort it out. I arrived to find the team sitting against a wall in the rain, having burnt down their portacabin, while the imbecile "director" was sitting in his portacabin with the door locked. Happy days!

Anyone know what sort of livery Hudswell Clarke and Rogers locos might be turned out in during the 1870s? I'm not looking for the livery of a particular purchaser, just the factory standard finish (if there was such a thing).