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webbcompound

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Everything posted by webbcompound

  1. Well the South Walians barely count as Welsh
  2. So now we've gone all Septic (rhyming slang alert) Does that mean anything pre-grouping, which in this case is realistically pretty well anything before 1976, is on message? Norfolk and Western anyone?
  3. Ah, yes, the elaborate lid to the underground public toilets
  4. We are assuming we are considered to be in the "support bubble" of the aged mother-in- law, so although she is not of our household we can interact indoors. This is the only way we can understand what to do as she is staying with us this week If this wasn't the case we would have had to turf her onto the street halfway through the week and wouldn't even be able to drive her home to North Yorkshire from Northumberland. You suffer from having more than one parent, but I'm sure the government is working hard to resolve that problem for lots of families through the "accidental cull"
  5. Or you can fool slightly more than half the people who bother to vote
  6. Well here is a photo of some black gritstone, just like I remember it from when I was a kid. The stone began to be sandblasted in the 60s and now 50-60 years later it is still pale in colour (throughout N Lancashire and W Yorkshire) as a result of massive industrial decline and Clean Air Acts. Above Rochdale is Blackstone Edge. As a kid I thought (like everyone else) it was because the stone was black. In fact the name was originally Blakestone Edge, meaning Palestone Edge. So the stone was pale sandstone for a long time, till the industrial revolution turned it black.
  7. The difference between this and earlier pandemics is that our society is less robust. Food is no longer produced locally, and all systems are much more complex and so fail much more easily. This means that although the death toll might be much less its impact on our infrastructure could be much greater. Lose a few loco drivers in the Edwardian period and the firemen can step up. Lose a few airline pilots, or indeed engine drivers now and it is far more difficult to replace them. As a young man I could fix my four stroke motorbike at the side of the road, and not long before that pretty well every motor vehicle operator knew how to get their vehicle running if it broke down. Now you need a specially trained expert. In addition the really significant medical difference between Covid19 and flu is in the after effects on survivors. It is becoming increasingly clear that at the moment survivors, even of mild versions, can have serious knock on illness
  8. The doors look to be identical in size, and I know that the size discrepancy from different classes of house could be quite large. The door opening (as opposed to size) suggests the bay window house has higher ceilings. As an example, without too much research, I just stepped outside my front door and saw this (the road is completely level, we are not on a slope):
  9. i guess it must be a trial arriving with your day allowance of four litres of wine each and then having to spread it across four days
  10. William Morris was at one time a shareholder and director of the Duke of Bedford's Devon Great Consols which owned mines in the Tamar Valley. At Wheal Fanny mine, from about 1860 to 1901 arsenic was roasted until it turned into dense smoke. The smoke was sent along brick passageways where it condensed into crystals looking like caulilowers. Men wrapped in rags scraped this off by hand. Apart from poisoning them it gave them cancer and any scratches or wounds were likely to fail to heal and develop septicaemia. We can probably restart this valuable industry when those stupid Elf and Safety laws get abolished in January
  11. I'm worried that this latest Dapol offering might lead to a pre-grouping/post-grouping state of uncertainety in people's brains leading to meltdown or stasis, but given the proclivities of the local inhabitants here it is anyway.
  12. Thanks for this excellent link in to Model Railroading Zigzag. Some excellent articles in there.
  13. Here we go, posting an in progress workbench shot. Eventually should be part of a pre-war "Chicago" Grand Union Central Terminal running things I like the idea of.
  14. best orcs on film so far are the ones in Bright. Pity the film isn't as good as it should be.
  15. Yeh, but it will be difficult to fit all that into a body shell, even in O guage, no?
  16. Dash it all! And I was convinced it was Signor Ronaldo Telephone.
  17. Same here. just couldn't get access for a couple of days. Then it appeared, then disappeared again. Now it is back (obviously)
  18. I'm looking for UK suggestions (sensible ones) for paints to match the light and dark grey used by the New York Central on their early lightweight streamline passenger stock,( but also later, and pullmans and overlander and others probably). Halfords rattle cans, vallejo colours, anything readily obtainable in the UK would be welcome suggestions.
  19. Isn't it "Give me fishplates OR give me progress", with a flag showing a figure 8 of track on a carpet with the motto "Don't step on me"
  20. And then there was Children's Hour with Uncle Mac, which leads of course to the books "In the Train with Uncle Mac". And so back to railways!
  21. Although you should point out, for those not living in the North East of England, that the TV one is tw-iz-zl and the loco is tw-eye-zl. Nevertheless, good attempt at getting the thread back on track.
  22. Some of the pre-war ATSF B units had extra windows put infor use by a driver
  23. Went for an eye test last week, a bit too exciting with all the masks, visors and sprays but I needed new glasses, and the first thing the optician said to me was "Have you been to Barnard Castle?"
  24. Well it is true, people either only see the present, or they see the long duration. Half a century of peace in Europe, well up to a point. By 1830 the Dutch Belgians were at each others throats. Within France there were serious domestic conflicts at a scale above simple disorder in 1830, 1831, 1832, 1834 and 1838. Within the Germanic sphere there were military conflicts in 1848-51 and 1864 France was also involved in a military adventure in Spain in 1823, and in a major conflict with Austria in Italy in 1859. And of course there was the "year of revolutions" in 1848. Admittedly it was not until after 50 years that things started to accelerate with Prussia going to war against the South Germans in 1866, and subsequently the French German war of 1870. No global wars, but an amount of serious discomfort for a variety of peasants and bourgeois in a variety of places. If we were to include all the allies of both sides then we have to accept even more warfare involving Russia, Poland and Galicia as well.
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