Bernard Lamb

I have come across a few of them in the real world and in general find them rather boring. However Bill Hamilton the former BBC reporter recently gave a talk at our local U3A and he had every one in stitches at his jokes and enthralled by his behind the scenes stories. I came away with a very different perspective on a couple of well known historical events. His jokes were as good as any comic could produce. I posted one on here and it got about a dozen likes. Nick Crane was a member of a cycling club I belonged to at one time and off air he could tell a good tale, as well as being a decent chap. However on Coast I find him a bit cringe worthy at times. Bernard

In my experience it seems to be used at any gathering where there are two or more Lancastrians present. They like to keep the old tradition going and to remind other people that she is their Duke. It is certainly used at several events that I attend in London and the Home Counties. Trying to explain what it is all about to German visitors can be a difficult task. Bernard

Seeing how it would look without any locomotives visible then I don't think that the age and/or interest of the judges has any bearing on the decision. Bernard

Not just rugby clubs. At cycling club dinners this format is always used for the loyal toast and not just when they happen to be held in the Manchester area. Bernard Bernard

But they do have a system where every time you log on you receive a phone call with a new pass number. That does ensure that your address and phone number have some relationship. Then they ask questions such as "What was you favourite book as a child?" I got told yesterday that I had provided a wrong answer and that I had three more chances before I would be zapped. Bernard

I would think it highly unlikely that they can find a suitably qualified candidate. If they can then brilliant. If not it comes down to which qualifications are deemed to be essential and which can be taught. For example I would feel happy to put my hand up to all the requirements except for the use of the drawing programmes. (If I was forty years younger I might have been interested) I might have to read up a bit on the finer points of DCC. I am of an age where CAD was in the future and by the time it was needed there were so many students who were good at it that it was to costly an exercise for engineers to adopt. That brings me on to salary. I would expect that to depend on just what qualities the applicants possess and how important they are deemed to be by Bachmann. There must be a relationship between paying for skills and paying for training. Any candidate with most of the skills required will not have a problem in negotiating decent terms and conditions. As for house prices. In many areas of London you will not find a one bedroom flat for under half a million. Bernard

A very biased article but it does draw attention to what is going on. I thought it was GB who stopped the system where you had a named tax inspector with a direct phone line and went over to a centralized system. Getting rid of a lot of people in the process. The next two governments just continued with his idea. A pity that model trains are not sold in large enough volumes for such deals to be viable. £20 for a Bachmann crane and a tenner for an Oxford gun might get me interested. Amazon made a delivery yesterday evening of some of these obviously irregularly sourced products. I was intrigued by one line in the instructions. "Please do not use the product in the bed sheets". That should give those of you with vivid imaginations some strange mental images. Bernard

OT but relevant. Shadrach Godwin, Godwin's Halt and Godwin's Siding, had a siding and station built on the Midland branch from Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead solely for the handling of horse manure. He negotiated a contract to take all the waste from horse drawn cabs out of London. Bernard

Hornby moved production to China as it was cheaper. The irony in this situation is that they are now tied to the production methods that appertain in the factories that they use. This means that they are unable to change the tooling to a cheaper version for short runs. I think that they would love to be able to produce some items using different (cheaper) methods. They are not the only company where decisions, however logical and sensible at the time, eventually come to haunt them. I for one would not like the job of rationalizing the range and that is a task that has to be done as I see it.. Bernard

Given the size of the load I would imagine that the trip is a) fairly short and b) fairly level. Unless the contents are very light poor old dobbin is going to struggle even without a driver perched on top. My local gas works was served by a narrow gauge horse drawn tramway and the man walked alongside the horse. On a down grade under the WCML the horse was detached, the wagons run down the slope using gravity. The horse walked through light engine so to speak and was then hitched up to the wagons when back on level ground. We might benefit from an in depth article on horse operation in railway settings. There must be a multitude of operating nuances that most of us are unaware of. Back to a serious comment. I found the brickwork notes very interesting. Probably not feasible in less than 7mm scale? Nice all the same. Bernard

Putting on my old hat from the day job. It is a lot more complicated than that. Tooling can range from quick and dirty as an aid to make a few items to super all singing all dancing to make millions of items at a very fast rate. It is not just the material that changes, it is how the resulting tool is used. Just to give an example of the extremes. You can make a tool out of very hard expensive material and it will take an age to machine and require accurate detailed drawings. which also take a lot of resources and therefore add to the cost. You then set it up in a very expensive machine that is part of a large scale production line. Alternatively a good engineer is able to rough out a mould in a much cheaper material that can be machined with much less effort. He can then wrap it in strips of wet sheets and cook it to produce an article that with a bit of hand finishing is identical to the automated version. That might sound to be far fetched to some people but I can assure you I have seen prototypes made like that for some of the major motor trade companies. That is the extreme case, normally a fairly simple press would be used. With a model locomotive body it is not as simple as that but the process is similar. Depending on the number required the material/cost/method options within the extremes is vast. Bernard

Don't forget the families and friends of those still at war or held as POWs in the Far East. My mother had almost no interest in politics. She was however proud of going to throw stones at Churchill during the election campaign. She lived in his patch in Walthamstow. He was not flavour of the month then, or at almost any other time, with our family. Bernard

Ready for an extra large radius point? Or a sensible radius three way point? It does look to me like forward thinking. A couple of coppers on surplus material per unit is more than recovered when you only need to order and stock one size pack rather than several. As an up market premium product they seem to want to make an impression with the display. Bernard

To anybody interested in Duns. Take a trip there and visit the Jim Clark Room. Nothing to do with the old railway but a fantastic collection of motor racing history. Bernard

I wonder if it can be made to work? A suitable length of thickish walled tube for the barrel, machine up a breach and locate some suitable calibre ammo. Could be fun. Especially when the train realistically tears off down the track with the recoil. Bernard

Just looked up the details. It was a J88 68341 in 1954. In this case it did not survive. Bernard

Which is why you need to have them preserved in at least two locations. If they are of real value. The local museum or special interest society and a national dedicated archive should be the minimum. Only the other day I was looking for details of the local Mayor from a date a couple of hundred years or so ago. No luck on the internet but an email to the local historian produced a list going back to 1539. To get political for a moment, government cut backs make the keeping of such records by local authority bodies much more uncertain. In ten or twenty years time the information available is going to vary depending on the location and degree of interest as to the importance of recording the past. Bernard

As the NBR discovered when one of their locomotives fell into Kirkaldy harbour. Now there is an idea for the cake box challenge. Bernard

Very much agree. When I started on military research I was told never to trust a book and even to be cautious about official documents. You will soon find that even official documents contradict each other was the warning. Very much the case with the war in the Pacific. In that case with so much material only released in 2011 and much still held under lock and key it is only too true. Bernard

This is where the problem lies. The last time I was in contact with the Imperial War Museum we were talking about a collection of photographs numbering, in their words, tens of thousands, that were in need of cataloguing. They had no labour then and going by the cutbacks at the museum itself and in general I imagine it must by worse at present. The same goes for county archive collections. These range from excellent to terrible in respect of access. Thank goodness for TNA Kew who are not only very helpful in respect of the material that they hold but are in many cases better at providing information on other collections than the places that hold them. Bernard

I know that they are getting close to Hornby, but bringing this out to have a go at Bachmann is a bit too aggressive for me. Oh, sorry. Just twigged it is only a model. Bernard

Oddly enough I find photographs and information to be far more widely available now than it was a few years ago, in part due to the internet and electronic devices. The local school has a web site on the history of the town and in particular on former pupils. The local history society does the same as does the local museum. They all publish books and keep hard copies. One of the London universities has recently catalogued the past activities of it's sports club and medals, certificates and photographs can now be located with ease. Various groups and individuals are archiving documents, often keeping copies in more than one location. To give an example. I have an interest in a particular regiment that went to Singapore in WWII. I obtained a photograph from a chap in Australia of a member of the regiment who was at school in my town which I gave to the school for their archive. I also enquired about an OS map of Singapore and the curator of the museum out there emailed and asked if I wanted the 1938 or the 1940 edition. It was sent electronically and I had a copy printed. It did cost a fair bit. In my view things have never been better when it comes to access to historical records. Just make sure that you find a safe home for what you have. Bernard

The thing is Jerry that a certain Mr Casserley lived about a 100yards away on the other side of the railway line. Most of the grown up people I knew who were railway modellers were either Clergymen or Army Officers. When I looked in the RM I would see drawings by some chap signing off with Bart. As you say one can only go on personal experience. Bernard

Just a couple of idle thoughts. It was not just that Hornby Dublo was considered superior to Triang, the Duchess was a better loco to own than an A4 as it was slightly more expensive. Nothing to do with allegiance to a line. There was also an acceptance that an interest in railways was a good thing and not at all weird or nerdy. On display in the craft workshop at school were several ancient GWR nameplates. They were regarded as items of historic interest just as much as if they were Roman coins or Greek vases. I wonder if they are still there? I can't remember what the names were. Bernard

Wandering OT but connected in a way. I read a piece yesterday about Apple concerning unlocking their devices that belonged to people who have died. Unless you have proof of purchase they will not help. If you bought the device on Ebay or Amazon market place a proof of payment will not be accepted. The suggestion given was to leave a note of the password details attached to your will. Like many ideas brilliantly simple, but a point that many will not consider. Bernard