melmoth

I think this is an excellent early contender for "Thread Drift of the Year". Only another 363 days to go.

Unfortunately perhaps not a world view confined to the Victorian age or to railways.

Hi, and welcome to the forum. As a caveat, I've not seen the adaptation, but I do know this: 1. Dickens died in 1870, and The Signalman was first published in 1866, so the railway network was not as well developed in extent or practice. 2. Dickens was a passenger on the boat train involved in the Staplehurst crash in 1865 (and indeed died five years to the day after it). This may have had an influence on the writing of the story. It is certainly considered to have been a cause of his decline in his last years 3. Having a signal box at either end of a tunnel was used in time-interval signalling days as a way of managing safety in some tunnels. It was the failure of such a system that was a contributing factor in the 1861 Clayton tunnel crash on the LBSC. Dickens would definitely have known about this crash, and perhaps derived the idea of a signal box at the entrance to a tunnel from this. 4. Strange as it may seem to us, a red light/signal/sign was not always used as a 'stop' signal in those days. Our generally accepted use of red and green signals was not standardised on the railways until quite late (1900?). I'm not sure the red light is in the story as written - lots of use of telegraph bells in the sto Edit: Mike @The Stationmaster is a far better source on all this than me

Must be more to a weekend at Missenden than meets the eye.

I remember Gordon Hill playing on the left wing for Manchester United in the mid/late 70s. He was nowhere as reliable as a GER suburban tank.

This in its entirety is a most wonderful post. Happy Christmas Simon, and Tim for that matter.

I've seen Real Ales called worse.

True, but I seem to recall reading something (probably by Adrian Vaughan) about how GWR signal boxes were graded for pay scales, and the grading depended to an extent on the number of individual actions a signalman had to undertake in the course of a normal shift. Therefore, in theory at least, creating more work for the signalman could lead to a claim for an increased rate of pay. Always assuming I have remembered and understood correctly.

Excellent! How much fettling is needed on an N gauge reindeer hoof to enable it to pass through 2mm pointwork? If I'm being critical, Santa looks slightly out of gauge too.

Re: The Newton Coach. Michael Bonavia (who was working for the LNER around that time) says this in the relevant volume of his history of the company:

John Gibson tells that story in his "Great Western Locomotive Design" (David & Charles, 1984, isbn 0715386069). It happened at Cirencester works on the MSJWR. where Gibson was an apprentice (if I remember correctly). The works was given the job of repainting a Dean Goods and put in a request to Swindon for 8 gallons of green paint. Swindon sent them 2 gallons.

Indeed, and I would exhort you all to get your orders in to Simon soon, as when I spoke to him last week he suggested stock was running low The Titfield Thunderbolt

KR Models

He worked for the GER and the LNER as a inspector of materials, predominantly steel/rail. He also wrote several books about the permanent way/railway infrastructure.

True, but from my unscientific experience, church weddings tend to take place on Saturdays and funerals in the week. This tends to avoid a fixture pile-up on the Sunday.

I believe that both Joseph Locke and Thomas Brassey managed to bring major projects in under budget, but don't have chapter and verse to hand now.

Well, "well publicised" would depend on where it was publicised. I'm quite aware that it was trailed in the mainstream print media, for example, but that's somewhere that the under 30s (perhaps younger) do not often seem to venture. Your BIL is rather like myself - non-driver, long lapsed passport, almost exactly mid 50s - so I had to jump through similar hoops, but at least I was aware of what I had to do . I would argue that younger people were, for various reasons (as per above maybe), less aware of the requirements (I know, it's debatable). I did not say that the young were being "purposely disenfranchised", but when the bar to casting a legitimate vote in accordance with your rights as a citizen, is raised on the basis of arguably false concerns (voter fraud - how many cases at the last GE?) then I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder why. After all, similar moves have been made in the US, which seem to be based around making it more difficult for certain elements of the franchise there to cast their votes.

No it doesn't. My statement was about the aims of the measures taken (which can always be argued against - hard to prove intent, perhaps), but the report is about the actual recorded effect of the measures - which is a very different thing. Thanks for the link though, very interesting.

Arguably the current administration are aware of this, which is why their voter ID reforms were disproportionately weighted against the young when it came to what would be accepted as a valid form of photo-ID: OAP bus passes, yes; Young Persons Railcard, no.

Regardless of any of the environmental aspects, having your own car also tends to come somewhere behind being able to afford suitable accommodation and meet your utilities and food bills. I know that this isn't specifically a problem for younger generations, but given that this is a model railway site and therefore predicated on what people like to do with their 'disposable' income, it's worth bearing in mind. Cars are a luxury that an increasing number cannot afford.

Jaffa Cakes! Oh.

I seem to remember Pat Hammond writing in one of his volumes on Hornby that the '08' was based on the jackshaft drive shunters. The model obviously didn't have the jackshaft drive, but it would explain why it didn't have outside frames.

Maybe the overscale coal is hiding some "blinged-up" copper pipework...

Didn't Bling used to compete with Bassett-Lowke? Or was that something to do with Steampunk?

Alexa, show me a massive helmet