Edwardian

I like Vlad, but have mainly seen his stuff on Russia. I'll have a watch.

Listening to a DUP MP on LBC a couple of weeks back. He kept saying "we did not get the BREXIT we wanted". What does that even mean? Is he an idiot? Perhaps that is axiomatically so in the case of the DUP, but how can he think this? I have never understood why the DUP wanted BREXIT (and still do). What did they think would happen? I can see an emotional appeal as they the flag harder than a Home Secretary at Conference, and, perhaps, they thought it was a Baldrickesque Cunning Plan (and we know how they turn out) that would drive a wedge between NI (soon to be majority Catholic) and the Republic. But how did they think it would work? Did they think that a single market and a free-movement zone would not require a hard, physical border? Did they foresee that and want that? If we admit that, this is close to them wanting to prejudice the Good Friday agreement, to threaten peace. That would be insane even by their Creationalist standards of intellect. If they did not want that, how did they think the EU was going to maintain the integrity of its zone? A border between one system and another of some type has to go somewhere. In many ways the current fudge is the best solution possible to a problem the DUP wanted to create, despite the majority in NI being, quite sensibly, opposed to BREXIT. Then there was Stella Creasy giving voice to the other incomprehensible fudge; why Labour 's policy is not to rejoin. That made no fecking sense either. Honestly, I need to stop listening to this nonsense!

A professional job by CR Phillips. Pictured on this page is the Jubilee and a T1 he also did for me.

I think it is time to retire the PC Models version of these 1906-1910 cross country sets. I've just taken delivery of the EFE set and given them the once over. I am impressed.

A box arrived at Edwardian Towers .... One might think from the packaging that one had received something from the age of blue and silver, of yellow-nosed diseasals and motor-rail and Corporate Image. But, no ... These are lovely. They are not bad value for today's prices (at £59.25 per coach) and one has a complete train or, if one prefers, a portion thereof. Unlike the GWR, the Southern constituents were really into sets. This one is labelled as the ill-omened No. 63. More annon. As the tooling favours the later periods, it looks to me as if the roof vents are the conventionally proportioned ones fitted by the Southern; LSWR torpedio vents were noticably taller. The other detail I noticed are the plain disc wheels, not Mansells. These are pretty minor points, however, and easily remedied if desired. The finish and lining is excellent and seems a very fair rendering of LSWR salmon and brown, and the modelled detail is crisp, The prominent transverse springs of the LSWR Fox bogies are well captured. Unlike Hornby's square-wheeled rebuilt LSWR SR coaches, these EFE coaches seem very free running. So, the set number. Weddell notes that remarkably few of the set numbers for these vehicles are known. No.63 is known, but only because it was involved in an accident at Vauxhall on 29 August 1912, when it formed a train as one of two sets. "In this case while the 13.37 am. train from Aldershot to Waterloo was standing at the up through platform at Vauxhall Station, it was run into from the rear by a light engine proceeding from Nine Elms to Waterloo. One passenger was killed and forty-four were injured, as were also the driver and fireman of the light engine." Interestingly, only the running numbers of the brake thirds in the EFE set correspond with those in the accident report, 1520 (preserved) and 1519. One of the composites is another preserved example. So, it's not really set 63, though the brake ends are where the set number is displayed, giving that impression. BoT Report I could replace the wheels with Allan Gibson Mansells, but the bearings will be a little different and could compromise their free running. I'm minded to use these, which I have used before and which do look the part when painted up as varnished wood: Wheel Inserts

This helpful summary comes with a language warning (they're Australian):

Yes, I think I knew that, but had forgotten, so thanks. I think Hoole mentioned it in his tome on ECJS

For me part of the allure of Carlisle is the physical appearance of the station, and the other, which one can only appreciate in the pre-Grouping age, are the sheer number of companies using the station. On the ECML I suspect we split this between Newcastle, to which I expect the Scottish companies ran, and York, which saw the overlap of the two English ECML companies in terms of motive power, but also saw other English companies, perhaps most unexpectedly, the GER! This I suspect is a function of the fact that the border is much further south on the west!

Indeed. People like to criticise lawyers, of course, yet I have found that my career in commercial litigation has been built on the need for some way to regulate people who choose to be the worst version of themselves. In other words, they blame the lancet for the boil of their Original Sin. It has long been my observation that business ethics, or ethics in business, barely exist for many entrepreneurs. Unless it is illegal, it is acceptable. Sometimes, if it is illegal, but the risks and consequences are seen as manageable, it's seen as acceptable. There is no sense of any moral or ethical standard beyond the minimal requirements of legality. Politicians these days seem to live in that same amoral world.

See further: BBC Interview Grauniad Report And, go Sangita!

A member of our House of Lords considers that it was OK to lie (over her connection with a company making millions out of PPE contracts - her husband owned it) because lying is not a criminal offence. Glad you've cleared that one up, Baroness Mone.

Well done. Looks useful and in a handy shape. These days not even sonic screwdrivers are screwdriver shaped.... Sonic mouse?

IIRC this feature is mentioned in the desinstructions

I think that is a good idea. I probably fall, or, certainly when I started here, fell, within the target constituency. Castle Aching came about because I knew that, to make a start, I would need to depend on RTR - RTR loco chassis at least - and simple kits and modifiable RTR stock. I would, I feared, take time to master the skills I would need to model an historic pre-Grouping line, given that no given company was then sufficiently well represented by RTR. Things have changed since then. My development of skills in the higher arts is glacial, RTR has started to catch up with my aspirations (though still has a long way to go) and I have ended up making the WNR such a 'prototype' that I shall struggle to do it justice! These are all personal problems, however, and generally my own fault. For me, the logic of your proposition holds good and there has never been a better time to encourage new explorers of the period. Further, this community, so inventive and supportive and generous with its time, expertise, interest and encouragement, as I have gratefully found, is absolutely the best place to start one's pre-1923 journey. Perhaps Uncle Andy could be asked to pin such a topic, were it to be started, which seems appropriate to its proposed function. One churlish word, if I may; although it might be helpful to 'translate' "Era 2" into something meaningful for the novice, I do think those who habitually use the 'era system' have places reserved in one of th inner circles of Hell, just out from those who say "train station" in fact.

Just going to leave these here:

Yes, you should see my beaver tail.

Sinning again. You know when there is something you just like, but that is not really a fit with your passions and projects? Actually, I started as a devotee of the GWR in South Devon the mid-thirties, and have a modest collection of LNER matériel suitable for the ECML (GN Section) in the late-thirties. Yet, there is no excuse for the Museum of Madness's latest acquisition. I knew very little about the LNER's Sentinel steam railcars, but they had always appealed and often the well-known NUCast kit comes up for sale: I've always held off, however, because, well, I have no use for them. Then I spotted something else, so I mugged up a bit on the LNER railcars and found that what I had stumbled upon was a Diagram 89 Sentinel car (1928). It's different from the NuCast kit and, I suspect, scratch built. They were numerous and widespread. I could run one on CA if spinning the period forward for the odd running session. This one, Eclipse, seems to have spent her entire working life at Hull Botanic Gardens, so quite why (on the side not shown) the destination is 'Darlington' is not known! Apart from repairing the steps, there does not seem to be a lot wrong with it and I am lost to its charms.

Ah yes, Rice's First Law of (Frozen) Motion. Actually, the Good Reverend was a proto-Ricean in that regard, as, on his OO Ffarquar 6' x 4', he positioned, IIRC, a flock of sheep blocking traffic to explain the necessarily stationary vehicles.

Cow catchers arrived preternaturally fast. Three cheers for Rapido! Now correct prototype operation can be replicated...

Far too modern, though, sadly, though for understandable reasons (lasting to BR days) most of the Rapido wagon releases of are of very late pre-Grouping prototypes. On the plus side, this has allowed me to avoid bankruptcy 😄

Indeed and anyone who produced GER 6-wheers could consider those coverted for the aforesaid Kelvedon & Tollesbury too.

True, but the 4-wheelers are a 'single use' model, so perhaps unlikely in RTR. These, and the brake coach, are available as etched (along with the bogie coaches) from Eveleigh Creations, so no need to go wallet-busting D&S trawling (manufacturer's pictures - these might be the 2mil versions):

Agree. I wished only to report factually. Having rummaged the accessory bag in order to answer the question asked of whether there were etched plates, I also mentioned the cowcatchers because I knew that the Model Rail issue had come with a spare set. I knew this because, in extremis, I was eyeing up one for back-dating to GER condition before events so spendidly overtook me. While I understand that these minor disappointments can niggle, and I don't think anyone should feel got at or guilt-tripped over experiencing such disappointments, I do feel that, set against the pros of this frankly splendid set, it would be a shame if the focus remained too long on the niggles when, franky here is something I never expected to see RTR in a livery I never expected to see RTR, where great pains were evidently taken to get everything right and the design and quality of manufacture seem impeccable to me.

I note the pictures tend to have disappeared in the Great Purge. So, here is my Jubilee. It's close to accurate, though, as has been pointed out, the NU Cast kit omitted the ash pan! Anyway it is more or less in Adam condition in Drummond livery, which is what we want, I think, for a circa 1907-1914 Barnstaple Town setting. As a known visitor to the Ilfracombe branch, and the largest engine the Ilfracombe turntable of the day could accommodate, I like the idea of it heading the EFE LSWR set as the Ilfracombe poertion of an ex-London express.