Edwardian

I discover that the straw sennet hat was part of the Rating's uniform when it was first established in 1857, though, like other elements of the first uniform, it was probably an item that had been traditionally worn for some time prior to this. What surprised me is that it remained on the Royal Navy's kit list until 1921!

Indeed, Geoff, the chap on the right, did crop up earlier. it was only on viewing the larger than life image that I noticed Geoff still had an open shirt with turn down collar, so I have now trimmed these off.

Indeed, the sennet hat overlapped with the caps for some considerable period; for instance, I have seen pictures of the Naval Brigade in Zululand in 1879 in caps! Thanks to Mullie and Caley Jim for cassette pics and explanations. I am thinking now that the eventual configuration can be a cassette trough located behind Achingham, with a shelf for cassettes below. Hoping to close a transaction tomorrow which I hope buys me another 12 months to sell the house. So, hopefully modelling will resume in earnest from next weekend (fingers crossed)! People - final instalment (for now!) In the meantime, I have finished the last of the people. He is my second Dapol-derived workman. He is pictured next to his companion. Geoff and Burt have both benefitted from minor surgery and the odd blob of Greenstuff. Burt's peaked cap was replaced by a bowler with a paper brim and Greenstuff crown (roll a sphere of the stuff and then cut it in half once hardened). Burt's face is Greenstuff, via a Greenstuff mould taken from a Stadden workman.

Wonderfully desolate and full of brooding atmosphere!

Brilliant. The looks like exactly what I need. Many thanks.

The original concept for a cassette, with separate loco cassettes, seems just what I need. I won't be turning trains, just locos, and the train cassettes can be tailored to the length of the train; I doubt that even the longest would exceed 3', with many a good deal shorter. People again The Merry Maiden and the Tar These are the last two of my 5 Preiser bodges. Quite why Tempelhof would have featured quantities of sailors helping about the field is unclear, but it meant that I had to hack up the arms to get them down by his sides. The only other work was the addition of Greenstuff to form the black tapes that hang down his front from under the blue collar. Greenstuff was also used to provide the kit bag. The young lady is inspired by one of the wonderful candid street shots of ladies that Edward Linley Sambourne took in London in 1905-6. She is the only really ambitious conversion of the 5, and uses the Ravenscar Pier masking tape technique to convert her from a lady of 1925 to one of 20 years earlier. My earlier post shows the new skirt, the building up of the blouse with Greenstuff and the paper and sprue lady's boater. I subsequently added her Edwardian hair-do with more Greenstuff.

That sounds like the sort of thing I should consider. I look forward to the pictures once you have a moment.

That's a great idea. Not sure that a junction with the GER comes within the geographical ambit of the room I have available, but I will think more on this, as it's a good solution.

Brilliant, thanks!

Don, Gary, yes, I do not think I would have room for a helix, and have concluded that there is no other way to run a track down to a different level. Dave Shadow's rather nice idea was to use a cassette to bridge the levels. I had thought of a conventional F Y behind a terminus. Thank you for the link to Hintock, Don, I don't recall seeing a picture of its F Y before, but it is a great example of something that might suit CA. The cassette idea of Don's, to bolt them to the end of a phase 1 scenic section, and just keep moving it as, if and when, the layout expends, seems sound. Ultimately, I could have a single cassette road behind the Achingham terminus. That would give me the width I need for the second terminus. I can have cassette and further storage roads mounted below, picking up on Dave's idea again. Just one thought; the trains will not be turned, rather I need a neat way of detaching, turning, and replacing a loco at the opposite end of the train. How is this managed by cassette users? Could I plug it in 'downstairs' and run the loco off on to a TT?

Excellent and full of bleak atmosphere.

Oh, I wouldn't worry. The only thing I'm committed to is the area represented by Simon's plan. The choice is simply whether to add the fiddle yard at that point, or, carry on round the room. The sensible thing might be to do one, and then the other! The advantage of ultimately going all the way around is that the fiddle yard, and any second terminus, could end up within arm's length of the Castle Aching controls.

Brilliant, Dave. Application would need careful thought, but a cassette would cut down on fiddle yard space. I have to think very carefully about height, however. The boards are to be mounted quite high (1) because I like a low view point and (2) because the efforts at perspective at CA depend upon not being able to view from too far above. I was thinking of baseboard height at around 4'3". If I dropped that to 4' and allowed a 15" gap between boards, and 2" depth for the upper board and frame, I am pretty much dead eye level. That would mean narrow board and difficult operation. There is an additional difficulty in relation to the CA board; in the top left corner of my plan is a hill with a castle on top and I don't think anything could cross over the CA boards at less than 24" above rail level! The alternative would be to make the CA sections on the higher level, at 4'3", which would mean mounting the lower level at, say, 34" from the ground. This is starting to sound like a case for a low level fiddle yard connected to 'the surface' via a train lift. Great fun, but beyond my carpentry and engineering skills I would guess!

Larger copies would be appreciated. You and Kevin between you seem to have a far better grasp of where the WNR went than I have.

So, the ambition is to run the line from CA along the remaining length of the room. At the corner (top right as one views the plan) we might start Flitching Junction on the curve. The mainline runs to the rear, completing the turn to the straight at the bottom of the plan, terminating by the door. This is logically where the fiddle yard must go. It is across the doorway from CA, and, so, a single operator can conveniently turn from one to the other. The question is, do we have room to divide the line at Flitching and to run an inner curve to a terminus (Achingham) to lie in front of the fiddle yard? Visually, all the stations are rather close together. With minimum platform face lengths of 3', and a minimum 3' radius, this is starting to look like an impossible squeeze. But, I like the idea of CA services having both an on, as well as an off, stage destination and I have a prejudice against visible expanses of off-stage area; when viewing the stage, one should not be distracted by the sight of back stage.

Given an infinite number of parallel universes ...

Wow!

Ambition limited. This is the room, with Simon Dunkley's track plotting for CA reduced to scale. Thank you, Simon, for this. It proves it fits for one thing! Not a lot of room left in which to fit Flitchinham, Achingham and a fiddle-yard for Everywhere Else!

I suggest anyone who has sent money into this black hole contacts Trading Standards. A solicitor's letter also tends to focus attention. If a number of people were in the same boat, it would be an economic exercise. Something needs to get this guy's attention. Generally I think small suppliers should be afforded significant latitude, but this is surely an extreme example; a number of cherished and important ranges in the hands of someone who has totally neglected customers and potential customers over a period of several years. I started this topic simply because the last topic on Coopercraft had been locked several years ago and I wanted to know what was happening. The answer appears to be "still nothing". Why the owner does not sell is beyond me. As it is, he has taken the goodwill and the products of several brilliant brands and p*ssed it all up against the wall. I do not believe for a moment that Coopercraft will ever make good; all it seems to have achieved, and all it is ever likely to achieve, is to render permanent the non-availability of a shed-load of great stuff, the like of which we'll never see again. I still have received no answer from Coopercraft to my enquiry. My little store of patience is exhausted. What a service Coopercraft has rendered this hobby!

What a wonderful station; you've just added to my growing list of "must model" locations!

You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzK4kEkLzfs

Great find that, Fenman Paul. Required viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYnyOnnlKWk "Long lines of level drains and then the grey North Sea" And then out of the flatlands into "Royal Country"

Congrats on reading them! Thanks for your good wishes and look forward to your next post.

Brilliant, Kevin. All praise and thanks to Mr Doolight, who must considered himself engaged. I like the idea of the station hard by St Peter's churchyard. 'Cat's Bottom' is an excellent name for a station. However, the WNR appears to be going to a real place, which both the WNR and the other companies associated with the Grand Eastern Trunk Railway scheme have hitherto assiduously avoided! It may be necessary, either to cross some unpopulated tract, or to introduce a further slither of 'Expandable Norfolk' in order to avoid Wolferton, and, instead, pass through a fictionalised version of the place; Wolfingham? If so, do we include a junction where the line turns east to the wharf so as to continue the line further north to a failed resort between the sea and the villages of Ingoldstone, Snettisthorpe and Frimham? I am conscious that Mr Doolight may go to a lot of trouble for a location unlikely to be reproduced in miniature form! EDIT: A thought occurs. Depending upon how soon after the opening of the Castle Aching to Birchoverham section the line to the Wash was built, it could have preceded or coincided with the building of the Lynn to Hunstanton Railway in the early '60s. In other words, the GER line at Wolferton was not necessarily there first!

Well, it has a guano and fish oil plant, and, as Kevin discovered, now redundant coprolite mines. Thus proving that, whilst all that glitters is not gold, where there's muck there's brass. I suspect that a passing relationship with the real Norfolk ought to be maintained!