Northroader

And maybe some signals? https://www.real-modell.de/zubehoer-h0/am-gleis-signale/bausatz-hauptsignal-typ-henning-2-fluegelig.html

There was a loop if you were heading north at Pandy. “Up” and “down” on the North to West could lead to trouble, as the lines changed their designation over at Hereford Barr’s Court. It sticks in my mind because of a derailment there, a northbound train of engineers flats went into the loop and kept going, the 47 going through the stop blocks and the flats piling up behind like a pack of playing cards. It seems that they had been assumed to be vac brake fitted, the end through pipes being very discoloured. Anyhow, several weekend occupations followed on clearing up. The main road runs parallel with the track here, just a fields width away, with a sort of ribbon development for the village running along it, and two pubs mixed in. I popped into one of the pubs for refreshment, as you do, and when I got back on site, the old perway ganger, a wizened old local, was very interested which pub I’d been in. I told him, and he seemed very happy with my choice, why? Well, the other place had a bit of a reputation as a Sodom and Gomorrah, according to him. Needless, to say, I marked it down for a visit, but never did manage it. I fancy that derailment caused the loop to be taken out of service, the goods sidings over the other side on the signalling plan had been taken out several years earlier.

Some went south, others headed north.... (later known as Banks’s)

Congratulations to the organisers and success to everyone attending. I had plans to come, but Ill health has struck. Have fun.

The Bishops Castle signals were peculiar, in that the ones at Horderley and Eaton were placed at through stations, close to a level crossing, and so could have functioned as a signal as we know it. However, the ones at Lydham Heath and Bishops Castle were placed close to the stopblock end, and could only be used to tell the driver he could go no further, and obviously couldn’t be cleared to a proceed indication. Doubtful if any of them were ever used, although the post of one of them supported a wireless aerial later on.

Another of those places where the name has its own local pronunciation, in this case “Shraden”.

Then there was the station staff:

THE GUEST HOUSE AT BUDWITY. This post is to do with his Imperial Highness, Kaiser Wilhelm II Hohenzollern. (Aka to you and me as “Kaiser Bill”) It seems that he was very fond of going on trips shooting game, and in the Old Prussia that we’ve been looking at, there were large country estates, heathland, forests, marshes and lakes, where this happened. One of these belonged to a special friend of his, a noble Count, which he visited frequently, at Prokelwitz/ Prakwice. The place wasn’t served by a train station, so a special halt was constructed nearby solely for the Emperor to detrain from his Imperial saloon carriage. A small pavilion was placed there, which I think was where the two friends could greet each other and down a schnapps or two, before progressing to Counts residence. It looks a bit small to function as an overnight stay. The architecture was particularly noteworthy as being in the Romantic Nordic style, so much more suited to the set of a Wagner opera, then highly popular, and fuelling German nationalism. I would venture it as being quite a rarity for a railway building, and a good challenge for anyone who likes building unusual stations. You can find plenty of good photos on “Dworzec Cesarka Wilhelma”. Well, 1918 came along, and with it an end to shooting trips, the chaos engulfing Germany leading the Army High Command telling the Kaiser they could no longer protect him, and him going to an estate in the Netherlands for the rest of his life. The railway authorities decided the building would be useful as a proper passenger station, and it was moved down the line to Ebenhoh/ Budwity , with block signalling installed. It looks as if it was sectional wood construction, which would help this. A long time and another world war passed, then with a system rationalisation the line was closed. The building is still there, however, standing on a low platform, with a broad grassy strip where the tracks ran. It has been done up into a guest house. https://dworzecwilhelma.pl/en/historia/

https://actuary.com.au/future-lost-earnings/

KARTONMODELLE. whilst on the subject of Prussian railway buildings, one modelling aspect which deserves consideration is the use of cardboard for models. This has quite an active following on the continent, and does give a decent source for scale prototypes. If nothing else, you can get a template to do a model in more involved materials. https://www.kartonmodellbau.org/cgi-bin/bogen.pl?showentryv=1297-Ma Ka Mo Walfried Fehse

And it’s fitted with proper couplings.

I can see your problem, take these pills on prescription to fix your sinus, then we’ll see about fixing you up with a hearing aid.

“Stellewerke” on an enquiry. None of the country stations would have signal boxes like a British railway, the block instruments and double wire pull levers would be either just inside, or close to the station building. Boxes as we know them only happened at the larger stations and junctions.

I think I can understand your comment, Stephen. Digging around I’m comparing a Prehm kit for a Prussian railway station with a slightly smaller station on the Hornsea line. G.T.Andrews was the architect for the bulk of the lines on the southern half of the NER, all having a family resemblance. pointers are quite a low pitched roof with wide eaves, brick construction, and plain simple lines, symmetrical without any fancy embellishments

The shunters at STJ were all radio fitted, to speed things up. All very well, but anyone operating on a private radio channel would get monitored by GPO engineers. It was discovered that the radios were getting used by the crews to contact the bookies to place bets.

All those cuckoo clocks going off would drive me daft.

OLD PRUSSIA. Looking this up in a search, you’ll find quite a convoluted history. The original Prussia wasn’t anything to do with the area around Berlin, this being Brandenberg, but was well to the East, a broad strip of country South of the Baltic Sea. There’s a long string of happenings in history, conversion to Christianity, fights with the Kingdoms of Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Religious wars, you name it. Perhaps salient points were the merger with Brandenberg, Prussia becoming the name of the unified country, and the Germanification of the old area. Pomerania and Silesia, to the south were absorbed, and the country became a strong military power, opposing Napoleon. They saved the British from defeat at Waterloo in 1815, and were rewarded with the Rhineland territories. This left them in control of the two richest iron and coal producing areas on the continent at the start of the Industrial revolution. In the mid Victorian era they had a statesman in Bismarck, with the ambition of establishing the primacy of Prussia, at the head of a unification of German states. Muscular diplomacy led to a succession of nasty wars, first with Denmark, leading to the annexation of Schleswig Holstein, then Austria, with the Kingdom of Hannover being assimilated, and lastly with France, in 1870, ending with the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine becoming German. A confederation of German states was established, with the Prussian king becoming Emperor of it all. Jumping forward, old Prussia was very German, with a leavening of Poles, having their own catholic religion and language, and treated very much as second class citizens, and this became worse in the Nazi era. The boot was on the other foot in 1945, with the advance of the Red Army. There was a mass exodus of Germans westwards to beyond the River Oder, and the territory became part of Poland. (The Russians had already snaffled the eastern part of Poland under the terms of the infamous Molotov- Ribbentrop pact of 1939, this becoming Byelorusse) Anyway, enough history, what of the railways in 1900? It was all part of the Prussian State Railway, which as I understand it, was a Government Department, with any operating surplus going straight into the Treasury. Below this level, the railway was organised into Divisions, centred on the large towns. Old Prussia was served by the Prussian Eastern Railway, and this was constructed at the insistence of the Army, with the ability to rapidly move a fully equipped force from barracks near Berlin, 460 miles east to the Russian border at Lithuania. I can return to the standard range of locos, but for now I just like to put in a few words on the carriage and wagon side. The Prussian coaches were quite distinctive, slab sided four wheelers with end entrance balconies, steps and railings, and noteworthy boxy clerestories. The bodies were painted to accord with the class of passenger they were intended for. The one I’m showing is from the old Pola range, decorated for Hesse Railways, which did a merger with the Prussian system around 1890? If you replace the wheelsets and bearings, they’re quite a decent model. In H0 scale, Fleischmann do a good range. Turning to wagons, and a very useful site for the wagon cognoscenti who use this thread, you have: http://dit-modell.de if you “klicken sie auf..” on the homepage, then “modelle bauteile” you can find some very nice side elevations, colours and lettering for old Prussian wagons, with thumbnail links for each type. One feature is that each sort had a city name on it, presumably telegraphic reference? Lastly, we can’t go anywhere without a bierwagen. I couldn’t find any for the big Danzig breweries, rather surprisingly, but here’s one from a Baltic port just to the East, producing “Englisch Bier” (!!)

Perhaps the one element in the transport scene of the area that should have been included is the mighty Ship Canal. https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/gloucester-and-sharpness-canal Saul Junction, the join with the Stroudwater Navigation has recently been fettled up, although Gloucester Docks themselves have been badly silted up, apparently because of the need for fresh drinking water by the denizens of Bristol.

Thanks, Don, for the very good advice. I’ve got a very clear idea of where I want to go, there’s a two bedroom bungalow just round the corner from my daughters in Cheltenham. Early days, many a slip, etc., etc., but just need to achieve the transaction painlessly. There’s a “garden room” which should take a workstation in a corner, and a microlayout in another, which will do me nicely.

Well, the plan is that the stuff in the loft needs sorting into what goes and what stays. Rest assured, the shorty sets will stay with me, as they’re the sort of thing for a small bungle-ole. At present, I’m trying to raise sufficient head of steam to tackle this. It’s just four weeks ago when my aorta sprung a leak, and just a week ago when I went back in due to dizzy spells, (wrong tablets plus dehydration) since then I’ve had five bags, one litre each, of saline drip. Put your ear’ole against my chest and you can hear the waves lapping as the tide comes in....

You could also go to Moor Street for excursions on Race Days, especially to Stratford on Avon.

Thanks, Jason, Winchester would be nice, although I’m trying to run down my stock at present. (???) Having fun trackside and I think of when I was on a course for lookouts and where to place them. We were then under overall control of Network SouthEast, and the training was done at East Croydon, so there I was, a hundred yards north of the station, at the side of the down main which has a nicely curved line coming out from behind a retaining wall, and a steady stream of trains bombing along at you, on the third rail. I passed, but it was hairy.

Well, Happy Easter, everyone, just for now I’m marking time due to health reasons, but browsing round today I found a video showing the Great American Mid West in 1949, exactly when and where to be, which I think is well worth sharing with you. Freight Train trip behind a FT set, is that OK?

Thanks for your concern, Denys, I think you need to factor in that self and my wife are both 85 years old. About the time you’ve made your post I had a dizzy spell whilst taking a turn round the garden, and ended up back in Swindon GW hospital (A&E on a Saturday night (!!!!)) Anyhow, part due to dehydration, part due to some of the tablets prescribed. Finally released Wednesday afternoon, and now able to reply, feeling much better. I'm hell bent on keeping some continental modelling going, if on a limited scope, never fear.

One trip sticks in my mind from then, me and a mate went off to France early sixties, and used the Pullman. It was a case of needs must, all the seats were taken on the non Pullman train, so we looked big and paid the supplement. The coach bodies were on rubber mountings, sound proofing extensive, so we were rolling along in near silence, just a bit of a rumble. The main sound you could hear was a very gentle creaking from all the wood panelling. It was a beautiful ride.