Compound2632

38 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

The Fabian Society is also worth a read. Founded in the early 1930s, its aims and current members are well documented. 

Founded in 1884, its members played a significant role in the founding of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and from that the Labour Party. It also played a large role in the founding of the London School of Economics in 1895. Early members included George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice and Sidney Webb; all highly critical of Marx. It is currently an organisation affiliated to the Labour Party and was a significant influence on 'New Labour'. 

Hardly a sinister organisation, unless your definition of sinister is anything to the sinister of Genghis Khan.

23 hours ago, mikemeg said:

Next task, in this rebuild, is to make new roofs. The roof moulding in the kit, while dimensionally correct, is far too thick, so I cut new roofs from .015" plasticard and then form them using a 'tried and tested' method which does utiiise an otherwise discarded product.

 

The blanks are first rolled through the boiler rollers and then finished off by being taped to a wine bottle, which is then filled with very hot but not boiling water. Once cooled, the roofs now have the correct curvature.

Interesting that you're getting good results with hot water in the bottle. I use a similar method but with the bottle put in the cafetiere and very hot water in both - the water in the bottle being primarily to stop it floating. But I've not tried the pre-rolling step, having only very recently got a set of rolling bars. Do you find that you get a constant radius right to the edge? I've taken to bending over-wide pieces and cutting them down to width, to avoid the flatter edges. Standard wine bottles are 3" diameter and good for 10 ft radius roofs - which do for most goods vehicles - but I have a special 2.5" diameter bottle for 8 ft radius carriage roofs.

By-the-way you do realise that it's not absolutely necessary to use a fresh bottle every time?

3 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

I know. I just don't like the outside frames. Makes it look ancient. Should have all been rebuilt or scrapped well before the 1920s.

 

The GWR thought the Panniers looked dated, yet still had things like that running about in 1949 and even later when it came to the Dukedogs!

 

I'm afraid I don't buy into the idea that old is somehow better. Give me a BR 4MT 2-6-0 any day of the week.

Ah well, not the LMS, I'm afraid.

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

The majority have probably been posted before. It's when someone posts a joke that has appeared on the previous page or even on the same page.

That seems generally to be an indication that it has been circulating on Facebook or similar, appearing in several poster's feeds simultaneously, more than one of whom reposts it here. 

1 minute ago, Schooner said:

Oh! Be still my beating heart!

He'd be taking it to bed with him.

2 minutes ago, Craigw said:

The 2021 and 850 in saddle tank [...] form are far more common for branches.

Keep saying that!

46 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

The complexity is over-stated.

The class may have many variants but all one wants is for the individual models produced to be accurate for the class member and date represented. 

10 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

If they were red, then I'd have expected the photo emulsion of the time to have rendered them darker.

Yes but there's surface texture, dirt, ....

1 minute ago, jbqfc said:

WORDS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:

We need a list of words that are more difficult to say when sober than when drunk...

2 minutes ago, MikeOxon said:

The photo may have been taken on the opening day, 1st September 1872, since the staff are all posing 'on parade'. It's definitely taken before 1884, when the line was quadrupled

Surely not before 1879, when round-ended 3-plank wagons first saw the light of day, as we are given to understand. Not very clear but I'd say wooden end pillars. 

The covered goods wagon behind it doesn't have the style of end framing of the pre-iron mink wood minks; it looks more like a Midland wagon. But could be some other early type. 

4 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Oooooh

Like what he said.

Apropos the 517, I note Churchward buffers - I trust these will be easily removable! Shame Armstrong buffers aren't part of the tooling suite, then we could have one in Wolverhampton livery...

Reading http://www.gwr.org.uk/no4-coup-tanks.html, I learn that in the period 1894-1915, all but 50 engines arrived at the long-wheelbase state, if they were not already in it, i.e. 94; I take it the long wheelbase is what Dapol are doing?

I like the statement there that 'bunkers were in a state of constant flux', though I doubt Dapol's designers do.

30 minutes ago, billbedford said:

Not if you use a compass or a miniature marking gauge. Set it to the plank depths and run the point rod around the top of the planks. 

Cunning, as ever!

31 minutes ago, billbedford said:

Actually, I print grooves on the inside of the planks, but at only two-thirds the width of the outer ones. This should be just enough to show when weathering, but not noticalble otherwise. That's the theory anyway.

You remind me that I had noticed at the time that this was the case.

Catching up. Lots of good stuff here. On wagon interiors, should one scribe plank lines? The planks were only chamfered on the outside top edge...  @billbedford has suggested just drawing in lines with a pencil, which seemed to me impractical on a built-up wagon, but if you're painting insides before assembly, could be an option.

On 27/04/2024 at 20:17, DaveF said:

By the way, no association with any museums or anything except for camera clubs over the years.

Which does, of course, raise the question of preservation of the collection for posterity - hosting of scans on third-party sites not being necessarily the most secure means, as we have seen.

11 minutes ago, v8cpt said:

Dad isn't on Facebook so I have been adding a few hundred photos!!! 😆

Every one of which is a delight.

Why not combine your visit to this meeting with going on to the Midland Railway Society South-East Area meeting, Earley St Peters Church Hall, Earley, Reading RG6 1EY, 14:30 - 17:30 on the same day? Open to members of all Line Societies, Associations, Circles, Study Groups or whatever in the vicinity. I know I'll be trying to get to Didcot in the morning, though I'm the organiser of the MRS event! (Roughly 45 minutes drive between the two venues.)

If that doesn't appeal, Pendon's just down the road.

21 minutes ago, Hroth said:

A Push of Pike

It comes down to which side has the longest pikes.

4 minutes ago, melmerby said:

In case anybody's confused, the image I posted is of the post WW2 building taken in 1966, replacing the post WW1 building posted by Compound2632, taken in 1922 which was damaged during WW2.

Just so. Damaged is a bit of an understatement! Burnt out in an intense fire on the night of 25/26 October 1940, courtesy of the Luftwaffe. The rebuilding and trackwork alterations in the 1966 photo were carried out in 1947/8. Looking at the two photos again, I see the layout actually gained an extra tandem in the rebuilding.

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

The Birmingham City Corporation decided that all the slum housing needed to be cleared and built huge council housing estates creating new suburbs. These were good houses with modern facilities like indoor toilets and bathrooms.. My grandfather had years of work working as a builder on those estates and the family moved into one, using a borrowed market barrow from Aston to Acocks Green. The good houses with lots of parks were very much a concern of the Chamberlain family who were running Birmingham. 

My maternal grandfather, as a corporation housing department foreman, was in the thick of that. He was born in Arklow but emigrated first to Liverpool then Birmingham to escape the civil war. He had a story about meeting his boss, the Clerk of Works, at a University of Birmingham graduation ceremony. The boss was rather full of his own son being a graduate and said something along the lines of 'Fancy seeing you here, Jack", to which my grandfather took great satisfaction in replying that this was the third such ceremony he had attended. Of his five children, all went to university, my mother, the youngest, the last, as a mature student in the late 70s.   

37 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Here's a couple of 3 throw and a tandem for good luck (curved as well!):

 These shows the trackwork after the post-war rebuilding of Birmingham Central Goods as a parcels depot rather than general goods station. The original layout, rather than having a tandem to the right of the three-throw, had a pair of the latter side by side:

[Embedded link to Warwickshire Railways mrcgy928.]

The Midland was rather partial to both.

1 hour ago, sir douglas said:

5 way stub on Mcleans island, New Zealand

You have to wonder whether all that froggery didn't offset any saving in using a stub switch.

In other words, US-style rail transport of coal in 50-ton gondolas with continuous brakes, hauled by Mountains or similar, is only feasible with the widespread closure of smaller goods stations and a switch to large-scale domestic distribution by road. In one's AU, is that really a price worth paying just for the sake of justifying bigger engines?

These have less detail than the Midland carriage marshalling books, which have enough information that one can usually identify the carriage diagrams - per the example posted above.

I'm pretty sure that a three-way, with overlapping switches, would only have been used in goods yards and would not appear, even trailing, on a running line. A tandem is like a tandem bicycle, one behind the other. What do you call a bicycle made for three?

On 26/04/2024 at 17:13, Worsdell forever said:

Got a bit more hedge fixed down, rather pleased how it's gone.

Good to see a laid hedge modelled. Is it genuinely sheep-proof though?

Is there any drystone walling in the area?

As to the difference in pasture, there would be a number of factors, including whether the field was ever mown for hay or had had cows in it. I suspect the better pasture was always used for sheep, so kept well trimmed and fertilised, stimulating new growth. I look forward to DCC skipping lambs. Perhaps the poorer pasture could do with some thistles and cowpats?

Probably qualifies as sexist. If started at the fourth paragraph, might pass.