FarrMan

18 hours ago, MJI said:

Nice apple as well, and I do like gala.

Australians have a bird called a Galah, with the accent on the second a, and an expression 'as daft as a galah. Therefore I always pronounce the apple (my favourite by the way) with the accent on the second a.

Lloyd

1 minute ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

and they mix up turnips and swedes.

But round here, swedes are pronounced as in bed.

Lloyd

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Possibly going to such efforts on a Sunday as changing one's kex, may be interpreted by Jones the Ayatollah as working on the day of rest and therefore a sin.

 

The result of which may be a severe fire and brimstone lecture at the Primitive or Congregational chapel, but you might get the Presbyterians come galloping down from the hills with red painted faces, antlers on their heads and burn your village.

 

Then it will start to rain.... (More than usual) just to make sure you're properly depressed.

Speaking as a Presbyterian from the hills, I can assure you that we do not come galloping down from the hills to burn your villages, we walk sedately and dress in black to burn your villages!

Lloyd

20 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

If you're not a geezer, they probably won't help you.

 

Fine for the Kiwis, then, but I would have thought travelling expenses for them would outweigh the advantages! Or am I ending up in hot water!

Lloyd

13 hours ago, GH in EM and O said:

There is also a manual crossing on the ECML on the road between Etton and Marholm. It is very often a long wait though.

 

I do not remember that one, though the one that was between Marholm and Werrington I was very familiar with. By this stage the southbound expresses were slowing for the Permanent Speed restriction through North Station, so not as exciting as Tallington.

Lloyd

19 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Indeed David,

 

Just about all the named locomotive I build are those where I have tangible memories of having seen them. 

 

In August 1960, on our way back as a family from spending a week with friends in Hull, dad, knowing my brother and me to be train-mad, stopped at Bawtry station. I've an idea it had just been closed (though I could be wrong), because we couldn't get access to the platforms. No matter, we had a good view of the line through the iron gates. Within moments, GANNET appeared, wheeling 'The Elizabethan' southbound; a vision of gleaming green (with a red nameplate) and gleaming maroon cars. Bawtry viaduct (and its subsidence) dictated a tight rein, but what an indelible memory; made even more memorable by, moments later, a filthy dirty WOLF OF BADENOCH, with steam escaping everywhere from the front end, struggling with a Down express appeared. We knew it was 60506 only by its front numberplate (it wasn't a 'cop', anyway, though neither was 60032), because the escaping steam obliterated everything else. GANNET did 68 trips on the non-stop in 1960 (second only to 'magnificent' MERLIN's 76). 

 

Strictly-speaking, for Bytham's '58 depiction, GANNET should still have a single chimney, and she never ran on the non-stop in that year. Still, I have 60013, 60027 and 60030 for that. I much prefer the look of the A4s with double chimneys, so that's how she'll be, and I might well use her on the 'Lizzie' - thus destroying any hope of period 'accuracy'. As always, Rule 1 applies!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

That reminiscence of Bawtry reminds me of teenage years when I would be cycling over Tallington crossing, and often treated to the sight of an A4 crossing in front of me. The up fast trains at the bottom of stoke bank there could be quite a sight.

Lloyd

Some time ago there was a discussion re stock used on the route refreshing runs by GW over SR metals and vice versa, between Plymouth and Exeter. I have just read in BackTrack Feb 2023, p. 107, a note by a trainspotter from 7th April 1949 of seeing a Hall on one of these workings over the SR route, and it specifically records 'The train had both WR and SR stock.' Would this only be applicable to the SR route, or would both routes operate both WR and SR stock, which would bring SR stock through Brent.

Lloyd

On 21/01/2023 at 23:11, St Enodoc said:

Mr & Mrs @Barry O arrived safely on Friday, in good time for our running session yesterday. Things went quite smoothly (mostly...) and we got through a total of 37 trains before stopping for afternoon tea.

 

The branch doesn't come into play much yet on the Saturday section of the sequence but Peter the Cornishman brought along his new Hornby 9F which trundled very nicely between Pentowan and Porthmellyn Road.

 

Here it is, with its owner on the far right in command of the Paddington points control panel.

 

At the other end of the room, here are @RodneyV and @chesterfield pondering what the heck is supposed to happen next.

 

Next time we should reach the end of the Saturday sequence, after which work might have advanced to the stage where we can do some testing with the Polperran - Pentowan line.

For us ignorami, can you identify the rest of the folk there, please?

Lloyd

8 hours ago, Chris Higgs said:

 

I guess that rules Pendon out, then.

 

As I don't think you can draw up an objective set of criteria, the question cannot be answered. But I could imagine compiling a list of layouts to go in the all-time dream exhibition might be amusing. Here's a few I would include

 

Copenhagen Fields

Mostyn

Leamington Spa

Borchester Market

Dewsbury Midland

Pendon

Buckingham

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

I misread that at first, and included you in the all time dream exhibits! Don't take that the wrong way, as never having knowingly met you, I don't know if you are a dream!

Lloyd

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Mike and thanks for all the reactions too.

 

I have to say that the last couple of days have gone very well, as you can see here.

 

I bought some more grot grey paint this morning, which turned out to be a good move as I managed to use up the whole 250ml this afternoon. This was one of the other 49 shades, called Timeless Grey for some reason, and is a paler colour that will show up the track centre lines rather better than the previous Slate Grey Base.

 

The trick is to slop the paint on, as the cork absorbs it quite quickly. I removed and replaced each pin in turn as I painted that area of the board. After the paint goes on it forms a tiny dint where the pin hole is, so there's no need to guess where the pin belongs.

 

Before I started, I put some extra pins on the Platform 1 curve so that I can reproduce it easily.

 

I think I will indeed start tracklaying next, beginning with Platform 3, which of course only has one point to worry about.

 

 

When marking oneself, it is normal to find that your marks are lower that a tutor's would be. After all, these things are usually quite subjective, anyway, but that is the experience of college lecturers. What surprised me more was the consistency in lecturers' subjective assessments when blind marking (i.e. the second marker not knowing the first marker's conclusions). Therefore remember that you are always too hard on yourself.

Lloyd

23 hours ago, gr.king said:

The former anniversary being clearly the more significant one yet receiving woefully little attention. It is 100 years for goodness sake...

But did the grouping not spread over a couple of years? I recall that some of the grouping took place on a couple of dates in 1922, and more on a couple of dates in 1923, and some perhaps not until 1924, so what date do we celebrate?

Lloyd

On 30/12/2022 at 19:50, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Geoff,

 

I assume it's a spoof? 

 

If not, any surviving teacher who taught me will be liable. 

 

And I'd better emigrate! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

As I used to say as a teacher, 'It is a pity that capital punishment was abolished in schools!'

Lloyd

6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

The locomotive was presumably named for Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, a particularly nasty medieval nobleman even by Scottish standards. His soubriquet comes from his possession of the lordship of Badenoch, which includes Kingussie on the Highland Railway main line. The hill just to the west of the Drumochter summit is The Boar of Badenoch, with the Sow of Atholl just to its south, according to the Ordnance Survey.

Thanks for the correction, and to Tony for the information re route availability. I assume that it was route availability that prevented us seeing an A4 over Druimochder and Slocht several years ago, as had been originally planned, so that they now only arrive in Inverness via Aberdeen. I thought that I had not got it quite right.

Lloyd

On 27/12/2022 at 17:18, Mallard60022 said:

Classic. Weathered too ?

I come ready weathered - I have been being weathered for the last seventy odd years!

Lloyd

17 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Interesting comparisons, or, at least, I hope so.

 

Friend, Gilbert Barnatt popped round today.

 

Last week, Timara Easter brought along a Hornby A2/2 to Gilbert which she's repainted/renumbered/renamed/detailed/weathered. Unfortunately, in cleaning the wheels for operation, the nearside coupling rod pinged its pivoting rivet into oblivion. A somewhat frantic phone call to me resulted in my offering to fix it. Which I've done........

 

 

One can just make out the repair, to the right of the eccentric crank - no more than a suitable-sized BA nut and bolt, securely soldered together, but still allowing the rod to pivot. Timara will weather it to match in time. 

 

Gilbert already had a 60506.....

 

 

This one. It has an interesting history. 

 

It was originally scratch-built for me by Mike Edge in 1976. I made a Wills A2 tender for it and painted it. As such it saw service on Fordley Park and Leighford - yeoman service. 

 

Now, and this no criticism of Mike's work at the time, the boiler/cab arrangement was a muddle. The cab was part 'V'-fronted but it had an original boiler. So, after 20 years, I decided to make it more-accurate. I fitted a DJH A1 smokebox/boiler/firebox (retaining Mike's original smokebox door), fitted a DJH A1 cab front and cab roof (scratch-building the rest of the cab) and made a new tender from a South Eastern Finecast A2, filing off all the rivets. I then handed it over to Ian Rathbone to paint. 

 

It saw regular service on Stoke Summit. 

 

Then, along came the DJH kit for the same class; for which I built the prototype, test-built the first two production kits and wrote the instructions. 

 

 

I then built the third in line, which Ian Rathbone painted. 

 

Not needing two 'Wolves of Badenoch', I then sold my original one to Gilbert, and he used it on Peterborough North for many years. With Hornby's A2/2 appearing, he's now had his A2/2 upgraded; as I, by a different path, did with mine.

 

The original WOLF OF BADENOCH still runs well (I've thoroughly checked her today) and I believe Poly Bear wishes to buy it. Brian it's here for you, along with other models you want. 

 

As I say, three interesting locos. 

 

With extra work, the Hornby RTR A2/2 certainly holds its own with the DJH equivalent, but I can't imagine any of the kit-built loco's motion falling apart. 

 

 

Just a thought. Wolf of Badenoch is, if I remember correctly, one of the hills beside Druimochter Pass on the Highland Main line, the other being Boar of Atholl. As this was LMS territory, I wonder of the A2/2 named after it ever passed by it?

Lloyd

On 27/12/2022 at 08:08, St Enodoc said:

In full-size railway engineering it's used to check deviations from the correct radius of a curve, so that it can be adjusted during maintenance. I've used it in the opposite way to help set out curves on models but that's more tricky because there are usually two unknowns - the radius and the versine or offset itself. Trial and error can give a good enough answer in the smaller scales.

 

If you want to know more, try this link:

 

https://pwayblog.com/2016/05/09/the-versine-formulae/

 

or hope that a friendly PWay engineer will drop in here...

 

Versines. That had me trying to remember my highway engineering curves, though it is only a few years since I was teaching it, obviously not very successfully! It brought back memories of the first time I was teaching it, a long time after having used it in practice. Rather than the versine itself, we tended to use the distance from the intersection point (of the two straights at either end of the curve) to the mid-point of the curve. The formula for this used the trig form of a Secant (the reciprocal of a Cosine), which was usually abbreviated to Sec. Having difficulty remembering what a Secant was, I guessed which it was a reciprocal of wrongly getting an obviously wrong answer, and found myself asking the class if anyone had secs on their calculators!

Lloyd

As Christians, we do not celebrate Christmas, so I will wish Tony and all on here Season's Greetings. Thanks for all your contributions on this thread, mostly informative, some whimsical and others plain funny.

Lloyd

As Christians, we do not celebrate Christmas, so I will wish John and all on here Season's Greetings. Thanks for all your contributions on this thread, whether informative, whimsical or plain funny.

Lloyd

6 hours ago, D-A-T said:

Continuing the thread drift I wonder (worry) at children no longer being exposed to Woodwork, Metalwork etc in schools.

 

I did my O level Metalwork in 1981, 1 of only 6 in a big Comprehensive, as most others did the new, trendy CDT. I do wonder if H&S has a lot to do with it? 15 and 16 year olds in a workshop with lathes, milling machines, forge, foundry and brazing hearth. I loved it but I’ve a feeling the risk would be too much today in our litigious society?

The various reasons suggested so far probably all contributed to the reduction in craft skills being taught. I remember when doing my teacher training about 30 years ago now (as a mature student), our lecturer telling us about casting steel mouldings in sand, which used to be taught in Scottish schools. On one occasion he had prepared the mould for the class to watch as he poured the molten steel into it. Unfortunately, there was too much water in the sand, and the molten steel shot back out of the mould, fortunately over the heads of the pupils watching! Imagine the horrors of the H&S folk at that these days, or the parents! Forge work was still taught in secondary schools when I spent my fairly brief spell in teaching, though there were very few problems with it, except in one school in Ayrshire. In six weeks, six pupils managed to burn their hands. I could understand it if their bit of steel was hot but still grey, but when it is cherry red!!!

Lloyd

3 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Bless you Rob and all who cherish the nicer things in life on this live chunk of rural railways. A joyful Christmas to all.Thanks for helping restore me to better health and contentment.I have been one of the more fortunate ones.I’ll keep it that way….fingers crossed for 2023 and onwards to a world inhabited by Manors.

 

 

 

 

After all, Manors maketh man!

Lloyd

13 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

It was Rich,

 

Digging out the pictures of those toys I'm reminded of the (groan-inducing) description of them.......

 

I made a wooden engine, a wooden carriage and a wooden wagon. I put them all together, but they wooden go! 

 

Apologies; I wonder if the moderators will remove this post............ In the interests of good taste. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

It may be groan inducing, but gets my prize (virtual, not real!) for funniest comment on WW this year, despite many other very amusing comments.

Lloyd

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

If there's one thing I miss about my years in teaching (apart from the holidays) is my access to fully-equipped metal and wood workshops. Anyway, I doubt if such facilities exist today in schools.

As a techy teacher (in the Scottish sense, i.e. wood, metal and plastic work, as well as electronics, pneumatics, etc) I fully agree. One school that I was supply teaching in for a while even had a milling machine. My wife's sewing machine had a broken part that was difficult to source, so I managed to make a new one of fairly complicated shape from a block of aluminium, all at no cost to me! That would have been nearly thirty years ago now, and I think it has now lasted longer than the original part!

Lloyd

20 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

Dapol Ducky.

Looks more like a Hall than a Duck to me.

Lloyd

On 16/12/2022 at 11:21, Barry Ten said:

Unfortunately some of the damage that has occurred was done by the courier, who made a real mess of things.

Reminds me of a time that my Father sent me a few books that I had asked to borrow. One was by a fellow called Driver, which arrived on the outside of the parcel. I reported to him that it had arrived in the manner of a stagecoach - with Driver on the outside.

At least the courier delivered it. I once had a package dropped off for me twenty miles away!

Lloyd

19 hours ago, great northern said:

These really are a bit of a nightmare to photoshop, which is why you don't see many of them.

But those that I do see are very nostalgic. Thanks

Lloyd