Tim V

Have a look at http://www.coalcanal.org/

They don't intend reopening it, though anything is possible...

That PW hut is in fact the weigh house!

Yes Andrew I know about your ten shows with your layout, but what about the ones you went to as a punter!

Did I say "decent"!

They weren't bad shows, a lot were quite good but I've decided to get out to see railways and canals, and I've ended up with a list that looks like:

S4N

ExpoEM

Railwells

Scaleforum

Warley

I omitted Railex, as it was very close to ExpoEM, and I haven't included the S4 AGM as I was working there!

Have you seen they are converting the Gloucester - Ledbury line back into a canal!

Yes, decent pictures of the cab on GW engines are like hens teeth. However, the pictures I have seen show standard GW fittings for the firebox door, regulator, lubricator and steam head. So on mine I have put those.

Hi Tim

 

Cheddar is really starting to appeal. Pity the NRM don't have any of the station buildings in their archive. Neither can I find anything on the A2A database. Funny 'cos my first thoughts a roundy roundy with a bit of scenery in the middle. Sound familiar?

But most of the main building still exists.......

Bit of a browser problem today!

Interesting that you raise this point, Tim, though I suspect it might have got more response in a conventional forum thread than as a blog entry.

 

It's an issue that has been well known to those with a professional interest in archiving computer-based information for many years, but is sadly neglected by almost everyone else.

 

Although relevant, the main issues are not so much with hardware or software availability at some future date, instead they revolve around the longevity of the various storage media. I'm sure many of us have old floppy discs lying around somewhere (I still have a few boxes of eight inch floppies somewhere, not to mention various types of 5.25"), but not everyone realises that magnetic media don't retain data for ever. So although there are people and organisations who conserve old devices that might read them, it may well be too late to recover an error-free version of some data when you realise you need to.

 

There's a similar problem with optical media such as CD, DVD, etc., especially the writable forms. Again these are likely to deteriorate over time with data loss. Eventually these losses can be so bad that not only will they not read in a normal reader, but even those specialists in data recovery that can do amazing things with failed media will not be able to get anything meaningful off them.

 

In both these cases, the key to successful archiving is to regularly copy old files to fresh modern media and to ensure that multiple copies are available, preferable stored at different physical locations.

 

As to the software side, there are potential issues with proprietary file formats for which no available documentation survives the company that created them. However, most of the image formats (e.g. JPEG, GIF, PNG and most forms of raw camera output) are sufficiently well documented that it would be a relatively simple task for a future programmer to code something that would extract the image form a surviving file. Of course, this pre-supposes that the documentation survives, and that may itself be stored on computer media... However in the modern era where most such information is replicated many times across the Internet, and with search engines copying and replicating web pages, we can be fairly confident that most will survive most limited-scale disasters through regular backup, distribution, etc.

 

<quote>Anyone remember drive B?

Anyone using Windows 3.1?</quote>

 

Not me, but I do know a number of people who could if they really needed to

 

Nick

Thanks Nick

Yes I agree that it might have been better posted in an open discussion, however, the picture is just a 60 year old snapshot of my parents. It is a fascinating picture as it's a colour print taken in 1950 at a time when rationing was going on in Britain. My parents were abroad then. It is regrettable that I couldn't post it on the forum, but there is no railway content.

As for longevity, I've seen Victorian prints that were as clear as originally printed. Probably more luck than anything.

Cheddar valley model Andy, now there's an idea!

Sandford and Banwell was done some years ago in P4, but there's plenty of opportunity down that line. I have the coach workings for 1952 in case you're interested........

1 Have you measured the axles, you're only assuming they're 3mm.

2 I haven't seen it in its current condition, but I would assume that the water scoop would not be fitted.

What's the source of the gauge Robin?

Very neat work Andrew.

I'm not surprised, the OS only did sporadic revisions in that period and only if there were major changes. Remember that OS maps were for rating purposes, not for railway surveys.

Have you looked at the RAF vertical aerial photos at English Heritage?