Tankerman

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Having lived in the UK (off and on) for over 20 years and now living in Switzerland, one thing I have noticed is the different way in which (many sections of) the UK views skilled trades when compared to the DACH countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). In the DACH countries an electrician or plumber is viewed as every bit the skilled professional as a lawyer or doctor.

 

Furthermore, rarely have we (Mrs iD and I) had major work done on the house (plumbing, electrics etc.) without the plumber or electrician having an apprentice in tow.

 

If the UK wants to address this lack of skills, one of the first steps would be to educate parents that becoming an electrician or an engineer is a perfectly acceptable and fulfilling career choice for little Tarquin or Cressida..

 

Good luck on that….

A perfect example of the above comment. I, with my family, stayed with an Italian family for two weeks in the early 1980's as a thank you for looking after their son so well when he boarded with us on an exchange visit.

We were talking to them about their other sons and they very proudly mentioned that one of them was an electrical engineer, on asking what the other son did we were told, in a somewhat offhand manner, oh he's a doctor.

Regarding the lack of training/trained engineers/electricians etc., this stems from the 1970's, when the big unions told the Labour government to introduce a law requiring all apprentices/trainees to be paid a minimum of 50% of the tradesman's wage. This was totally uneconomic and the old apprenticeship training system disappeared within a few years.

I served a full five year apprenticeship under the old system and, allowing for the time it took for me to gain a through knowledge of the work and the cost of my classroom training, it was at least part way into the fourth year before the company saw any return on their investment in training me.

1 hour ago, robert17649 said:

worth comparing the guns with those at the IWM in London one of which is I believe which are from a monitor  and is 15inch.

 

These look much the same probably for the Queen Elizabeth class super dreadnoughts or the Royal Sovereign class. This would tie in with 1915 as up until these two classes the biggest British gun was13.5inch.

They are both 15 inch guns, one was first mounted on HMS Resolution and then on HMS Roberts, which was as you say a monitor. The other was mounted on HMS Ramillies.

The service life of a 15 inch gun was about 335 full charges, a full charge being four bags of cordite weighing about one cwt. each. The barrels were lined with flat copper wire and the rifling groves were cut into that.

There is a fascinating video, computer generated, available on you tube showing the sequence of loading and the firing of a twin 15 inch gun turret. 

When I was serving my apprenticeship at Falmouth docks in the 1960's quite a number of the tradesmen and helpers were ex RN who served through WWII. Being very interested in the 20th century history of the RN I learnt a lot from them. I also learnt a lot from a great uncle, by marriage, who joined the RN as a boy entrant of 14 in 1896 and retired after 22 years service in 1922.

4 hours ago, burgundy said:

Is this Vickers at Newcastle or Barrow?

Best wishes 

Eric  

I'm almost certain that it is Newcastle as I seem to remember reading, a long time ago now, that Vickers at Newcastle were the main large calibre gun manufacturers.

Just now, Andy Kirkham said:

An archive film recently posted. What initially cuaght my eye was the narow gauge loco at the start (Hudswell Clarke?) but the whole thing is a fascinating insight into the heavy engineering practices of the past.

 

 

I too found this on You Tube. The guns appear to be battleship guns of either 12", 13.5" or 15" calibre (bore diameter).

It's not widely known that gun barrels for the RN dreadnought battleship building programme actually took longer to produce than the time it took to build the ship. Spare barrels were produced and stored to reduce the time taken when a ship was refitted.

Another little known fact is that the turrets and 15" guns and fitted to HMS Vanguard, laid down in 1940, but not completed until 1946, were built for the Courageous and Glorious during WWI. They were removed and stored when they were converted to aircraft carriers in the 1920's.

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

I assume you have seen the page Miss Prism pointed at:  http://www.gwr.org.uk/nobrakes.html

I did have a quick look at it and thought that it was just the one photo of a brake van. 

1 hour ago, MJI said:

Note both parents are Cornish, one from near Falmouth the other Lizard.

 

I can just remember eary DMUs on the Falmouth branch (I remember a 3 car and a single car), an Uncle (now dead) remembers steam, my dad (from Lizard) also remembers the Helston branch and the work put into closing it, just after it was used to bring in tons of materials for Culdrose.

 

I did consider Perranwell, but Nancegollan goods yard won me over.

 

This is a fun read and a piccie of a set I modelled in plain blue as B465

 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/falmouth-branch.html

So were mine. father from Falmouth, mother from Penryn which is also where I was born and one of my uncles lived at Perranwell.

IIRC Nancegollen was enlarged before WWII and extended during it. Are you modelling after it was altered?

On 07/01/2022 at 00:08, The Stationmaster said:

There definitely were branchline allocated vans in GWR days - Bridport had one (a six wheeler by some quirk of fate but in late GWR times).  But several things to note -

1. We don't know which particular versions of freight brakevans, if any, were allocated to the Helston branch (but equally does anybody else know?).

2. The RU branding was not introduced until some time in WWII - the publication date of the relevant Instruction was September 1943 but the branding might well have appeared earlier - maybe even in 1942 as wartime operating conditions forced changes to the way freight brakevans worked? 

3. The 'Not In Common Use' branding appears to have been a BR introduction but I'm unable to date it - the earliest reference I can find is dated 1960 but it almost certainly appeared before then, probably very early 1950s.

4.  Prior to the wartime change and the adoption of RU freight brakevans were allocated to individual Goods Guards so in effect they were not directly allocated to locations although each Guard was obviously based at a location,  So it is not entirely clear if depot names were carried on the vans and photographic evidence would be the only guide in that respect (something I haven't yet had time to delve into in old photos).

Re item 3. My memory for things seen is not too bad for many years ago, but don't ask me what happened yesterday.

I am pretty certain that the Toad brake vans on the Falmouth branch were lettered Truro with R U underneath and Not In Common Use below that by 1956. I was 10 and regularly visited Penryn station on a Saturday to watch the local goods being shunted from when I was 8 years old. The reason being that I asked one of the station staff the meaning of R U between those ages.

I've said vans because, although I was unaware of it at the time, in addition to the Falmouth branch, both the Newham (Truro goods) and Newquay (via Chacewater) local goods trains were also worked from Truro. If anyone either knows, or can suggest a site that I can visit to find out the running numbers of the Truro based brake vans, I would be grateful.

Incidentally I can also remember BR standard, ex LMS vans and ex SR vans appearing in the Saturday empty goods working returning to Truro from Falmouth at Penryn. 

On 02/12/2021 at 02:04, Ribird said:

Hello all,

 

I just recently purchased and received my Dapol OO Western King from Cheltenham Models for a really good price. One thing I did not know, that has now screwed me, is that two of the three exclusive BR maroon 52's have the experimental wipers, which one of them is Western King, the one I bought. (EDIT: I’ve read that the third exclusive for Cheltenham has additional vents and extra etched BR plate). Not saying the model is wrong, just my mistake. It is a beautiful model and having all those small parts on top fitted already is a godsend. The plan was for this model, was to rename into Western Champion in its preservation form (I know she is currently in Chromatic Blue as of 2021)

 

The front glazing seems to be one piece that can be pushed inwards to pop out. Wipers are separately fitted. 

 

I am wondering if the cab glazing is (or was) available to purchase? I know I can find the wipers on DCC Supplies. (I've tried searching the topic, but all I get is the headcode glazing issues)

I have not emailed them about said glazing, yet, as I wanted everyone's expertise first.

 

Thank you! 

 

Sometimes the Angels look down upon us. Western King was the first Western I ever saw and as a bonus I was hauled to Paddington by it that night. I bought a SYP maroon Western from Kernow Models last year with the intention of fitting Western King nameplates to it; not knowing about the experimental rotary wiper. The very recent update to this thread alerted me to this and I have just ordered one from Cheltenham Models 

On 10/01/2022 at 14:14, luckymucklebackit said:

Apparently this one has been making the news in Liverpool, something to do with a local saying.....

 

 

At one time a bigger Climax was available at Carn Brea near Redruth, with the added bonus that after 1945 it was also possible to obtain a Climax fettling grip there as well.

On 22/12/2021 at 17:00, AY Mod said:

 

Clockwork, System 6, magnadhesion, synchrosmoke and chuffing sandpaper; set the DeLorean for 1972.

Bit different for me, sailing around the Caribbean and the east coasts of North and South America while been paid for doing it.

3 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

I didn’t know that.  What an erudite place RMWeb is.

Or maybe it’s just the people that hang out here are as pedantic as I am!

Paul.

Not pedantic, just a life long need to know the answer to trivial questions.

14 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Yes, the first weekend of the month. The carnage on the roads was awful, so it was deferred to the end of the month instead. 

I had completely forgotten that.  I've looked it up and it was changed in 1965.

2 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

 

Could well have been early August. We always went on the first two weeks of the school summer holidays. Dad was a carpet weaver on a 12' broadloom for Axminster and Wilton in Southampton and this is when the factory shut down.

It that case it was almost certainly a special visit as, IIRC, our exhibition was always held over the August Bank Holiday weekend to ensure we had enough people to run it and get the highest number of visitors.

On 01/01/2022 at 18:52, TrevorP1 said:

 

Thank you John. Back home now and I've had a look at those links. I definitely remember the railway - the pictures proved I was 'remembering the right thing' -  but I've no recollection of riding on it. Perhaps by the time it got going I was too old...

 

It's interesting the things I do remember though. We stayed in Falmouth in 1961/2/3 & 4 at 2 Melville Road in a B&B run by Jack Powdrill and his wife. I turned 10 on our 1964 holiday.  Jack was a local councillor I think. Our room overlooked the railway, so you can guess what interested me! In 1961 the branch goods was still steam worked - I copped 6854 and 6870 on that! I believe the branch passenger went to DMU for the summer season so I missed that. We visited Falmouth Model Railway Club, although whether that was a public event or something arranged by Jack Powdrill I don't know. He and Dad got on well so that may be...

 

Here I am recalling events from 1961 when I was 6 or 7 but ask me about something from last week....

 

The house in Melville Road is still there, empty and in a mess but up for sale. A couple of years ago we pulled up outside for this silly old fool to indulge his memories. There was the iron front gate, rusty but still proudly carrying the name 'Chesterton'. It's a mighty good job we were in a car and not something bigger or I might have saved it from being turned into baked bean tins!

Your mentioning visiting FMC brought back a lot of happy memories. I was a member of FMC between 1960 and 1968, after which I visited when on leave from the Merchant Navy until I moved away in 1968. If your visits were in the August of those years, then your visit was almost certainly when the annual exhibition was being held.

We were lucky because at that time we had the use of a large shed accessed by a door from Arwenack Avenue in which there was a permanent oval layout. The main station was laid out like Totnes with the platform lines on loops from the main lines and a branch line coming off one of the loops to a branch terminus over the hidden sidings on the other side. I always volunteered to work the branch terminus as I enjoyed shunting the goods trains and chatting to the visitors.

15 minutes ago, TrevorP1 said:

Dad didn’t have a car so we were usually based around Falmouth. So, Glylly and Maenporth beaches, hours and hours at Pendennis Castle. Lots of boat trips to St Mawes and the Helford River - often landing at Helford for a cream tea. 

Did you ever do the trip from Prince of Wales pier up the Fal to Smugglers Cottage or Malpas? The destination varied with the state of the tide.

Not a booked service, but sometimes seen at Truro in the late 1950's and early 1960's, were a pair of Class 22's hauling a failed/dead Class 41/42/43 westbound. I never saw this formation heading east, presumably because the booked Warship hadn't had time to fail.

Double headed Class 22's, presumably replacing a Warship, in both directions, were not uncommon.

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

They could be Jewish, if so it is a factual notice.

On 11/12/2021 at 19:37, Coombe Vale said:

Nothing. It's just that we grew up before computers were omnipresent.

On 02/11/2021 at 12:26, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Perfect riveting must come from within.

 

It is said that Grand Masters of the Elucidated Brethren of the Counted Rivet can see That Which Is Hidden. They are able to make darkness visible and count rivets that are not visible to the uninitiated.

 

It is also said that Grand Masters never die, they just fade to a Pantone-standard grey colour that perfectly blends in with the background, as they ascend to the immortal realms of The Great Modeller Of The Universal Railway.

It has been said that old riveters never die, but you have to join to find out why.

15 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I wonder whether the boxes are green all the way through, or if they were carefully arranged to put the odd colours inside? 

 

Someone who is in a position to know has told me that the Evergreen boxes are indeed arranged so that other companies boxes are hidden, but this is only done for the maiden voyage.

12 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

No wonder Betjeman didn't like the place.....

I used to visit it quite a few years ago and, just as with some other places which have dropped part of their full name, I became convinced that the full name of the place was Slough of Despond.

11 hours ago, Tim Dubya said:

I don't know if it's album cover or his first name that's the joke, as in the days of my youth Quim was a slang term for a part of the female anatomy.

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

At the end of my Lower 6th year at skool in Surrey, 1965, the French teacher emigrated - to Tasmania. Yes, he was Cornish. Learning to pronounce French from a Cornishman was not the best start....

Growing up on a farm near Stithians, pronounced Stidians, in the 1950's I developed quite a strong Cornish accent, which is still obvious but not as pronounced. In my first year at the grammar school in Falmouth I was told by the French teacher that I would have difficulty in speaking French for just that reason.

34 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

As were the pub and village in Tassie.

If there was any hard rock mining in that area then the connection would be obvious. A lot of Cornish miners left Cornwall for foreign parts in the 1880/90's when the Cornish mines closed. There was saying in Cornwall that if you went down a deep hole in the ground anywhere in the world you would find a Cornishman at the bottom.

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

The third one had crossed my mind!

The possible problem with Trerise is that, in west Cornwall at least, it would be pronounced Trerice not Tre-rise.