New Ankh Station Planning Exercise

[webbcompound]

31 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Would love to, but how to operate?!?

 

 

I'm slowly working my way towards a working wagon (or in your case, coach) turntable. I think the answer is to restrict it to a "live" route and a "dummy" route, with the turntable only turning backwards and forwards through 90 degrees. Since your turntables would be next to platforms you could rig a poking device to propel the coach forwards once turned. If you have arrival and departure roads you could have a slight slope from the arrival road to the departure road so once "poked" the coach would roll onto the other line's turntable

[Hroth]

I've just been thinking....

 

By the 1850s on Roundworld, locos had become heavier and coaches longer (to improve riding at "speed"), so the turntables at terminii, designed for smaller, lighter engines and coaches would not be able to cope with the weight or length of the 1850 vehicles.  They might be left in situ, but chocked up to prevent movement and coaches shunted into central sidings or to the departure side by superannuated locos acting as station pilots.

 

Thinking on, given that they're "generic", the Hattons 4 and 6 wheel coaches would be ideal for the Ankh-Morpork & Sto Plains Hygienic Railway, the 4 wheelers for the Sto Plains "locals" and the 6 wheelers for the Quirm and Bonk expresses.  Choose the most gaudy livery and you're away!

 

 

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

I've just been thinking....

 

By the 1850s on Roundworld, locos had become heavier and coaches longer (to improve riding at "speed"), so the turntables at terminii, designed for smaller, lighter engines and coaches would not be able to cope with the weight or length of the 1850 vehicles.  They might be left in situ, but chocked up to prevent movement and coaches shunted into central sidings or to the departure side by superannuated locos acting as station pilots.

 

Thinking on, given that they're "generic", the Hattons 4 and 6 wheel coaches would be ideal for the Ankh-Morpork & Sto Plains Hygienic Railway, the 4 wheelers for the Sto Plains "locals" and the 6 wheelers for the Quirm and Bonk expresses.  Choose the most gaudy livery and you're away!

 

 

 

Yes. 

 

I think wagon TTs to goods shed are likely,  I think carriage TTs are not necessarily required.  

 

Let me explain the thinking on this. 

 

One thing about the Disc World railway is that it develops rather faster than on the Roundworld, indeed, in the space of a single novel, so I don't think Puffing Billy types would really look the part. I also have cognisance of the fact that the Disc tends towards archetypes; a railway has to have a typical railway appearance.  

 

Though not bound by any of the various illustrations, generally speaking Ankh has settled into a sort of Victorian look.  For something that can lend itself to the quirky and outlandish, isn't too modern, fits with the other Victorian aspects of Dickensian Ankh, but is still recongisable as a steam railway, I think the Roundworld's 1850s gives the best 'look'.  

 

The implication is that the Disc might have skipped to a large extent the equivalent of our 1830s-1840s development, and realised its first public railway in essentially an 1850s form.

 

I might be running 20'-25' coaches as representative if Roundworld equivalents.

 

Now I will differ over the Hattons coaches.  They have a panel style that is late Nineteenth Century.  When Stroudley adopted it in the early '70s, it was very modern.  Most contemporary coaches still had raised waist beading, for instance,  Other railway companies did not conform to this style until the '80s or '90s.  As a generic coach I, and I think Compound, entertain some doubts as to whether oil-lit versions are really that appropriate. 

 

I would not want to run 6-wheelers, particularly, as they don't really fit with the aesthetic, but, actually, a longer 6-wheel coach in a more 1850s style, is, actually, the sort of non-Roundworld Disc extrapolation that could work.

 

For a stretched 1850s-style coach, see the film The First Great Train Robbery (a splendid period romp in which the railway equipment makes no sense for the SER of the mid-'50s):

 

 

Conversely, I would run some bogie coaches of the early US/Pullman type.  This may seem to do violence to the 1850s look, although, of course, such coaches were found in the US ante bellum, but, would be typically Disc.  For a Pullman-type service, or, as I see it, long-distance coaches of the Compagneee Quirmian des wagon-lits, the archetypal appearance would be a bogie coach with end verandah vestibules and a clerestory.  I'll just make them very short, as caricature is fine. 

 

 

So, lets look at some pictures, simply those easiest to find, showing some of the styles found in the '50s:

 

 

 

LNWR Composite:

 

 

LNWR Third:

 

 

LB&SC First:

 

 

LB&SC Second:

 

 

LB&SC Third:

 

 

ECR First:

 

 

NSW First:

 

 

NSW Second:

 

 

NSW Third:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Edwardian

[Hroth]

Its quite clear that when the Low King is being taken to Uberwald, the AM&SPHR is using corridor coaches, so we must be in the territory of bogie coaches.  I've a feeling that Simnels development trajectory was being influenced by Roundworld ideas getting into the Discworld from the Wizards little toy. That would "explain" the developmental skip.

 

There is also the complicating factor of the "Glass Clock Affair", enabling the co-existence of the Dysk Theatre and the Opera House.  It may well be that the 1830s-1840s development phase was snipped out to fill in somewhere else...

[Edwardian]

28 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Its quite clear that when the Low King is being taken to Uberwald, the AM&SPHR is using corridor coaches, so we must be in the territory of bogie coaches.  I've a feeling that Simnels development trajectory was being influenced by Roundworld ideas getting into the Discworld from the Wizards little toy. That would "explain" the developmental skip.

 

There is also the complicating factor of the "Glass Clock Affair", enabling the co-existence of the Dysk Theatre and the Opera House.  It may well be that the 1830s-1840s development phase was snipped out to fill in somewhere else...

 

Yes, I see the bogie coaches on the long-haul route.  You simply cannot realise the dramatic possibilities of rail travel fully without corridor coaches, which is why film-makers use them anachronistically all the time. 

 

What I wanted to do was to restrict them to long-distance expresses.  Most traffic will be shorter distance and I wanted to restrict that to non-corridor 4-wheelers.  US coach building tradition is at least a precedent for bogie coaches in the 1850s and the Disc would happily mix US and UK outline to suit, after all, somewhere between 'London' (Ankh) and 'France' (Quirm) is the ante bellum US, with the Netherglades and Shankydoodle.

 

Perhaps I can evolve a mix of corridor-compartment and open vestibule-saloon stock and, as Mr Slightly Damp anticipates from the outset, sleeping coaches, but keep something of an 1850s aesthetic?

 

Perhaps, also, I should re-read both Raising Steam and Mrs Bradshaw. rather than rely upon memory and impression.  There are relatively few specifics, leaving me wide latitude, but what there is I should attempt to abide by and anchor the project in. 

 

BTW, Modelu's Ragged Victorians are begging, possibly literally, to become Ankh-Morporkians. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Edwardian

[webbcompound]

About your bogie/verandah coaches I was thinking what a pity it was that all those nice variously short Athearn and Roundhouse made Overton clerestory bogies are in HO scale. Then I did some measuring. I have no Overton's but I do have a car produced by Riv arossi to an early design (with enclosed vestibules). A Hornby GWR clerestory coach has sides 25mm high, and is 32mm wide. The Rivarossi car has sides 27mm high (this includes a 2mm sill which is usually plated/boarded over as part of the side in US vehicles, and 35mm wide. So it looks likely that the Overton stuff is likely to be quite useable.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by webbcompound

[runs as required]

As for the actual terminus might Harwich Town be a captivating precedent ? 

Here it is pre Parkeston Quay at 25 inch scale in NLoS

I’ve always loved it, with the old Great Eastern Hotel - and there used to be the bustling Naval launch across to Shotley coming and going.

I always wanted to model it with the Town station much nearer the Hotel (The ideal is of course the Zetland Hotel but at sea level adjacent to the steam packets.) - and the later train ferry berth.

[DCB]

A lot of this sounds more like 1880s than 1850s.    I thought the first bogie coaches in the UK were 1873 on the Ffestiniog railway and the Midland started operating Pullmans in 1874 followed by Pullman themselves introducing their own stock from 1882.

Looks like the most suitable RTR OO stock is Annie and Clarabel of Thomas fame and I never in a million years thought I would be saying that.  Shorten the wheelbase take the brakes off!   Long bodies on short wheelbase chassis were commonplace as the carriage and wagon turntables restricted wheelbases.  I guess much muscle power was exerted shunting carriages as the shunting engine again seems to be an 1880s phenomenon.    Two platforms, Arrival and departure, plus a lot of carriage sidings between often under an overall roof to keep the 3rd class seats dry seemed the usual formula. Add time interval working with lots of shouting and no signals,  too much traffic etc and 1850s sounds good.   A lot was swept away in the 1860s though, as longer turnouts appeared to suit longer engines and 6 and 8 wheeled carriages.   Suburbia was again a 1880s on thing as was the corridor train of the 1890s and fast freight of the early 1900s.  I must have a look at Terry Pratchett's work sometime.

[webbcompound]

3 hours ago, DavidCBroad said:

A lot of this sounds more like 1880s than 1850s.    I thought the first bogie coaches in the UK were 1873 on the Ffestiniog railway and the Midland started operating Pullmans in 1874 followed by Pullman themselves introducing their own stock from 1882.

 

But Ankh-Morpork isn't in the UK is it. Things "bleed" over thaumaturgically from all sorts of places, including the US, where bogie coaches are almost as old as railways themselves

[Edwardian]

On 04/06/2020 at 15:42, DavidCBroad said:

A lot of this sounds more like 1880s than 1850s.    I thought the first bogie coaches in the UK were 1873 on the Ffestiniog railway and the Midland started operating Pullmans in 1874 followed by Pullman themselves introducing their own stock from 1882.

Looks like the most suitable RTR OO stock is Annie and Clarabel of Thomas fame and I never in a million years thought I would be saying that.  Shorten the wheelbase take the brakes off!   Long bodies on short wheelbase chassis were commonplace as the carriage and wagon turntables restricted wheelbases.  I guess much muscle power was exerted shunting carriages as the shunting engine again seems to be an 1880s phenomenon.    Two platforms, Arrival and departure, plus a lot of carriage sidings between often under an overall roof to keep the 3rd class seats dry seemed the usual formula. Add time interval working with lots of shouting and no signals,  too much traffic etc and 1850s sounds good.   A lot was swept away in the 1860s though, as longer turnouts appeared to suit longer engines and 6 and 8 wheeled carriages.   Suburbia was again a 1880s on thing as was the corridor train of the 1890s and fast freight of the early 1900s.  I must have a look at Terry Pratchett's work sometime.

 

On 04/06/2020 at 19:22, webbcompound said:

But Ankh-Morpork isn't in the UK is it. Things "bleed" over thaumaturgically from all sorts of places, including the US, where bogie coaches are almost as old as railways themselves

 

I think these two posts encapsulate the challenge.

 

Some points for those unfamiliar with Pratchett, because we are in unfamiliar territory compared with the Round World. The originality of the Disc World is that things work/happen fundamentally differently there, and the trick is to gauge how these factors might influence the design and appearance of a Disc World railway.

 

If you have never read the Disc World novels

 

A few basic considerations might be:

 

- Magic is a thing on the Disc. As Webb Compound says, ideas bleed thaumaturgically from all over the multiverse, arriving in the brains of Disc Worlders as flashes of inspiration.

 

- Belief works interestingly, because it can cause things to exist.  If Disc Worlders believe in a thing, it comes into existence.  If they stop believing in a thing, it ceases to exist. There are numerous examples, perhaps the clearest is the ossification of belief in the Great God Om into empty ritual, cynically observed by the church hierarchy.  It causes the God to be reduced to an impotent small tortoise.  It takes the simple faith of an ingénue novice to restore belief and, thence, the power of the God.  We see the same phenomenon in relation to the Tooth Fairy and the Hogfather (the Disc's  equivalent of Father Christmas).  Where belief is deliberately undermined in the Hogfather, belief does not cease to exist, but is re-directed, hence the creation, by spare belief, of a sock monster; you know how it goes, in the real world we lose socks and joke that they must be being consumed by a sock monster (in armoured regiments there are many things lost to the 'turret monster'}.  On the Disc, spare belief causes a physical creature to come into existence that literally eats socks.   

 

- Narrative determinism is a thing. In a magical world, the natural shape of an archetypal story often shapes events, and there is often something karmic about the fate of characters. Perhaps this is why characters' appearance, as previously mentioned, tends to the archetypal. You associate pointy hats with wizards, so they have to have them. Real, or Round, World tropes will always manifest on the Disc, but given a Disc World twist, to reflect the magical conditions that obtain. This will give us archetypal railway features, but not necessarily ones consistent with one another or with their Round World equivalent at any given historical point.

 

Taking these three ideas together, in Raising Steam, Pratchett gives full play to the idea that, in the real world, the steam railway, almost uniquely for something mechanical, has a romance, a fascination and that engines display the characteristics of a living thing. 

 

On the Disc, Pratchett reflects the magical way in which the railway entrances people; an example of which is that the trainspotter comes into existence at the same moment as the train; there is only one locomotive, No.1, nevertheless, a spotter is seen noting down 'No.1' in a notebook.  One scene key to an understanding of what is happening is that in which the prototype locomotive (No.1, Iron Girder) kills a saboteur.   The locomotive is shown to be sentient, and capable of producing a jet of hot steam long after her fire was dropped at the end of the day.

 

This might seem silly, but it is logical for the Disc. It works by way of personification and belief.  The way we react to a steam locomotive in the real world - we call it a 'she', we coax it, talk to it, encourage it or curse it, and, when we build it, a lot of us goes into it, including both emotional and physical elements (blood, sweat and tears).  In other words, we often treat it as if it was alive and sentient.  We do that with a lot of inanimate objects, but, uniquely, steam engines have the simulacrum of life.  People's fascination with steam and conviction that it is a living, breathing thing, make it so. In short, the implications of how we react to steam engines in the real world become literally true on the Disc.

 

So, you have to accept that, via the magic inherent on the Disc, an archetypal pastiche of a real world railway springs forth, more or less fully formed. It is the essence of a Victorian steam railway, but one with little respect for the rate and course of development of early railways in any particular place on the Round World. A characteristic feature of an archetypal railway, particularly one required by the narrative, will exist on the Disc, however inconvenient that might be from the point of view of someone trying to conceive a coherent model of a railway in a sort of fantasy version of Dickensian London. 

 

 Thus, we have to deal with the following factors:

 

The period look?

 

Many of what, on the Round World, are different historical and a-historical periods exist simultaneously on the Disc.  The rule of archetypes will see sword waving barbarian heroes very much of the Conan stamp and appearance exist side by side with vampires conforming to the classic Bela Lugosi look, in full late Victorian evening dress. The Disc's most famous lover, the dwarf Casanunder, naturally has an Eighteenth Century look. 

 

This brings us to another issue, blending different species. and their culturally appropriate appearance (Dwarfs tend to that Norse-Tolkien look). Trying to find a consistent look and sense of period is, thus, a doomed nightmare, but as I said in an earlier post, the Ankh-Morpork that develops through the books takes on an increasingly Dickensian feel and most filmmakers tend to use the first half of the Round World Nineteenth Century as a good starting point for visualising the city and its denizens.

 

Technology

 

Well, of course, this is complicated by the fact that we have both magic and technology. The latter is relatively new and can, as we've seen, become imbued with magic;.  We've seen this with Iron Girder, but it was also true of the Disc's one and only fire arm.  

 

We have some technological advantages.  Most notable and revolutionary are the clacks; a complex and sophisticated semaphore network, rather than the Round World telegraph, allowing rapid communication of news and ideas. We have a printed press and newspapers. What we lack, until the railway, is a means of rapid transit for people and goods.  On the Disc, however, we essentially skip the turnpike and canal ages, going straight into railways, but telescoping the development; starting with the first public railway and immediately setting out to build a continental network.

 

We also lack other technologies already established in the Round World by its Nineteenth Century.  Most obviously, we lack black-powder firearms technology. We also have things that the Round World does not, such as clay golems; tireless workers in magically animated clay.

 

Although it is said that it is not yet the time for railways, the conditions for them to some extent exist. In Ankh-Morpork, the Disc super-city city-state, we have the idea of a huge London sucking up the rural population / New York sucking up immigrants. On the Round World 1800-1850 saw a fantastic increase in the urban population of Britain until 50% of the population was urban.  That, as much as anything else, for me informs the Early Victorian-Dickensian character of Ankh-Morpork. 

 

The ingredients of the railway

 

As I say,  a characteristic feature of an archetypal railway, particularly one required by the narrative, will exist on the Disc, however inconvenient that might be from the point of view of someone trying to conceive a coherent model of a railway in a sort of fantasy version of Dickensian London. 

 

Thus, we start with the first practicable steam locomotive.  Take your pick, but it could look like a Locomotion or a Rocket, but is progressively rebuilt, enlarged and improved during the course of the novel to something sleek, probably approaching the Stirling Single of the 1870s. As I say, development is telescoped!

 

We certainly have corridors and gangway connections, implied in Raising Steam; one illustration in Mrs Bradshaw shows gangway connections on a train of 4-wheelers! Incidentally, I view the various illustrations in terms of guidelines, not to be literally or prescriptively followed; the text is the inspiration and I am free to visualise as appropriate.  We probably have to have some bogie coaches; again there are North American precedents.

 

Signalling, inspired by the clacks system, is contemplated from an early stage. 'Flyers' are immediately built for the initial line to Sto Lat. As this is fast running on the level across the Sto Lat Plains, I see these firmly as high-stepping Singles. 

 

Taking all this together - the overall character and state of development of Ankh-Morpork together with the varied railway ingredients, I see the aesthetic of the Round World British-outline railways of the 1850s as the best overall starting point.

 

But, the key words here are aesthetic and best starting-point. This is not a literal rendering of a Real World 1850s railway, and the realisation requires more than a freelance 1850s line with a scattering of trolls and dwarfs. 

 

That does make the planning exercise a bit tricky, but also fun!

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Edwardian
spelling and grammar

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Thus, we start with the first practicable steam locomotive.  Take your pick, but it could look like a Locomotion or a Rocket, but is progressively rebuilt, enlarged and improved during the course of the novel to something sleek, probably approaching the Stirling Single of the 1870s. As I say, development is telescoped!

 

Some additional points.

 

Looking at the frontispiece map of the AM&SPHR system in the hardback "Raising Steam", we see a corner illustration of a 4-4-0 tender loco pulling bogie coaches.  The endpapers are, of course the flangeless centre wheels of a 9F.....

 

Some of the details are a bit odd, but there you go.  The very first prototype of Iron Girder, as revealed by Dick to his mum is a thing of whirling gears and thrashing arms (books downstairs and I'm upstairs so I can't quote exactly) so I see that as a Trevithick style locomotive, the iteration that he takes to Ankh-Morpork is more of a Locomotion style device and things proceed from there.  However, Iron Girder is always the prototype so will be in advance of the rest of the locomotives on the system, so while the Flyers may be something like a Stirling Single, Iron Girder may well have leapfrogged to a big-wheeled 4-4-0 by time of the events on the Journey to Bonk.

 

The toilets on the inaugural service to Swinetown discharged into holding tanks, due to the insistence of Harry King in not wasting a valuable commodity.  Its not that long since railways in the UK stopped the practice of discharging waste onto the tracks.

 

Another oddity is the invention of the Turning Table for locomotives.  Moist asks Dick what it's used for and has it explained to him.  However, in Going Postal it is mentioned that there are turntables in the Post Office coachyard for turning the mail coaches so they are ready to go out again. Moist saw them in use at that time.

 

Blackpowder, another Discworld oddity.  While its use in physical weaponry is confined to one noted example, it was always the province of Wizards who were tasked with providing firework displays for momentous occasions (eg in Mort) and, by Jingo, Leonardo da Quirm threatened Nobby and Colon with a poorly designed RPG...  By The Fifth Elephant, Badger and Normal* were producing heavy duty flare rockets for the Clacks industry, one of which Vimes used to take down a rogue Werewolf.  Of course, Commander Vimes was familiar with the Gonne.

 

 

Thaumatic transfer and the Glass Clock have a lot to answer for!

 

 

* Anyone remember the Brock and Standard fireworks companies?

 

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Hroth
You think you've caught all the spelin mistakes, and yet...

[Edwardian]

So, yes, a delightful minefield of inconsistencies!

 

I think that, so long as my bogie coaches have a c.1850s look, that's fine. I will extrapolate.

 

Hence, I think the HO Overton coaches will be perfect for my luxury Pushman Coaches.

 

These coaches, in their famous umber and cream livery were the apogee of luxury (the Duchess approved). Devised, promoted and hired out by Joe Pushman, an entrepreneur from Shankydoodle who saw that the future of comfortable long-distance travel lay not with gangwayed, bumpy, 4-wheelers, but with long coaches mounted on two swivelling 4-wheel 'trucks'., The coaches were named for famous ladies on the Disc*. 

 

* Upon hearing the proposal to name a coach Lady Margolotta, the ruler of Uberwald, appreciating the importance of diplomatic and public relations, let it be known that, while she could not possibly approve of having a railway carriage bearing her name, no one would actually die horribly if that happened.  Probably. Upon hearing of the proposal to name another coach Adora Belle, Ms Dearheart made it very clear that, if that were to happen, someone very definitely would die horribly.   

[Hroth]

We're getting very Pratchettian with the encroachment of footnotes....

 

I've far too many Hornby Railroad Pullman coaches - a "Lady Margoletta" and an "Adora Belle" sound most attractive.  Perhaps Adora Bell might be slightly placated by being told that only the 1st Class coaches get names?

 

You could also be have a "Low Queen" coach too.  By Appointment???

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Hroth
be? BE??? Where the 'ell did that come from?

[nick_bastable]

Always thought the Sky productions caught the visuals of Ankh-Morpork about right  just a shame that they were spoilt by the casting of David Jason making Going Postal the stand out adaptation 

 

Nick B

Edited June 6, 2020 by nick_bastable

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, nick_bastable said:

Always thought the Sky productions caught the visuals of Ankh-Morpork about right  just a shame that they were spoilt by the casting of David Jason making Going Postal the stand out adaptation 

 

Nick B

 

I don't have Sky and have not seen Going Postal.  It sounds as if I should. 

 

I wonder if it will alter or confirm my musings about the Ankh aesthetic?

[nick_bastable]

42 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

I don't have Sky and have not seen Going Postal.  It sounds as if I should. 

 

I wonder if it will alter or confirm my musings about the Ankh aesthetic?

A taster

 

 

 

Nick B 

[JimFin]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

I don't have Sky and have not seen Going Postal.  It sounds as if I should. 

Well worth it and available on DVD as is The Colour of Magic - nice shots of the town in there.

 

I have a parked project based on "Twoshirts" = small passing station down the line on the AM&SPHR. In On16.5, using it as an experimental base for 3d printing in wood filament. Resin loco and printed train, dwarf coach unfinished, 1st class,  Überwald League of Temperance open carriage (bring your own casket), cabbage tanker, luggage wagon and goods van in front of the "Jolly Macerator" public house.

 

Hope to get back to that soon.

 

 

[Schooner]

 

Had a couple of spare hours this arvo, thought I'd have a little go. Just a sketch, no time spent fettling etc, and taking all available parameters to the max! A bit of fun this end, but discovering what doesn't work is a step on the way to learning what does

 

Peco turntable size pee'd on my chips a bit. It's enormous, and trying to make something entertaining using it started to drain the fun, so called it a day: the MPD could be massively improved. The terminus itself is at least functional, with almost departure and arrival stations and carriage sidings for each (the only way I could fit in three decent length carriage sidings!). I quite like the goods depot and yard though  see edit!

 

Anyway, hope it helps is some way even if prove an example of what you don't want!

 

EDIT: Oh, forgot to sort out the goods trackwork having flipped it. It started off as below, before I thought opposing curves might be more interesting:

Edited June 7, 2020 by Schooner

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, nick_bastable said:

A taster

 

 

 

Nick B 

 

Well, on the basis of that taster, I'm convinced.

 

I find that it is available on DVD, so, from circa 16 June when in is due to arrive, I will be watching it!

 

What a wonderful Spike!

[Compound2632]

I wonder if you are onto something with the XXXX-ian photos posted above. The NSWGR is an example of a railway system that plunged straight in to the mid-1850s, omitting the 1830s/40s.

[BR60103]

I'm wondering if a mix of scales for carriages to match dwarves, trolls, those creatures in the middle, might work.

When we run Lostock Jcn, we're allowed to bring other trains. Found that an HO diesel didn't fit through OO platforms. Other HO coaches banged against scenery.

The wagon turntables could be pushed by trolls.

I don't understand the need for separate arrival and departure platforms, but it does add a lot of movements to the station workings.

 

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I find that it is available on DVD, so, from circa 16 June when in is due to arrive, I will be watching it!

 

What a wonderful Spike!

 

Yep. She's very spikey....

 

its a pretty good visualisation of the A-M environment, some favourite scenes and plotlines have been simplified out but thats par for the course with adaptations.

 

16 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

I don't understand the need for separate arrival and departure platforms, but it does add a lot of movements to the station workings.

 

Its a common feature of English railway operation in the early days, Edwardians concept is for the AM&SPHR as described in "Raising Steam" to mirror many aspects of 1850s (perhaps +/- 20 years) railway practice in the UK.

 

Discworld is a mirror of worlds and thaumatic influences can come from all over the place.

 

As an example, the attacks on the Bonk Express have many similarities with such situations in "Western" films.....

 

[Edwardian]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

As an example, the attacks on the Bonk Express have many similarities with such situations in "Western" films.....

 

 

For those readers of the topic as yet unfamiliar with the Disc, we should perhaps point out that this destination is pronounced Beyonk.

 

This illustration, which I take to be of a Sto Lat service, encapsulates a lot of what I was attempting to convey with my previous very wordy post; it shows what we're up against ....

 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Edwardian
spelling!

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

For those readers of the topic as yet unfamiliar with the Disc, we should perhaps point out that this destination is pronounced Beyonk.

 

This illustration, which I take to be of a Sto Lat service, encapsulates a lot of what I was attempting to convey with my previous very wordy post; it shows what we're up against ....

 

 

 

 

I was just being fair to newcomers who might pick up the book and wonder where Beyonk was....

 

Probably a Sto Lat express, its definitely a Flyer, a Single with outside cylinders.

 

I have always had at least two concerns with that illustration from Mrs Bradshaws Handbook; Why is the Dwarf skipping, and why is the Goblin pouring lamp oil down the lamp chimney?  No wonder the bloke on the footplate is looking concerned....

 

As for the other platform denizens, they look a fair cross-section of A-M "society".

 

Spelling?  Perhaps we should endorse edits as "Note Spelling!" in this locality?

 

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Hroth
Misattribution of species

[brack]

The cab is rather modern, and it has quite a fat boiler for pre edwardian times.