Castle Aching

[Annie]

Did the Martians land and steal everyone away?  It's awfully quiet around here, in fact the whole pre-grouping forum has been almost deserted lately.

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Edwardian]

On 26/03/2019 at 05:27, Annie said:

My attempt at representing a W.N.R. engine for use on my huge rambling digital layout.  This was by no means a quick reskin of an unsuspecting 1860s engine I had in my digital trainset box.  There seemed to be countless small tasks and adjustments to take care of before I could call it good enough to take a snap of.  There's more I could do, but not today because I'm all tuckered out.

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Annie said:

Did the Martians land and steal everyone away?

 

 

I've been struggling on all fronts over the last couple of weeks, sorry.

 

I do, however, really like your WNR locomotive, which very much has that 1850s look that is appropriate for the line's first locomotives. 

 

We had considered E B Wilsons for the WNR's original locomotives, and there is a common aesthetic.

 

No tripods will be allowed to torch CA houses, however!

 

[Annie]

Unfortunately I don't have any details on who built the 0-6-0 well tank James, but does very much have an E.B. Wilson look to it which is why I chose it to represent an early W.N.R. engine.  I've been very much aware that life has been a bit more pressured for you lately and I've been keeping you in my thoughts and what passes for my prayers over the past few weeks.

[Hroth]

37 minutes ago, Annie said:

Did the Martians land and steal everyone away?  It's awfully quiet around here, in fact the whole pre-grouping forum has been almost deserted lately.

 

 

What Naughty Martians they are!!!

 

(Did their mothers never teach them not to play with matches?)

 

Looking at the one in the background, I KNOW its the heatray in its grubby little tentacles, but it appears to be toasting a slice of bread...

 

Edited March 27, 2019 by Hroth

[Hroth]

On 24/03/2019 at 21:53, Edwardian said:

Very little modelling time in the end this weekend.

 

These wagons will take some time, but quite relaxing once you've settled into it ....

 

 

I do like the way you've approached the question of "pre-weathering"  the model during the building phase....

 

Saunters off, keeping a wary eye out for incendiary Martians...

 

[Edwardian]

23 minutes ago, Annie said:

Unfortunately I don't have any details on who built the 0-6-0 well tank James, but does very much have an E.B. Wilson look to it which is why I chose it to represent an early W.N.R. engine.  I've been very much aware that life has been a bit more pressured for you lately and I've been keeping you in my thoughts and what passes for my prayers over the past few weeks.

 

Thanks, Annie, that's much appreciated.

 

I thought, after 10 pretty tough years, this house sale would be a blessed relief, but, you know, since the pressure, unbearable though it often seemed, has been lifted, I've just fallen apart. I'm 3 months on and I'm just in one unfocussed, unproductive daze!

[Edwardian]

2 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I do like the way you've approached the question of "pre-weathering"  the model during the building phase....

 

Saunters off, keeping a wary eye out for incendiary Martians...

 

 

I guess I'm just one of life's messier modellers ...

[Annie]

16 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Thanks, Annie, that's much appreciated.

 

I thought, after 10 pretty tough years, this house sale would be a blessed relief, but, you know, since the pressure, unbearable though it often seemed, has been lifted, I've just fallen apart. I'm 3 months on and I'm just in one unfocussed, unproductive daze!

From my years working as an adult mental health service triage social worker I can tell you James that it's not so much when the pressure is on that people have problems, but when the pressure comes off.  That's what post-traumatic stress disorder is all about and while nobody was shooting at you or trying to blow you up on a daily basis you were still living in a state of stress for a very long time.  Once the stress comes off all the self management coping methods you unconsciously devised for yourself also decide to pack up and leave and that's what causes the problem.  Time of course is the best healer and also be kind to yourself and don't beat yourself up over not being able to do things.  Don't be frightened to say, 'No', to people either if you can't manage to do something.  That's where us social workers would mess ourselves up all the time when I was still working because we found it hard to say 'No' when we were already on the thin edge our our personal resources.

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, Annie said:

From my years working as an adult mental health service triage social worker I can tell you James that it's not so much when the pressure is on that people have problems, but when the pressure comes off.  That's what post-traumatic stress disorder is all about and while nobody was shooting at you or trying to blow you up on a daily basis you were still living in a state of stress for a very long time.  Once the stress comes off all the self management coping methods you unconsciously devised for yourself also decide to pack up and leave and that's what causes the problem.  Time of course is the best healer and also be kind to yourself and don't beat yourself up over not being able to do things.  Don't be frightened to say, 'No', to people either if you can't manage to do something.  That's where us social workers would mess ourselves up all the time when I was still working because we found it hard to say 'No' when we were already on the thin edge our our personal resources.

 

Thanks, Annie, that is helpful.

 

I will try to apply that advice.  I have to be tough on myself in some areas, or I shall be unable to earn a living! 

[James Harrison]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Did the Martians land and steal everyone away?  It's awfully quiet around here, in fact the whole pre-grouping forum has been almost deserted lately.

 

 

Not quite, but almost. 

 

 

[Edwardian]

3 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

 

Not quite, but almost. 

 

 

 

Melting a Churchward locomotive!

 

The Devils!

 

[Annie]

Gosh!!!!  Mr James Harrison, don't show me things like that or I'll go and buy a copy of the game and then I'll never get anything done.  

 

And I do agree that melting that Churchward locomotive showed what utter cads those Martians were.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Annie
more to say

[James Harrison]

3 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Melting a Churchward locomotive!

 

The Devils!

 

 

"One of mine will pull two of theirs backwards."  "Yes Mr Churchward, but it didn't do any better against the heat ray than Mr Whales' engines, did it?"

[Edwardian]

Has anyone read the Toby Frost Space Captain Smith books?  Great take on Martians, H G Wells and Geoff Wayne. 

[Hroth]

12 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

 

"One of mine will pull two of theirs backwards."  "Yes Mr Churchward, but it didn't do any better against the heat ray than Mr Whales' engines, did it?"

Neither did Thunderchild, and that was bigger than a Star/Saint loco!  Anyhow, shouldn't those carriages have been in the Maroon livery?

[Edwardian]

14 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Neither did Thunderchild, and that was bigger than a Star/Saint loco!  Anyhow, shouldn't those carriages have been in the Maroon livery?

 

It depends if you take Wells' story to have been set in the present day (1897-98) or the near future, in which case, how near?

[Nearholmer]

Shocking lack of knowledge of the railways of Woking; that’s what these film maker chappies display. Dreadful fellows; absolutely dreadful!

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

Shocking lack of knowledge of the railways of Woking; that’s what these film maker chappies display. Dreadful fellows; absolutely dreadful!

 

As if the South Western would run a train of clerestories!

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

Did the Martians land and steal everyone away?  It's awfully quiet around here, in fact the whole pre-grouping forum has been almost deserted lately.

I've been rather busy recently drawing up etches for things for a couple of groups.  One is for a second footbridge from Dunblane for the Dunallander layout, which had to be drawn up from photos as it is long gone and there are no drawings.  I'll start a thread on the 2FS section when I start to build it.

 

I'll leave the second set of items for the group concerned to describe when they get them.

 

I hope to get the artwork files off to PPD before the end of the week.

 

Jim

[Nearholmer]

The LSWR did have some pretty splendid clerestory dining cars, and I think sleeping cars (1), but I'm not sure much else of that kind.

 

I'm working my way through a book that I got from the library, entitled "London & South Western Railway Miscellany", captioned by John Scott-Morgan. The photos are excellent, and truly miscellaneous, not just a load of standard loco pictures, so its worth looking out for, although the captions are what I would call 'not quite expert enough' in a few places, and I'm not an expert.

 

At the same time I borrowed a truly brilliant book called simply "The Stratford-on-Avon and Midland Junction Railway" by Arthur Jordan. It summarises the (complex) history, but the main body is arranged as an account of a journey along the line, with descriptions of the stations, train services, localised bits of history, and copious anecdotes woven in. Its far more interesting than the typical "railway history", actually a good read, rather than a dry trudge through a litany of factoids. Its quite an old book (OPC 1982), and Mr Jordan knew the railway intimately, I think from the 1930s to closure, because his family ran the railway pub and refreshment room at S-o-A. He's good on every aspect, from technical and operational things, and really understands the people involved. It isn't exclusively a pre-grouping account, of course, but I'd wager that it would appeal to any pre-group-o-phile.

 

(1) you can still sleep in one https://www.underthethatch.co.uk/wendy

Edited March 27, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

It depends if you take Wells' story to have been set in the present day (1897-98) or the near future, in which case, how near?

According to the game animation, it can't be any earlier than 1903, when 98 and 171, prototypes that became the 29xx (Saint) class and which most closely resemble the loco in the animation, were outshopped. If it were a 40xx (Star) class, the scene would have to be moved to at least 1907.  However, there were no visible numbers on the cabside and impossible to see the colour of the headlights.

 

And the headcode looks a bit dodgy too...

 

But hey, its not meant to be real!

 

(The game, not WotW, which is probably true for some parallel universe)

[James Harrison]

I always thought War of the Worlds was supposed to be set in the near future, from the time it was written. On the steampunk forum I frequent there's been a bit of furore that the BBC are setting their go at it in the Edwardian period, as "it's not Victorian!", which rather overlooks the first paragraph of the novel. "In the opening years of the twentieth century".... Anyway, about the loco. Somebody did their research- anybody else clock the raised belpaire firebox and parallel boiler?

[Hroth]

21 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

I always thought War of the Worlds was supposed to be set in the near future, from the time it was written. On the steampunk forum I frequent there's been a bit of furore that the BBC are setting their go at it in the Edwardian period, as "it's not Victorian!", which rather overlooks the first paragraph of the novel. "In the opening years of the twentieth century".... Anyway, about the loco. Somebody did their research- anybody else clock the raised belpaire firebox and parallel boiler?

I had the feeling that the boiler was a tapered shape, but if parallel it has to be no 100, (William) Dean, which pushes the action back to 1902. If any Martians started on G J Churchwards new locos, I'm sure that Swindon would have produced superheated steam cannon to blast  holes in them pesky Martians in a matter of days!

[ChrisN]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

Did the Martians land and steal everyone away?  It's awfully quiet around here, in fact the whole pre-grouping forum has been almost deserted lately.

 

Annie,

I think it must be a bit quiet as I have caught up, but Northroader has kept me busy, as has Charlie586's Broad Gauge layout but that is in layout topics, just as mine is in Welsh Ralways, )or is that Railways of Wales?).

[Annie]

Yum, Broad Gauge.  How did I miss seeing that thread.