drmditch

Track supported on waybeams was probably original for many metal bridges. Later as the NER and LNER rebuilt and strengthened bridges the structures on many were improved to take ballasted track.

Re: Ballast I'm not sure if this book has been mentioned on this thread before:- 'The Railway - British Track since 1804' - by Andrew Dow. ISBN 978 1 47389 757 1 (I went for the low cost option with the paperback version, but for easy browsing the hardback volume would be better!) It does make me ashamed that I don't model/make my track to a higher standard. For ballast, see Chapter 12 and onwards, and there is a good index. Whereas many people (including Mr Wright) seem to model post -1948, and in particular the former Southern Area of the LNER, my interests lie further north, in the NER/NEA in County Durham. So, minor lines and sidings might show evidence of small coal ( which was unsaleable till later in the 19th century and/or ash ballast. The NER opened Hulands Quarry (near Lartington) about 1911ish, thus producing a hard limestone ballast for new works and main lines. Since most lines carried intensive coal traffic in open trucks (and hoppers which perhaps might leak some coal dust?) and were, except for Shildon to Newport between 1915 and 1935, hauled by steam locomotives, I tend to assume that most track would show evidence of this. My ballasting therefore tends to be very dark in colour. I need to work out what the 'border' between ash on older section and limestone for the newer sections would look like. One question concerns using the limestone ballast over iron and steel bridges, especially in considerable atmospheric pollution. Would it result in undesirable reactions?

Not to mention the distinctly middle-class Prussian (later Imperial) Navy.

Perhaps, in the early years of railway development, the only exemplars for a disciplined service were the Army and Navy. Drivers had to realise that they couldn't just stop near a pub when it was convenient to them. Even back then there had to be regulations, and 'policemen' to administer them. Interesting though that some railway officers clung to a military title, such as Captains Huish and O'Brien. Army titles presumably, since in the first half of the 19th century Captains RN, even when retired, would have been too senior and probably too old to start building a second career. Although some RN officers, such as Admiral Elliot of the SDLUR, did serve on committees and boards. Should not the WNR have an Admiral or two, of any rank, on it's board? One would hope though that they would support the proper side in the Fisher/Beresford controversy. As regards social order and conventions, there is a reference (sorry, too lazy to check this morning) of a young man being advised to join the LNER, 'since it was run by gentlemen'.

Shame proper nouns are not allowed in Scrabble.

Well, I have been thinking about the BL/BLS Containers. (Tatlow 4B Page 190, and drawings which you(?) sent me showing the roof.) I think I have just realised a way to do it, and sent off for the requisite materials. This might work! If so, then I might be able to see a way to do the BLC containers as well. Yours Caroline (PS did send you a message on the LNER forum, but perhaps you didn't see it!)

Long live the NER, that's my view.

Re: Mis-shelving. I spent nearly an hour today looking for a magazine (Backtrack) containing details of a late 19thC plate girder bridge. It wasn't where I'm sure I placed it a year ago, but I eventually found it in the bedside shelves were I put material relating to projects I'm working on. The problem with searching is that one gets distracted by other articles and subject matter. (And I'm still not sure whether the 'flyover' spans at Relly (or Relley) Mill Junction were wrought iron or steel. Not that that matters - because mine will be made out of card!)

Bit late in the year for Lilac to bloom. (At least in this hemisphere, Earth not being a disk!)

According to Wikipedia, 'Rocky Mountain Oysters', 'Prairie Oysters', 'Lamb Fries', 'Criadillas', and I'm sure there is also a splendid Italian name which I couldn't find in a quick scan. Personally, if I am prepared to eat an animal, I think it disrespectful not to be prepared to eat all the edible parts of it. (This is where the Spongiform Encephalopathies which caused all the scares twenty or so years ago are such a nuisance. I'm sure I was told I was fed Lamb's brains as a child, presumably in those far of days no-one worried about Scrapie!) EDIT - To bring this more in line with pre-grouping railways:- In my 1923 edition of 'Modern Railway Administration' (largely reflecting pre-grouping and pre-WW1 practice) In Division II Section 4 of 'Perishable Merchandise by Passenger Train or other SImilar Service' are listed:- Meat Offal, including inter alia Chitterlings Feet Giblets Plucks Tripe Trotters. (There are more listed but it would take for ever to re-key them all) Presumably the organs referred to in the above posts would be elsewhere in the alia.)

Re: Coaching stock. Full of admiration for the knowledge, erudition and modelling skill involved in the above posts. I haven't yet done much with mine but I am quite fussy about my mineral, goods and NPCS stock. I'm just getting round to unpacking items that have been packed away for six years. These include kit-built wagons first made nearly thirty years ago, and my own standards, and sources (thank you Mr Tatlow) have improved over that time, especially for below solebar detail. However, I do have some passenger stock. Local services can be covered by non-vestibuled vehicles, partly re-built from old Hornby models, and some of the newer Hornby vehicles. However, I have an idea for a long-distance train. It seems that most of the excellent LNER railways, such as Grantham, which I have seen are 'south of York.' My railway is emphatically in County Durham, and will need some GWR and/or some SR stock. From the newer RTR stock mentioned above can anybody suggest something suitable? I would need BCKs, Corridor Firsts/ Thirds (or equivalent). The 'catering core' (as Mr Banks calls it) will provided by some building projects of my own!

From what I now remember, the inside of the splashers had to be thinned quite a lot, as did the 'inside join' between the splashers and the footplate. Where the white metal got very thin I reinforced it with two-part epoxy. I didn't have a detailed drawing (other then the R M Beattie one from an old RM), and the early drawing in Ken Hoole's 'Illustrated History of NER Locomotives. As far as I could work out, the basic Nu-cast castings were/are quite accurate. The key dimensions I took the the RCTS 'Green Book'), and amongst other things that gives the pitch of the boiler. This, with the aid of a jig or two lining up with the centre hole of the smokebox door, allows one to get to the boiler height. Then it was a matter of offering up, fettling and fitting. The brass frames made up quite well. I had to modify them a bit to fit a motion plate, slide bars etc. I use a live locomotive chassis, with the tender live to the other side, and an insulated drawbar. None-the-less, I also fit 'wiper' contacts to as many other wheels as I can. This seems to help with small locomotives! Certainly, I'm much happier with mine now than I was with it's first iteration and runs quite nicely.

Re: J21s My Nucast J21 looks like this:- It was one of the first kits I built, but then was re-built about eight years ago. The main problem with the original build was that to avoid the wheels shorting on the inside of the splashers, the whole body was mounted too high. More careful re-construction solved this. My model, which is accurate as I can make it, now includes:- Detail cab interior Working inside valve gear (at the least the top half of it) Representation of the piston valves below the inside cylinders. (I have not seen this feature modelled by anyone else!) Correct brake pull rods outside the wheels. Details of construction are here. I also have a Dave Alexander kit to complete.

Language?

Re: Genetic Markers This may be wrong, but I think I have read that the genetic differences between 'vikings' and 'saxons', all peoples from the east side of what we now call the North Sea and used to call the German Ocean, are very hard to distinguish.

And what would be the local pronunciation of Killhope? (I presume 'killop' ?) I don't live much further north than you! Of course we also, in Northumberland and Durham, (ignoring these strange aberrations of the early 70s) have splendid names like Pity Me and Wallsend. I like a lot of our local names; those resulting from the wars of the 18th century like Quebec and Toronto, names emerging as the use of landscape changed, like Esh Winning and Cornsay Colliery; and we have quite a number of 'Sunniside's.

Oh dear. I wonder whether and how those bright young people survived the next ten years or so.

You are completely missing my original point. What I object to (after many years and much reflection) are not the words of Latin origin, (and even modern German has a 25% Latin word content.) but the use of attempted plural forms in Latin. Since Latin was, and in vocabulary at least may still be, an evolving language, we end up attempting to decline nouns in a language which does not normally do so. Whereas I might accept 'forum' and 'fora', as at least being classical in origin, I do not think that a 'referendum' was likely to be held in Rome before modern times, and therefore a plural form of 'referenda' is unnecessary. Indeed I am afraid that many of our 'own' irregular plurals are under threat. I have heard several people recently use 'deers' as the plural of 'deer'. In short I think that the use of unnecessarily latinate plurals is not actually 'classicist', but just 'classist'! Now of course someone will come up with a particular railway-related word and prove me wrong!

The problem with all these elections, referendums (*) etc, is that so many people will insist on voting the wrong way. I am reminded of the 'now we must educate our masters' statement made after the passage of the 1867 Reform Bill, which I am sure I have seen attributed to the then Mr Disraeli (**). However, a Google search seems to attribute it to a great many other people. Perhaps the only solution is the 'one man one vote' principal as practiced in Ankh-Morpork by Lord Vetinari, he being the one man with the one vote. Excuse me. I have a wagon vacuum cylinder to replace. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * I have recently become less inclined to use Latinate plurals in a language whose construction if not all it's vocabulary is basically Anglo-Saxon. It can sometimes result in excessive susurration as in 'octopuses', but on the whole preferable in a language whose irregular plurals are beyond many contemprary speakers anyway. ** I have made a quick scan in Blake, but must not get too involved. Early summer was my time for the mid-19th century and I have since moved back to the later Roman era(***). Of course the politics of Mr Edwardian's era are also fascinating, but the attitudes to social and economic justice, problems of empire etc etc are a little too contemporary to be comfortable. *** With a recent excursion to the naval battles of the opening months of WW1, especially Coronel and the Falklands. They are representative of so much that is good and bad in our world.

Good Morning. I would not wish to speak ill of a notable supplier, but my limited experience of older DJH ex-NER kits gives me cause for concern. I have a long-term desire for class Z (C7) Atlantic. I have seen examples of what I think were DJH kits built by eminent and skilled modellers, but to me they do not look 'quite right'. On my re-worked Q7 I had to increase the boiler diameter, since DJH had supplied one making no allowance for the cladding. The cylinders on my H2/A8 are scratch-built. I have got the Isinglass drawing for the C7, a Dave Alexander tender and other published references and am wondering whether to buy and modify a DJH kit, or to attempt a scratch-build. I would be grateful for any advice concerning the DJH kit, especially whether the wheelbase is correct. I would also like a V (C6), and I think Mr Kimber is planning to produce one next year, but I'm not sure whether this is to be an original V or a V09 and I prefer the original with the wide splashers.

Please excuse me, and I am no longer conversant with the manners and customs of the Far South, but should not that barrow be parked with it's wheels parallel to the track? I seem to remember an incident (at Rugby?) described by L T C Rolt.

I fear that Gen. Incompetence has under his command Brigadier Bodger and Lt.Colonel Rushed Job, and they quite frequently attempt to make inroads onto my railway as well. I find the only way to keep them under control is to have an efficient inspection regime; as in 'would I really want anyone else to see that?' and 'will that work for the next 25 years?'

There are shops on the other side of Durham you know. Try Sainsbury's.

I think they might be penguins. Any leopard seals in Westminster?

I didn't realise that the HotN was DCC!