drmditch

Not a trawler, but a whale-catcher. From Smith's Dock in Middlesborough. So - from the nightmare horrors of whaling, as we now see them, to the nightmare heroics of the North Atlantic, which is now difficult for most people to relate to. Have not the WWII Flowers been discussed on this thread before? There were WWI Flower Class Sloops as well.

Thank you for the picture, and the craftsmanship. Please may I ask how you have constructed the levers and lever-frame? Also, I think that on the NER/LNER white indicated spare levers. You seem to have a lot of those, or was the Midland just different? I'm in the middle of building an NER Central Division Type C2c cabin/box. Will post pictures when I'm happier with it.

We have seen this error before. Is it just due to 'spell checkers'? On behalf of my most entertaining Crow, Magpie, and Jackdaw visitors referred to in a previous post please may I ask that false rumours are not spread! (And clearly these days anything is possible!) I understand that Covid-19 is an acronym for Corona Virus Disease 2019 Corvids are a widespread family of strong and intelligent birds, commonly referred to as Crows. Here is one such bird, who having succeeded in knocking down and emptying a hopper feeder, is now wondering if it s worthwhile flying off with!

VE Day 2020 – under Covid-19 Lockdown. Places in my life. Shrapnel in the window frame, and the story told. Factories burning I cannot hear the bombs falling, or the screams Near where I grew up, one mast still stands. I think the last. The company where my parents worked. The electronic systems were effective; just enough. Flying off to Europe, high in the blue sky. Comfortable aircraft, with a G&T. Sun veiled in cloud, no spitting fire, no sudden agony, no death today Disused airfield on a misty, eerie afternoon. An engine running, stuttering Nothing to try to land with damaged wings and gear. Out on the North Pier; out into the grey, uneasy sea. Tide-predicted ships, Sunk with fierce explosions in the night And who lies with them? A concrete pillbox, much neglected now Near a happy pub, children on the beach. Horrors that didn’t happen. Here. Take a walk in the sand dunes, near my brother’s house Concrete landing craft, built for practice. Young men running to shoot and be shot at, young men struggling in the water, young men dying. Near my other brother’s house A whole field full of more young men. Their allied-flag flies bold and brave and sad. They came to help Who do we and they help now? Other people caused it. In places far away, they were not us. We can always blame ‘them’, the others. All the differences, all the divisions, all the “ism’s” Poverty and exploitation, daily struggles not admitted. Mistakes were made, but how could they have seen? With pride and sorrow, (and false pride and selfishness) we think we care. But words are easy, aren’t they? And have we learned? And now?

I agree. During these solitary weeks I have been vastly entertained by the animals using my garden. The best of all has to be the large Crow which, early on, learned to unfasten the hooks of the bird feeders so that they fell to the ground and he could get to the contents. After I first wired them, he quickly learned to break the wire. He is a bit stumped at the moment 'cos I've used thicker wire. I think I need to make a special box so he can learn to open a lid. At one point another bird, which I think might have been Mrs Crow turned up, presumably taking her allowed 10 min break from incubation, and they did a little dance together. Mr Crow is visiting more often now, presumably with hungry mouths to feed. Then there the Magpies and Blackbirds and Thrushes and Robins, not to mention all the coloured variety of smaller birds. Magpies are very acrobatic and entertaining. Unfortunately, I think I frightened a pair of Hedgehogs this week, by attempting to take a picture without realising the flash was turned on. As Mr Edwardian says, they are not bothered whether we are here or not, although I suspect the Corvids are finding supplies of roadkill are lower than usual. If we were not here, much of the planet would carry on quite happily. And anyway, who needs television? Or is it just me who is fortunate enough to live in a house full of books, and a railway of course! (Just taking a break from constructing an NER Central Division Signal Cabin (Type C2b) And also.... Just in case anybody would like to read it, below is a small memorial for VE Day.

Metrification (metricisation?) Very useful, especially for buoyancy, ground-loading of fluid tanks, etc etc. Nearly forgot 4mm to 1' being convenient for what I need to do when I've stopped keying this. (Locking Room sills and lintels.) Decimalisation Have you ever written computer code to deal with £Sd ? I have, and although it can be written in a little subroutine it's a pain. Counties and town planning. Agree entirely.

I find it interesting that, as you say, most of the 'private' railways were in the northern part of County Durham. Since the southern part was that served by the S&D (after 1862 the NER Central Division) It suggests that this railway was built and run in closer contact with it's local industries. The rate of development of the coal/iron industries is also interesting. All too often we look at railways from an inverted perspective. They were there to serve customers! As regards the Tanfield Lea branches, in later years were not some of the varieties of 0-6-2 utilised? Which reminds me that I have a model of a B1 in progress but still packed away somewhere. Mustn't get distracted. Wondering whether I can squeeze part of a colliery incline into a corner!

I've only once seen one of the little silver 'MN' badges. If you should happen to have one, please don't turn it upside down. Some of us are grateful.

When I had shingles, now several years ago and in a far-away country, they were painted in mercurochrome. This was bright red and looked very dramatic. Fortunately I did recover and did not lose an eye. Wasn't there a discussion on differing usages and spellings a long way up-thread?

When you say 'pre corvid', are you referring to 'covid' as in 'covid-19' ? I hope you are not casting aspersions on those bonny big birds who have been entertaining me by finding new ways to get food out of feeders designed for much smaller birds ? One particular magpie has provided a splendid demonstration of hanging upside down while pecking from suet balls. Must be very demanding on the toes! Mind you, a big crow was observed this morning knocking down a feeder and attempting to fly off with the whole thing. Floreat corvidae, that's what I say. (Should also point out that I can observe this avian activity from my railway room, where a model of an NER CD design signal cabin is in course of construction .)

Of course. Is there any other reason to choose a house? I'm always surprised and saddened by how many otherwise quite sensible people live in houses that do not contain a railway.

Re: Stanford Beata Quorum Via

This thread is annoying! I have just managed to 'catch up' as far as Page 1013, and have thus been distracted from proper railway tasks. However, in revenge, there are a few subjects that may be further followed up, Re: Flat Earth http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/DiversityOfCreatures/villagevoted.html Sorry this misses the Edwardian era by 3 years, but does contain a reference to the King Emperor himself. Re: Divided Societies. Although not a sociologist, it appears to me that Modern Humans are essentially arrogant, and any one group will assume themselves to the 'proper inhabitants' of whatever location they find themselves in, and claim their perceived history and now genetics to support this. One would have thought that the current viral transmission crisis would prove that we are, in fact, one group and travel and interact accordingly. For a further reference http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_wethey.htm Re: Polyphonic singing I have not (yet) sung in 'Spem in Alium', although as an undergraduate did sing in Robert Carver's 'O Bone Jesu', with 19 parts. This was magnificent in York Minster choir, but nearly a disaster in Durham Chapter House. The acoustic makes an enormous difference. Now back to my wiring - and quite frankly there is little technology that I am using that was not available prior to 1910. (Although perhaps not as readily a 'consumerised' form.)

Your railway sounds very interesting. Are you able to describe and/or show us any more?

Hull interaction? Boundary layers?

Again, thank you everybody for all the help. Partial testing has shown that shorter cable lengths (apparently) remove the problem. Now re-designing panel and cable runs/thickness. I think I can do this now!

Which reminds me..... How about a game of 'Spot the most inappropriate television advertisement'? The cruise line advert contracts seem to have run out now!

The follow on to the Llandudno 'feel better' story will be 'Goats ate my hedge/daffodils/crocuses/potatoes/vegetables'. How long do you give it.....

Re: Missing rudder. Thank you for telling us the story. Makes my anecdote of tearing the mains'l (which had three reefs at the time) in Force 9 (or something but nobody was counting) in the Heligoland Bight a bit tame by comparison! PS - hope you are safe and not too uncomfortable in port at the moment.

Re B1s and A4s. I don't see why pictures of the former should be less popular than those of the latter. After all, a picture of a B1 is only 1/410 (409?) of those possible, while for an A4 the proportion is 1/35 (34?). Also, I like B1s. I may even remember seeing one! (In the 1950's that is.) 1624 went up Goathland Bank very splendidly with me in the train on 30th November last. Thank you for the photographs, and the entertainment. Good luck with Sainsburys!

You can't stop there! (well, your ship did!) Please tell us what happened next. (re the rudder and recovery).

Thank you. The problem with this forum (and others) is that there is so much material contained in it that it that it is easy to overlook stuff, or ask questions that have already been answered. I find normal searches can be difficult to manage. Has anyone developed a useful data-mining tool for complex subjects as ours?

At the risk of reverting to a portrayal of Edwardian railways - albeit a representation of an Indian line filmed in Spain - did anyone see a repeat of the film 'North West Frontier' a few evenings ago? The Wikipedia article is interesting ....here... Some of the action may not be very credible, and the film never makes up it's mind about issues of imperialism etc, The (two) little 0-6-0Ts that appear might be of interest to this thread!

To keep me balanced (if not sane) during my current control wiring problems, I have been upgrading some LNER Dia. 6 CCTs (Sorry for my poor photography! Here is the most interesting of a bad bunch.) Two Parkside and one Hornby, all slightly modified.

Again, many thanks for the above contributions. I do have quantities (at least two half reals) of what is labelled as '1.5AQMM' wiring, which is sold I believe for domestic lighting circuits. I have so far used it for the 'ring mains' for traction power (not I emphasise for anything to do with any domestic lighting function) at 12vDC. This works well. It is quite stiff, and I now have to work out how I can use this for turnout control. I will also now be able to work out sensible wiring run lengths, and thus the location of the panels etc. This may be a little difficult, so I am giving it calm, and reflective thought!.