drmditch

Joseph Priestly hosted a celebration dinner in Birmingham for the fall of the Bastille in 1791. This provoked several days of rioting. I'm not sure I would count Charles James Fox as a Tory - not for the most famous part of his life anyway!

Have found some more detail of this splendid Gillray cartoon. The Island Castle Banner reads ' The Haven of Public Happiness', (although it looks rather like a nasty lee shore to me!) The pursuers are :- Charles James Fox (for whom I've always had a sneaking liking) Joseph Priestly Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It is now definitely a good day to retreat from contemporary politics, and retire to William Hague's rather good biography of Pitt the younger. Defeated/retired politicians sometimes seem able to produce a nice line in political biography. I do like Roy Chadwick on both Gladstone and Churchill, although I am suspicious of Roy Hattersley on Lloyd George. One advantage of taking a history degree is that one's natural viewpoint of events is at least fifty, and preferably a hundred, years after they occurred. I just hope that, even though I am unlikely to last long enough to achieve such a perspective on yesterday's election and what may follow it, I am able to live out my declining years in a country which shows some signs of improvement on that which I grew up in, and does not disintegrate into division, degradation and despair!

I think that of all British Prime Ministers, William Pitt (the younger) was one of the most unlikely to be accused of such behavior.

Thank you, and pass the Port! Hurrah indeed!!!!

Splendid cartoon! It doesn't seem to enlarge, so I can't read the small lettering. Is that the young Mr Pitt at the helm? What is written on the flag flying from the island? Since the vessel as rigged can only be sailed on a dead run (ie downwind) how will it escape wreck on the island at the end of the passage.? Who does the strikingly underdressed lady represent?

Re: Cats If I understand correctly, there are some 40 species (kinds/types?) of cats on the planet. They all need to sleep for about 18 hours out of the 24. They are all 'obligate carnivores', in that they eat only prey animals and all of their prey animals. There are several important amino acids such as taurine which they only get from eating animal tissue. (Modern cat foods have to replicate this. We learned this when my mother tried to feed her cat on dogfood 'because it was cheaper'!) I do not share my house with a cat at the moment, but I miss my last cat very much. He was an excellent railway cat, and would inspect new constructions and sometimes follow the passage of trains with great (apparent) interest. When he was young he would wait beside a tunnel mouth for a train to emerge, although he learned quite quickly not to do this. He did also like foodstuffs not normally associated with feline diet. I can appreciate why he liked taramasalata, but cheese seemed quite odd. Many cats it seems go quite mad about Twiglets! He was a magnificent large ginger cat, was excellent company, appeared to be more interested in green engines than black ones, and I still miss him whenever I find one of his long ginger hairs.

At the risk of raising further excitement, it is interesting to consider the effect of a widened franchise and the exciting of prejudice by political parties. Towards the end of the Second Boer War ( a morally dubious conflict on both sides) the internment policy (' concentration camps') of the British Military Authorities led by one H Kitchener, would now be regarded as an atrocity. (Although the real failure was in the administration and supply of those camps.) It took some brave women, especially Emily Hobhouse, to bring this to British public attention, and the abuse heaped upon her was vitriolic. The whole issue became wrapped up in Party politics as well. I wonder what the views and divisions on this issue would have been in Castle Aching?

Shouldn't the man on the jetty have been taking a picture with his 'phone?

"Now we must educate our masters", was a quotation I have always attributed to one Benjamin Disraeli after the passage of the 1867 Reform Act. (I need to go downstairs and check this in Blake - but I am staying warm upstairs this morning. Wiki and other web sources attribute the quotation to different politicians.) I wonder how the electorate in Castle Aching would have changed after the 1867 Act? It is a shame that Terry Pratchett is no longer available to give us his views on the current situation. I like Lord Vetinari's approval of the 'one man one vote' principle. The 'one man' being Lord Vetinari.

Don't worry - I doubt Parliament will let them!

Thank you, and of course you don't need to apologise! I share your horror of some of the recent attempts to denigrate constitutional balance. (Although probably some of the same things were being said about the Budget crisis of 1910!) Thank you for the link to Annie's thread. I will study it more later. As a sometime sailor - and indeed a winter sailor - I am quite happy to stay warm inside today, trying to avoid coughing and sneezing and recovering my voice! Back to my workbench!

Having been ill recently, and then needing to catch up with many pages of this usually quirky, entertaining, and informative thread, I have been saddened by the influx of posts concerning the current 'political' (if that is the right word) events in the UK. I quite liked the discussions regarding the current BBC 'WOTW' drama. There have been one or two other themes of interest as well, but please can I make the following appeal to the Ladies and Gentlemen of this thread:- The mere fact of survival to an advanced age does not, of itself, make one's experience of living interesting or relevant to others. The 'arrogance of age' can be an ugly thing. Yes I am happy to share reminiscences of one's past lives, but please can we keep these light-hearted and whimsical. There are other places on the WWW for the posting of opinions, informed or not. May I suggest that we concern ourselves with the great and spacious days of the early 20th Century, which, to slightly misquote Mr A G Macdonell in his excellent work 'England their England' are fast becoming as great and spacious as the days of the late and very great Queen Elizabeth which are well known to have been the most spacious on record. To those who are concerned about the state of our nation may I point out the dangers of political demagoguery. This Mr Dafyd Lloyd George appears to be doing a lot of rabble-rousing. Does any sensible person qualified to vote think that the payment of old-age-pensions to all irrespective of moral worth or criminal convictions would be a responsible thing to do? What about the corruption of our very language, when such words as 'democracy' are taken to represent a desirable goal? Do we not have enough politicians like Mr Chamberlain who are prepared to break entire time-honoured political systems merely on the grounds of their own convictions? Enough of this. Let us concentrate on the state of our railway system. Are not Mr Ivat's and Mr Worsdell's so-called 'Atlantics' far too gross and heavy for English railways. Does not this quest for size and speed remove the utility of 'cascading' older and smaller stock to secondary or more rural lines? In my own home country of the North East do NER Consols continue to represent a safe investment? Will our railway companies continue to provide sufficient first-class accommodation for persons of refined gentility such as myself? I note that on my journeyings today, with clear sunlight (and a surprising absence of industrial smoke) illuminating the County Durham landscape there has been a sad decline in railway facilities. Not only did the locomotive not display a polished brass smoke-box ring, but the locomotive and the entire train was not just dirty but completely absent! Indeed the very rails seem to have been taken up and somehow disposed of! Let us please avoid distractions, and concentrate on the essentials of existence. What shall I build next, a GER covered van, or should I get on with another snowplough? I also ought to construct an NER Central Division signal cabin, not to mention quite a lot of signals!

As it happens, I've just completed my own version of this kit. Different modellers, different approaches! (And my photography isn't very good either!) I like to add some more features to the running gear (although only those which can be seen from the side!) These include: Making the cross-shaft thicker. I use insulation stripped from old layout wire Adding the safety straps. Adding (some) of the VB pull gear. On this kit I re-made the lower footsteps with copper and brass elements soldered up. In the above picture the vertical support looks a bit bent, but I'm pretty sure that that happened with similar originals anyway. I also replaced the handrails and door handles with brass. It was difficult to find any pictures of these vehicles in LNER livery, but there was some useful help on the LNER forum ... here and previous page) - I was able to add the additional vertical control pipe on the compartment end, Of course, this was built on my home workbench and not while demonstrating at a show! (Not something that I would be able to do very well! Thank you Mr Wright for encouraging us all. (Now I have to get back to boring layout wiring!)

Re: Track Gauges. Although this subject is easily 150 to 200 years pre-grouping, people might like to be aware of the recent archaeology and research in two recent publications:- 'Setting the Standard' ed.Dominique Bell - Reports on the Willington Waggonway of 1785 - ISBN 9780905974989 'The Railway Revolution' by Les Turnbull - Early Railways of the Great Northern Coalfield - 1605 to 1830 - ISBN9780993115158 To summarise - the extent of waggonways in the coalfields of Northumberland and Durham was much greater than I had supposed. By the early 1800s, many of these were inter-linked and using similar equipment. Gauges varied but tended to be between 4'3" and 4'8 1/2". Principal factor in determining gauge was the width of a horse's backside, with room for shafts and/or haulage ropes, and the wheels had to be outside those. By 1811 the Killingworth Waggonway and some of it's connections was working on 4'8" (and possibly 1/2). George therefore used a gauge for which there was already a considerable mileage and a lot of equipment. Like many people I had tended to date the 'Railway Revolution' from the S&D in 1825, but in fact the S&D marked an important transition to the '2nd Railway Revolution'. Mr Turnbull gives quantities and values for the amount of coal moved, and the wagons, horses and men involved. No wonder there was commercial incentive to use coal/steam haulage. The names of Blackett and Hedley were familiar, but I didn't realise that there was a Blenkinsop engine (cogged wheels and track) running at Coxlodge in 1813. So, perhaps Mr I.K. Brunel was accurate in calling 4'8 1/2" the 'coal-cart' gauge, but by 1824/5 it was already a proven concept with experience and engineering in support! What a shame he didn't manage to think through the requirements for track engineering more thoroughly! (Of course even Mr G Stephenson didn't do that - the stone block sleepers of the S&D, and most of the L&M were meant to be solid 'like the foundations of an hoose'.) Which is ironic since all the waggonway experience was with timber cross-sleepers!

Re: Model footplate crews. Where do they go when the locomotive is 'on-shed'?

Not sure I understand your question. 'Sighting Objects' were those items which if, in fog or falling snow, a signalman could not see clearly he should call out the 'fogmen'. The NER gradually installed special lamp-lit markers to serve this function. Since you have taken upon yourself the name and a number of a Southern Area locomotive, you will, presumably, not be worried about running through a signal or two. (Re; Driver Sparshatt at Northallerton) Never-the-less it does not remove the responsibility from the Signalmen to ensure that proper attention was called to signals.

Re: Grantham Hope the Spalding Show goes well. I haven't seen Grantham for so long I'm getting withdrawal symptoms, and I need to admire the signalling. Re: Fog Really nasty in Shildon (Locomotion) this afternoon. When I got home I needed to look up NER policy on 'sighting objects'.

Marvelous! Thank you. This is still one of my ambitions, albeit in (perhaps) a slightly smaller vessel than yours! Unfortunately I haven't been sailing for a few years now. (Arthritis and the North Sea don't go together very well.) Caroline

Please may I ask if anyone has experience of approaching Constantinople (Istanbul) by sea? (One of my dreams!)

Re: Freight engines. Surprised no-one has mentioned the Thompson O1. Robinson frame, Gresley boiler, Gresley/Thompson cylinders. Surely a combination of strengths, as well as showing up very favourably in the 1948 trials. By-the-way, in the above discussions on developments and re-boilerings, surely the small matter of first-costs, jigs and maintenance should all be considered. I understand that in later years the decision between re-boilering to an O4/8, or re-building to O1 depended on the condition of the cylinders at the time. As regards looks, I really like the O4/8s. Like the NER 2-8-0 Darlington never built!

At the risk of appearing to criticise a classic model railway, is there not something anachronistic about the shape of 'Erica's bow? Somehow I would have expected the stem to be more vertical. Is there any evidence as to the prototype modelled?

Here is ... a better link... I work in 4mm scale using OO track. The bridge has four spans, each of which is just over 11" long and uses three girders. The technique is flexible however, and certainly low cost - even if it does take some time. I was certainly glad when I'd finished the twelve double-warren-truss girders, but still had the trough girders to make as well! Yours Caroline

Yes, I didn't look up my references earlier this morning, so I did qualify my remark. I don't want to take too much time today looking them up, as I actually have a day to work on my railway! There were two incidents I was thinking about:- One was a report of Rugby station being bombarded with tyre fragments. The second was that W.A.Stanier had a problem persuading Crewe Works to finish turn tyres. He saw the problem with rough-turning was that it could leave small imperfections which could spread and form the basis of a crack. I am not an expert on turning/machining, neither am I an expert on the LNWR, or any other railway for that matter, although my loyalties lie with the NER and LNER and perhaps I was being slightly mischevious! Perhaps someone who knows more can supply more information! Caroline Middleditch ('drmditch')

Re: Tyre Fastening. LNWR No. 790 'Hardwicke' displays prominent 'bolt' heads between the spokes of the driving wheels. I do have a description of their function on my other computer, but in essence they are the heads of tyre-locating studs. I'm not sure the LNWR was very good with tyres.

You might like to look at my construction here ... On the LNER forum... There is a shorter account here on RMweb, but I can't find out how to insert a link using this tablet. Let me know if it seems useful, and I'll find you the link.