drmditch

Sorry, I didn't get the link correct. It's .....here.... Planned to be at 11:00am on the 26th July, 1st and 8th August. It is free, but it is best to book tickets as we're limited to 12 people at one time.

I beg Mr Wright's pardon, but I would be very grateful if followers of this thread who happen to live in the NE could take note of the following: From next Friday, 60103 will be at Locomotion for a few weeks. I'm presenting an illustrated tour/talk on the said locomotive and how it got to be so famous. The link is here .... this link should work...... I operate as a volunteer tour guide at Locomotion (usually on Fridays), which is quite fun even if it does take me away from my own railway. If you can come do please book a ticket and make yourself known! (The tickets are free, but there is a limit of 12 for each tour/talk so if you would like to come please do book.) Of course, I'm sure that many of you will know more on this subject than I do, but even If you don't wan't to come to the tour/talk but are coming to Shildon anyway, do please make yourself known! I am hopeful that it will be interesting at several different levels, and perhaps attempt to overcome some of the less helpful myths about this locomotive! My normal thread on RMweb is ... here... - plus other posts I may make from time to time! Caroline 'drmditch' (PS please excuse this self-publicity, the the SMG/Locomotion advertising can be a bit erratic at times!)

If Mr Edwardian and the other erudite members of the Castle Aching community will forgive me, please may I bring the following to your attention:- From next Friday, 60103 will be at Locomotion for a few weeks. I'm presenting an illustrated tour/talk on the said locomotive and how it got to be so famous. The link is https://www.locomotion.org.uk/whats-on/flying-scotsman-why-so-famous I operate as a volunteer tour guide at Locomotion (usually on Fridays), which is quite fun even if it does take me away from my own railway. If you can come do please book a ticket and make yourself known! (The tickets are free, but there is a limit of 12 for each tour/talk so if you would like to come please do book.) Of course, I'm sure that many of you will know more on this subject than I do, but even If you don't wan't to come to the tour/talk but are coming to Shildon anyway, do please make yourself known! I am hopeful that it will be interesting at several different levels! My normal thread on RMweb is ... here... - plus other posts I may make from time to time! Caroline 'drmditch'

From next Friday, 60103 will be at Locomotion for a few weeks. I'm presenting an illustrated tour/talk on the said locomotive and how it got to be so famous. The link is https://www.locomotion.org.uk/whats-on/flying-scotsman-why-so-famous I operate as a volunteer tour guide at Locomotion (usually on Fridays), which is quite fun even if it does take me away from my own railway. If you can come do please book a ticket and make yourself known! (The tickets are free, but there is a limit of 12 for each tour/talk so if you would like to come please do book.) If you don't wan't to come to the tour/talk but are coming to Shildon anyway, do please make yourself known! I am hopeful that it will be interesting at several different levels! My normal thread on RMweb is here - plus other posts I may make from time to time! 'drmditch'

Re: Ludvig van Beethoven. Yes born in Bonn, but spent most of his working life in Vienna. So born as a subject of the Elector of Cologne (or more properly of course Kohn - but I can't find an umlaut on this keyboard - why do the English insist on re-spelling other peoples place names?), and of course thereby also a subject of the Holy Roman Empire,. He worked and died in the capital city (Wien) of that empire. Although, of course by the time of his death Napoleon had abolished said institution as being neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. Was Ludwig at the time of his death a subject of the Oestereichischer Kaiser? That empire morphed in to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in about 1867 if my memory serves me correctly. I suspect, if asked, Herr Beethoven would have classed himself as a German (in the romantic concept of course. Germany as a state not existing until 1871.) Re: National Anthems. I think that the tune that F J Haydn wrote (based on a Croatian original according to my copy of the Oxford Dictionary of Music) is one of the best around. It was written for Kaiser Franz (Gotte erhalt Franz den Kaiser, unsern guten Kaiser Franz) so that Vienna might have something equivalent to 'God Save the King' which had impressed Haydn when London theatre audiences sang it at the end of performances. It is a shame of course that it was hi-jacked by the 1848 Frankfurt Convention for the words of the 'Deutschland Lied', of which some of the verses now banned did not mean what they were later taken to mean! I hope that the unfortunate politicisation of that tune does not set a precedent for the animosities surrounding the EU and Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' theme. If we are unlucky some idiots will be trying to exclude the 9th Symphony from the Proms. By-the-by I think that the other verses of 'God save the Queen' make much more sense than the first one. 'Confound their knavish tricks, upset their Politics' sounds very appropriate at the moment, depending on who 'they' are. I like a good bit of 18th century nationalism and 'Rule Brittania'. Not that we'll do that any more with our navy as shrunken as it is. There might be a link there back to working conditions of sailors mentioned a bit up thread but I'm supposed to be working on my railway.

Many thanks. I am ordering some of each. I'm sorry to be so ignorant, but could you describe to me 'how to put a diode across each of the motor coils' I do want to learn new skills as I grow older, but I am also finding that there si so much to learn!

Re: Company structures and family membership. I keep meaning to explore this more. Clearly the MSLR/GCR had several prominent families, and nepotism (and 'filism' (?) as in giving your son a job) clearly held sway. I think that the role and influence of the Directors at all levels of railway operations, especially in the NER, would make an interesting study. Perhaps Mr Edwardian should emulate this? Does the WNR board include other Edwardians?

Many thanks for your help. I will order some 'fatter' diodes to 1N540x I hope I can salvage the board, although I might just start again.

Please excuse this appeal for help. I have posted this ....here... in another section of this forum, and I wondered whether one or more of the clever people on Mr Wright's thread might be able to help. Now that I am growing older, I am trying to learn new skill sets and improve my railway-building abilities, but this attempt to build a diode-matrix control for my storage sidings has taken far too much time away from the modelling I enjoy.

I am attempting to construct a diode-matrix to control an eight siding storage yard. Since it is/will be on the lowest level of the layout I am trying to make the controls as simple as possible. Each siding needs between two and four points to be switched. Not having done this before, I carefully constructed a logic diagram, and then transferred this to vero-board(?) with soldered connections. Testing with my multi-meter before installation did not reveal any problems, (although I am now unsure that I was using the meter properly.) After installation behind the control panel and connection to four of the eventual seven points it became apparent that I was encountering 'apparently random' problems with points switching when they should not. There is a CDU in the circuit, and the point motors all work correctly when activated directly from the terminal wires connected to the matrix. It is only when using the matrix that the problems occur. After some extensive research on-line and double checking every soldered connection and every wire run I concluded that the problems had to indicate a failure in some of the diodes. I am afraid I cannot remember the specification, as I have had them in stock for some years. They were sold as suitable for model railway use and I have no reason to distrust the supplier. After testing and removal of some of the diodes in place (annoyinly tricky but I only soldered my hand once) I removed the matrix to my worktable and tested each diode again. Out of 26 diodes, 7 have failed and appear to conduct current in both directions. It may or may not be significant that all of the 7 failures were those connected to a Peco PL-11 side mounted point motor. (The 8th diode connected to that motor appears to function correctly) Electronics is not my customary skill set, and I have been very annoyed with myself for not analysing this problem more quickly. I would be grateful for advice on whether:- Diodes degrade in storage? Diodes can be damaged by clumsy installation or overheating with soldered connections? Anybody else has encountered a problem with this particular point motor? Is there likely to be any problem with the point motor that I can test for? How often are diodes likely to fail in ordinary service, and should I re-design my installation so as to make them more easily removeable? (I would supply a picture, but at the moment the whole board is a bit of a mess!)

I think the map is dated. The National Library of Scotland also provide a very useful 'then and now' comparison facility. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=13.57784682501773&lat=54.6382&lon=-1.6359&layers=1&right=BingHyb The maps used are selectable. I find the OS 25" to the mile for 1914 to be most useful.

Well done you! I've got a lot of work to do to get as far as you have.

We are fortunate in County Durham to have these: http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/3691/Railway-paths Please be a 'polite cyclist' though, some peoples manners seem to have deteriorated in recent years.

Look, there were some good bits, even if I was in my uncomfortable twenties. (I don't regard humans as properly 'grown-up' until they have reached the age of 26 or so.) There was the long hot summer (in the UK) of 76, in which I spent a lot of time on the ECML, or driving on the A1 and/or diversionary routes. Points to remember include:- The sleeping car attendant who attempted to sing all night (or so it seemed). Crossing the Humber on the paddle-wheeled ferry on a magical summer evening. Setting up home in the NE. Starting my first 'proper' railway. And then there was the story of 'The (up) Flying Scotsman and the Soup'...……. But that would take too long to write out this morning and on this tablet.

Please see my edit to my previous post. We should probably cease this conversation. We are approaching this from a different perspective and, I suspect, different backgrounds!

Your reply double plus ungood. Sorry. Reasons quoted above in relation to 'Newspeak'. Advertisement and self-advertisement are both advertisement. Back to my wiring my storage sidings. My least favourite railway job.

Thank you for your reply. However, I am afraid we may not be speaking the same language. I am an older person, and am very suspicious of politically and commercially inspired 'Newspeak'. ( Re-reading 1984 recently was quite depressing.) My original post suggested three purposes for rolling stock finishes. 1 - Protection and preservation of constructional materials 2 - Advertisement 3 - To demonstrate pride in craftsmanship. What is now called 'Corporate Branding' was something of which 19th Century Railway Companies were well aware of. I would describe it as 'Advertisement'. In some cases features like necessary panelling of wooden structures and different paint and/or varnish finishes became part of what might now be called a 'brand'. For example LNWR and GNR/ECJS/GNNEJS coaches, both of wood panelled construction, would present a different 'corporate image' at York station in, say, 1910. The primary purpose of the panelling and the multiple coats of paint and/or varnish in both cases was to protect the constructional materials. Today the two functions are separate. Coating and paint do one job, and a vinyl overlay the other. What you call 'social messaging', I would still call 'advertisement' although its motivation and intention might be other than purely commercial. The lining-out of vehicles, whether emphasising structural features like cladding bands or coach panels, or whether entirely decorative such as cab or tender plating, is, I suggest, demonstrating pride in craftsmanship. I call it 'engineering as art'. It also of course became part of the advertisement or 'brand'. 'Camouflage' is interesting, although fortunately so-far little required on British railways. Is it a kind of 'anti-advertisement'? The change of the LNER electric stock in the NE from red and cream to blue and cream is the only example I can think of; apart from the specifically military coastal defence trains. So, are there any other reasons out there? Do the curved or wavy vinyls we see on some current rolling stock suggest a pride in the shape and form of modern engineering? Back in my world, I need at least one train with LNE and GW or LMS or SR liveries. So many lovely models are based south of York. North of Darlington I have more options!

Re: Locomotive and rolling stock liveries. Please excuse a question to this august forum. There appear to me to be three reasons for 'painting and decorating' railway stock in any era:- 1 - Protection and preservation of constructional materials 2 - Advertisement 3 - To demonstrate pride in craftsmanship. Can anyone think of any other reasons?

And again but written in Cyrillic please...….

Weren't some British tanks constructed in railway workshops?

I'm sure I read somewhere that the army couldn't cope with the complexities of the RHDR and smashed the interlocking to run trains where they thought they should run.

Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten was not the most successful of naval commanders, although his father was probably more capable apart from an inability to cope with W S Churchill and rampant xenophobia. I'm sure I read recently that 'Mountbatten Pink' was regarded as very effective at dawn and dusk - admittedly when many naval encounters could take place - but shone very nicely in the mid-day sun. Perhaps that shows up the importance of the 'light gauge' - as at Coronel and Jutland - in pre-radar days. I cannot see the value in camouflaging armoured trains though, or indeed the point of armoured trains at all!

Except that Anna Karenina was not written until 1878, and in 1854 Russia was an active enemy. It does seem to have been a particularly pointless war, even if it did provide a number of later Victorian street names. Does Castle Aching have an Alma Avenue, or a Balaclava Broadway?

Re: Railways in light literature. There is a lovely account of Marylebone (and indeed of the GCR London extension) in A G Macdonell's "England their England", first published 1933. In my Pan edition it starts on page 165. This book is a lovely tongue-in-cheek account of England and parts of Scotland post WW1, and also includes a world-class account of a village cricket match. It's a shame that it's set in Kent not Norfolk, but I'm sure that some of the rural qualities described could be found in other countries as well. Re: W H Smith. This gentleman (son of the founder) was active in Conservative politics, and when First Lord of the Admiralty provided (allegedly) the exemplar for the First Lord's song in HMS Pinafore. It might need to be pointed out that the First Lord is a political appointment, not a naval one. If I remember correctly the last sea officer to be appointed as First Lord was probably St Vincent, and that did not set a good precedent. ( This is ignoring the Duke of Clarence, later William IV. He was not a good precedent either.) The senior naval appointment has for some time been known as the First Sea Lord. Confusing the two roles can be controversial, as in the example given by W S Churchill. Re: Jackie Fisher At least by his own account, he didn't have anyone to accompany him when he joined his first ship in 1854. I suppose he have got to Portsmouth by railway at that date? Had Fisher been the young officer in the compartment with the young lady, he would have found room to dance!

Re: Above discussions on religion and religiosity What are the views of the WNR Directors on the running of Sunday trains?