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unsui
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Likes it here |
Registered: September 2007
Messages: 338
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No Message Body
[Updated on: Fri, 24 October 2008 19:51] |
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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You really ask yourself "who am I" in all situations?
You must get some looks while in the take out line at Burger King.....?
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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You know what I discovered recently? There are dudes who are into model trains but who build real steam engines. I mean these models actually run off steam and not electricity like the Lionel trains my Grandfather has. The boilers on the engines really generate steam and the pistons and wheels operate off the steam. Awesome!
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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There's no limit to the modelmaker's enthusiasm - some build steam locomotives, some build model buses, some build model trams (streetcars). I envy them their ability and I'm fascinated by the detailed accuracy they achieve. Alas, I don't have that kind of patience.
One particular enthusiast worth a mention was W. J. Bassett-Lowke. He formed a company which manufactured model railways, including live steam models (Gauge O, and possibly larger - I'm not sure without doing a bit of research). The company still exists, but is now a subsidiary of Chicago-based Corgi International.
But the point of this post is that his ambitions widened, and with them the gauge of track involved. He became a pioneer of 15-inch gauge - now THAT'S what I call a model! 15-inch is just large enough to allow a driver to sit in the locomotive. Nowadays, there are quite a number of 15-inch gauge lines around the world, but two of the best are the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, (www.rhdr.org.uk) which runs for 13 miles along the Kent Coast, and the shorther but much more scenic Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway (www.ravenglass-railway.co'uk) which runs for 7 miles from Ravenglass on the Cumbrian coast to Dalegarth in Eskdale, one of the radial valleys of the English Lake District. Bassett-Lowke himself was a one-time owner of this line.
If you ever had childhood ambitions of being an engine driver (is the US term 'engineer'?) these two will have you positively drooling!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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When I was a kid, there was a man down the road, about 5-6 houses that had a train trach running out the door to his basement. I think it must have been about 15 inches in track width.... anyhoo, every once in a while he would be seen riding the train around his large yard. He had all sorts of train typr doo-dads around the yard and it all looked like a scaled up version of a hobby room model railway.
When he would be out puffing around the yard he would happily give all the kids in the area a ride. He even showed us how to drive it.
Oh.... I remember that his wife was a herpatologist. She studied snakes and had all kinds. Very creepy woman as I remember, but her husband was nice.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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No Message Body
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Whoa dude! Most excellent website and info! Thanks! It would be so fun to have a mini-railroad like this! One time on the way to Canada for vacation we stopped at a place called Strasburg in our state of Pennsylvania because my Grandfather wanted to see the steamers there. Totally awesome. Steam engines seem like they are breathing! I heard there are still some old steam launches afloat and I would love to be aboard one. England seems to have a lot of steamers still running. My Grandad would go bonkers there. All our steam engines were black I think but you guys over there painted them in these awesome colors. That streamlined blue engine is wicked cool.
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I'm a member of the steamboat association of Great Britain. I used to have a friend who had two steam boats and took the four of us for rides in them.
One of them had a keel condenser which cools the steam so it turns back into water and greatly increases the efficiency of the engine because the exhaust is to a near-vacuum. It also means the engine doesn't puff like a railways engine.
The association has a web site with some nice pictures at http://www.steamboat.org.uk/
I can vouch for both the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch and the Ravensglass and Eskdale railways. I've taken my children on both of them. The father of two of my grandchildren is a steam railways enthusiast. He must have taken us on twenty or thirty of them.
Anthony
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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OOH OOH.... Loves steam boats..... I got the chaqnce to ride on one a long time ago.... It was a hoot!!!
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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