West End Workbench

[Danby Wiske]

I still find it hard to believe that the French didn't seem to know what was about to hit them, given what had happened in Spain and Poland. It must have been frustrating for the men in the Maginot Line to see their government waving white flags behind them...

[Atlantic 3279]

... it seems to me that the French governments saw no similar reasons to hesitate to impose or reinforce French rule and identity upon long established German speaking communities of the former Rhine Duchies of Alsace-Lorraine.

Can't disagree with most of that, but don't make the mistake of assuming the native language was German - Alsatian is a different dialect which both regimes did their best to stamp out, although it persists to this day. One of Isabelle's great aunts who lived to over 100 and died only a few years ago only spoke Alsatian and was unable to communicate with anyone in her care home until a Swiss-German resident was admitted.

Indeed. Germanic languages and dialects vary greatly, including standard Dutch, Friesian, English, lowland Scottish, and "Doric" among many, and I have therefore amended the original post to accommodate that point. Digressing to some extent, the Walloon speakers of Belgium have a Latin / Romance language that isn't French either...
A "legal" difference, for the international statesman and diplomats, was of course that Alsace-Lorraine was officially part of France, having been so at various times before 1871 and declared to be part of France again by virtue of the Treaty of Versailles, whose terms had been dictated by the Western powers and imposed on Germany after the Great War, whereas Belgium was officially neutral, its neutral status being guaranteed by other states, including (at one time or another) France!
It's a good job that Swiss-German lady you mentioned came from the right part of Switzerland, otherwise there might still have been no mutual comprehension.

[Hatfield Shed]

I still find it hard to believe that the French didn't seem to know what was about to hit them, given what had happened in Spain and Poland...

There was considerable establishment denial of the danger, based on what looked like solid evidence; France had its Maginot line and a large army with significant superiority in armour.

What very few had recognised was that the German armed forces had rewritten the military game plan on the basis of a leap forward in continuous secure mobile communications, which enabled avoidance of any locations where resistance was effective, and concentrated advance into poorly defended areas. French units were swiftly bypassed, and left with minimal information on where to counter-attack effectively; while an integrated German command and communication structure could deploy aerial artillery and fast moving light armour to create confusion and disrupt French communications and supply lines. And behind this assault, most German soldiers advancing into France did so on the basis of horse power, on routes that kept them clear of significant opposition...

[jwealleans]

It must have been frustrating for the men in the Maginot Line to see their government waving white flags behind them...

To the extent that they ignored the Government instruction to surrender and only stopped resisting when ordered to do so by their direct superiors around 5 days later.

[Chas Levin]

Well stated posts gents and as Jonathan says, nothing to disagree with there. I was perhaps a little loose in my language and should perhaps have said that even allowing for the various factors that led to the situation as it stood at the start of the war, I still find it surprising that what happened was found so surprising at the time. Anyone who's built sand castles on a beach - or tried to exclude ants from a building - will know how easily walls are circumnavigated.

But, as you both point out, wiser heads than ours - or certainly than mine - have pored over this: apologies Jonathan for diverting the main thrust of your thread (railway modelling) around the perimeter of your central fortifications (the LNER)!

... it seems to me that the French governments saw no similar reasons to hesitate to impose or reinforce French rule and identity upon long established German speaking communities of the former Rhine Duchies of Alsace-Lorraine.

Can't disagree with most of that, but don't make the mistake of assuming the native language was German - Alsatian is a different dialect which both regimes did their best to stamp out, although it persists to this day. One of Isabelle's great aunts who lived to over 100 and died only a few years ago only spoke Alsatian and was unable to communicate with anyone in her care home until a Swiss-German resident was admitted.

Though I must just say, that is unfortunate, to be incommunicado whilst needing help and care: I hope Isabelle's great aunt was able to take the difficulty in her stride, or that she was very patient. In extreme old age, people either seem to become endlessly patient, or dreadfully impatient!

[Pebbles]

In the battle for France, Germany had significant tactical air supremacy with their air force acting as long range artillery. Front line forces no matter how large are vastly less effective if they cannot be supported and provisioned. This was a lesson learned and later exercised by Allied Forces. D Day simply wouldn't not have been practical without air support.

[exile]

... it seems to me that the French governments saw no similar reasons to hesitate to impose or reinforce French rule and identity upon long established German speaking communities of the former Rhine Duchies of Alsace-Lorraine.

Can't disagree with most of that, but don't make the mistake of assuming the native language was German - Alsatian is a different dialect which both regimes did their best to stamp out, although it persists to this day. One of Isabelle's great aunts who lived to over 100 and died only a few years ago only spoke Alsatian and was unable to communicate with anyone in her care home until a Swiss-German resident was admitted.

And in support of this and lest anyone thinks that the Alsatian language was the province of little old ladies, when I was living and working just to the North in Rheinland-Pfalz (but known to all of the locals as simply "Die Pfalz" and to UK historians as the Palatinate - part of Bavaria far to the West of its main lands) we would regularly stray across the border to France to enjoy the offerings of the big Hypermarket north of Strasbourg.

With Strasbourg being one of the centres of European government, the checkouts would proudly display- which European languages the checkout assistants spoke and they covered most if not all of the then EU. It was normal to see Alsatian as one of those languages. I never did however see Pfälzisch listed.

[jwealleans]

Well here we are two months in to a new year and I seem to have spent most of my modelling time building LMS wagons. One or two things I can legitimately show here, though:

Almost certainly my best buy of the year even if it was in January. Visiting Pontefract show on the Sunday, I spied a NuCast O2 box on the club stand for £70. Not a bad price, looked quite well made but was at the back of the table and I didn't really need one..... I thought 'probably worth it just for the wheels - I'll see whether it's there when i get back'. By about 3pm and getting ready to go, I wandered back to the stand having forgotten about it and saw the box still there. I picked it up for a better look and found, not an O2 but a really nice looking O1 conversion. After that it wasn't leaving my grasp, money changed hands and home it came. It's been very well done, nice big Pitman motor, runs very well on the bench (the test track is dismantled at the moment) and I'm looking forward to testing it on Grantham.



I had a lettering session through the week and the Flat T is now ready for weathering.



Ian MacDonald over on RMWeb has just announced a brass kit for this wagon, which was also built by the LMS and BR. If anyone's thinking of trying a brass kit, I can't recommend Ian's highly enough.

Just before Christmas I acquired an ABS Bolrecs (warwell) kit on Ebay, from Chas Levin of this parish as it turned out. I put that together over the holiday and it will go into the pipe train on Wickham Market when complete. I can see I need to reinstate part of the queen post casting I managed to damage.



Finally I've started putting together another Graeme King Conflat V to carry one of the steel containers I had printed last year.



At Doncaster Show, Brian at 247 Developments showed me a set of 6 containers which they have just introduced. Most are LMS, but there is an LNER ventilated steel BL in the set and he did say that these are available individually by order. They're priced at £4 each.

[Hatfield Shed]

That O1 was a steal! The drive to the third coupled axle lends it a little elegance over the O2.

...Just before Christmas I acquired an ABS Bolrecs (warwell) kit on Ebay, from Chas Levin of this parish as it turned out...

I reckon it must be circa fifty years since this kit came out; almost certain I bought mine from KX models, on my way home from another very early start in the smoke. Chose to take the rail jacks off mine, and it is still running on my layout, covered in BR filth to conceal the LNER lettering...

Every time I look at at any of my ABS kit builds, a happy thought of the late Adrian is prompted. My late Pa and his colleagues held him in the highest regard for his engineering design skills on airframe at BAC Filton, and were quite shocked when he quit for model railway kit production...

[Woodcock29]

All these models look good Jonathan.
Please remind me where I would get the lettering for the steel container as I think I'll get a couple of these.
Look forward to catching up at Thornbury in early May - I'm all set to be there for the Friday and Saturday.
Andrew

[jwealleans]

Thanks, Andrew. I think the lettering is on a pdf on Stephen McCotter (carlislecitadel)'s thread.

The pdf is from Sascha Freudenberg; the container 247 are doing is their own. The pdf also covers the stackable (BLS) diagramn which 247 have not done.

We're making arrangements for Bristol at the moment so yes, it's in our minds and very much looking forward to it also.

[Chas Levin]

Delighted to see that ABS kit so beautifully built Jonathan! Much better than having it snoozing at the back of my stash.

[carlislecitadel2]

Hi folks,
Sorry to have been away from the forum for so long and its likely to continue for a bit longer unfortunately. However I did make it down to the North Down Model Railway Society's annual show in Bangor the Sunday before last, possibly the best show in Northern Ireland for years. I even managed to get my LNER coal train of mainly NER/LNER hopper kits round the UMRC's Silburn layout several time without any derailments.

While at the show, I picked up this little book for my dad, for the princely sum of £1. I assume I am not breaking any copyright posting a couple of pics from it here as its nearly 100 years old now and I think copyright lasts 50 years. If its allowed, I will post some more when I get a chance.

Stephen

[jwealleans]

That looks a really interesting booklet, Stephen. the sort of thing I'd leap on if I saw it at a stall and my wife would give me one of 'those looks' when I brought it home. Online it seems to go for between £30 and £40, so I'll just keep an eye out at shows, i think.

I've been working on Grantham stock after York and before Bristol. There were the usual issues with things breaking or needing attention, though not as many as usual. There has been some thought devoted to managing the way locomotives are allocated to trains on the layout. We were below par at York and while some of the running problems we had on Saturday were down to the layout and were resolved or at least improved until permanent repairs were possible, some were down to less experienced operators sending out inappropriate locomotives. Those of us who've been with the layout from the start have got used to seeing certain engines on certain trains and use them again almost without thinking about it. New operators don't have that exposure and can't tell just by looking how good a performer a loco might be or what it's best used for. That most especially applies to engines which go onto and come off shed.

Graham has therefore devised a system of testing and classifying engines for mainline/non-stop use only and then for stopping trains and on/off shed. We spent last Sunday with part of the layout erected and a test through the more taxing parts of the dead frog pointwork in place which the two crates of engines I'd taken up there were put through. Hopefully the end result will bear fruit at Bristol.

Immediate effect is the addition of tender pickups to a couple of engines:





17 is a Bachmann K3 which was part of Tom Foster's stud for Leaman Road. When Tom changed modelling direction, he sold it to me. Tony Wright had built a new mechanism for it and fitted a brass cab from SEF. The original tender had been retained. I finished it off and it's worked mineral trains on Grantham ever since. Although it will never go onto shed, having only screw link couplings, it does need to work it's way through some long ladders of points and crossovers and (whisper it in case Sir hears) was slightly hesitant in places.



Bachmann tenders are dead easy to fit pickups to, the biggest nuisance is often cleaning paint off the back of the wheels. I use copperclad sleepers as a base as they're readily available and a convenient shape for what's needed. I've mentioned the the plugs before; they're from Peter's Spares and work very well imo.

The O1 worked very well over the York weekend, but it was slated to have extra pxckups fitted and you can't ever have too many, really. Kit built tenders can be a bit more of a challenge if pickups haven't been designed in when they were built, but this one wasn't a problem.



I spent part of yesterday working through my crate of Hornby pacifics and a couple of those had to have the tenders dismantled and the pickups cleaned and tweaked. It's funny how they conspire to lose contact even though they're way up in the frames and you'd have thought away from anything which might bend or distort them.

Finally a genuine fault. C1 3275, a performer on the layout since Day 1, was reported as being 'unhappy' in reverse. Testing here proved this to be true so onto the bench it came. 3275 came to me as one of a pair of EM gauge K's kits, really nicely built by someone a long time ago.



Of the pair this was the better in that the K's motor still worked, but it had to be converted to OO and as part of that I reworked it such that the cylinders were part of the frames rather then the body - as designed you had to thread the crossheads back into place every time the body went back on. It was also repainted to a mor eaccurate shade of green.



On examination today, one of the small sleeper lengths used to mount the pickups had detached from the underside of the chassis. You can see it below, it's the upper one. It's now been epoxied back into place. You can also see here the brass extension I added to the K's chassis to carry the stretcher for the cylinders.

[Dave]

Did I not send you a copy of that booklet sometime ago.
Nice work as usual.