Today is a year since Tony started a new chapter in his book.
We celebrate this creative, imaginative, inventive man, all be it with heavy hearts. We feel privileged to have been a part of Tony's life.
It would be lovely to think that Bloggers are still being inspired by Tony's army and Imaginations world he created.
We miss you everyday Tony.
Tina, Laura and Laraine.
Today would have been Tony's 71st birthday.
Remembering this unique man, and his imaginative, humerus writing.....not forgetting his very niche hobby, which gave him so much pleasure. We hope he continues to inspire the modelling community across the world.
Tina, Laura & Laraine
We miss him everyday.....
THE RELENTLESS RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.
This book was recommended by Steve J in his excellent blog so I bought a copy from Amazon.
I am pleased to report this book is just as good as Steve said. It covers the period from the establishment of the EIC in 1599 through the early years as just another Western trading company until around 1765 when the EIC transformed into a major power in India and on to 1803 by which time the Company was in direct control of the whole sub continent.
The book is very well written and researched and gives a excellent account of all the various individuals both British and Indian who, each in his own way, encouraged the extraordinary growth of the Company. The sheer scale of the Company's activities is incredible. It was clearly the first global conglomerate yet wielded military power on a scale never seen before or since. The various military campaigns are discussed in rather limited detail although the background to each is covered in depth to illustrate how each contributed to the endless growth of the Company.
The EIC eventually became too dominant a factor in the British economy to be allowed to continue operating without increasing UK government control which resulted in a series of legislative changes during the first half of the 1800's. This culminated in the transfer of all the Company's possessions to the Crown in 1859 after the Mutiny. The EIC limped on as a rump trading company for a few more years and eventually ceased trading in 1874 when it's charter finally expired.
An excellent book on the early history of British India and the rise of the EIC and recommended to all interested in either or both of those subjects.
Following my cataract surgery I am long last free of the restrictions on heavy work and lifting. This means I have just been able to cut the grass for the first time this year and I plan to do some serious tidying up later. The down side is that I am now eligible to do housework too which is due on Thursday my wife tells me !!!! In addition I have also been able to have an eye test and new glasses are on order. I hope within the next 7 to 10 days to receive these and finally drive my car again after just over 9 weeks of being a passenger only.... I cant wait !!!!!!!
Despite not being able to see well etc we seem to have been out and about frequently this past few weeks. I think my wife has felt sorry for me not being able to drive so has taken me out perhaps more than usual, we certainly seem to have eaten lunch out a lot recently. Nevertheless I have managed to get some modelling time and have made good progress on the batch of 30 GS wagons as seen below.
Construction is complete and the wheels have been primed, next step is to paint the bodies olive drab. The horses for these wagons are also made and have received the initial primer and top coat ready for gluing onto the wagons once they are painted. The rest of each horse will be painted once glued on the wagons.
I have also made progress on the infantry battalion. All the painting is complete and all that's left to do is two coats of varnish.
This shelf shows the infantry privates of the battalion some 216 strong.
The photo above shows 18 infantry lieutenants and the medical, heavy weapons and QM privates.
The final photo shows all the officers and NCO's of the battalion with the staff and signals privates.
Now off to the garden.......
THE RAILWAY REVOLUTION.
I recently found this book in a charity shop for £2. As the author is the famous L.T.C. Rolt I knew it would be a good buy and it is !!!!
Basically it tells the story of the working lives of the famous father and son duo who were largely responsible for the introduction and development of the railway in Britain and throughout the world. The early years of George are particularly interesting in that he had no formal engineering training and very little actual education. Instead he was blessed with a natural genius for engineering. Recognising this and his own limitations he ensured his son Robert received the very best education which resulted in him eventually possessing far superior engineering and administrative skills to those of his father.
The stories of the creation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the Rainhill Trials and the Great Tubular Bridges among others make for fascinating reading even for the non railway historian while the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway , the largest ever civil engineering project at the time, is a testament to human ingenuity and fortitude.
Although this book will particularly appeal to the railway fan it also provides a superb account of the engineering element of the industrial revolution and some of the extraordinary, gifted and visionary people who created that revolution. Overall a very well written and highly recommended book by an excellent author.
Apart from not being able to drive, another problem with having my cataracts done is that for six weeks I am not allowed to do any lifting or other heavy work. This includes gardening and grass cutting. At this time of year I, with everyone else, expects to start preparing the garden for the coming summer including cutting the grass which, in my case, is already looking a bit shaggy. However I must leave it to grow out of control and no doubt become infested with an abundance of exotic wildlife !!!!
Another "interesting" activity that is banned for me is housework. However, much like the garden, I have no doubt I will be doing a lot of catching up when the time is right !!!! All that said one positive has arisen in that I have got a good amount of spare time right now, and, with my new close range vision, therefore the opportunity to do more modelling. In fact I have done more this past week than for several months.
The batch of field kitchens that had been sitting around since last autumn have finally been completed and issued. I have now started on a batch of GS wagons as seen below.
The bodies are done and next step is to add wheels. The full construction process can be seen on a post under the Construction Techniques label. In addition I have made a start on an infantry battalion. The soldiers have all been painted in uniform green and the addition of rank insignia is now under way.
Apologies for the strange photo. The soldiers are painted on my "work" shelves and had to be squashed up on my "photo studio" window cill to get them all in. As a matter of interest, this is what 407 screws look like during the painting process. Also note the flag bearers in the bottom left corner.
The shelves are plywood and were light brown in colour as still seen on the edges however years of processing thousands of screws have changed the colour of the boards to a dirty looking green.
Just out of interest, the latest count of my soldiers shows 63,488 are with my armies at present.
Two days ago I had my second cataract operation, on my right eye this time. Once again quite painless and problem free. Already I can see quite well. Interestingly my regular distance glasses are of no earthly use anymore but my very old reading glasses are giving me tolerable distance vision. However, as planned, reading etc is best without glasses at all. I now have to wait four weeks before I can visit my optician to get tested for new distance glasses. By the time I get them it will have been at least 8 weeks without driving !!!! To me that is the worst part of having these procedures...I really miss driving a lot.
The good news is that my wife has cast aside her refusal to drive my car..."too big, too fast and too expensive"... and driven my car a few times over the last couple of weeks as she thinks it bad for the car to be left unused for weeks on end, which is quite right of course. Naturally she drives it just fine as I expected, she is a great driver, and in fact has put her foot down hard once or twice and had a smile on her face when she did, again, as I expected !!!!
My other good news is that I became a grandad for the third time yesterday. A second, so far officially unnamed, grandson, whom I have labelled Freddie alongside his brother Buster and sister Squirt, much to their Mothers irritation !!!!!!!!! Grandads can have such fun...for example feeding the children chocolate and fizzy pop etc before sending them home !!!!!!! Am I bad ??????
THE NAVAL COMMANDERS WHO MADE BRITAIN GREAT.
Another book from my library and a complete change of subject. While not a huge navel enthusiast I do like reading about the navel history of Britain and this book offers a good overview of that history over the ages via the lives of some of the greatest admirals in the Royal Navy.
The lives and careers of eleven admirals are discussed including Lord Howard 1536-1624, Robert Blake 1599-1657, James II 1633-1701, George Anson 1697-1762, Samuel Hood 1724-1816, John Jervis 1735-1823, William Parker 1781-1866, Geoffrey Hornby 1825-1895, John Fisher 1841-1920, David Beatty 1871-1936 and Andrew Cunningham 1883-1963. Each is assessed as having had a significant and positive impact on the art of being an admiral.
Interestingly Nelson is not included. There are a couple of reasons for this, firstly there are already a lot of books about him and secondly , he is assumed to be the "perfect" admiral, perhaps the best admiral ever. Those in this book are the admirals who came before Nelson and provided the foundations for his career and success and those who subsequently took his legacy forward. Between them these are the admirals who made the Royal Navy the greatest navy in world history over a period of some 400 years.
Each admiral gets his own chapter that not only provides a detailed character assessment of the man but also outlines his full career and the political and military circumstances during his time in command. Naturally his actions in battle are also recorded.
Overall a fascinating book that will appeal to anyone interested in British naval history but also as a well written general history book.
Just a brief note to report that having had cataract surgery at the end of last week I can now just about see enough to read blogs and type this post. The procedure went well and was totally pain free however I now have quite different levels of vision in each eye which is very disconcerting. I am due to have my other eye done later this week after which I shall not be able to use my glasses at all. However I should have excellent close range vision and be well able to read, watch TV and type or indeed paint and model. Driving will not however be an option. I should be able to get tested for new glasses for long distance around early April ....I will miss driving so much !!!!!!
I have noticed that several of the bloggers I follow have recently included photos of their painting arrangements. This is very interesting and supports the often mentioned theory that we all like to know more about the "person" behind the blog. With that in mind I thought I would join in and post some details of my working arrangements.
I am very lucky in that I have a dedicated modelling room. It is the smallest bedroom in the house. However I have also been allowed three further display units and two book cases in the spare room which is basically my wife's dressing and general storage room.
The first photo is from the doorway of my room and shows the bookcases on the right and the modelling unit on the left with one of my four display units above. Also seen in the foreground is my armchair where I do my computer work including writing this blog. Being a lifelong amateur woodworker, all the furniture (except the armchair of course) has been made by me in my workshop, the roof of which can just be seen outside in the bottom right corner of the window. Like everyone else, book storage is an endless and unsolvable problem !!!!!!
Well I hope these photos are of interest, I also hope others share their arrangements too.
A GRISLY BRITISH RAILWAY HISTORY.
Some readers may recall that back in January I reviewed a book on British Railway Tunnel disasters. I mentioned that I had found another book by the same author and had bought it from Amazon. This is the review of that book.
The book is divided into three elements based on the title. "Death" includes details of the first death on British railways being that of Huskisson during the launch of the first railway ever between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. Also covered is the accident that occurred at Sonning in 1841 being the first fatal accident on the GWR and, at the time, the biggest loss of life in a railway accident. Also discussed in this chapter is the impact of railway construction in the larger cities especially London and the impact this had on old grave sites and the work needed to remove thousands of bodies.
The second section of the book covers "Dynamite" and includes not only details of the use of dynamite in railway construction and the inevitable accidents but also the perhaps not so well known terrorist campaigns in the 1880's and 1890's by Anarchists and Fenians against the railways.
Finally the last section on "Disaster" covers the Tay Bridge Collapse of 1879 which was caused by the failure to use the most up to date engineering standards of the time and the Hexthorpe accident in 1887 which was caused largely by the railway company's failure to utalise the most modern braking systems then available.
Every incident account is based on contemporary newspaper report supplemented by the official accident reports therefore the language used is of the time being sensational and colourful. The level of detail is extraordinary. Often full details of the dead are included even the amounts of compensation paid to relatives is revealed.
Overall a fascinating book and highly recommended especially to those interested in early British railway history however even casual readers will find this book a great read.
Three and a half weeks ago I tested positive for Covid. Two days later my wife and daughter also tested positive. Within 5 or 6 days they both tested negative but it took me ten days to become negative.
I have to say I have never felt so sick in my life. The symptoms were like those of a cold but a super cold, everything was many more times worse. I am the first to admit that I am not a good patient. I have been lucky enough to have enjoyed good health, never been ill, never been in hospital, no broken bones and got all my teeth and even a generous supply of hair. Therefore even a normal cold really gets to me.
The first week was spent on the couch watching tv and feeling sorry for myself. The second week I managed to add in a few short local walks although they left me exhausted. The third week I actually started to feel better. I have now fully recovered, as of today I feel 99% normal, my normal that is !!!!
However I have never felt so unmotivated to do anything. It seems I can only walk, go shopping or watch tv, even reading has been a bit of a chore and blogging or modelling has really been a step too far. Today is the first day I have actually felt interested enough to read some blogs and of course post this note.
I hope that my motivation will now start to recover so I can get back into modelling and blogging as well as develop some enthusiasm maybe even to work in the garden rather than just looking out the window. For sure there are many others who have been far sicker with Covid than me but has anyone been so stripped of enthusiasm or interest in normal activities than me ????? I really feel like I have become a vegetable these past few weeks, only now are a few shoots of interest in life reappearing.
A very unpleasant experience in so many ways.
The book basically details how Britain's railways introduced a wide variety of safety devices as a direct result of lessons learned from accidents over the years. All the major accidents on Britain's tracks from the earliest days until the 1970's are discussed using information drawn from the official Railway Inspectorate reports, with a detailed analysis of what went wrong and exactly how it could have been avoided by the use of some new equipment or working practice changes.
I suspect all railway enthusiast have this book but it is so well written and interesting it will probably appeal to anyone with even just a passing interest in railways. Very highly recommended indeed.
