Four candles?

Customer: Have you got four candles my good man?

Parts store operative (in a Ronnie Barker accent): Nah gov'nr, we got bleedin loads of em!




So there I was at 'Steam', the museum of The Greatest Western Railway last week in Swindon, never having given much thought to coach handles before, to imagine that there may in fact be a significant choice in the handle department. Candles would be easier.

These of course are just external coach handles. Imagine how the overall numbers swell when all manner of grab handles, grab rails, not to mention those for other stock are brought into the mix? Then there's all the internal handles! The Great Western Railway must have made, or sourced hundreds, if not thousands of differing handles of all uses over its long history. 

This is all very interesting (no, really it is), but way too much information for a railway modeller to have inside their head when building coaches. Frankly, it's beyond a joke, well at least up to 4mm scale!

The 'Steam' museum is fabulous though and I unreservedly recommend it to chaps of all ages.

https://www.steam-museum.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Best,

Bill

What's a "Feely Box" I hesitate to ask?   

Is that like, "Touchy/Feely?"

Why does it need a box?

So many questions . . . .   :shock:

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

What's a "Feely Box" I hesitate to ask?   

Is that like, "Touchy/Feely?"

Why does it need a box?

So many questions . . . .   :shock:

The feely box is part of entertainment culture in Western Europe Max, accessible to all genders and ages. We often used to have them at our monthly classic car club meets, where a cotton bag would have a car part sewn, or stapled inside, and the punters would try and guess what it was. Half a dozen bags would provide 30 minutes chat and groping and at 50p a go, provided a small reward for the winner. This would work for MRCs as well, always useful for fund raising.

In the photo above, the feely bags are in a purpose made rack below the handle display, with the bags inside wooden pigeon holes, the holes large enough for hand access, but small enough to prevent cheating or unauthorised removal of artifact!

Curiously, the sign on the bottom right of the handle display included the rather inappropriate direction not to touch! 

Bill

Thanks, Bill.

One learns something every day.   :cool: