Edward Thompson: Wartime C.M.E. Discussion

Actually, I think that five sleepers survived to be preserved but they all had asbestos insulation and were later scrapped

 

Didn’t realise there were as many as that, I saw some archive footage of Blue Peter making its way from Doncaster to Dinting a few days ago what happened to the Thompson coach that made the journey with it?

 

Was probably this one, now at the North Norfolk Railway:
http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=957

 

Cheers mate

 

A full rake of 'Thompsons' looks stunning in this.....

 

Pulled by your namesake too. It's certainly a beautiful film. I have always been struck by the blood/custard Thompson coaches, they are indeed very pretty.

 

I used to think that, but now feel it's more visually appropriate than the 'Cross' simply because of the voice over (talking about crowds/summer/holidays).

 

Now you know why I chose it!

 

Persona non grata. An interesting position to find ones self in.

I have now been told by no less than five members of the LNER Society that I am now “persona non grata”. My views on Thompson and, in reaching out to the chairman to help present the primary evidence, amicably, to try and stem many of the frankly ludicrous things allowed in their own online presence, resulting in my being discussed and subsequently turned on by an entire society, so it seems.

You can’t win them all, so they say, but the mystery of what exactly is being said behind closed doors at that particular society (not least the unkind review of the book by chairman Rupert Brown) and the undue influence that is being spread to people across the heritage railway industry regarding myself by them is truly extraordinary and not the least bit bewildering.

I remain grateful for the Gresley Society: you could not have found better support and discussion, nor help. Grateful to the more balanced reviews, feedback and constructive discussion found there and elsewhere. Grateful to Tim Hillier-Graves, who has given me sage advice on dealing with similar issues.

Has anyone else experienced such things in their writing?

 

Is this the LNER Society Facebook page you're on about Simon?

 

That was the original starting point, but has now led to several members contacting me. I was in conversation with a well known modeller this week and several more have come out of the woodwork.

 

Just ignore them.

 

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

And follow Mr @Spamcan81 ‘s advice!

 

Yep

I joined the LNER Society a good few years back .
I posted some stuff calling in to question Gresley's practice , re derived motion and lack of standardisation , plus i dared to say some good things about Thompson.
they weren't pleased when i mentioned the Cox report
my membership was rescinded and al my posts were removed so you won't find them!

why they call it the LNER Society rather than the "We luv Nigel Society is a mystery.

 

Does a single one advance any argument supported by evidence? Or for that matter, demonstrate any form of independant thought has been involved in a considered stance?

I suspect we both know the more likely answers to those. If you still find yourself inclined to undeservedly polite responses, might I commend the orthographic alternate* recommended by the not yet late Sir William Connolly.

*commencing with phonic equivalent "ph"

 

And meanwhile the Gresley Society has been open-minded!

 

It can certainly be a struggle to read books with "walls of text" as you describe - over-long paragraphs and over-long chapters without section breaks. Some authors are also prone to dump every known fact or every thought into the text, leaving the reader to wish that they had used far fewer words. So all credit to you for avoiding those pitfalls.

Ref the Thompson coaches, it is unfortunate that not enough have survived to create even a part-rake. Gresley & Bulleid coaches form a larger stock in preservation and will also be a bigger topic for your planned books on those engineers, embracing EMUs as well as hauled stock.

Getting back to your Thompson book, I've been pondering a couple of sentences in the concluding remarks on Page 183:

"The LNER were virtually alone amongst the grouping companies in having many three cylindered locomotives available for work. These locomotives were all using variations on the Gresley conjugated valve gear".

Arguably, this over-states the dominance of Gresley in the British 3-cylinder field. Looking at the numbers, the LNER had just over 1000 3-cylinder engines with the completion of V2 building in 1944 - a little over 800 Gresley-designed and 200 Raven-designed. The LMS had about 590 3-cylinder engines (350 simple and 240 compound), while the SR had 90 of Maunsell design with 140 Bulleid Pacifics to come. So Gresley conjugated engines were about half of the British 3-cylinder total.

An issue for your planned Gresley book will be how much space to give to the development of the 3-cylinder locomotive and Gresley's role in that process. There were isolated experiments way back in the 19th century, with Webb compounds being the first large-scale implementation. The NER around 1910 was, I think, the first railway (globally) to start building 3-cylinder simples in significant numbers. The Prussian State Railways followed from 1915, notably the G12 2-10-0, and then Gresley's GNR 3-cylinder 2-8-0 of 1918.

What an extraordinary story! There will always be a range of legitimate views about any historical figure or event. I appreciate that sometimes people get very rigid over particular political, religious or cultural issues and refuse to tolerate alternative views. But the LNER Society?!?!?

 

This one’s lost on me.