Edward Thompson: Wartime C.M.E. Discussion

Agreed. Anyone interested in Thompson needs to start by reading the Peter Grafton biography. Clearly there is a lot more to tell and I await Simon's book with great interest.

 

By that logic, Daniel Gooch must have been rubbish

 

When? Where? The lectures, I mean. I'm not trying to challenge you to a fight

 

I’ll be lecturing at the Model Railway Club of London in October.

I hope to be able to give more information on the second lecture closer to the date - but it is likely I will be giving the lecture to members of the Gresley Society.

 

What?? I throw in few names more or less at random and you are extrapolating to find logic....

 

You are welcome to re read my posts on the previous page, and look at the historic quotations I gave. You and I hardly need be reminded of the various comings and goings on this thread.

I don’t think you and I will necessarily see eye to eye on this one Ralph. We never have. I’m happy to agree to disagree.

 

I rather think he’s got the measure of what you said better than you have yourself to be honest.

 

I've still some of my old NI kit in the loft. Do you want a flak jacket?

 

I must point out that most members of the Gresley society I have spoken to have been most amenable, in particular Mark Allatt and Ian McCabe, to hearing my views and encouraging I bring them to a wider audience.

I haven’t as yet had any tomatoes thrown at me but there’s a first time for everything.

 

No Ralph, I was not wrong to use that word.

You and I disagree on this. Why, I’m not quite sure as you’ve been presented with evidence many times. Perhaps you are blind to it all?

One of us has been on the receiving end of public vitriol over Thompson: both in real life and online.

Thompson has had some pretty awful and indeed vitriolic things written about him over the last seventy years.

That is fact.

On that, that’s my final word. I was more interested in seeing what was out there in terms of Thompson’s work.

I am grateful for the contributions given by interested members. Thank you all.

 

Do they allow hecklers to attend.....

 

If you wish to come debate with vigour, by all means do. I hope you will however be amenable to hearing and seeing what I have to say before heckling.

 

There is a great deal of friendly rivalry over the merits of Bulleid Pacifics versus the detuned Jarvis versions but I have come across a few fundamentalists whose minds are closed completely to any debate on the matter.

 

I have been very sorry to read this latest flurry of postings with so much criticism of each others' statements. Naming no names, I see instances of "My mind is made up. Please don't cloud the issue with facts" and "Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong". (And yes, probably all concerned will think that this is oh-so-true of the other guy and not of themselves.)

 

That's brave!

 

I dunno Mellish, this all stemmed from a comment regarding how whatever was left of a designer somehow did or didn’t reflect well on his legacy.

People are welcome to make their own minds up; the issue for me is having to challenge seventy years of one specific way of thinking with as many facts and figures that I can muster.

It’s surely reasonable to challenge the established thinking if we have evidence for it.

For myself specifically, anything I say or do in favour of Thompson is often taken as a slight on Gresley, which it emphatically isn’t.

I cannot win.

 

And for my part I have been appreciating the Jarvis rebuild more and more recently. A small peace offering from me - she really is a beauty.