If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2020
    Messages:
    1,090
    Likes Received:
    1,093
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Hayling Island
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    You need to look at a Charles Dickens (1812- 1870) manuscript for sheer illegibility.
     
    Forestpines likes this.
  2. staffordian

    staffordian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2012
    Messages:
    1,501
    Likes Received:
    2,134
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    The Potteries
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    The printed versions can be pretty hard to read too :eek:
     
  3. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2011
    Messages:
    25,490
    Likes Received:
    23,720
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Grantham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I prefer to go to bed with a good Trollope;)
     
  4. daveb

    daveb Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2005
    Messages:
    943
    Likes Received:
    484
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Wimborne, Dorset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    ... and pre-decimal currency days. I'd forgotten how prices were written in those days.
     
  5. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 8, 2012
    Messages:
    1,658
    Likes Received:
    3,891
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Out there somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    With the prevalence of keyboards and the 'thumbs' generation you might not need to include the last word at all soon...:(
     
    baldbof likes this.
  6. nick813

    nick813 Well-Known Member Loco Owner

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2010
    Messages:
    1,503
    Likes Received:
    1,503
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    poole dorset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
  7. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2015
    Messages:
    9,185
    Likes Received:
    7,226
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Thorn in my managers side
    Location:
    72
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
  8. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2012
    Messages:
    1,511
    Likes Received:
    2,706
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Western Atlantic
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Given that, and that it's you, I have only one guess as to what the subject will be!

    Noel
     
  9. ross

    ross Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2017
    Messages:
    1,002
    Likes Received:
    2,477
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Titfield
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    The problem is that Dickens gets forcibly fed to schoolboys, upon whom it is wasted. They are then put off, probably for life, by having to dissect 'A Christmas Carol'. In my twenties I accidentally started reading Nicholas Nickleby, and became an addict
     
    Wenlock and 35B like this.
  10. staffordian

    staffordian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2012
    Messages:
    1,501
    Likes Received:
    2,134
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    The Potteries
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I do agree, actually; my comment was very much tongue in cheek.

    I too did what you did, and whilst not an addict, I've enjoyed several, starting with David Copperfield soon after leaving uni, when I had a litle more time on my hands.
     
    35B and ross like this.
  11. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2014
    Messages:
    15,327
    Likes Received:
    11,665
    Occupation:
    Nosy aren’t you?
    Location:
    Nowhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Having to read ‘Great Expectations’ at school has really put me of Dickens, I seem to recall in the copy I was given to read for my GCSE’s pages 400 to 450 had the appropriate Class 50 name written next to the page number. Heaven knows what the person the year after thought when they saw names like Renown Repulse, Hood, Courageous, Glorious, Furious and Ark Royal written in pencil at the bottom of the page.
     
    ross, Jamessquared, 5944 and 2 others like this.
  12. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2018
    Messages:
    3,498
    Likes Received:
    6,845
    Location:
    Here, there, everywhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.” (Oscar Wilde)

    To be fair, railways were bad news for many literary characters - Trollope and Dickens killed characters off with them.

    On handwriting, I have never read anyone who was writing in a hurry with good handwriting.

    To take it back to things Somerset, wasn't one (all?) of the signalmen in the Radstock accident illiterate/barely literate. When did being literate become a necessary part of the job? I've read lots of things about safety developments but at what point was being able to read/write considered to be a necessary safety critical skill?
     
    johnofwessex likes this.
  13. City of truro fan

    City of truro fan Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2015
    Messages:
    783
    Likes Received:
    84
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Honiton
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    You don’t have to be able to read well or write well but if it needs it you have to have someone to write out things as if could hurt safety. Writing is good though as it’s more needed to keep records of everything now a days. I have always kept notes on railways I’ve gone to but I also keep all the emails I get sent on here when they have told me my question is bad but I have proven them wrong then they just ignore me as I have sent a picture which is proof what I’m on about existed.
     
  14. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2008
    Messages:
    26,101
    Likes Received:
    57,418
    Location:
    LBSC 215
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Everything you need to know about Dickens, in three minutes:



    Tom
     
    big.stu and Forestpines like this.
  15. Hirn

    Hirn Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2015
    Messages:
    462
    Likes Received:
    295
    Gender:
    Male
    To be taken as seriously, my own comparable theory is that to people isolated along the length of the line the other people from
    over the watershed might be so far removed as to be strangers and no understanding. - mutiples of 5 miles away.
     
  16. Hirn

    Hirn Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2015
    Messages:
    462
    Likes Received:
    295
    Gender:
    Male
    High quality writing is not entirely best served by being visited on children as something to test them on in schools.

    Not quite as you might naturally expect, Dickens is widely read and appreciated in South Africa.
     
    ross and Another Yorkshireman like this.
  17. Andy Moody

    Andy Moody Member

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2007
    Messages:
    496
    Likes Received:
    337
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    71B ex 71A
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Getting a bit more on topic, What is the scaffolding that has appeared on Williton down platform over the last couple of days actually for?
     
  18. Ian Monkton

    Ian Monkton Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2011
    Messages:
    945
    Likes Received:
    993
    Location:
    South Somerset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Repairs to the Goods Shed roof.
     
  19. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    "The signalman in the Foxcote box was a boy who 'could not write or read excellent'" (David St John Thomas)

    Patrick
     
  20. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2013
    Messages:
    10,440
    Likes Received:
    17,940
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Cheltenham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Reading the account in Red for Danger I'm not sure that anything about the Radstock incident should be regarded as typical for the time. E.g. "In the first place, Foxcote signalbox had no right to exist at all", "The telegraphic arrangements left much to be desired", "Even in the best of hands the working of such a system to pass an extremely heavy traffic ... would have been fraught with peril", and "There existed a state of affairs that must surely have been without parallel on any English railway".

    Then on the boy himself, as well as Patrick's quote, we have "unable to read the telegraph instruments", "nor was he very strong. His only training as a signalman consisted of one week in the box at Radstock where he was unable to pull over the levers".
     
    Kje7812, 35B, Steve and 1 other person like this.

Share This Page