…saes …you will have to explain that one to people Tac!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Saesneg=English
As Joe notes, a common term for the an English person or the language, but actually derived from ‘Saxon’.
Quite a few words in current Welsh are based on borrowed words from Latic and French [:O].
Ysgol - school from French out of Latin
Llyfr - book from Latin libra
Ffenestr - window from French fenetre
Eglwys - church from French église
Bai - from English bay
Gwasanaethau - conveniences from French toilette [just kidding]
Most Welsh, and by that I mean 99.5% of it, is totally unintelligible to an English-only speaker, even though it is the original language of this island, supplanted by the arrival of the folks from Scandinavia, Holland and Germany after the Romans left a while back.
If you look hard enough there are some words that look as though they might be slightly familiar, but you have to be aware of what happens to the beginning of a word in Welsh after certain preceding letters - see above sign as an example. This is called mutation, and is part of the Goidelic languages like Cornish and Breton.
Lesson over - back to trains.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Steve Featherkile said:
Well, its axiomatic that those chopper couplers allow for tight curves, the question is: how?
As Tac mentioned the with the “chopper” coupling the centre buffer shown is on a pivot and can move from side to side, it is also sprung to take up forces under braking and such like.
In a conventional centre buffer arrangement with a loose chain coupling, rather than “chopper”, this does not pivot and may not be sprung. While perfectly fine when pulling stock and going round larger radius curves this presents problems if propelling stock, particularly over track work with tighter radii such as switches - there is a risk of the buffers going out of alignment and locking with disasterous consequences. Which is partly why the standard gauge convention twin sprung buffer with loose chain coupling is rare on NG anyway. Although strangely the Talyllyn uses them (and only have doors on one side of the cars to boot, funny lot the Welsh).
Solution - place a bar ( the chopper) to keep the buffers in alignment and also allow the buffers to pivot to take into account the buffer faces can no longer move freely side to side or rotate around each other as they would if loose coupled. Result you have centre mounted buffer and coupling that is controlled and now cannot lock. As a result it is ideal for the tight tack curvature that is inherent in NG railways, including reverse curves, and is perfectly safe for propelling stock as well as pulling it.
As for the final bit of the “how”- either make sure you minimize the overhangs on your stock relative to the axle cenrelines or lengthen the point where the pivot is in relation to the buffer face. A bit like why you never get prototypical gaps on your Aristocraft “heavyweights” and such like (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)
The same is true when operating small 1:19 replicas. I run choppers on all my UK/Colonial NG trains. Hope this helps, Max.
‘Although strangely the Talyllyn uses them (and only have doors on one side of the cars to boot, funny lot the Welsh).’
No need to have expensive and unused doors on both sides of a passenger coach if the station is only built on one side of the track. No space to build a runaround or turning Y either at Tywyn or Nant Gwernol.
A secondary benefit is that kits for Talyllyn coaches are cheaper to make and build, as there is no need to buy so many door handles and grabs, either 
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
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The Talyllyn Railway has door on one side of the coaches (not ‘cars’ over here folks - we have tramcars and London Underground uses cars - but the only ones on a railway are Dining/Restaurant Cars and Sleeping Cars, why are these called cars? …who knows!) for an interesting historical reason. The UK safety rules for trains with side doors was that the space through tunnels and bridge holes was such to allow doors to be (accidentally) open on both sides of the train and not hit anything. The Tallyllyn was ‘built to a budget’ and its only overbridge was built too narrow to meet the requirement. When this was picked up on the pre-opening visit by Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate the company had to think up a quick fix. They slewed the track to provide clearance on one side and screwed up the doors on the other… As the only two stations on the line at the time both had platforms on one side of the track this worked - and they have never changed it in 150 years. Also we expect trains to run both ways so very few railways here have wyes or loops. A loop in the UK is what you call a double ended passing siding.
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As a Scot who spent part of his youth living near Wales I dont find achieving a passing pronunciation of Welsh place names all that difficult. Once you have learned the basic rules Welsh words do sound like they are spelled, unlike English where Belvoir is pronounced ‘Beever’ and Featherstonhaugh ‘Fanshaw’
What a neat “back story”. Thanks for sharing it. Also welcome to Large Scale Central Scott. This a good group I would say.
Doc Tom
scott mcintosh said:
(not ‘cars’ over here folks - we have tramcars and London Underground uses cars - but the only ones on a railway are Dining/Restaurant Cars and Sleeping Cars, why are these called cars? …who knows!)
unlike English where Belvoir is pronounced ‘Beever’ and Featherstonhaugh ‘Fanshaw’
Welcome to this forum Scott. You will have to excuse my use of Americanisms - cars, switches, etc’. Got to keep it understandable for these old colonial subjects of ours. Excuse me while this topic goes off at a tangent.
Possible explanation of “cars” rather than coaches on the London Underground - A hangover from the presence of a certain Mr Yerkes from Chicago perhaps ? He had a major part in the financing and development of the system in the early days, both tube and “sub-surface” lines. Early District line electric stock were indeed variations of Chicago urban transit designs. There was also a heavy reliance on, mostly US owned, Westinghouse made electrical equipment, although this became Metropolitan-Vickers post WW1, that may also have been an influence too.
With regards to the UK sleeping and restaurant car anomaly might I also suggest the presence of the Pullman Company in the UK as a possible cause, another operator in the UK with US origins. These services were originally provided by them from pre’ grouping train company days in the UK (pre’ 1923). Indeed Pullman started out as a sleeper car service provider in the US, not luxury train services.
As to anomalies in the pronunciation of some English names - It’s so the upper classes (think Downton Abbey, etc. Closer to home “The Hamptons”’) can workout who are the vulgar “arrivistes” rather than the “old money”. Famous one where I lived, a road near the Harrods department store - Spelt Beauchamp Place. pronounced Beecham. We could workout who were the prole’s when they got that one wrong.
Toodle pip, Max.
Mornin’, Scott from up there. Nice to see somebody from your neck of the woods. I’m assuming that you know Sandy in Stirling and Fraser? Our niece lives in Dalgety Bay with her Shetlander husband and two gibbies, so we are not strangers to a good deal of Scotland.
Pity there’s not much in the way of real NG up there though, eh?
If you can post pics we, being basically simple souls, like to see pics. In fact, some here might even hound you about 'em.
Best wishes and sympathies.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS & The Eastern Depot of Old Mill Lumber Co., Inc.
tac’s trains on Youtube