Grim-up-North; Goathland, Queensbury & Bradford.

[Sasquatch]

gorgeous....absolutely gorgeous.....and the recently updated water pump.....10/10 for modelling and similarity to the real thing.....

 

ooooh....ooooh. My conifer is bigger than yours    

Oh yeah?

 

This ponderosa pine behind my barn is at least 100' (I wanted to get a picture of the layout in front of it but the angle from the window isn't right.)

 

the two on the layout scale out at about 40'

 

This Douglas fir down by our creek must be 200'   

Imagine that on a layout it would be 80cm and 14mm at the base.

 

[hornbyandbf3fan]

And I thought the 90 foot trees we lopped down were huge!

[Jaz]

No conifer that big, The biggest we have at the moment is a money puzzle about 35ft, But our populous italica lombardys are going at the speed of light!!!!! And certainly taller than the Monkey Puzzle which is a good 20-30 years older. And the Populus albas that were here before we bought the place are a good size.

We have some redwoods we bought, but being in British soil and even then only for 10 for so years, and despite them growing well.....will not only never attain the height of those in the US and are at best only 15feet or so. 

So you definitely trump us.

[Jaz]

And I thought the 90 foot trees we lopped down were huge!

Wow 90foot in the UK is BIG. We only have one or two in the country that make 150foot. And they are basically ancient trees.

[hornbyandbf3fan]

Huge pines in our paddock, had to come down, most were around 70-80 feet

[Jock67B]

Morning Shaun,

I truly think you should go with Al's suggestion and showcase some of the recent images on the site he linked. Realism is the heading and that is precisely what your work has produced in my not very humble opinion!

How is the extension coming along? Too busy playing - it must be a desperate temptation!

Keep it up mate,

Kind regards,

Jock.

PS Just noticed you'd done one - bet your in-box was full with all those ratings! Just added mine. J.

Edited September 10, 2014 by Jock67B

[Sasquatch]

Hi Jock

The extension has had to take a back seat while other work gets done. The 20' long outdoors buffet that was taking up all the space in my workshop has been installed and now I'm building a double dog house because it's getting cold at night. We're also dealing with all this home grown food that's ripening off, picking, digging, canning etc. We're feeling very healthy from all the wonderful salads we're eating. The aircon isn't on neither is the heating. The grocery bill is at a minimum  so maybe I'll have cash left over at the end of this month to splash out on a bundle of wood to start Queensbury. Mrs.S. wants to buy me all the track for my birthday present!  Nice............. I will put a picture of the dog house on the lounge as I think Jeff will like it!

Regards Shaun.     

[Doughnut]

Please click on these images to bring them alive and enjoy.

Evening (2).JPG

Evening (3).JPG

Evening (4).JPG

Evening (1).JPG

Mrs. S. was wondering what all the fuss was about finding batteries about 5:30.

Thanks for checking in.

These pics are tremendous Mr.S !!  Last of the three I actually thought WAS the NYMR. Some special modelling going on here. Great stuf!!

 

Dave

[rcmacchipilot]

Out of curiosity, what are the averages sizes for UK trees. I don't have ready access to birch or oaks here in Australia and it can be a little hard to work out things from photos. Out of interest we get some massive trees in Australia. The Dave Evans bicentennial tree is 75 meters (that's a meter in OO almost )or 210 feet. To be fair its on the large size for a Karri tree, however they do grow quite large.

[Sasquatch]

To be honest Pilot I'm not too clued up on British trees being from the outskirts of Brighton where trees don't grow much. There are however sycamores. Most of the elms in the town center were lost to the great storm of 87.

Can I refer you to Arboretum Valley where Jaz makes fantastic scale trees and both Kal & Jaz are much more knowledgeable when it comes to trees. They are also about as friendly as you can get!!!
http://www.rmweb.co....ture/?p=1246161
http://www.rmweb.co....fore/?p=1344846

 

Regards Shaun.

[Jaz]

Out of curiosity, what are the averages sizes for UK trees. I don't have ready access to birch or oaks here in Australia and it can be a little hard to work out things from photos. Out of interest we get some massive trees in Australia. The Dave Evans bicentennial tree is 75 meters (that's a meter in OO almost )or 210 feet. To be fair its on the large size for a Karri tree, however they do grow quite large.

A lot of the 'old' trees that existed where cut down during the first and second world war, hedges for growing food, metal railings disappeared for the war effort. You'd think a hundred years would be plenty of time, but 400-600 year old trees are not so uncommon. Trees on layouts here are usually depicted at around 20/30ft more often than not, but trees of 75ft are not uncommon. The largest trees here barely make 150ft and only a handful of specimens are that high. 

Trees also have quite different life spans. A birch often is lucky to make 60ft and an oak can do 600years and more. So grown them close by and the birches have been and gone before the oak comes into its own. 

Shorter lived trees such as willows and poplars tend to grow faster.

Trees usually are associated with the nearby buildings. A modern housing estate rarely has well established trees

Whilst a Church can have ancient Yews. Yews being associated with druids, and adopted by the church so they could adopt their sacred ground.

Horses for courses you might say.

100 years might produce in the UK. (Uk rarely produces giants that warmer wetter climates can.)

120ft Nothofagus / Roble Beech

70ft Swamp Cypress but it won't be fully grown

90/100ft European Ash not as fast as its American Cousin

80ft Cedar of Lebanon, not native and usually in a church or a statley home

100ft Spanish Chesnut...we think of chestnuts as native but actually an import.

110ft European larch one of the faster growing conifers....

85ft European beech, and usually as wide as tall at this venerable age

100ft London plane slower than its american parent

80ft Big leafed plane not exceptional for speed and retains a narrow spire...and grows from the base which is usually tided giving a distinctive silhouette

80ft Horsechesnut usually 2 foot or so for 50ft years then just spreads

100ft lombary popular. The populous italic lombardy in our garden are growing at an immense speed outstripping the Leylandi.

40ft Yew, buts lives a long time getting taller and wider

130ft English Elm, but most are decimated by dutch elm disease, replacements usually get to 20 years then the bark is ready to attack the insect that decimates it. We have a bunch of siberian elms which are considered little better than weeds in there home lands.....hoping they and their cousins the Zelkovas might beat the buck.

90ft Cider gum, an Australian native, grows very fast for the first ten years, all of ours have been hit by cold winters, even the big one.

Many trees never make maturity, because their owners get a nasty shock when they realise how big they get, and have put them too close to their homes, and need to cut them down before they cause subsidence....even removal of the tree and the dying of it roots can cause serious issues.

Some trees are a serious pest once taken from their home environment, and poorly controlled import / exports have allowed worldwide diseases and pest to travel. Problems having to reach almost endemic problems before governments become interested...at which point you are just peeing in the wind. Imports / exports should have been restricted to seeds a long time ago in my opinion. 

But I could bore for Britain on the subject. FYI I just took most of the tree heights from a book. 

[Jaz]

There are claims of a 5000 year old yew

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2683383/Europes-oldest-yew-tree-discovered-Welsh-churchyard-FIVE-THOUSAND-years-old.html

 

The UK Tree Council listed these

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Great_British_Trees

from here there are links to most of the individual trees. 

Hope it helps.

[Sasquatch]

Thank you for two absolutely brilliant posts Jaz. 

While on the subject of trees I'm happy to report that it rained last night for the first time since May. It's by no means and end to the drought. It's also too early in the day for reports on whether the rain helped the wild fire situation, it's not so smoky this morning but I will take the dogs out up the mountain for a walk in the mist! Then it's back to work as I need to get cracking and get it out of the way so as to get back to the layout extensions.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Sasquatch

[Jaz]

Thank you for two absolutely brilliant posts Jaz. 

While on the subject of trees I'm happy to report that it rained last night for the first time since May. It's by no means and end to the drought. It's also too early in the day for reports on whether the rain helped the wild fire situation, it's not so smoky this morning but I will take the dogs out up the mountain for a walk in the mist! Then it's back to work as I need to get cracking and get it out of the way so as to get back to the layout extensions.

Ouch that is a long time with no water, must be hard not only for the wild fire, but also the wild life. Lets hope you get more and urgently. Must have been a physical relief to get rain too not just a psychological one. Is the tree cover thick enough to shelter the ground?

[Anotheran]

It's by no means and end to the drought. It's also too early in the day for reports on whether the rain helped the wild fire situation,

 

It's incredible that it was only in February/March that you were posting pictures and videos of your work to keep the rain out. Amazing how one place can go through such different weather patterns. Hopefully you do get a proper break in the drought soon... but not as much of one as you got in February.

[Sasquatch]

The water master for Jackson county came to visit about a month ago and served us with a notice revoking our water rights to the creek until further notice. Most of our grass has died as a result. Our well has slowed from 7.5 gallons per minute to less than 4. We can water the garden but not flush the bog while doing so.

Wild life  seems to be doing alright. The raccoons helped themselves to all the grapes. A possum has been entering through the cat flap for the cat food. We keep finding drowned lizards

in the dogs drinking water and the skunk population has boomed for some peculiar  reason. There are no bees which is a serious issue.

I nearly walked into a black widows nest which had appeared over night in the barn door way but that's another story.

 

Squatch 

[westerhamstation]

The water master for Jackson county came to visit about a month ago and served us with a notice revoking our water rights to the creek until further notice. Most of our grass has died as a result. Our well has slowed from 7.5 gallons per minute to less than 4. We can water the garden but not flush the bog while doing so.

Wild life  seems to be doing alright. The raccoons helped themselves to all the grapes. A possum has been entering through the cat flap for the cat food. We keep finding drowned lizards

in the dogs drinking water and the skunk population has boomed for some peculiar  reason. There are no bees which is a serious issue.

I nearly walked into a black widows nest which had appeared over night in the barn door way but that's another story.

 

Squatch 

And I thought I had a problem when three woodlice wandered onto my layout. all the best Adrian

[Sasquatch]

It's incredible that it was only in February/March that you were posting pictures and videos of your work to keep the rain out. Amazing how one place can go through such different weather patterns. Hopefully you do get a proper break in the drought soon... but not as much of one as you got in February.

Yes we get really well defined  seasons. Winters are cold and long. Spring is very green, long hot summers (I've been wearing flip flops for 4 months solid!) and fall is spectacular, it's also a good month later than in the UK(what's left of it!)    

[Jock67B]

YES it's NO!

Happy Jock!

[rcmacchipilot]

Thanks for the tree info kal . On the subject of spiders I found a ripper redback the other day. Took a few photos before dutifully maceing it with fly spray. Sure would not have wanted to get bitten by it. Sounds like you have Victorian seasons .

[Sasquatch]

YES it's NO!

Happy Jock!

So does that mean they wont be mending Hadrians Wall after all.

 

You wont have to worry about obtaining a new passport now Jock mate.

 

Edit: I would celebrate with a full British breakfast but we can't get back bacon over here!

 

All the best, Shaun.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Sasquatch

[Jaz]

mm

Edited October 15, 2014 by Jaz

[Sasquatch]

There's not much in the fridge so I might have to settle for some waffles or a croc-madame (ham & cheese griddled sandwich with fried eggs on top). It makes no sense to celebrate the strength of the union with a Belgian breakfast though does it  !

[Mrkirtley800]

So Yorkshire probably won't get full independence now.

Derek

[Kal]

If they hold the vote in Lancashire they will