South Wales Valleys in the 50s

[Northroader]

I was once asking the chargehand at Rhymney for directions, and he was going “now when you’ve got through Bargoed, just keep on going until you reach the Alluvial Plateau….”

[Welchester]

I suppose the removal of earwax is quite an appropriate subject in a mining district.

[Compound2632]

25 minutes ago, Welchester said:

I suppose the removal of earwax is quite an appropriate subject in a mining district.

 

Open cast or drift mining?

[The Johnster]

 

Behind Jones Motors’ ‘field’ (‘Our vehicles are outstanding in their field’), Barry ‘loaner’ 82001 sets back with the afternoon pick-up’s traffic for Dimbath Metals siding, off the colliery exchange road.  Barry don’t seem in much of a rush to get this engine back, and it’s a handy spare at Tondu, albeit mostly on passenger jobs.  

[The Johnster]

 

Bit of sepia going on here, as 82001 has made up it’s train and is getting under way for Tondu Goods, through the shunt between the colliery exchange and the main.  The wagons it has just delivered to Dimbath Metals are on the next road; Wood Bros are their next door neighbours.  To the right of that can be seen the NCB’s ‘Bethesda Jc’ ‘looks like a tin tabernacle chapel building) loco shed with Forest No.1 in attendance

[russell price]

On 21/01/2024 at 00:13, The Johnster said:

Scenic fun has been being had around the goods shed area.  It has been decided that all goods activity other than mileage will now take place here, and the old loading platform at the station end will be reserved for mileage and the D & O ‘returns’ traffic.  Much remains to be done as always, especially fencing, but here’s photographic evidence of the week’s activity. 
 

 

Goods shed overview.  The mountain road to Glynogwr is in the left background, and a new mountain slope has been cobbled up out of card formers draped in grass mat; the road can be seen starting to ascend away from the village direction, the village being around the sharp left-hand bend opposite the water tower. 
 

Here’s our local GP, Dr.Beynon, out on a call in his Austin Dorset (1950s GP’s car if ever I saw one), making heavy going of the 1 in 6 hill and the potholes.  This is pretty much how I remember unfenced unclassified mountain roads from my  childhood. Anyone know where I can get local numberplates printed?

 

 

Another angle on the doctor’s Dorset, an ugly lump even by 50’s standards, in second and lurching about like a clipper doing round the Horn; just listen to that transmission whine!  The road disappears off the edge of the layout world just out of shot to the right, but will revisit us eventually as it needs to cross the valley, including the branch and the stream at an angle on a bridge over the colliery yard throat, about two feet away.  It can then conveniently disappear into the hillside behind the colliery. 

KFF is an Aberystwyth issue so at least Welsh.

[The Johnster]

Good to know.  

[The Johnster]

Disaster! 

 

Caused by my own stupidity as well, so I can't blame anyone else for it.  I managed to lock myself out of the flat while nobody was home, or rather Irini, the Greek-Italian girl upstairs, was, but in a state of of 'chemical refreshment' (her dealer came round last night, we heard him, Pip, nice bloke.  He had his family in a rusty Datsun, screaming kids, baby needing nappy change; he hasn't got the hang of this drug dealer thing, where's the beemer and the hos). 

 

This meant going in through a window in the layout room, and a good bit of damage has occurred to the layout.  Getting in needed sitting straddled across a baseboard join at one point.  I haven't inspected the damage yet, too angry and depressed about it, but it's going to cost a bit and take some time before the layout is up and running properly again.  B*gger!

 

It might be an idea to use the disaster as an excuse to relay with chaired track, which throws all sorts of ideas up; track plan change, fiddle yard at the other end so that the viewpoint is from the east not the west, that sort of thing.  In any case, I'll take my time making up my mind and try to improve the layout to the best of my ability.  The colliery is unaffected so may well survive any rebuilding.  No stock or buildings were harmed, but some signals will need replacing and the track across the joint is totalled.  Could be worse.

Edited July 17 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Time for an update.

 

It got worse.  The landlord has (after some time) decided that my complaints about the floor in the railway/bedroom needed to be taken seriously.  There are problems with the house's underpinnings, which I think may be related to wartime bomb blast damage*, and the whole building is moving perceptibly northwards.  As far as the railway room goes the floor is dropping away from the skirting boards, and I have had to periodically pack up the terminus end of the baseboard support table; the gap is now about 2" and not going to get any better.  And there's damp in the bay window (bay windows always cause trouble in older buildings).

 

So, he intends to sort the floor out.  The previous landlord did this in 2016, and of course cowboyed it, his bloke put a wooden support framework under the joists to restore floor level, but the ground under this is still dropping and heading for Newport Road.  His plan echoes the 2016 arrangement in that he intends to temporarily move us into flat 2, currently unoccupied, across the hall, and use our living room to store the stuff (including Cwmdimbath) while the work is carried out.  But, he is going to do work in flat 2 first, as the shower base has been leaking in there for years and the floors, as well as heading the same way as mine, are rotten.  There's a structural crack as well, the blast damage probably.

 

It's all taking a good bit longer than he'd reckoned, and costing him a lot more (sometimes, I think renting was not a bad idea).  The layout has been taken down since August, and I am not a happy bunny in this respect; if it hadn't been for this forum and my taking up drone flying I'd have gone nuts.  Everything's stacked against the walls or in boxes, so the damage I caused when I climbed in the window is pretty much irrelevant now!  It's all very depressing...

 

Anyway, that's the current sitrep.  I suspect he wants us to move into no.2 permanently, though he's playing his cards close; this would be swings and roudabouts, a separate kitchen, bigger patio, and bigger storage area, but smaller railway/bed room.  Smaller but arguable better laid out for a layout (!) with doors in different places.  It would probably mean a re-design, but the fundamentals could be restored.  It's a good chance to relay in Code 75 chaired, which would be a massive visual improvement.

 

*Lone Heinkel 111 came over from Brittany early '44, long after the main blitz, with 'land mines', big nasty b*ggers dropped by parachute, and intending to hit Pengam marshalling yard and Cathays wagon repair/shed.  The result was a line of flattened buildings which can be traced by their red-brick late 40s replacements, more or less due east-west from Newport Road (two of them, one just west of the Roath Branch bridge and another just west of the funeral parlour over the road from mine,) one at the Croft pub in Roath, one at the New Ely pub (formerly the Coburn) in Cathays, and one just short of the bottom of Cathays Terrace.  These things exploded about 100' up and relied on blast damage for effect, and my opinion is that my building, on the end of a terrace and within the blast effect of the funeral home bomb, was shook up by it.  End of terrace buildings were prone to blast damage from a domino effect as all the other buildings shuffled up against each other but the end only had fresh air to support it.

 

 

[1466]

11 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Time for an update.

 

It got worse.  The landlord has (after some time) decided that my complaints about the floor in the railway/bedroom needed to be taken seriously.  There are problems with the house's underpinnings, which I think may be related to wartime bomb blast damage*, and the whole building is moving perceptibly northwards.  As far as the railway room goes the floor is dropping away from the skirting boards, and I have had to periodically pack up the terminus end of the baseboard support table; the gap is now about 2" and not going to get any better.  And there's damp in the bay window (bay windows always cause trouble in older buildings).

 

So, he intends to sort the floor out.  The previous landlord did this in 2016, and of course cowboyed it, his bloke put a wooden support framework under the joists to restore floor level, but the ground under this is still dropping and heading for Newport Road.  His plan echoes the 2016 arrangement in that he intends to temporarily move us into flat 2, currently unoccupied, across the hall, and use our living room to store the stuff (including Cwmdimbath) while the work is carried out.  But, he is going to do work in flat 2 first, as the shower base has been leaking in there for years and the floors, as well as heading the same way as mine, are rotten.  There's a structural crack as well, the blast damage probably.

 

It's all taking a good bit longer than he'd reckoned, and costing him a lot more (sometimes, I think renting was not a bad idea).  The layout has been taken down since August, and I am not a happy bunny in this respect; if it hadn't been for this forum and my taking up drone flying I'd have gone nuts.  Everything's stacked against the walls or in boxes, so the damage I caused when I climbed in the window is pretty much irrelevant now!  It's all very depressing...

 

Anyway, that's the current sitrep.  I suspect he wants us to move into no.2 permanently, though he's playing his cards close; this would be swings and roudabouts, a separate kitchen, bigger patio, and bigger storage area, but smaller railway/bed room.  Smaller but arguable better laid out for a layout (!) with doors in different places.  It would probably mean a re-design, but the fundamentals could be restored.  It's a good chance to relay in Code 75 chaired, which would be a massive visual improvement.

 

*Lone Heinkel 111 came over from Brittany early '44, long after the main blitz, with 'land mines', big nasty b*ggers dropped by parachute, and intending to hit Pengam marshalling yard and Cathays wagon repair/shed.  The result was a line of flattened buildings which can be traced by their red-brick late 40s replacements, more or less due east-west from Newport Road (two of them, one just west of the Roath Branch bridge and another just west of the funeral parlour over the road from mine,) one at the Croft pub in Roath, one at the New Ely pub (formerly the Coburn) in Cathays, and one just short of the bottom of Cathays Terrace.  These things exploded about 100' up and relied on blast damage for effect, and my opinion is that my building, on the end of a terrace and within the blast effect of the funeral home bomb, was shook up by it.  End of terrace buildings were prone to blast damage from a domino effect as all the other buildings shuffled up against each other but the end only had fresh air to support it.

 

 

Good to hear from you , Johnster , although I’m sorry to hear of your travails . I’ve missed your musings , wisdom and first hand railway experience.

Your insights into parachute mines were helpful as I’ve not understood how and why they worked . My parents told me of an incident when one was dropped on my home town . The locals thought it was a parachutist and were heading towards him/it  ( to discuss their political differences) ! Luckily they didn’t reach him/it when it exploded.

I’ll look forward to more updates .

Nil carborundum…..

Ken 

[Northmoor]

Hope you're able to get this situation sorted to your satisfaction, Johnster.  As you say (so long as you have a diligent landlord), this is one of the times when renting is a blessing.  "Renting's just money down the drain", too many say; here's just one example of where the mortgage holder has a bill they probably weren't expecting when calculating how much profit they were going to make buying a house.

Also hope you manage to do some modelling during the disrupted period - perhaps something completely different and unrelated to Cwmdimbath.  How about a Heinkel 111, out of irony?

[The Johnster]

I rather like Heinkel 111s, (aesthetically as an aeroplane shape, not in formation over the skies of Cardiff, you inderstand).  But I’ve packed all the modelling gear away in boxes as well, and will not unpack until it is ‘safe’ to do so…

Edited Monday at 08:34 by The Johnster