Early Risers.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Aft'noon all,

 

One or two images from yesterday morning's constitutional. The new lock gates on the Caldon canal at Cheddleton are slowly being created from new (oak) timber...some impressive sections to shape & manhandle into place.....

 

 

 

....a pump set is being used to extract canal water seeping into the lock chamber from the other end.

 

Dave

Edited February 15, 2016 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[grandadbob]

. Another memory is St. Leonards Warrior Square Station, the road up to the station was lined with shops one of which was a coal merchants that had a large (18 inches long at least) model private owner coal wagon in the window. All I can remember was that it was painted red with IIRC white lettering shaded black. 

 

 

It wasn't my old firm Hall & Co. Ltd by any chance Phil? They had branches all over the South and South East but I can't actually remember one in St. Leonards.

 

[Ian Abel]

Condolences to Gordon and family, sorry to hear that.

Good luck Jock.

 

AWOL over the weekend though I tried to at least read and rate where I could. Just very busy with a variety of not much at all, it seemed!

Bloody cold here Friday/Saturday (matching or beating Pete slightly at -24 for a low and about -19 for a high), but warming slowly now and throughout the week.

 

Spent what modeling time I managed, actually a fair amount for once, fixing "bits" on various locos and getting everything "Kadee aligned", as several items, both locos and stock, hadn't really been dealt with completely. I like to get most all the accessories added where suitable.

 

The two NEW eBay wins were pretty nice but needed some added fettling.

Q1 wobbled badly at the front drivers which appeared to be pulling to one side, until I took it apart in its entirety - DROPPING the chassis in the process  , but it sustained little damage and was repairable. Followed up with gauging the wheels and straightening the lubricator linkage - no more wobble. Had to also fabricate one cab door and one sand pipe as they were missing on arrival. All better and Kadee fitted 

Schools was also a good item, though missing the accessory pack (ordered from Peters Spares)  and one nameplate <sigh>. Will order that in due course. Runs VERY well though, so pleased overall - even the weathering was acceptable. Kadee fitted.

 

<Bit of a RANT here>

In order to check some of the various accessory and other bits one can/would add to a loco, including researching the cylinder drains for air-smoothed BB/WC, as they don't come with any and I'm going to fabricate some, I used "the Google" and that resulted in mostly youtube reviews as a result. Bad decision to actually look at some

 

So I have the following, somewhat rhetorical questions;

1) Why are most reviews painfully effusive and longwinded and take forever to get to the point, i.e. reviewing the actual loco, and spend FAR too much time wobbling on about the box packaging and it's details, which we can ALL read for ourselves <sigh>, and how "brilliant" or "amazing" the model is, showing RIVETS, without actually explaining what are really decent/key/highlights. All of them seem to require to actually PUSH the sprung buffers to show they're indeed sprung <sigh>. Most of what is offered is sooo SUBJECTIVE!

2) Why don't ANY of them provide/include details of DCC fitting, often saying it's DIFFICULT to get so-and-so apart to fit. It ISN'T in my experience in 99% of cases! One Q1 review even said it was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to get the loco body off and that DCC installation should probably be left to a professional installer, GOOD GRIEF!

Um, ONE SCREW in the chimney, and carefully lift off, it almost falls off on it's own! Surely that would be something USEFUL for a review, rather than frightening potential purchasers?

3) Why do NONE of the videos show the loco with ANY accessory items attached? Rather pointless waving the accessory bag in front of the camera and trying pitifully to explain what is included as they attempt to see the jumble of bits - most of the time even getting THAT wrong. If they ADDED the bloody things to their loco folks we be able to SEE what they are. I'm guessing because of the comments at #2 above, most of them haven't the ability to put any of the parts on! Perhaps even reading the INSTRUCTIONS/CONTENTS would help to explain and understand what they are, rather than guessing! 

Oh well, <end of rant>, but seems most of the reviews are a complete waste of space/time, another excellent example of wasted internet bandwidth and storage space!

 

-7 and overcast this morning heading for +1 later.

 

Hope the week starts well for everyone.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Ian Abel

[roundhouse]

Ian

 

have you looked at RT Models etched drain pipes?

Ok they are flattish but with a little weathering  (and me having ot fit to so many) they are a lot easier to fit.

 

www.rtmodels.co.uk

 

They also do the ex Albert Goodhall range . I have just ordered another batch of ash pans ot replace the Hornby part plastic and part cast ot pony truck ones

[PhilJ W]

I know Norman Road well - I grew up in Fairlight and went to the 9th Hastings Scout Troup at Christ Church in St. Leonards.  (Just up Old London Road from Norman Road)

 

I don't know if you remember the Curzon Cinema in Norman Road?  When I was a lad, the Foyer had been converted into a builders merchants and their store room was in the old auditorium - we happened to be in there one day and my Grandfather mentioned to me that it used to be a cinema.  The bloke in the shop then took us into the store room to show us - and there was all the wonderful plasterwork surrounded by the various stored building materials!

 

I believe the cinema has now been reopened.

I remember Saturday childrens matinee's in that Cinema. It would have been better if they had shown silent films as the kids were so noisy, on a couple of occasions the manager stopped the film and came out front to tell us the film would only continue when the noise ceased.   EDIT My grandparents lived quite near the cinema, just a bit further up the hill where the road levels off and on the same side.

 

It wasn't my old firm Hall & Co. Ltd by any chance Phil? They had branches all over the South and South East but I can't actually remember one in St. Leonards.

 

DSCF1657-1.jpg

I used to work for Hall's as well for a while. I'm pretty sure it wasn't them though, I seem to remember a longer name. Possibly one of the Kent pits?

Edited February 15, 2016 by PhilJ W

[The Stationmaster]

Ooh Hall & Co - I used to buy all my building materials from them as they had a yard in Tilehurst when we first moved there - good firm to deal with but later they seemed to go down hill although still happy to deal with small customers.

 

Anyway in the light of today's reasonable weather I at last had a real go at the bl**dy buddleia.  More to do but I think even with what I've demolished so far we shall probably need sunglasses in the living room tomorrow and the bushman saw survived the encounter fairly well.

[Smiffy2]

It wasn't my old firm Hall & Co. Ltd by any chance Phil? They had branches all over the South and South East but I can't actually remember one in St. Leonards.

 

DSCF1657-1.jpg

My stepfather worked for Hall & Co in his youth. Frank Howe, if you ever met him. Fitter.

[roundhouse]

Her we go yet again.

Earlier signalling problems between Gatwick and Haywards Heath led to 2 trains being cancelled at LBG around the time ours left. So all 12 coaches of our train is wedged solid.

However near Purley where we have now been stationary here for over 20 minutes due to a broken down in Purley. There's also a broken down train at Hove so it's really messing up services tonight.

Good job that I charged my ipad up earlier!!

 

 

Update

25 late into Redhill and just missed a bus. Some trains are 30 + late at the moment.

 

Left office at 5pm.

Got home just before 7pm

 

All for a 20 mile journey.

Edited February 15, 2016 by roundhouse

[JohnDMJ]

Good evening all,

 

Rather late on parade today; train disruption due to resignalling work all week between Bognor and Barnham and possibilities of replacement buses!

 

When we checked at lunchtime, the Southern Failway's web site was suggesting that the replacement bus was departing platform 2 and due into platform 3 at Barnham! For platform 3, that is definitely wrong line working and surely, the journey by bus will also be a bit bumpy over the sleepers!

 

Would be nice to have confidence in what they're telling you!

 

Plumber just been round to cast his mandatory suck-in of breath over my failing bathroom; First opinion is that the tiler screwed up and the bottom course inside the shower is too thin, broken and leaking! Shall test the theory with some silicon sealant copiously applied!

 

Thoughts and wishes with those who need them more than I do!

[Ian Abel]

Ian

 

have you looked at RT Models etched drain pipes?

Ok they are flattish but with a little weathering  (and me having ot fit to so many) they are a lot easier to fit.

 

www.rtmodels.co.uk

 

They also do the ex Albert Goodhall range . I have just ordered another batch of ash pans ot replace the Hornby part plastic and part cast ot pony truck ones

Ian,

  Yes, had a look, they look quite nice.

One of the annoying things about modeling UK from "here" is that what seem to be simple parts to obtain entail extra costs for postage i.e. adding at least 3-4 quid to an order for maybe 2-3 quids worth of items <sigh>.

I've decided for now that some things can be fabricated if they are fairly simple. The air-smoothed BB/WC drain pipes are definitely that category being, from all the pictures I've researched, two or in some images three simple straight pipes with a 90-degree bend - the three pipe versions have a 45-degree for the middle one!

I've some perfectly sized brass wire, that I used for the Q1 sand pipe (matched the other 5 perfectly) and am going to try my hand at "SHUDDER" modeling my own from scratch.

[grandadbob]

My stepfather worked for Hall & Co in his youth. Frank Howe, if you ever met him. Fitter.

 

Was that at Willow Lane, Mitcham Jctn Dick? I started at the transport depot  there in 1966 and was there until it closed in 1968 after the RMC merger/takeover. The name certainly rings a bell.

I stayed with the firm all my working life even when RMC sold Hall & Co to Wolseley and we became Builder Centers (and I really hated that spelling!!)

[grandadbob]

I used to work for Hall's as well for a while. I'm pretty sure it wasn't them though, I seem to remember a longer name. Possibly one of the Kent pits?

 

Small world Phil - where and when?

[grandadbob]

Dick, I've just found a photo of a fitter's mate by the name of Howe working on a Bedford tipper at Willow Lane!

[skipepsi]

One or two members of RMweb enjoy stirring for hours and hours.

Only one or two? between five and twenty I suspect.

[Tony_S]

Ian's comment on the YouTube reviews amused me. An awful lot of them do seem obsessed with the box.

[newbryford]

Only one or two? between five and twenty I suspect.

 

And the rest..............

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Smiffy2]

Was that at Willow Lane, Mitcham Jctn Dick? I started at the transport depot  there in 1966 and was there until it closed in 1968 after the RMC merger/takeover. The name certainly rings a bell.

I stayed with the firm all my working life even when RMC sold Hall & Co to Wolseley and we became Builder Centers (and I really hated that spelling!!)

Yes - he lived in Hackbridge. That would be about the right time. He then went to work at a similar outfit on the Kelvin Industrial estate - but I can't recall the name. I'll try to find a picture of him as a young man.

Dick, I've just found a photo of a fitter's mate by the name of Howe working on a Bedford tipper at Willow Lane!

Sounds like one I've seen - is that from the company history?

 

This is him, with my mother:

Edited February 15, 2016 by Smiffy2

[PhilJ W]

Small world Phil - where and when?

Not for long, only for about a year '67/'68. They had an office in South Street Romford where I worked and the depot was off of Victoria Road still rail served off of the LT&S Upminster-Romford line. Most memorable moment was when the old ECR tarpaulin works at Gidea Park went up in flames. By then it was a furniture factory and despite being about three miles away there were no tall buildings in the way and being on the fourth floor of the office block we could see the flames shooting into the air. EDIT I was there at the time of the RMC takeover, I think the Romford depot was closed not long after I left and IIRC moved to the RMC place in Grays and a housing estate was built on the site.

Edited February 15, 2016 by PhilJ W

[grandadbob]

There was a depot at Romford most of the time I worked for them. From (hazy) memory it was in Manor Rd.

[grandadbob]

Dick. That face definitely rings a bell and yes the photo I've got is from the company history. PM sent.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening, and my condolences to the 'Gordon' family.

 

Jock, I must post a photo of the painting above my head currently - Scheidegger and Robinson, BMW, 1966 Sidecar TT winners....a Rod Organ (yes folks, that really was his name!) original,  we bought off him at an art exhibition just after we came here.  Cost a kings ransom, but is now worth several kings ransoms as the poor feller died shortly afterwards, so it is irreplaceable and unusually was not printed before sale - maybe we jumped in too quickly!  I like the sound of the 6, but that 5 - the one which has the slight stutter as it picks up - just makes the hairs on my neck stand up.

 

I also saw the Guzzi V8, well both, the original and the copy, at Braddan Bridge on a parade lap.  Only problem was the guy riding the replica was so busy waving at the crowd he ran out of road and crashed it! 

[PhilJ W]

There was a depot at Romford most of the time I worked for them. From (hazy) memory it was in Manor Rd.

Thats right, I couldn't remember the name of the turning except the road junction was where Victoria Road crossed the Romford-Upminster line. It had become a housing estate by about 1974, I knew someone who lived in one of the houses. Ironically that person worked for Hoveringham aggregates, he was captain of a gravel dredger.

[lightengine]

Back in the Delirium Cafe for probably the last time this holiday, again purely for internet usage, although the St-Idesbald Blonde is very nice. The 2nd beer tonight will be Wel Scotch which is apparently, biere au malt whisky des Highlands. Jock and Mal, I'm testing this one for you!

The snow was short lived here and only on the high ground, which in one of the low countries is about 300 metres around here.

[New Haven Neil]

Bad gateway error message time again!

[roundhouse]

Back in the Delirium Cafe for probably the last time this holiday, again purely for internet usage, although the St-Idesbald Blonde is very nice. The 2nd beer tonight will be Wel Scotch which is apparently, biere au malt whisky des Highlands. Jock and Mal, I'm testing this one for you!

The snow was short lived here and only on the high ground, which in one of the low countries is about 300 metres around here.

Yeah

 

Thats why we go in that place rather than for the beer...honest