Kiwirail

Hi All - Sorry I've been away from everything for a bit and distracted by other projects. Good to have a catch up on everyone's progress. Interesting a couple of you talking of school days. My parents met at Ilkley grammar in about 1955/56 and were there until 1961 ish. David Palmer and Joan Tomblin. Be amazingly small world if any of you chaps knew them. Still no progress here, but no COVID either, which is a big plus. Stay safe and away from each other! :-) Cheers Andrew

Great aerial photos Pete. Thanks for sharing. I've stored them away for (much) later when I finally get around to doing some modelling! Good to see some progress on the layout. I enjoyed the YouTube clip of the turntable. Keep up the good work. Cheers Andrew

Hi Tom Is that recent Bill Smith book any good? I'll have to see if they'll post out to NZ but if it is a good read I'll suck up the no doubt ridiculous postage cost..... Cheers Andrew

Great stuff Pete. Good to see some progress. Summer here in New Zealand so little time for indoor things, but I did manage to get the railway room finally cleared out after construction works finished months ago... We may see progress at my end prior to 2035 at this rate. I agree that on closer inspection the coaling stage drawing has a number of detail differences from the available photograph. I've often wondered with old drawings how much detail was left up to the contractor 150 years ago. As an engineer myself I see a lot of drawings (typically 20 A3 sheets for an ordinary house here in NZ!) yet things like an engine shed or station roof appear to have been defined in only two or three sheets in times past. There must have been much more reliance back then on good trades practice and site instruction by the designer. Cheers Andrew

Just had a look at Sir Douglas' drawings and indeed the coaling stage is four feet wide, so it's encouraging to know that my plan isn't a million miles off even at gross enlargement and freehand measuring! Some of the drawings are better preserved than others. I have a full set now and am happy to redistribute via PM. I've also asked Sir Douglas to see if we can get a set properly scanned which may benefit more than one or two of us. Thanks Sir Douglas for your valuable input. Cheers Andrew

Sir Douglas I'd really appreciate any drawings/photos you have. Details of the water tower and goods shed in particular have been impossible to find thus far. In terms of scale, I've dug out my site plan and here are the metric building footprint dimensions as close as I can make out. Water Tower: 5045 x 3930 excluding the lump on the western end, which I'm picking is some sort of chimney breast maybe? Goods Shed: 20480 x 9790 (main body of the shed). Office at western end adds another 7980 x 5200. Excludes steps. Coaling stage: 9395 x 1165 (excluding the steps). I suspect that this structure was actually closer to 4' wide (1220 mm) but we're scraping into areas of high implied precision scaling off my scanned plan! According to Smith & Binns (1986), Brook St Bridge was 25.9 m long but according to the plan, this dimension is actually the overall length from the back of each of the abutments on the northern side. The bowstring girders themselves scale at 28.7 m and the true span (front face of abutment to front face of abutment) is 23.9 m on the north side and 25.5 m on the south side. Should be enough info here to enable useful interpretation of the plans. I'll PM my email shortly. Thanks very much Andrew

Great stuff Tom. Really inspiring. Don't get depressed about lack of progress Pete. All I have to show for my efforts at present is a big empty space. It may be some years before the first sleeper gets laid down here. Still, at least half the fun is the planning and research. Cheers Andrew

Hi Tom Great pictures. Marvellous to see something actually more or less finished! Well done. I'm interested in your model of the station itself. Could you post a couple of shots please? Particularly the overall roof (if you've got that far). I've had various thoughts how to tackle it over the years, but I'd be fascinated to see what you've achieved. Cheers Andrew

Looks super. What sort of ash went into the coffee grinder? Are we talking about coal here, or wood or something else? Did the teddy bear object to the removal of fur? Cheers Andrew

Hey Pete What's the rail/sleeper/chair system you are using for this build? Looks great. Thanks Andrew

Pete Loving those windows and the turntable. Really excellent stuff! Summer's here, so not spending too much time inside on the computer. But good to see some progress at your end while I have been away. Cheers Andrew

Hi All Been off topic for a week or so following our little earthquake. Being a geotechnical engineer, I tend to get pretty busy when the earth moves. I have some photos of the coal drops c. 1983, before they were butchered for the car park entrance. I will try and dig something out and post it when I get a minute. Cheers Andrew

Bryan Well - so much for all of our collective wisdom and informed ignorance! Who'd have thought it? Next time there's a curious detail that seeks an interesting and unusual explanation, I'll just blame it on a TV production! Thanks very much for that little snippet. My layout will be set in late 1970s/ early 1980s, so I shall make sure that the footbridge is suitably grubby and uniformly grey throughout. Cheers Andrew

Tom I don't suppose you have a contact for the guy who gave the talk? Presumably he'd be a good source for new photos for this thread? I think the plan I've posted pieces of here previously and sent to a few of the chaps dates from around 1900, so it wouldn't surprise me if the outhouses at the Springs Lane cottages had changed by the 1950s. Cheers Andrew

Hi Pete Great to see progress on the layout, and hear of your success getting rid of your flatmates, thus freeing up space for more modelling (both railways and underwear, it would appear). If you haven't done your window etching yet, I may have a go at CADding up those railings and send something to you as a trial. I have a copy of the original drawing somewhere here, so combining that with Kingmoorkid's photos we should be on to something. You never know, you might get onto a model of the station one day and find you need some..... The other obvious candidate for an etch would be the latticework on the footbridge, but presumably that is available somewhere already? Cheers Andrew