Jump to content
 

Arthur

Members
  • Posts

    3,279
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Arthur

  1. The first photo looks like an open hearth steelworks, and the fifth is a blast furnace plant. I cannot identify either works from those photos. I’ll try and catch the film to see if that helps with locations. .
  2. I’m sure it is the same root. They were also referred to as a ‘telpherage’.
  3. Why? Genuine question. I don’t know when the name came into use, but I have found a reference suggesting 1885. I’m just curious as to why the L&Y would not have used it? .
  4. Machines best appreciated in action, ten minutes of mesmerising mechanical motion; Walthers did a kit, long since sold out. .
  5. Understandable Robert, you’ve done well to keep both enterprises running as long as you have. Are you still taking orders up to the 19th? I might just stock up if you are. .
  6. The Manchester Victoria telpher is a small example of the type. They were generally much larger structures installed to move bulk materials. Quite a few gasworks had them to move coal into and out of the stocking grounds and coke from the retorts. Here’s one that served Canon’s Marsh gasworks in Bristol. A rather poor shot showing a telpher serving some stocking grounds. Large systems included several man operated carrying cars with turnouts on the monorail allowing quite complex systems to be developed. U.K. builders included Strachan & Henshaw of Bristol and Mitchell Engineering of Peterborough. .
  7. The smaller the better, especially for arc furnaces. It is, however, a balance between the cost/difficulty in breaking something up and the extra time/fuel required to melt down a large, solid lump. It’s also got to be small enough to get through the furnace door/mouth. You would get an 08 engine block in most furnaces, whether you’d want to is a different question. Engine blocks are cast iron. That is a relatively brittle metal and can be smashed to pieces given a sufficient pounding. Scrap breaker at Margam/Port Talbot used for breaking up iron castings, slag balls etc. by dropping a steel ball from a great height. Small explosive charges have also been used in the past to shatter large lumps of metal. .
  8. South Wales produced something else which was widely used in the manufacture of fertiliser, steel slag. That is the waste from steel making (not iron making) furnaces of which there were many in the area. Most iron ores contained phosphorous, which it was important to remove during the iron to steel conversion process. Consequently, steel slag produced as a byproduct of the basic steel making process was rich in phosphorous. The value of such fertilisers was recognised by Welshman Sydney Gilchrist Thomas, who improved/developed the Bessemer process, and who made a considerable fortune from it. However, though steel slag is heavy enough, a one plank seems a bit ‘small’. It was certainly carried in three plank wagons. So, a possibility perhaps. .
  9. Very nice. Pigs would not be loaded in serried ranks, just dropped in via magnet crane in a low jumbled heap. Some would get broken in the process as pig iron is relatively brittle. As the fate of all pig iron is to be re-melted for subsequent use breakages are not an issue. In terms of traffic origin. The ‘dog bone’ pigs represent machine cast pigs, most of the larger integrated steelworks had pig casting machines by the 1950s. The straight pigs are of the type cast in traditional sand pig beds, more likely to be found at the smaller, purely iron producing plants. They would be in transit to either steel making plants or iron foundries. .
  10. You can get chevron tyres for lawn tractors for more arduous duties though most are fitted with a much less aggressive tread. I’d be tempted to file the the treads off. Roll cages tend only to be fitted to larger, commercial machines, rarely on domestic lawn tractors so, unless it is intended to represent a commercial machine, I’d remove the roll cage too.
  11. These compressors have been discussed on these pages before and the general consensus is that they do a good job and are good value. They are much better than using cans of compressed air. I have an AS18 with the tank chosen, as you suggest, to avoid any pulsing problems. Certainly for my 4mm modelling it works very well. From what some others have said the pulsing issue can be overplayed and the tankless version may well suit your needs, especially for short periods of use. Never having used one I couldn’t be certain. I wouldn’t expect too much of the airbrushes supplied with them, they may be okay for scenic work. Think of them as a freebie and if they are usable, that’s a bonus. .
  12. I’ve observed previously that if I could locate all of the kit components that had entered orbit around my workbench I’d have enough bits to assemble a complete locomotive. It would, however, be something akin to Johnny Cash’s Cadillac. .
  13. I think that you maybe over analysing the reasons an industrial concern built their own locomotives. I suspect that rather than it being down to demanding a design to a specific requirement it was simply that they had the ability, the workshop capacity and knowledge, so why pay somebody else to do something you can do yourself. Move beyond locomotives and many large industrial concerns kept the design and manufacture of much equipment and plant, sometimes very large plant (e.g. blast furnaces), in house. These days equipment and plant is generally more complex and specialised, most industries have slimmed down to their core business, so they buy in rather than self build. . .
  14. Thanks Rob, that’s much appreciated. Yes, I hoped the book conveyed that you can get the feel for a large industrial complex in a surprisingly small space. .
  15. It’s not only useful for finding odd bits you might struggle to find elsewhere, it’s also useful for finding things you never knew existed in the first place. There is such a vast array of items for sale that a vague search term for a tool, a fitting, a gadget, will often turn up some hitherto unknown solution. I’ve bought a good few useful items that way. I buy a lot, not just modelling stuff, through eBay. For some things I’m probably looking for a used item, other times I’m looking for something new, auction or BIN, either way works for me. Edit; And being rural, I don’t have to drive 30 miles into a big town to find and get things.
  16. Used Scalelink wheels a good few times without any problems. Just as with Markits, I always check that the square hole is ‘clean’ i.e. no flash. Appearance wise they are a little clunkier than Markits and the plastic centres not so robust but you pays your money and makes your choice, they are considerably cheaper. .
  17. As your only drill, no. They’re heavy and a bit unwieldy and there’ll be times it’s just a bit awkward for some tasks. However, as a second drill, one that’s readily moved around, they’re very good. Accurate, plenty of power and they hold power for a decent length of time. Probably best for scenic and structural modelling than very accurate drilling of small holes in kits etc. .
  18. Nice clip of a Barclay at 45 secs in. British Film Noir, Tread Soflty Stranger (1958). Filmed in Rotherham, the works featured is Parkgate Iron and Steel, by then part of the Tube Investments Group. .
  19. Thanks Simon, your clarification is appreciated.
  20. Let me be absolutely crystal clear. My issue with NCB’s post was simply his assertions that this was some proselytising thread raising the Cameo concept above all whilst diminishing the value of others. Nowhere is anybody suggesting that. I have no issue with his critiquing of the concept, outlining why he does not like idea, offering suggestions for consideration. .
  21. What!!? Too precious?? Nobody anywhere is presenting nor claiming that the Cameo concept, the peephole view if you will, is better than any other concept or design, nor implying that other approaches are bad. Nobody is promoting Cameos as being particularly desirable over any other form of layout presentation. It is simply one form of layout presentation described in a book to which the publishers have linked a competition. If it’s not for you, fine, move on, nothing for you to see here. .
  22. I too use an aging Minicraft 12v drill and also a cordless Dremel. The latter is heavy but I find it useful for various tasks. I don’t have a Proxxon drill but I do have a couple of other Proxxon products and would recommend them, well made, quality products. I’m just wondering about the quest for torque leading you towards a 240v drill. How much torque do you want, expect to be able, to apply to a No. 76 drill bit for example? I think you might find a 240v drill snapping them whilst with a 12v you’ll just stall it or trigger the overload. Maybe something to think about. Either way, Proxxon seem to make quality tools. .
  23. One of these is blast furnace (iron)slag, the other basic oxygen converter (steel) slag. There is little visual difference. Iron slag is produced during a process of chemical reduction, steel slag in an oxidising process. However, both have similar chemical compositions. Both contain around 45 % limestone (it being the flux in both processes) silicates and magnesium oxide such that, typically, they are around 65% the same. Iron slag has sulphur picked up from the smelting fuel, coke. Steel slag contains iron oxide and phosphorous oxides. Phosphorous is present in most ores and is not removed in the blast furnace. It must be eliminated from steel and it’s presence caused Henry Bessemer a lot of problems. Slags can have different appearances but the biggest determining factors are how the slag is cooled and what processing it has undergone. Has it been dry or water cooled, how quickly was it cooled, has it been aerated or foamed, blown into fibre strands, has it just been tipped, was it tipped as a liquid or a solid and how long has it been weathering for? Has it been crushed and graded? All of these factors have a much greater influence on the appearance of slag than whether it originated in an iron or steel making furnace.
  24. Cut Andrew some slack. You don’t know him, nor why he phrases his posts the way he does, It is not intentional rudeness. .
  25. As you say, it is not simple in that most coalfields produced a range of coals and even individual pits produced different types from the different seams they worked. That isn’t to say that they all produced all types. There was, for example, a lot of coking coal from the Durham fields, conversely none from Kent nor the Scottish fields. The end users often blended coal too, e.g. coke for blast furnaces was generally produced from a pre-determined blend of specific coals. For example, the Lancashire Steel Corp. at Irlam took in coking coals from Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire and blended them on site in a 40% 40% 20% mix. Somewhere I’ve got some details of what was produced from the pits in the Forest of Dean and from some of the Lancashire pits, I’ll see if I can locate them. . .
×
×
  • Create New...