Castle Aching

[uax6]

Would it be possible that some ex-NB wagons were purchased for the gravel traffic? (Or maybe some to that design were purchased new for some reason?)

 

If you could get hold of some of the Caley Soc's dumb buffered version you could have them as proper secondhand stock..

 

Theres a photo in Jenkinsons 'Highland in LMS days' of some opens loaded with fish oil. Small barrels all piled up in a very interesting way. Where did this sort of traffic go? Was it short haul to processors or was fish oil used directly as it came for anything?

 

Andy G

[Donw]

Funny I was about to comment that some oils may have been transported in Barrels when UAX6 posted above. Certainly I suspect Lamp oil which would probably not be used in such large quantities is a likely candidate. I would imagine a number of barrels in a company truck maybe with some other goods to make a full load. A barrel could be unloaded at various stations. The GWR used a van as a station truck to carry all sorts of small loads. However I would see the company prefer to carry the oil in an open wagon.

The railways used to carry quite a lot of part loads and also small (well small for railways) parcels in addition to the bulk loads.

 

Don

[corneliuslundie]

If anyone wants to follow up on the Scottish shale oil industry there is quite a bit in "Oil on the rails" by Alan Coppin (HMRS, 1999), currently reduced to £6 + p&p

(sorry, as HMRS Publications Co-ordinator I couldn't resist getting in the plus, but it is a very good book which I bought full price!)

When the GWR was building the Badminrton cut-off it used local clay for the bricks for the tunnels and discovered coal, if I remember correctly.

Jonathan

[Edwardian]

First snow of the winter!  About 6.30 this morning.

 

Modelling in the un-insulated outbuilding is not something I care to embark upon!

 

[BG John]

Keep it there. I don't want any here!

[Edwardian]

Sure?

 

It's very pretty! 

 

Time to be saving for fuel oil, not models of wagons carrying shale oil, unfortunately!

 

The scene just a few minutes ago now the light is with us:

 

[jwealleans]

Just sleet here in the tropical East.  Plenty of white vehicles though, so it's not far away.

[BlueLightning]

James, that looks like a beautiful view to wake up to. Just rain down here, lots of rain.

 

Gary

[BG John]

Blue sky and sun in normally wet West Wales. It's about time the rest of you had some Welsh weather, and gave us a bit of a respite!

[Andy Hayter]

You have my sympathies Edwardian.  Same situation here in the South of France (the same France that HMG considers too warm to give OAPs the winter fuel allowance); 6cm snow this morning.  My modelling room is insulated but no central heating, so also not conducive to modelling in such conditions.

[Edwardian]

You have my sympathies Edwardian.  Same situation here in the South of France (the same France that HMG considers too warm to give OAPs the winter fuel allowance); 6cm snow this morning.  My modelling room is insulated but no central heating, so also not conducive to modelling in such conditions.

 

Good point.  I had hoped to insulate before winter simply so that I could erect baseboards and transfer my efforts to date on CA to the outbuilding with a reasonable chance of surviving.  As for heat, I would have to fetch a couple of electric oil heaters from the Peterborough house.  It is to be doubted whether a suitable modelling or operating environment would result! 

 

Anyone else whose railway room is a shed,garage, or outbuilding that is not on the central heating circuit?  if so, I wonder how you fare?

[Edwardian]

Oh, apropos HMG, I rather think the latest judicial review for which I settled the papers has already caused a change of policy.  Normally HMG spits fur, fights on principle and appeals even where hopeless, but here BEIS has announced that it will largely reverse the secondary legislation that cut the subsidy for a certain renewable heat and power technology.  A grace period has hastily been promised to allow many of the projects affected by the cut to go through.  An attempt by BEIS to avoid the consequence of unlawful government action.  We shall see!

 

So, your very own Edwardian has once again troubled the counsels of the Great!

 

Well, Government will be Government, bless. You really do need to watch them.  Something to bear that in mind when Mother Theresa and the Daily Mail have another go at judicial review and the judiciary.

 

Quis custodiet ipsos custodies, heh?

[Northroader]

I love it when you talk dirty.

[Nearholmer]

Former detached garage, so single-skinned, converted to 'utility room'. 75mm king-span on walls, which are then dry-lined; ceiling covered with about 200mm of loft insulation. Floor is a concrete beam and plank construction, so has air beneath it, and doesn't act as too much of a heat sink. I run an oil filled radiator, set to 1kW, 10 degreesC, as anti-con and I leave it at that setting for jobs that involve a bit of exercise; if the job involves sitting still, I turn it up to 15. The freezer and tumble dryer 'waste' a bit of heat into the room, which is useful.

 

Trickle vent should really be provided too, but we are in and out of the place so frequently that opening and closing the external door does the job.

 

This set up gives a good environment even in the depths of winter - in fact, it is a nice quiet haven - and the oil rad barely "kicks in" when on its background setting, because the insulation works so well.

 

(For anti con and anti dampness in the U.K., a temperature of 6 degrees will usually suffice)

 

Kevin

[ukpepsi]

Anyone else whose railway room is a shed,garage, or outbuilding that is not on the central heating circuit?  if so, I wonder how you fare?

My modelling is conducted in an un-insulated loft, it's the pitch is un-insulated, the floor has 4 inches of sheep wool, topped with 1/2" tongue & groove chipboard sheets screwed to the joists.

I've got lights & power, so yes it is cold up there this time of year

 

Advantages are that it's a largish loft, the house being a late Victorian semi, so isn't filled with beams all over the place as per modern practice.

 

Nor do I have exclusive use of the loft, things stored down both sides, but I've setup some bench work down the middle, with my workbench, an old wooden computer table, suitably modified at the front end by the loft hatch. Access is via an aluminium ladder that I have to put up & take down each time.

 

It does get hot up there at the height of summer as well. 

 

Pepsi

Edited November 9, 2016 by ukpepsi

[BlueLightning]

You lot are making me very glad that my layout is in the living room lol.

 

Gary

[BG John]

What's heating? Seems like something for wimps to me! I really must get my stove working soon, so I can clear several tons of logs stacked outside the house. Until then, I spend most of my indoor life in my office/modelling room, that's cheap and easy to heat. It's in a corner of my indoor railway room, so I can do some quick jobs on layouts, then retreat to the warm bit, where I plan a winter of loco, rolling stock and building making.

[mullie]

My main layout is in an integral garage which the car usually goes into each night. Because of the proximity of the sea we only rarely get frost and it is some years since we had snow and that only tends to last for a day at a time. It was a balmy 9 degrees the other day when I left for work at 7am but only 2 degrees with frost where I work. The garage gets surprisingly cold especially when the wind is in the north or east because of the direction the house faces and the wind will slice right through you because of its force! It always seems to be windy on Portland!

 

I plan to set up my other layout Rickett Street soon as that is small enough that it can be indoors. Although I grew up on a farm, as I get older I am less tolerant of the cold, preferring to be warm. For a number of years I ran and played in a soul band which played an outdoor gig in Weymouth harbour on New Years Eve, now that was cold and very difficult to keep the fingers moving!

[Donw]

For loft rooms multi layer foil like Tri-Iso 10 or Super Quilt will give effective insulation with minimum loss of space. However the space between the rafters needs to be clear to ventilate. If you add some Celotex between the rafters to achieve current insulation levels set by the Building Control you have to maintain 50mm minimum clear space between the insulation and roof felt plus they will probably insist on adding roof vents to improve the airflow under the felt.  The insulation will help keep heat out in summer but a velux window will let the heat from inside out. (best on the cooler side of the roof).

 

For sheds Insulation is needed and then a modest background heat to avoid condensation. A fan heater can soon bring it up to reasonable temp. Leaving the door open for a bit on a warmish day for an hour can allow any build up of moisture to escape.

 

Some people find it worthwhile adding insulation to achieve a comfortable environment. Others tend to avoid the train room in the winter and retreat to an indoor workbench. Even a bit of old carpet on a shed floor can increase the comfort. 

 

I can remember years ago in the cottage on the wenlock  edge suffering with ice forming on the inside of the bedroom windows until I could aquire and fit a rayburn.

 

Don

 

Don

[TheQ]

I would have loved to put my layout in my loft, but two large chimney breasts either side of the central corridor would have meant a lot of crawling to get through and the layout at a very low level  .

 

 So a shed was built, which has grown somewhat since planning permission was granted by SWMBO, in order to get permission, she's  got one end where the track just takes a 1 foot wide strip round the edge. That end I built semi circular and with 7 windows (old sashes from the house) that's her art studio.

 So the shed ended up being 54ft by up to 16ft wide, or rather it did do, with SWMBO already moving in one end her end has grown well past the middle, a bit like our wardrobe  where I now only have the last 3 ft of it's 15ft length  . So leaving me no room to finish the other end and I'll have insufficient space even when finished so another 9ft by 10ft shed is being attached at 90degrees on my end. That will now be a dirty workshop(spraying etc) and my storage.

 

Sorry for the interuption but I had to transfer from my Desk to the lab computer 100yards away...

 

Insulation is being added everywhere to my shed as I go along working on lining the inside, And I double glazed the windows with a layer of 4mm plastic, which made a huge Difference. A complete plastic membrane below the floor was fitted when it was built, to reduce condensation coming up from below. We get a large proportion of Norfolks lazy wind, that blows right through you, since when I look out onto the coast, both side of the shed (120 degree angle running through north east)

 

 I did look at fitting a solid fuel stove but was worried about the fire hazzard and the dust from the ash.

So heating will be local to the user, radiant heaters, plus the heat generated by the 3 fridges, one is for her volatile art substances, one for my glues and paints and the other for....my cider   

I think when the shed fully comes into use I will have to fit curtains cutting off  her studio and the other end my model railway modelling area to keep the heat mostly in those areas just pulling them back for operating sessions.

 

For the opposite conditions in the centre of the roof I've fitted a ventilator / clock tower like they have on the top of a stables, at the moment that is controlled by a manual door underneath but will eventually have an automatic green house window opener fitted to control excess heat when we're not there.

 

 I can remember Ice on the inside of the windows, till my parents moved to a night storage heatered house in 1971. Though it feels like my house will go that ways soon with our broken boiler.

Edited November 10, 2016 by TheQ

[Edwardian]

 

I would have loved to put my layout in my loft, but two large chimney breasts either side of the central corridor would have meant a lot of crawling to get through and the layout at a very low level.

 So I ended up with a shed, which has grown some what planning permission was granted by SWMBO, in order that she's  got one end where the track just takes a 1 foot wide strip round the edge. that end I built semi circular and with 7 windows (old sashes from the house) that's her art studio.

 

 

What a great set-up!

[TheQ]

What a great set-up!

Thanks, It's taken A lot of time (nearing 10 years) due to waiting for available money and time it'self, as once I had built the original 20ft X10ft commercial shed I realised I could build myself something much more appropriate and more cheaply but taking much more time.

 

 Here's an old picture, the two brown Pillars at the front are now white and support an awning with valancing!!

The jungle on the left of picture is now a raised concrete deck outside the mobile home.

The Jungle on the right is now lowered ready for a barbeque area, and access where the railway will eventually escape the shed.

You can just see the commercial shed poking out from behind the mobile home.

[Edwardian]

Thanks, It's taken A lot of time (nearing 10 years) due to waiting for available money and time it'self, as once I had built the original 20ft X10ft commercial shed I realised I could build myself something much more appropriate and more cheaply but taking much more time.

 

 Here's an old picture, the two brown Pillars at the front are now white and support an awning with valancing!!

The jungle on the left of picture is now a raised concrete deck outside the mobile home.

The Jungle on the right is now lowered ready for a barbeque area, and access where the railway will eventually escape the shed.

You can just see the commercial shed poking out from behind the mobile home.

 

Does look the business, but, crikey, I've lived in places smaller than that! 

 

Which reminds me of our nadir last year when lived through November and December in a touring caravan!

 

This was before we found our present abode and the West Norfolk began to emerge, but those who visited the Umber is the New Black topic may recall it, as I do, with some horror!

[Donw]

Does look the business, but, crikey, I've lived in places smaller than that! 

 

Which reminds me of our nadir last year when lived through November and December in a touring caravan!

 

This was before we found our present abode and the West Norfolk began to emerge, but those who visited the Umber is the New Black topic may recall it, as I do, with some horror!

 

IN June 2013 we put our bungalow on the Isle of Wight up for sale and moved into the 5.4m long motorhome. It made it easier than trying to keep the house clean with two lively dogs. We sold the house and bought one in Minehead which needed some alterations so we stayed in the motorhome until they had finished their work in February. It was a very wet winter one thing a motorhome lacks is space to hang wet clothes to dry. On the plus side there is not a lot to keep clean. Most of the furniture had been packed into one room but a lot of stuff had been stacked in the garage. It was not the best moment when we discovered the garage roof was of chocolate tea pot quality. It was as much use as a colander as a rain hat.

Some modelling did get done in the motorhome

 

 

Don

during the kinder weather

[jwealleans]

Chairman of Cleveland MRC and builder of Guisborough, Dave Lloyd, often disappears to warmer climes in his motorhome in the winter months. Two years ago he came back with this which he'd scratchbuilt over the course of the four month trip.

 

Edited July 11, 2018 by jwealleans