The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

Forgot to say that lime is also good for improving the soil fertility as it binds with the chemical compounds in the clay. Most plants will tolerate a fairly high PH. It's only camellias, rhododendrons etc that can't. The other thing to watch out for is creating sumps. This when the clay becomes saturated the excess water then runs into the planting pit causing it to flood.

[PhilJ W]

When I first moved into this house more than thirty years ago the back garden had  a distinct dip in it. It turned out that it was the site of a pond. Fortunately there had been drainage of a sort as the road alongside had been dug out to ease a gradient and water didn't accumulate. I added topsoil to level it off, up to a foot deep in places. Despite that in some places the clay is only a couple of inches below the surface. I used to make my own potting compost, stable manure, dead leaves, a few grass cuttings, tea leaves and ashes from the bonfire. To add lime I put in eggshells and being a hard water area limescale from the kettle. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by PhilJ W

[SM42]

We had a dip in the lawn when we moved in. I filled it with far more than I ever thought I would need with (as is usual in these sort of endeavours,) reseeded and all was fine till last yar when it re-appeared.

 

It's a strange one.  We have sandstone beneath our feet and no drains or pipes run through there so why it has returned I don't know. I just don't linger on the spot. 

 

Andy

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, SM42 said:

We had a dip in the lawn when we moved in. I filled it with far more than I ever thought I would need with (as is usual in these sort of endeavours,) reseeded and all was fine till last yar when it re-appeared.

 

It's a strange one.  We have sandstone beneath our feet and no drains or pipes run through there so why it has returned I don't know. I just don't linger on the spot. 

 

Andy

Your not in a mining area are you? Mind you sandstone is quite easy to dig and there could be some man made voids some more than a thousand years old.

[SM42]

11 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Your not in a mining area are you? Mind you sandstone is quite easy to dig and there could be some man made voids some more than a thousand years old.

 

No, no mining in this neck of the woods.  On a hill that was farmland before being used for off road motorsport (scambling)

 

Could be an old badgers sett perhaps.

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

We had a dip in the lawn when we moved in. I filled it with far more than I ever thought I would need with (as is usual in these sort of endeavours,) reseeded and all was fine till last yar when it re-appeared.

 

It's a strange one.  We have sandstone beneath our feet and no drains or pipes run through there so why it has returned I don't know. I just don't linger on the spot. 

 

Andy

I wonder if it's a muddy hollow that's escaped and is trying to put down roots?

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Leaving it on the top, no dig, method is supposed to be better as it maintains the soil structure but with clay I think it would simply build up on surface.

Spread on the top, dug or hoed in a bit. Just putting compost on top of the heavy clay soil didn’t work until a friend suggested grsvel.

[simontaylor484]

Where we used to live when we were kids my Dad decided to have a pond, the garden sloped down so my Grandad built a wall halfway down to split it in to two levels. The pond was to be on the upper level so we set off digging we got 3 foot deep at one end the other we could only get 18 inches down till we found solid concrete you could bounce a pick off. It looked like it had been cast in situ it kept going and going across under.the grass towards next doors.garden. We ended up.laying carpet over it before the pond liner we never found what it was it could.be a secret bunker for all we knew. There were no sewers or anything on the deed plan they went down the road it could.have been a culvert that has been filled. It looked.like.It had been worked with a float to.make it smooth 

[SM42]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

I wonder if it's a muddy hollow that's escaped and is trying to put down roots?

 

As long as the occupant doesn't join it. 

 

I know you can travel for maintaining a holiday home but this is a bit too much

 

Andy

[simontaylor484]

2 houses had to be demolished in Pontefract because they start ed to disappear into old underground sandstone workings.

[PhilJ W]

33 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

2 houses had to be demolished in Pontefract because they start ed to disappear into old underground sandstone workings.

Liverpool is largely built on sandstone. A few years ago the old southern terminus of the Liverpool Overhead Railway which was in a tunnel started to collapse. Houses above it had to be evacuated. The old station had been used as a garage and quite a few cars are still trapped down there.

https://jalopnik.com/a-collapsed-old-railway-tunnel-hides-these-rare-cars-un-1495585003

[SM42]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

2 houses had to be demolished in Pontefract because they start ed to disappear into old underground sandstone workings.

 

Round here people lived in sandstone cliffs houses until the 1980s. 

You can even rent one for a holiday. 

 

Is it a coincidence  that Mrs SM42 is looking at estate agent's websites?

 

Andy

[simontaylor484]

A.but 

2 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

Round here people lived in sandstone cliffs houses until the 1980s. 

You can even rent one for a holiday. 

 

Is it a coincidence  that Mrs SM42 is looking at estate agent's websites?

 

Andy

Didn't a guy do a Grand Designs in something similar

[Adam88]

Two or three weeks ago someone asked the team on GQT why clay was always described as 'heavy clay' and the answer was along the lines of: "Well, if it wasn't heavy then it wouldn't be clay" before dropping into greater detail. 

 

For any NMers who are interested in interesting things, i.e. most, then this little video on woodland soil is worth watching.

 

 

Incidentally, the presenter's uncle was Sir Charles Evans who, amongst many achievements, was deputy leader on Sir John Hunt's successful 1953 Everest expedition.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by Adam88

[Happy Hippo]

I've decided to rebuild my table saw with a larger bed and a better fence arrangement.

 

The downside is that I will lose about 18 mm cutting height, as I will be bolting the new table top over the existing one.

This will ensure that the top is correctly squared off against the saw bed.

 

The upside is I will be able to put in a pair of proper T tracks to allow the use of a mitre sled.

 

This will not be an immediate project as I have enough on my plate at  present , but since I'm having a major sort out of my timber stocks, it's worth bearing in mind.

 

I am half way through slicing up some pallets:  some of the recovered timber is destined for the mud kitchen, whilst the scrappy bits will go to Morgan's wood burner.

 

As is the usual case, he has some rough sawn timber planking for me which has been left over from a cladding job.  These planks will form the majority of a set of bird boxes I've been told I'm making!

 

 

[Dave Hunt]

It looks as though a lot of the bird boxes round here have already been occupied. A pair of blue tits have been fitting out the one on the front wall of our house for the last few days and another has been inspected quite a few times although it seems that so far none of the enquirers has managed to secure a mortgage. Jill has been discouraging some pigeons that have been assessing the acer by the front path as a nesting site as although it was lovely to watch the young ones growing and then fledging there last year, the mess on the path was horrendous.

 

I had to cut the grass yesterday, which has brought Mr. Si Attica out to play with a vengeance this morning so apart from doing the market shopping I have been excused domestic duties today and given executive clearance for some workshop time instead. Hello, silver lining....

 

Have a good Hump day.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

13 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I had to cut the grass yesterday, which has brought Mr. Si Attica out to play with a vengeance this morning so apart from doing the market shopping I have been excused domestic duties today and given executive clearance for some workshop time instead. Hello, silver lining....

 

Have a good Hump day.

After my retinal tear I was told to avoid dust and machines that caused vibration.

 

 

It got me off housework for 6 months!

[New Haven Neil]

@Dave Hunt Is that your glorious Yankee Mogul in the Midland Railway Society advert in the back of MRJ this month?  I go weak at the knees every time I see that, from it's first appearance way back in MRJ when I was but a lad.

[Dave Hunt]

Yes indeed - still going strong if a little creaky at the joints and showing signs of age now - something like its maker! That photograph was taken a few years ago at Warley.

 

Dave

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

 

Been having a play today with my 2nd favorite locomotive, my Märklín Royal Bavarian State Railways class S 3/6.

 

 

It’s managed to shed both its traction tires, so new ones need ordering. It’s primary purpose on my layout is pulling a shortened Jouef orient express, which it’s does admirably when the coaches behave! Currently they are randomly derailing, which I think is down to them weighing next to nothing, but comments are welcome.

 

Douglas

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Morning all,

 

 

Been having a play today with my 2nd favorite locomotive, my Märklín Royal Bavarian State Railways class S 3/6.

 

 

It’s managed to shed both its traction tires, so new ones need ordering. It’s primary purpose on my layout is pulling a shortened Jouef orient express, which it’s does admirably when the coaches behave! Currently they are randomly derailing, which I think is down to them weighing next to nothing, but comments are welcome.

 

Douglas

Way back in the 80's, Aster Hobby made a very nice model of the S2/6 4-4-4.

 

They should have thought about doing the S3/6 as well as it could have made use of some of the components they'd already tooled up for with the smaller loco.

 

However, in some areas there is a lack of joined up thinking!

[PhilJ W]

I purchased a small layout a week ago. There is a slight problem in that to connect the layout to the fiddle yard electrically I have to screw eight wires into connector blocks. Rather than mess about doing that I ordered a dozen plug in connectors, they arrived today and will be fitted tomorrow. Hopefully I will have the layout up and running by the weekend.

[Dave Hunt]

Just been watching the Hairy Bikers doing Route 66. This episode included a stop in Tulsa and featured the Mother Road Market, which as well as bringing Douglas to mind was an interesting variation on American cuisine. Speaking of our Oklahoma correspondent, I think he may be correct in assuming that lack of tonnage may be affecting the roadholding of his stock.

 

Had a break this afternoon from making buildings for my MPD layout and resumed work on my Cowans Sheldon 15 ton crane. I've started adding the Fox transfers, which is a really fiddly job and not helped by the fact that the transfer sheet is really for the 1899 swan neck cranes so to make it fit my curved jib type a lot of the very small lettering has to be rearranged. So far it's taken me nearly 3 hours to do the lettering on the rear panel and one side of the jib. It's a long time since I used waterslide transfers as I usually go for press on or methfix types and it's been a steep learning curve again involving lots of cursing as I unfold, rejoin and otherwise wrestle with the damn things. So far it's coming out OK but I'm unsure about using Microsol as I seem to recall reading somewhere that Fox transfers don't like it. Similarly I believe that there are some types of varnish they react badly to. Anyone have any knowledge of such matters?

 

Dave

Edited March 24, 2021 by Dave Hunt
Accidentally touching the edit button. I hate touch screens sometimes

[SM42]

I've used Microsol recently on Fox transfers

  They are quite old though so not sure if things have been changed since at Fox. 

I have also painted over with matt Revell varnish, both with no ill effect. 

Perhaps a test using the decal sheet number or trade mark if they still print that on the sheet

 

Andy

[Florence Locomotive Works]

15 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Mother Road Market,

I know it well Dave, caused quite the stir when it opened! In fact I’ve some photos of the interior, the first showing the original ceiling trusses, and the second an amusing sign. 
 

It could be a good place for train spotting, as the BNSF mainline heading to Cherokee Yard across the river darts right behind it. 
 

 

 

Douglas