Little things - for the layout outside the railway fence

[mike morley]

 

I think this must be a pump, although its design and being located in the middle of a field (near Garthmyl, twixt Welshpool and Abermule) make me unsure.

[mike morley]

 

I would have guessed this was a sheep-dip, but the excellently-produced leaflet detailing the many points of historical interest around the village of North Kilworth, Leics, tells me it was used by drovers to water their cattle.  It's in the delightfully named Washpit Lane.

[eastglosmog]

1 hour ago, mike morley said:

 

I think this must be a pump, although its design and being located in the middle of a field (near Garthmyl, twixt Welshpool and Abermule) make me unsure.

I would think it is a pump, with a wheel for belt drive from a portable engine or manual twirling.

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, mike morley said:

 

I think this must be a pump, although its design and being located in the middle of a field (near Garthmyl, twixt Welshpool and Abermule) make me unsure.

 

It's a crank pump, which could be driven by hand with a handle attached to the large flywheel or by a stationary engine using a flat belt thrown over the flywheel. Once they were quite common, most have been replaced by electric pumps or done away with completely. It may have been used to supply a number of cattle troughs, hence the location. It would date from around WWI.

[eastglosmog]

Way back up thread (April 11th, page 6) I posted a picture of a wheel and crank shaft the remains of an old pump behind a modern electric pump house from round these parts.

[corneliuslundie]

Coincidentally, I noticed that pump near Garthmyl this morning on the way back from Shrewsbury hospital by bus - and wondered what it was. Question answered before I even asked it.

Jonathan

[corneliuslundie]

I realise that I completely forgot to post last Monday. So here is my offering.

Definitely random today.

First what I assume is a boathouse on a small lake near here. The lake is owned by the local fishing club, so this is presumably theirs. Whether it was built this way or has half collapsed I am not sure. The lake itself is I think artificial as there is a small dam at one end.

 

Next back to those small white bollards I mentioned. As you can see they are not doing as very good job of highlighting the drain at the moment.

 

I have been wondering whether to do something on hedges but it is such a big subject and their appearance varies so much from month to month that I think it is beyond the scope of this thread. However, there are quite a few bits of former hedge such as this one around here. Presumably the farmers prefer fences, though some of them are in places where fields have been combined so the hedge is no longer needed. A bit less challenging to model than a complete field’s worth, and of course really only one species.

 

And as a change from those nice smart pedestrian gates on the Severn Way, we have this home made example. It has no hinges, merely being held in place when closed (as it usually is) by gravity and string.

 

I have a few more ideas for the next post, but am running out of things within walking (or cycling) distance of home to photograph and post. So over to the rest of you after that.

Jonathan

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by corneliuslundie

[Nearholmer]

This thread is always interesting, and I really ought to contribute pictures, but I'm a bit rubbish at taking photos when out cycling - I tend to get a bit too focused on the actual cycling.

 

To recompense, here is a picture of a feature that crops-up all over the british countryside in my experience, a big puddle, in this case on the Downslink path, former trackbed on the Guildford to Shoreham line, which featured about fifteen miles of these, interspersed with black mud, when I traversed it a couple of weeks ago.

 

A disused station might make a good model railway feature for people who hate track-laying too.

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Nearholmer

[figworthy]

On 25/07/2021 at 16:40, corneliuslundie said:

I have been wondering whether to do something on hedges but it is such a big subject and their appearance varies so much from month to month that I think it is beyond the scope of this thread. However, there are quite a few bits of former hedge such as this one around here. Presumably the farmers prefer fences, though some of them are in places where fields have been combined so the hedge is no longer needed. A bit less challenging to model than a complete field’s worth, and of course really only one species.

 

 

A sample of offerings taken today close to the manor house.

 

The grassy bit at the bottom is an earth bank (the ground level beyond the hedge is higher)

 

 

 

Adrian

Edited April 6, 2022 by figworthy
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[eastglosmog]

Will look up a few hedges for you, but in the meantime, here is a windmill pump on a farm near Radcot.  This sort of windmill used to be quite common (indeed, our towns water supply was raised by a slightly larger example until the 1960s, before we were attached to the  Thames Water mains supply).  The one shown, although now rather dilapidated was in working order when I first saw it some 30 years ago.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by eastglosmog
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[eastglosmog]

Some hedges as promised, from fairly widely scattered locations.

A rather rundown farm west of Hereford, a very straggly set of hedges:

 

 

Hedges by the bridleway to Chilson

 

 

Some maintained hedges by the Chilson Road

 

 

A hedge with a hard center, Dreemskerry, Isle of Man

 

 

Hedge by a raised causeway, Great Heck

 

 

A rather tatty hedge at Silvermines, Ireland

 

 

Hedge by the road near Thistleton

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by eastglosmog
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[eastglosmog]

Couldn't find this one when looking for it yesterday.

Hedge laying, Ditchley

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by eastglosmog
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[TheQ]

On 06/03/2021 at 23:25, SM42 said:

One for the industrial areas

 

 

This wall is in fact the parapet of a bridge over a branch of a relatively small river that runs through town.

 

The square infills were once red painted steel plates. Being a town with many factories  the purpose was to allow the fire brigade to easily access  the river below with their pumps 

 

Andy

 

it was also for traction engines to top up their water as well..

[corneliuslundie]

There are plenty of seats around here. But not many are as smartly painted as this one. To model this in 4 mm would be quite a challenge.

 

Ditto supports for saplings, but these are perhaps a bit over the top. I assume that there has been too much trouble in the past with vandals destroying saplings for the fun of it. These are near the ruins of St Mary’s Church by the river in Newtown which is quite a popular rendezvous for youngsters.

 

If you look carefully there is a signpost for the Severn Way in this photo. Better I suppose than a number which have rotted at the base and fallen over.

 

I may try to collect together some thoughts about hedges for next week, though an enormous subject.

Jonathan

Edited October 1, 2022 by corneliuslundie

[iands]

3 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

........ but these are perhaps a bit over the top. I assume that there has been too much trouble in the past with vandals..........

 

Or perhaps the other well know destroyer of young saplings, deer.

[mike morley]

A tree-house with suspension bridge access.

 

 

It's a sedate ten-minute amble from the former terminus of the Cambrian's Kerry branch.

There is/used to be another tree-house (although not as picturesque/modellogenic as this one) peering over the fence at the west-bound traffic near the Coventry end of the M45.

 

I originally posted this picture some years ago on the (superb) Geograph website.  As it's my picture I'm not sure if I need to make the usual disclaimer about creative commons.

[MrWolf]

That's some flashy treehouse, ours used to resemble a cross between a Rook's nest and an unlit bonfire.

[Les Bird]

These days telephone wires generally run underground but in earlier days, they were suspended from telephone poles. Older RMWebbers may remember that each installation required two wires attached to buildings by insulated brackets like this.

 

[mike morley]

Not long after the Verney Junction to Bletchley line was first abandoned I took a walk along the stretch between Swanbourne and Salden Woods.  Every few dozen yards there was a scatter of insulators cast aside by whoever had stripped the cables and metalwork from the telegraph poles.  I was surprised how big they were and astonished to find how heavy they were.

I kept one that for many years acted as a very effective doorstop.  I'd love to know what happened to it.

[corneliuslundie]

The other cables we have around Newtown are the remnants of an old cable television system. Reception was lousy in the Severn Valley so a private company was set up and often used overhead cables. A couple of years ago I was talking to a BT engineer who was doing some work on one of their poles, and he said that they were not allowed to use the old cable television cables, which also used the same poles, because they did not own them - even though the company had closed down years ago. By coincidence, the other day someone was removing one of these cables from their house; the cable ran across the road to another house - a private road so no problem.

And on the other side of our road almost every house has a satellite dish on the front wall.

Jonathan

[eastglosmog]

Some seats for relaxation whilst out and about.

Starting with one in a bus stop shelter with a famous sign, which may (or may not) be the one that inspired a poet on 24th June 1914:

 

 

A simple seat in the National Trust property at Brockhampton:

 

 

A memorial seat in Fulbrook Churchyard

 

 

At the bottom of Pound Hill during floods some 9 years ago:

 

 

Lord Moreton's Seat, a pleasant place to sit and watch the world go by:

 

 

And something a bit classier to end with, the Naval temple on the Kymin, outside Monmouth.  The shade was very welcome on a hot day:

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by eastglosmog
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[Alister_G]

On 05/08/2021 at 20:25, Les Bird said:

These days telephone wires generally run underground but in earlier days, they were suspended from telephone poles. Older RMWebbers may remember that each installation required two wires attached to buildings by insulated brackets like this.

 

 

That looks much more like a mains electrical feed, than a telephone connection.

 

Al.

[Nearholmer]

I think its probably mains too, but either way, if you model such a termination point, for such it is, on the "house side" there should be a cable formed into a vaguely U-shaped "drip loop" before it penetrates the wall/eaves, the idea being to allow water to drip off the cable, rather than run/wick alomg it indoors.

 

Certainly the mains connection cables were large enough, and installed with zero thought to visual amenity, so that they ought to be clearly visible on a 4mm/ft model. Drip-loop practice has changed over the years, so a "modern image" one, often a circular loop, would be wrong on a period model! There was often an oval shaped terminal box too, or a "breeches joint", to split the two core mains cable entering the house into two singles to attach to the "in air" cores, but those things would be a bit too tiny for 4mm/ft.

 

Despite being a mere youth in terms of these things, my training included traditional jointing of multi-stranded "in-air" cables, an art/craft that was a thing of true beauty when done by a good craftsman, and a right dogs breakfast when done by me. The strands have to be woven together, then basted with molten solder poured between a ladle and a pot, often done while at the top of a ladder in a freezing gale.

[MrWolf]

The white insulators with screw on tops look more typical of a telephone junction, insulators for mains feed are typically brown, a house I once lived in was fed by an overhead cable, which although modernish, the ceramic support brackets on the walls and the terminal insulators were all red brown and dated 1932.

 

This example on the top left of the wall on this ruin is more typical of a mains connection.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by MrWolf

[Les Bird]

In the same road as the house with the white insulators, is another with the brown variety