Little things - for the layout outside the railway fence

[MrWolf]

Re your first picture, it's probably a former electric substation, this one is near us 

 

(And for some reason refuses to load right way round!)

 

[Ray Von]

Boink!

 

 

Very similar indeed! Thanks.

[eastglosmog]

A bit of battered GWR concrete post fencing with a more modern wooden gate and footbridge with tubular steel handrails at Fawler Villa Bridge on the OWW.  The footbridge is a modern affair, for many years you had to paddle across the river through the shallows after the footbridge on the other side of the railway bridge fell down:

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by eastglosmog
Restore photo

[Ray Von]

Take heart if things on your layout aren't "perfect":

 

 

 

 

 

[Ray Von]

Quirks:

 

Authentic Mock-Victorian-LED-Gas-Lamp:

Earlier model:

 

About a 1/2 mile inland:

 

If you've got a large vacant spot on your layout....

Just ballast it!:

 

 

 

 

[Ray Von]

No laughing matter:

 

 

I missed out on a flat in this block a year or so ago when I was looking for a new place.  I hope nobody came to any harm.  It's thought provoking to notice that the lowest floor flat has had its window smashed as well.

  Taking a step back and looking objectively at the building, this would be quite easy - if a little morbid - to recreate as a point of interest in model form.

 

Here's some truly eclectic brickwork:

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

 

This building has been everything from a pump house to a dance hall over the years and a pet supplies store for the last 50 or so. This corner is steeply angled the other corner is about a six foot radius curve.

 

 

17th century cottages which now serve as a boundary wall. The ivy "tree" is actually growing out of the top.

 

 

 



[Metr0Land]

Plenty of tank traps and pill boxes still exist here in west Wales.  I've yet to find a pill box I can include in a railway picture but the tank traps alongside Kidwelly aerodrome are close to the line.

 

[SM42]

A few more roadside accutremata today

 

Footpath sign, metal 

 

Footpath sign wooden 

 

 

Lots of other stuff going on here too. The hydrant marker, the parish notice case, the fly tipping campaign sign.

 

Variation on a theme, a bridle way

 

Again lots going on.

Neighbourhood watch sign ( I'm probably the subject of a report now)

The crime prevention smartwater sign, the name of the path, the corner fence post. The double fence. 

 

More to follow  soon

 

Andy

 

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by SM42

[SM42]

Part 2

 

Width restriction on a public  footpath. Whether to stop motorbikes or horses or both not too sure.  Other signs too about dogs and littering.

 

 

 

 

 

Speed limit repeater signs. 

Installed where there is no other signage indicating a limit after passing the start point signs.

 

In this case 30mph. Slightly unusual, but required as there are no street lights so the limit is not obvious

 

It has also been painted on the road too. This is normally found where the limit changes 

 

 

 

Finally a pipe line marker in the hedgerow. A new type unlike the old orange roof capped post type. In this case a high pressure gas pipe

 

 

 

 

Andy

Edited March 31, 2021 by SM42
Hit reply instead of add file. Doh!

[eastglosmog]

Some interesting detail on a capstone of the seawall around St Aubin's Bay, Jersey.  The short vertical half holes are a result of using plug and feathers to split the granite:

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by eastglosmog
Improve the grammar, restore the photo

[SM42]

Just one for today

 

A cycle and footpath sign

 

 

Note how the grass verge has spread out over the markings on the path.

 

Andy

[SM42]

Here are a few more road side items from my Easter day walk. 

 

Grit bin. Self help on side roads that the gritter lorry doesn't reach

 

 

Box for the post man. The depot drop off extra bags here for the postie to collect out on the round rather than come back in to the office

 

 

Zig zag barriers at the meeting of footpath and main road

 

 

Variation on the theme. Note here also the tactile paving at the crossing, road studs across the road marking the line of the crossing and the litter bin

BTW this is  Toucan crossing incorporated into a traffic light controlled junction. The path between the barrier and the road is a combined foot and cycle path

 

 

Andy

 

[Ray Von]

Really little things, tiny plants growing on the top of a wall- inspiration for scale park land?

 

 

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

Fascinating isn't it? It's one of those things that you notice as a child and drift off thinking about that you don't notice as an adult because you're far too busy trying to keep bread on the table.

I think that we are worse off without it. 

At least when doing a bit of research, you do get to appreciate the world around you. 

[Ray Von]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

Fascinating isn't it? It's one of those things that you notice as a child and drift off thinking about that you don't notice as an adult because you're far too busy trying to keep bread on the table.

I think that we are worse off without it. 

At least when doing a bit of research, you do get to appreciate the world around you. 

Well said. I try and stay enthralled by the world around me! 

[MrWolf]

Today's spots whilst responsibly viewing a motorcycle for sale.

 

 

Must have been a big builder's merchant to have their own castings made. 

 

 

Salt glazed drain with original cast iron strainer, iron drainpipe and a couple of modern interlopers. The house these pictures belong to dates from the early 1930s, but the dark  glazed pipes are common from Victorian times to the 60s.

[Nick Holliday]

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Must have been a big builder's merchant to have their own castings made. 

In the good old days, not only were there lots of merchants, but many small casting companies as well. A small thing that is often overlooked is a coal hole in the pavement.  Very common in older areas of cities like London where the (usually) Victorian houses had basements into which the coal was pitched through the hole.  This selection was taken in just one square, somewhere in London that I have forgotten.

As can be seen, I hope, some of these came from unlikely addresses - Pentonville Road, Chiswell Street, Caledonian Road and Marchant Street

[MrWolf]

There's quite a few still in our area, about three feet from the front doorstep. I haven't managed to go into anyone's front garden yet and get a picture. Top job by the way!

[Nick C]

The University of London Motor Club used to run (and maybe will again post-covid) a couple of treasure hunts around London, in which the targets were the many and various inscriptions, castings and other such delights spread around the square mile - forcing you to pay close attention to your surroundings - for each clue you were given a fragment of text and a 10m square in which to look, and with the clues divided into easy (for example a date above a door on an entrance portico), medium (such as the castings in @MrWolf's post above), and hard (one particularly memorable one being the maker's stamp engraved on the inside of a sheet of safety glass in a window...)

[corneliuslundie]

Very odd. The first April post has disappeared completely. So here is what I postedf

As promised, things on posts.
I like the colour variation on this pole, but note the kit attached to it, some kind of booster I assume. Gone are the days of telegraph poles beside every road (and railway line), but in the country there are still a lot of poles carrying telephone lines and power cables. Some of the power poles have quite big sets of circuit breakers etc.

 

Most of these poles have some kind of stay. Most around here have this yellow tape wrapped around them to make them more visible, though it soon fades to off white. Some have yellow plastic sheaths for the stays. And of course those awful hedge trimmers attached to tractors have to miss out these bits of hedge so trees can get a start.

 

This post was a bit of a puzzle. It marks one end of a public footpath, according to the OS map, but there is no sign and no sign of any stile or gate ever having been present. The answer, we doscovered talking to a local, is that it marks an intended footpath which never happened.

Here is one of those gizmos on a pole.

 

Usually one sees runs of poles. This one ends in the middle of no-where, for no apparent reason. There are a few houses around but it is not obvious that the route would serve any of them.

 

Not common in the country, but these convex mirrors can be seen quite often in towns. This one is opposite a drive which leaves the road on a sharp bend.

 

And a less common type of Post Office letter box than the wall mounted version seen earlier.

 

Finally, a lamp post – somewhere behind the ivy and other greenery. This one is in a rersidential area, not the wilds of the country.

 

Next time, more things seen in fields.

 

 

 

And re coal holes etc

Nothing so posh round here. Our early 19th century house has a coal cellar - now used for storage. The access from the road was an iron grille in the pavement. Ours is now sheeted over as are many, though some just have a sheet of timber on top of them.

Jonathan

Edited August 16, 2022 by corneliuslundie

[Kris]

A couple of items here. 

 

[laurenceb]

95 years after closure

[eastglosmog]

Seen behind a building with a well, the old wheel and crank that drove the pump before electricity came along:

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by eastglosmog
Restore photo

[SM42]

A couple from last week. 

 

Viaduct drainage. What's left of it.

 

 

A suburban stream

 

The banks  have been concerted over rather than left to their own devices. There is about 40 years worth of weathering here 

 

 

Andy

Edited April 11, 2021 by SM42