Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[Barclay]

As an avid watcher of "Moonshiners" all I can say is put me down for a bottle from the first batch! Dry January's nearly over anyway. It is, isn't it? Oh, please say it is...

[John Besley]

10 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Not had much time to do anything else this week as I've been building a contraption.

 

 

 

 

No room in The Profanium at the moment, so I have had to borrow a bit elsewhere.

 

Love to see that loaded up

[Winslow Boy]

10 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Not had much time to do anything else this week as I've been building a contraption.

 

Or rather a rack for bottles of spirits using bits of old brewery pipework. Originally it was going to be just straight piping, but I found an old steam condensation trap and bypass and it was just too tempting to make something arty that gives the idea of an illicit still.

 

 

 

 

No room in The Profanium at the moment, so I have had to borrow a bit elsewhere.

 

I have managed to measure up for a post for the field gate below the tree and a few fence rails nailed between it and the tree in typical fashion.

 

 

I've temporarily planted the tree to get the measurements for it.

 

When I  saw that first photo I thought Robs gone into producing fire sprinklers. It wasn't until I scrolled down and you explained what it was you were making that I twigged.

 

My next assumption would have been some sort of abstract 'art' - where you were expressing your angst at world at not being able to model.

 

You should have left it un captioned to see what we thought you were up to.

[MrWolf]

58 minutes ago, John Besley said:

 

Love to see that loaded up

 

I'll get some pictures when it's installed, I'm rather looking forward to it myself. 😄

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

When I  saw that first photo I thought Robs gone into producing fire sprinklers. It wasn't until I scrolled down and you explained what it was you were making that I twigged.

 

I was going to paint it green, but the only paint I could find was signal red.

 

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

My next assumption would have been some sort of abstract 'art' - where you were expressing your angst at world at not being able to model.

 

There was enough angst with it just being a tubular frame, far too ordinary for where it's going! 

 

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

You should have left it un captioned to see what we thought you were up to.

 

And how long before a reader of nervous disposition decided that someone in my house had tired of finding ways to save native wild plants and decided to produce heavy water or bioweapons instead?

 

We only just got away with it last time.

[steveNCB7754]

13 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Not had much time to do anything else this week as I've been building a contraption.

 

Or rather a rack for bottles of spirits using bits of old brewery pipework. Originally it was going to be just straight piping, but I found an old steam condensation trap and bypass and it was just too tempting to make something arty that gives the idea of an illicit still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Takes me back to my first career in engineering -  we used such things in our oil supply pipework and pump sets. On a technical note however - the Spirax Y-Type strainer should be mounted with the 'basket' in the under-slung position (to allow any debris in the liquid to naturally accumulate in the bottom, where the brass blanking plug would then be located).

 

These details matter -  we are modellers after all.   😎😎😎

 

Steve N

 

 

[MrWolf]

7 hours ago, steveNCB7754 said:

 

Takes me back to my first career in engineering -  we used such things in our oil supply pipework and pump sets. On a technical note however - the Spirax Y-Type strainer should be mounted with the 'basket' in the under-slung position (to allow any debris in the liquid to naturally accumulate in the bottom, where the brass blanking plug would then be located).

 

These details matter -  we are modellers after all.   😎😎😎

 

Steve N

 

 

 

Not guilty your honour, the whole rig is exactly as it was taken out. I blame the fitters at Mitchell's brewery sixty years ago.

 

You're reminding me of the deep joy of grinding in taper plug valves and overhauling slam shuts, PRVs, NRVs and Roots blowers. 

Always installed in the most impractical of places, naturally! 🤣 

[figworthy]

From reports in this morning's paper, it might be a good idea if our lupine friend avoids the Netherlands.

 

Apparently, they've been having problems with some of his cousins, and people are now being advised to shoot them.  With paint ball guns.

 

Coming soon to a polder near you, an annoyed multicoloured wolf.

 

Adrian

[MrWolf]

This is why we're not allowed to have guns and shoot back...

 

[russell price]

catching up on RM  Web having not been on for a few months, seeing all this talk of Trees, reminds me, are you putting the flags in one of them? It wouldn't be Aston without!!

[russell price]

Oh and if you want to put your Dinky Vega Major on Aston here is your excuse.. Yes the model on the dashboard is still here. The real coach had a fascinating afterlife but thats another story.

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, russell price said:

catching up on RM  Web having not been on for a few months, seeing all this talk of Trees, reminds me, are you putting the flags in one of them? It wouldn't be Aston without!!

 

Hello Russell, hope all's well, I'd love to put in that strange old tree for the sense of place.

 

 

 

Of course, to get to that point from my fiction, I'd have to model the bridge and road to Hopesay and Aston Hall before we get to the level crossing.

 

 

C.1930.

 

 

C.2010, a two bedroom flat within was about £230,000.

 

Then there's the other side of the road:

 

 

The Malt house to the left and the hall grounds to the right. Our level crossing is just around that right-hand bend.

 

View from the level crossing back into the village, the Arbor Tree is on the left.

 

 

I'd love to have the room to model that lot, quite a challenge, it's the sort of thing that @brylonscamel would get his teeth into and knock together in an afternoon. 

 

Have a look at his work if you haven't seen it.

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, russell price said:

Oh and if you want to put your Dinky Vega Major on Aston here is your excuse.. Yes the model on the dashboard is still here. The real coach had a fascinating afterlife but thats another story.

 

I think that the old Dinky is close to Gauge One scale, but if I come across a badly "playworn" example, it's tempting to paint it in CVM colours, just for the grin.

 

The livery is almost the same as Confidence Coaches that ran out of Leicester and provided so many unusual relics for the school runs.

 

Thanks for the picture, that's a proper bus and not subject to the rules about stopping on bridges.

[MrWolf]

I've not really done much at the layout itself recently, partly because I've been busy getting the paying jobs done but mostly because I've been having some health problems. 

I've been having seemingly endless tests and lots of waiting in between, but on Friday I had a minor operation and was given the all clear.

It wasn't caused by what I was told I might have to prepare myself for, more the results of some of my misadventures.

 

Now all I have to deal with is waking up in unfamiliar surroundings with torn clothes, aching limbs, the taste of blood in the mouth and nightmarish flashbacks to terrible events of the previous evening.

 

But that only happens on a full moon. 

 

Just as well, because I get little sympathy from Miss R, she says she's endured that sort of thing every month since she was thirteen.

[MrWolf]

Here is the Booze Bracket in service with temporary lighting rig. It's going to be backlit when we can get the fittings next week.

 

 

It's only about a third loaded with bottles as yet, there should be three of each to keep up on busy nights.

[Fishplate]

I hope you recover fully from your Op soon Rob.

 

Booze bracket looking good 👍

[Winslow Boy]

N.  Looks good Rob. Hope everything turns out ok with the tests. Positive thinking.

[Gypsy]

Don't push things too hard and get better soon Rob

[Captain Kernow]

Get well soon, Rob!

 

[MrWolf]

18 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

N.  Looks good Rob. Hope everything turns out ok with the tests. Positive thinking.

 

Thanks, all good with the tests, I got the all clear, though I think that they know enough to make a Wolf 2.0 or something, a W1000.

 

8 minutes ago, Gypsy said:

Don't push things too hard and get better soon Rob

 

Thanks, I've already had a minor finger wagging for clanging about in the workshop over the weekend and to be honest I didn't feel great afterwards! 

 

56 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

I hope you recover fully from your Op soon Rob.

 

Booze bracket looking good 👍

 

Thanks, I'm feeling better already but having to resist the urge to get back to normal* too quickly.

 

* Whatever that is.

[JustinDean]

Wishing you a speedy recovery Rob!

 

Jay

[John Besley]

Take it steady, I know what it's like to try to rush the getting better, still signed off after 2 months for a busted wrist...

 

Ashton will still be there, think out a job list plan of action, write lists and read up stuff...

[Fishplate]

I must admit that after I read this :

 

16 hours ago, MrWolf said:

It's only about a third loaded with bottles as yet, there should be three of each to keep up on busy nights.

 

I thought you had put this comment in the wrong post 🤔:

 

16 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Now all I have to deal with is waking up in unfamiliar surroundings with torn clothes, aching limbs, the taste of blood in the mouth and nightmarish flashbacks to terrible events of the previous evening.

 

[MrWolf]

26 minutes ago, Fishplate said:

I must admit that after I read this :

 

 

I thought you had put this comment in the wrong post 🤔:

 

 

 

Not quite, but when I get annoyed with myself because I've misplaced something vital, eg, 517 class sandboxes or BSA oil feed banjo bolts, I apparently turn into a "WhereWolf" ...

[MrWolf]

It would seem (Thanks to The Sheep Chronicles) that I have seven operational panniers and another three in bits.

 

So I probably need another one.

 

Edited January 30 by MrWolf