tetleys Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Being a child of the 1950's I actually think we get jolly good value from the British model railway industry, I confess I can recall when a Hornby 08 only cost £1.50 but my dad was probably only bringing home just over £10 a week and the 08 was actually sitting on a LMS Jinty chassis so let's all be greatful. I believe we've never had it so good. I've been A.W.O.L. from RMWeb for a good while so would like to dispel the rumour that I'm serving time for International gun running and ######. The building of a new home for Tetleys Mills Mk3 continues and if anybody wants to whinge about the cost of anything build a house, however it's still good fun and strangely the area that seems to receive most attention and build time is the railway room above the garage. I'm packing in the insulation and with three good size windows one of which is south facing I can see Tetleys Mills 3 will not be long in the making once I get started, probably in the autumn. Regards to all. Tetleys. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Welcome "back", Dave! With Gordon S. on the mend too I'm looking forward to learning something from you two old ######! Best, Pete (a young 59.........) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Nice pad .. though have to say I am not a fan of dormer style attic rooms - I prefer a real loft, rather than a converted bungalow I like the idea of solar powered model railways though. Nothing quite like builders (carpenters, electricians, plumbers...) to make you appreciate how expensive things get when they start to get involved in a project - and that's long before the painters, decorators, kitchen fitters, landscape gardeners, interior design style gurus start to rob you. Still a good use of brick papers and pvc strip - it will look better when its actually on the layout with some shrubs around it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECML180 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I'm not sure that model in the photo is very like the real thing....it appears to have blue skies and a warm sun! So unrealistic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Hmmm. When are you going to start the weathering? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 When the builder ran out of Cotswold Stone, did he not think someone would notice eventually if he filled the gap with breeze blocks...?!? Sorry Sir, everyone seems to be taking this thread as a chance to p!$$-take, instead of giving you a warm welcome back...!! Looking forward to Tetleys Mk3....... (but I'll never stop cringing at the cost of railway modelling...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 24, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 24, 2011 Being deadly serious about it I do like the bricks Dave - what are they? (As some might know, bricks can become a very big issue when you're into self-build/d-i-y development - in our case it took about a month to find some we liked and then another 8 months to find some we could afford). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Disappointing Dave, I've always admired your ability to build structures which really capture that essence of 1950's West Riding, that one just doesn't look quite right....... As for building costs, yeah, bottomless pits. I watch these TV makeover/build programmes and they quote costs for work which are way under anything I ever find!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetleys Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Nice pad .. though have to say I am not a fan of dormer style attic rooms - I prefer a real loft, rather than a converted bungalow I like the idea of solar powered model railways though. Nothing quite like builders (carpenters, electricians, plumbers...) to make you appreciate how expensive things get when they start to get involved in a project - and that's long before the painters, decorators, kitchen fitters, landscape gardeners, interior design style gurus start to rob you. Firstly, I echo your sentiments 100% regarding dormers, unfortunately we were forced by planning restrictions to keep the end mass down because we didn't previously object to neighbours building close to our boundary it came back to haunt us big time. The 'friendly' neighbours who loved me when they were building without objection joined others in support of a very hostile planning officer, anyway we won on appeal but were stuck with the dormer style house, it looks really nice and is to the Lincolnshire style but I calculate the dormer requirement has cost us an extra £20,000 at least, including £14000 in labour. Apart from the roofers,an exterior bricklayer and an electrician my wife, middle adult son and I have done all the work ourselves including all the blockwork and a lot of the carpentry.I've arranged a couple of plasterers but we'll do the rest of the build. The solar panels are for hot water electric panels are not in my opinion cost effective, we've also got ground source heating and a mountain of insulation. The railway room is above the garage and is the master bedroom sans en-suite although I'll put all the plumbing in should we choose to move on, the room is 6.0m x 5.4m and the side walls 1060mm so an acceptable height for baseboards. Somebody asked about the brick, they are Hansons Rochester Blend semi-hand made and popular in Lincolnshire, they are discontinued but Hansons have about 7 million in stock at about £420 per thousand. The stone is local Ancaster stone as used in the original and subsequent renovation of St Pancras Station cut to four sizes which correspond to brick courses.Below damp course are blue engineering bricks. It's more expensive but even better fun than making OO buildings. An early shot of the railway room. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 45156 Posted February 24, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 24, 2011 Nice to hear from you, Dave. I can see why you might be a tad preoccupied there with the new home and layout work somehow windng up on the back burner. Do keep us posted on progress of both house and Tetleys 3 when it comes along. Regards Stewart Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Excellent work then, for having done most of it yourself you have my admiration. My attempts at brickwork amount to a crooked patio wall and could never get the bricks to all sit at the same level. Good to hear of ground source heating being used. I once was "confined" in proximity to an American salesman/engineer while in Jamacia who spent the best part of a fortnight trying to convince me it was worth doing in the UK! He didn't succeed. I thought the only good thing about solar panels is the ability to sell back to The Grid and the elusive grants available. Still, hope you have many years of enjoying the many hours of hard work put into it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 24, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 24, 2011 Excellent work then, for having done most of it yourself you have my admiration. My attempts at brickwork amount to a crooked patio wall and could never get the bricks to all sit at the same level. Good to hear of ground source heating being used. I once was "confined" in proximity to an American salesman/engineer while in Jamacia who spent the best part of a fortnight trying to convince me it was worth doing in the UK! He didn't succeed. I thought the only good thing about solar panels is the ability to sell back to The Grid and the elusive grants available. Still, hope you have many years of enjoying the many hours of hard work put into it. When we built a few years ago we put in solar panels for water heating and I can - on experience to date - thoroughly recommend them but don't expect instant money saving At the time I enquired about solar for electricity and the salesman (more rightly I think a sort of engineering type than a straight selling sort) said that in a domestic situation they were a waste of money and not to touch. I did some costings on a wind generator - domestic size - and found that there was no off the shelf model which would pay for itself before it became life expired if it lasted as long as the manufacturers said it would. Home electricity generation sounds like a good idea but all it seems to offer is some guarantee of supply (on sunny days or if the wind is blowing at the right strength) but no economic advantage. There was an excellent thing under development about 5 years ago which involved linking a Stirling Cycle engine to a domestic gas boiler in order to drive a generator but every month the expected 'date available' seemed to slip by about 3 months. The company were very helpful and quite open about the pace, or not, of development in their emails but in the end it just timed out as far as were concerned and I don't know if the whole thing fell by the wayside or what happened to it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 ....Below damp course are blue engineering bricks.... ....of Great Central origin? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 24, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 24, 2011 ....of Great Central origin? ... they look very much like the ones I get from Jewsons (and they get 'em from Staffordshire so they'd most likely be either LNW of North Staffs). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeman Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I reply quoting Stationmasters observations.In my employment I was involved with Elec/Mech Eng throughout my working years, Unless there is some massive shift in technology that I am not aware of, I cannot see how any of these STUPID GREEN schemes to generate electricity at a domestic level can be achieved. I lived thro the Miners strike/electricity cuts, attempting to keep production going using generators with great difficulty. How one can produce/sell domestically produced energy is beyond me, unless there is some magic electronic box which can syncronise your PV cells or wind generator, producing at best a Kw or so of energy to the Grid. The amounts are so small they are insignificant. A DC generator is easier to 'connect' and load share but an Alternator needs to be syncronised at the point/moment of connecting and the load 'picked up/shared'. The standbye' load of a domestic residence, i.e. F/freezer, C/heating Tvs etc. would consume anything produced, taking into account, produced only in part a 24 hour period.If the suns high and the wind blows. Heat pumps do make energy sense, but what is the payback time. Most calculations do not take into account interest on invested capital, albeit very low at present and perhaps eligible for gov, grants after fleecing electricity costs and taxpayers. I feel this is one of the biggest cons being sold to the public. Perhaps someone knows better, and could enlighten me. However what a wonderful sized room to indulge your Hobby, Good Luck and Enjoy on completing. Beeman. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldknotty Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Dave will this build be featured in any of the model rail videos to come ??? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
multiprinter Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Most modellers start with track laying,then add the 'railway' scenery and add a few houses later. Is there a reason for doing it the other way round? (I assume you are going to lay some full size track?!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted February 26, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 26, 2011 I reply quoting Stationmasters observations.In my employment I was involved with Elec/Mech Eng throughout my working years, Unless there is some massive shift in technology that I am not aware of, I cannot see how any of these STUPID GREEN schemes to generate electricity at a domestic level can be achieved. 8< 8< 8< 8< I feel this is one of the biggest cons being sold to the public. Perhaps someone knows better, and could enlighten me. However what a wonderful sized room to indulge your Hobby, Good Luck and Enjoy on completing. Beeman. Sounds a reasonable summary, most of the ideas are indeed nonsensical. I worked out the payback period on a B&Q wind turbine on a stick was around 35-40 years, on a product with a likely lifetime of <10 years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetleys Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 On the subject of 'renewables'The current Mrs. Shakespeare and I live within a few hundred meters of a 40" gas main from The North Sea to all points west but have no gas in our village. I've tried solid fuel, LPG and currently oil which was about 18p a litre when I installed it 12 years ago. Oil is now hitting 90p and with problems in the oil producing nations it could easilly hit over £1 so our new build will not depend on any of these energy sources. The ground source heating does work, we checked it out in Austria and that country has more severe winters than us (normally)it is expensive and needs a fair sized plot for pipework but we have since been promised cash back through a Government incentive for renewables. This is a bonus since I don't expect a pay back period for anything I add to the house anymore than I expect my car's leather seats to pay me back, it's about 'feel good' factor and comfort. I would probably not have considered it had we got natural gas. The solar panels, complete with all electrics and an expansion tank (but not the water tank which forms part of the ground source heating package) was about £1300 but I'll get my VAT refunded, again I don't expect to get my money back but free energy cannot be ignored. I agree with others that electric panels costing probably £10,000 cannot be justified and only generate low wattage electricity. I had seriously considered rainwater recovery for non drinking water but it would have required a header tank in the loft and once that hatch is dropped I'm not going back in there so do not want any plumbing and certainly no accumulated junk up there. You can pump direct to cisterns from the storage tank but that would involve the pump 'cycling' ie. constantly starting up which is wasteful of energy. All in all we hope to keep warmer for less cost, especially since we'll have underfloor heating at ground level. A couple os shots of the pipework required and wrestling with 200m of rigid pipe in cold weather is hard work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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