Black Country Blues

[Enterprisingwestern]

How far south & west are you planning on coming ?

 

Barnstable at least.

 

Mike.

[Geoff Cook]

We were there last year...

 

ExpoEM is the one to be really chuffed about.

 

Expo EM North 2014

[Mark Forrest]

Better get cracking with those NHC improvements Geoff or they'll want that back come September

[Mark Forrest]

Although I contributed just a little to the BCB layout, I am rather pleased that my contributions are still holding their own (and have still not fallen apart )

 

I am hoping that BCB might make it to Warley and then I'd be really, really chuffed.

 

p.s. in post 57 there are a couple of nice photos looking out towards the viewing public, an angle of view rarely posted.

 

The buildings are surviving well Flavio, the bespoke boxes you provided them in are protecting them nicely between shows; no sign of them falling apart just yet.  Whilst it was nice to get an invite to Warley, personally it is shows like ExpoEM North and Railex which I find most satisfying; I just find them friendlier and I guess the "finescale" nature of the shows appeals.  So it was particularly gratifying to come away from both of those exhibitions with something which shows other modeller's appreciate the layout.

 

Yes, I thought it might be interesting to capture some views from slightly different angles, hence the helicopter view and the operator's eye view in the post above.

[martin_wynne]

[ELTEL]

Brilliant

[Simond]

Thanks for that, Martin.

 

My dad, who is now lost to Altzheimer's, told me about one of his early jobs - doing exactly that - pouring hot sugar solution onto the tables and cutting it into sweets. He still has a "spider's web" of scars on the back of his hand from the day it went wrong. I see these guys were wearing thick rubber gloves!

 

He was also a booking lad in a signal box for a while.

 

Best

Simon

[martin_wynne]

Visitors to the Severn Valley Railway may like to know that there is a Teddy Gray's sweet shop and ice cream parlour just a short walk from the station in Bewdley. It's on the corner over the bridge. Just the same as in the film and very popular with visitors. Still the same little shop that I remember as a boy 60 years ago.

 

 

Martin.

[wagonbasher]

Visitors to the Severn Valley Railway may like to know that there is a Teddy Gray's sweet shop and ice cream parlour just a short walk from the station in Bewdley. It's on the corner over the bridge. Just the same as in the film and very popular with visitors. Still the same little shop that I remember as a boy 60 years ago.

 

teddy_grays_bewdley.jpg

 

Martin.

I wonder if that's the bit of the Severn you are west of...? Not stalking, just curious.

 

Andy

[Simond]

is there another one?

wouldn't that be eight?

[martin_wynne]

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-midland-bus-and-sheep-1960s-william-r-hart.html

[Mark Forrest]

While it would be fair to say that most of my focus is on other projects at the moment, I still have a few more BCB wagons slowly edging towards completion.  Currently on the bench are this pair of twin-bolsters, I'm making up the bolsters for these this evening.  I wanted a pair with LNER style brakes, so that the all the varieties are present in the stock (the others have mixture of BR clasp or push brakes).

 

They will become B450516 and B450825 as seen here and here on Paul Bartlett's website.

[Fat Controller]

While it would be fair to say that most of my focus is on other projects at the moment, I still have a few more BCB wagons slowly edging towards completion.  Currently on the bench are this pair of twin-bolsters, I'm making up the bolsters for these this evening.  I wanted a pair with LNER style brakes, so that the all the varieties are present in the stock (the others have mixture of BR clasp or push brakes).

18823962473_26bf29135f_o.jpg

19444601895_68435e4e89_o.jpg

 

They will become B450516 and B450825 as seen here and here on Paul Bartlett's website.

Have you done the ex-Conflat and Single Bolster types?

[Mark Forrest]

Have you done the ex-Conflat and Single Bolster types?

There are a couple of the ex-Conflats in the fleet, and bodies for another pair on the workbench at the moment (if I was clever, I'd have made up the bolsters for them while I was making the ones for the latest lowfit pair - but as this thought has only just occurred to me, they can wait).

 

I did start to scratchbuild a single bolster body with a view to casting some bodies in resin, but I'll probably finish off my next trio of Bolster Es before I go back to that.

[Stubby47]

It seems to me that the story of the 'oss has been copied and used in the latest Lloyd's Bank tv advert.

 

Questions should be asked in the House !

[Stubby47]

Who will be operating at Halifax ?

 

And do you want an extra hand on the Sunday . ( If I can arrange it...)

[Mark Forrest]

Who will be operating at Halifax ?

 

And do you want an extra hand on the Sunday . ( If I can arrange it...)

Cheers Stu, I'll PM you some details

[wagonbasher]

The layouts at Halifax this weekend the various parts of the layout starting from at least 5 different locations and the operators even further afield ...    RMwebbers please say hello we wont bite, nice to put faces to avatars and opinions.

 

Andy

[dan_the_v8man]

Rolling Mills and Mill Rolls.

Clearly this is an enormous subject so I’ll keep it to some basics.

 

The principle is simple enough, heat steel until it is ‘plastic’ then squeeze and form it by forcing it through shaped rolls. This flowchart shows the various pathways ingots might take through the rolling mills though no single works had, or has, the plant, to roll all these possible products. Blooms and billets are referred to as semi-finished products as they have virtually no direct end use, they need further rolling, or forging, to make them usable. Missing from this chart, because they're not rolled as such, are tubes (made from billets or narrow strip) and wire (drawn from rod). Billets also went to the drop stamping and forging trades.

 

Rolling Sequence 2.jpeg

 

Here’s the slabbing mill at John Summers Shotton works. It’s a 42” x 108”, reversing mill built by Davy United of Sheffield with a 7,000 hp drive and had an annual capacity of 1,250,000 ingot tons. The dimensions are the size of the rolls (diameter x length) and reversing means that the slab, or ingot, is passed back and forth, each pass further reducing its size, whilst increasing its length. On these large mills, 15 passes would be typical before the steel moved on. The cabin over the feed rollers is the ‘pulpit’ where the mill operators sit. A large slabbing mill can weigh in excess of 2000 tons.

 

Shotton Slabbing Mill.jpeg

 

The cogging (or blooming mill) at Appleby Frodingham, Scunthorpe. The grooved rolls are clearly evident, the two blocks either side, with the holes in them, are the guides which slide the ingot across the mill to line up with right part of the roll, and the laminated arms to the right are the manipulators which are in the process of flipping it over. The dial indicates to the mill operators the position of the upper roll. Water is sprayed over the rolls to cool them and to wash off any scale or debris, anything stuck to them would be rolled into the steel. This is another reversing mill, It was John Ramsbottom of the LNWR who, by applying a steam locomotive type 'engine' to a rolling mill, developed the first proper such mill.

 

Cogging Mill.jpeg

 

The above are both large mills used to reduce slabs and ingots. As the steel moves down the mill the individual mills get smaller and start to shape the finished product but the principle is the same. They are sometimes continuous mills consisting of several stands in line and the steel passes through them one after the other.

 

A diagram showing the two pairs of rolls involved in turning a billet into a channel. There are two cuts for the final pass, No 8. This is the finishing pass and needs to be accurate. As the roll wears, there’s more latitude acceptable in the shaping passes but less wear can be tolerated in the finishing pass which needs to be to the finished tolerance. Having two such cuts on the rolls allows the rolls to be in service longer before they are removed for dressing/re-turning so reducing mill down time.

 

Rolling Sequence.jpeg

 

The rolls themselves, like ingot moulds, are consumables, and are also bought in from specialist roll founders. They are cast, and sometimes forged, in a variety of ferrous metals; chilled iron, grain cast iron, steel and steel alloy. Once cast, they are heat treated to relieve some of the internal stresses and to get them to the right hardness. They are then turned to provide bearing surfaces on the shoulders and to provide the roll profile required.

 

There were once a large number of roll suppliers, rolling mill manufacturer Davy United had a roll foundry at Middlesborough and some large roll founders formed the British Rollmakers consortium, three of them were in the Black Country. Here’s one of their ads from 1975.

 

British Rollmakers Ad 1.jpeg

 

Tennants of Coatbridge are well known to rail enthusiasts for their fleet of well kept 100 h.p. steam Sentinels.

 

These rolls have been cast and are emerging from the heat treatment furnace, note the cruciform shape at the end, we'll return to that later.

 

Rolls 1.jpeg

 

Plate Rolls being turned at Tennants

 

Rolls 2.jpeg

 

A section roll, probably for rolling billets

 

Rolls 5.jpeg

 

All rolling mills would have had a roll store where rolls of various sizes and types were kept awaiting their next turn of duty and would have a roll turning shop where rolls could be dressed (turned to recut the correct profile). In use, they have a hard life, battered by steel sections ramming into them, which are then squeezed between them, they're heated by the steel being rolled whilst being sprayed with cold water to cool them and wash bits of debris off them. Once beyond further turning they would be scrapped and would likely be returned to the roll foundries for recycling.

 

A posting on model rolls in the next day or so but in the meantime, can anybody post a link to a photograph showing rolls loaded onto a wagon? I have a reason for asking....

 

 

Edited to add the location of the cogging mill.

Amongst the many mills I used to work at, Thrybergh was one of the ones I used to cover

[Stubby47]

Are you there yet ?

[Indomitable026]

No

[Stubby47]

Me neither.

[Ian Smeeton]

Don't say hullo then!

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Mark Forrest]

Are you nearly there yet?

[Stubby47]

Probably more importantly, are all the layout bits there ?

 

Even more importantly, scones, jam and clotted cream have been purchased

Edited September 26, 2015 by Stubby47