steve W

Well done! When I first suggested this little charmer as a key item to keep the mine running comfortably, I wasn't aware of your previous forays into the murky world of conveniences - I'm now better informed. Just mind you don't get any infection in that damaged finger. Nice bit of work. Steve W.

Yep, captures the essence of the things nicely. The two seater though is far too small to be of any real use. Steve .

No - unfortunately. Still have family and friends down that way which gives us a bolt hole when we need to charge the batteries, but now just West of London for the past 30 years. It wasn't the same after Perranwell Station Goods Shed became a scafflolders, rather than the Mc.Vitie Price biscuit store where, as kids, we used to unload the wagons. It's amazing how it was only boxes of chocolate digestives that seemed to fall on the floor and get damaged... I think we are just about off topic! Steve

I've been cogitating on this , still no picture but from a failing memory say, about 6ft long x 4 wide and tall, chamfered on the long edges and (I think) a lowered area at one end for the air connections. It must have had pump out or discharge connection somewhere, but no idea where. Interestingly, there is a picture here: http://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?p=95165of a more modern unit and a comment that the the sides of the Wheal Jane ones were square, certainly the seat also was turned 90degrees to the one in the picture. That web site is quite good for underground pictures for anyone doing a model, but a great resource for the more modern Cornish mine is the photo book by John Peck "Painting a Mine with Light" ISBN 0-9552557-0-8, about £7.00 He was the official mine photograher in the 70's. Must dash.... Steve W

I always fancied modelling an underground mine line but have never got around to it although I used to play work with the real thing once upon a good time when I was young and needed the money, a hole in the ground near Baldhu. I did maintenance on the locos and on one occasion forgot that the old Greenbat was, like a car, wired with one battery pole connected to the chassis. All the others were from Clayton and were fully insulated. The spanner slipped and shorted to the battery box, blinding flash, tops out of a dozen cells with acid spurting out over my face. Cut my Bahco adjustable spanner in two and melted a sizeable area of the battery box. Yes, fascinating things. One train that really needs to be modelled is the 'facilities' train. Miners, having had their pasty would sometimes have a real need to use the 'facilities' - you didn't use them unless there was a real need. The toilet unit was a tallish (guess about 4ft) galvanised steel tank with the appropriate seat and cover on top, it was, in fact, a very good unit, having an air system to keep the biological activity going in the contents and free of smell. Fortunately the aeration and bubbling stopped when you lifted the cover to use it. These things were on simple four wheel chassis and parked in short sidings with a canvas screen around them with an air driven light for those who couldn't go by feel alone, but I recall that reversing up a couple of ladder rungs with overalls around the ankles, they wern't the easiest of things to use. Now, a mine has a lot of safety instructions designed to be flouted, especially like not to carry explosives and detonaters on the battery boxes, then driving at breakneck speed down the driveways without the loco lights on (the battery might not last until the end of the shift and high production is a high pay packet, the rails guided the train, so lights were not really required). On Saturdays these toilets were taken to the surface to be emptied and suddenly a whole new breed of superhuman miners took over. The train loco went through the level with lights on full, horn blaring and at less than a walking pace. In case something went wrong, there would be one or more empty vee skips as idlers between the loco with it's exposed driver and the toilet wagon and often another at the rear. Once at the shaft, the thing was put in the cage for a slow gentle ride to the surface and a trip to the main sewage works. To be honest, it's not the sort of thing I took pictures of - sort of wish I had now, and at present the pics from this era are hiding. I'll try and find them dreckly. Steve

Twickenham & District MRC is now well established in its new expanded clubrooms in West London, and so the Club's attention has turned to building new layouts. T&DMRC are currently (Jan 2011) building new layouts in OO - Twickenham Junction, A blending of fact and fiction to build a highly authentic model of the old Twickenham station but updated to 1961 - features 3rd rail electrics/steam and early diesels. O - Addison Road A highly ambitious project set in the 1920s/30s. A prototypically correct station that allows all kinds of stock to be run - LNWR, GWR, LBSCR, LSWR, LMS, SR etc G A new fully sceniced DCC controlled layout is under construction using PECO G gauge track N The Club's existing British N gauge layout ( Batty Moor ) is now well established on the exhibition circuit and is to be featured in Railway Modeller, and so the group are already thinking about a new project - it could well be modular, it may well feature American! Full details of the club and its layouts can be found at www.tdmrc.org.uk