Brian D

Tend to agree but I have added a low grassy bank at the baseboard edge along the colliery arrival/departure road mainly to minimise the chances of Q6 + hoppers being involved in a death plunge to the shed floor, see below... ...but everything to the right of this track will be black. I have added a small water tower to the loco head shunt but I also probably need to add a simple coal stage as well to augment the steam loco facilities. Regards, Brian.

The small additional colliery building is now complete... ...and is in position on the layout. I am trying to complete the rest of the scenics in the colliery which will mean that the layout will be substantially complete bar some more signalling additions and further tweaks to the greenery already completed (i.e. the addition of further vegetation, bushes and trees). Regards, Brian.

I eventually got round to editing and uploading the recent North Norfolk Railway video and you can see it here.. Regards, Brian.

I've started the base for the scenics in the colliery area by adding a bit of land-form (expanded polystyrene hot wire shaped to fit)... ...which will be covered with filler or plaster bandage, painted and static grassed before being dirtied up a bit with "coal". I thought about putting a bit of land-form here... ...but I thought another little colliery building would be better, hence this. Regards, Brian.

Thanks for your kind words and interest Pete. The conveyor is sort of free standing. There is a thin ledge on each building at its ends and the trestles supports the conveyor where it changes direction. There is also a bit of friction in play by shoving the two end buildings (heapstead and screens) firmly up against the corresponding ends of the conveyor. Thanks for the tip about magnets which is probably too late for this build but something I will remember for the future. Great advice. Kind Regards, Brian

Many thanks for your kind remarks chaps. I've painted the trestles now so this is the final look... ...and, after shunting a few hoppers, this is the view from "The Big Chair" featuring all of the recently completed colliery buildings. Good bye mock ups! Regards, Brian.

I have done some more work on the conveyor today after deciding how I would form a curved roof for it. The actual roof covering is a Scalescenes texture (old corrugated iron) printed directly onto thin card. The curve is formed as follows. Firstly diminishing in width strips of mounting board were glued on to the conveyor "ceiling"... ...and the card roof glued over the top and cut to width and glued in place. This completes the actual conveyor enclosure... ...so the supporting trestles were fabbed up from various Evergreen sections. These obviously need painting but everything was posed on the layout to see how it looked and to check rolling stock clearances. The ground cover and scenics in this are will be the next mini project. Regards, Brian.

The remaining piece of the colliery jig-saw has been commenced i.e. the conveyor housing linking the heapstead to the screens. Here is the incomplete conveyor housing... ...and almost complete but still roofless posed on temporary supports in the colliery. Getting there! Regards, Brian.

As I have mentioned above, I have made the "pulley cables" from fishing line, 10 or 12 lb breaking strain I think (the thickest I had). A U shape loop of line was threaded through the lid of the shaft and glued to the underside. Each "cable" was run over its corresponding pulley... ...and yet more fishing equipment (7 BB split shot) was added to each "cable"... ...and the split shot were then threaded through the appropriate hole in the winding house which then imparted a little tension into the "cables". This pic below shows the land form (polystyrene tile as yet un-sceniced) under the winding house which is now raised up slightly so the cables clear the parapet. The head frame has been pushed back as far as possible to allude to the fact that the racking struts are contained within the "heapstead" to hopefully minimise the visual problem picked up by 5BarVT. This all may seem a complete faff but I don't really want to permanently connect anything to anything so that, if necessary, I can recycle these buildings on another layout. The layout is permanent so I don't have to glue the buildings down. Regards, Brian.

Well spotted, shortage of space I'm afraid. To try and minimise the visual impact I have moved the head gear back along the flat roof as far as it will go and put some land form under the winding house to ensure the pulley cables don't scrape the roof parapet - see following pics. Thanks for your various suggestions guys, I've plumped for mono-filament fishing line, see following post. Regards, Brian.

The winding house is complete as shown here... ...and on the layout. I asked my wife whether she had any grey cotton which I thought would do for the pulley cables to go here... ...but the cotton looked a bit thin and hairy to me so I'll have to use something else. Regards, Brian.

The only "mine" I've been in is the drift mine at Beamish which being part of the Open Air Museum gives a flavour of mine work underground by very nice museum staff/volunteers. Not quite the same as descending 1400 ft as at Easington though. Me and my elder brother moved down to Essex when I was three and he was a about 11 but even had we stayed in the North East I doubt very much whether there would have been any encouragement from our parents to work for the NCB. Thanks for all your comments chaps. Regards, Brian.

We've been away for a few days in Norfolk so I took some materials and tools with me and managed to do a bit of "mardling" as they say thereabouts. So some progress has been made on the winding house main walls... ...which when properly finished will look a bit like this. The two small holes in the nearest gable end are for the cables, more about which at a later date. Whilst in Norfolk, a ride on the North Norfolk Railway was a must and the train engine was this beauty, A video is in the course of preparation. Regards, Brian.

I am currently working on the winding house following the completion of which the cables will be installed me bonny lad. Regards Brian

Baz, I don't really remember the fan noise but I do remember laying in bed in my Aunt Sarah's house in Station Road and hearing the clang clang clang of the loose coupled hoppers being shunted when I was trying to get to sleep, probably late 50s. Happy days. Regards, Brian.

The entire thing is now complete... ...and on the layout... ...so I've started on the winding house. Onwards and upwards. Regards, Brian.

The cable enclosure part of the card kit has been cut to fit, incorporating cable holes in the roof and some of the kits' handrails and a Ratio signal kit ladder added prior to painting tomorrow. Once painted tomorrow I can place this and the heapstead on which it sits on the layout and chuck away the mock up and another box will be ticked. Regards, Brian.

N7 video for your delectation or otherwise. Regards, Brian.

Indeed. I need to cut down part of the card kit to fit the flat roof and this will fit within the girdering, not quite as existed at Easington but it will do. A trip to Hobbycraft is planned for Sunday (free parking in Basildon) to get some appropriate Tamiya acrylic paint for the "steel" structure. With the cut down part of the kit, that should just about finish if off. Regards, Brian.

The headstock is now pretty much complete, I only need to sort out a proper axle for the sheaves (rather than the drill bit shown here) and paint it. Here are the pics... ...and on the heapstead. I approached this project with trepidation but I'm quite pleased with how it has turned out. Meanwhile, this stranger is on a running in turn from Darlington works following overhaul. This Oxford Rail offering is a little beauty and runs soooo slowly (I feel a video coming on). I have a growing stash of non NE Region locos and this the latest addition. I need to build a Great Eastern flavour layout in the future perhaps, once Deneside is substantially finished. Regards, Brian.

It seems to have taken nearly all day to finish off this building but now its done. So I've made a start on the plastic headstock using the kit part scans and various Evergreen styrene sections. Regards, Brian.

Significant progress today. After I posted here yesterday, I fabricated the 4 corner pier overlays thus. This morning I wrapped them in brick paper... ...and glued them to the appropriate ends. Assembly of the main elements followed thus. The roofs were then added, the flat "concrete" roof will support the headstock. Lots of coping stones and cappings to be added and then I need to reconstruct the card headstock kit in plastic. Regards, Brian.

We've been away for the weekend up to the Midlands so no progress on the "heapstead", maybe tomorrow there should be something to report. However, while we were away we had a quick visit to The Great Central at Loughborough. Now, how about doing a "Driver Experience" day on something like this? The BR 9F 2-10-0s are truly impressive locos. The green livery and non-original name doesn't really detract from the overall visual impact. I'm really glad I have my own Bachmann model to use on Deneside, although perhaps it needs the modifications necessary to convert it to a Tyne Dock based specimen. Regards, Brian.

Thanks Ian, yes I tend to agree. Space is extremely tight in the colliery though so I can't promise to implement your recommendation. We'll see. Best Regards, Brian.

The main brick structure of the pit head ("heapstead"?) is taking longer to make because it is so large (in excess of a foot long). However, earlier today I had three main sides complete - one side and both ends, so the opportunity was taken to have a trial erection (ooh erh matron) in the shed to see how it looked - see below. The big white things are my right angle magnetic clamps which come in handy for this sort of thing. Here is a pic showing all the recently completed colliery buildings. There is still the winding house and the conveyor system to be added to the colliery complex. I managed to complete the last main side of the structure this afternoon. You can't have enough clamps! Regards, Brian.