Billy Flathead

Barnsley station yard 1983/84ish

Growing up in Birdwell, Rockley bottom was a regular haunt, with my parents picking blackberries on the edge of the woods behind Rockley Abbey Farm, where they grew on what looked like old mining spoil and with friends climbing trees or pushing our bikes up stampers hill. My dad told me about the wagon way and once took us to see an old tunnel in some woods. That was nearly fifty years ago so I'm not sure just where it was, looking at Google earth I'd guess at the woods just above the caravan site. David

I've fitted guard irons, cosmetic springs and a clip on working steel spring to the front truck and tried it on the chassis. Some of the other parts fitted. Something's wrong because the coupling rods are hitting the slidebar bracket and the ride height needs to come down a bit yet. A drawbar has been roughly cut out, I will take it to work to finish it off, it's too cold to do any more outside today. David

Its been thirteen months since we moved and most of the work has been done on the house, but the layout is still not up and there is no electric in the hut. The house is also up for sale, the fourth move in five years. I've spent a couple of hours in the shed over the last few weeks doing some jobs on the crab I started years ago. The wheels, Sharmans which cost me a fiver, have been mounted on their axles along with a High Level gearbox. The coupling rods are on and it rolls along smoothly. It needs a steadying arm on the gearbox and the drive shaft to the motor so I can test it under power There was nothing in the kit to make the front truck so I have used some 1mm angle and scrap brass, just needs some cosmetic springs and guard irons. David

Can I be added to the list for an LNER C14 please Mike. Thanks, David.

Thanks for the reply Karhedron, the photo is dated 1958. There is another showing a similar train in Rails Through Barnsley, Alan Whitehouse, this proberbly mid 50s. The caption on this one states that it was a regular working until the mid sixties. Thanks David

Could I just ask a couple of questions, in Railway Memories no8 Barnsley Cudworth Royston, there is a photo of a Barnsley to Sheffield train on the Midland route. It is an Ivatt class2 mogul, three Gresley non corridors and two milk tanks. The caption says they are empties from the Cooperative dairy at Summer Lane Barnsley. Would it be correct that they are empties, or would Summer Lane be supplied locally by road and full tanks sent south. Would the tanks be branded CWS/Co-op. Thanks David

Teenagers ride in hotrods to rock and roll sound track, ends with street drag race crash.

Mick, thanks for posting the drawing of the shunting signal arm, l had been meaning to ask you about them. When our new home diy issues are over and l get some quality shed time in, l will have a go at building one.

Knitting needle plastic is as about as soft and chewy

I can't really do any modelling at the moment, which is very frustrating when I have been off work for six weeks. I have tools, materials and books out of reach in my cab at work where I have been whitling plastic in my breaks, and some of the buildings were taken to my mums for safe keeping during the move. One thing I can get at is my old unimat. I filed a piece of steel into a tool to knock out some chimney pots for the terrace houses. I took the belt off and turned the pulley by hand to turn the pots from a plastic knitting needle. The houses are at mums but I did fit one to the unfinished signal box. David

Not been on here for a while, because the week before christmas we moved house for the third time in three years. Yesterday was the first chance since then to put the layout up in the shed that came with the house. Unfortunately it wouldn't fit, about 3in short. It would go in the other way, but would be across the door. There is some damage from the move to the track at the baseboard joints and some of the platform fencing is missing.

These roundabouts are awful in an artic, two lanes become three car width lanes on a sharp bend at the roundabout. Really bad design, but infinitely better than Norwich northern ring road, possibly the worst road I have ever been on, every traffic light a dangerous confrontation.

Very easy to get caught out when you cross the border, particularly the A1 north of Berwick. Like you, I run at 53/54mph. Much less stress and why rush when paid hourly.

The speed limit for a HGV on a motorway is 60mph, but limiters are set at 56mph or less. The speed limits that changed was the single carriageway, from 40 to 50, but only in a national speed limit area, and dual carriageway 50 to 60. David

Thanks Andy, I wasn't sure it was the right one, but it was a bargain with the dmu cars.

The far end of the goods yard has for years been white plaster, with no stops on the ends of the sidings. I had one half built buffer stop made from scraps of rail, but for a change spent some cash on some Lanarkshire models NER stops. I'll add some deeper ballast and maybe some grass to cover where the vertical rails miss the gap between the sleepers. At an Elsecar toy fair, in a three for a tenner box I bought two Hornby 110 dmu cars and a Hornby smith's crisps van. I removed the van body and made new headstocks and solebars. With a bit more paint this will be a store on the goods dock. David

Never seen MRJ on sale at a motorway services, until this morning when I bought the only copy of MRJ272 at Peterborough services on the A1M. Great issue, a local interest layout and four articles on actually building stuff. David

Thanks Simon, I will have a look at that, I like to get out on my bike along the old tracks when I can. On the line from Cudworth yard to Cudworth station, in February.

Done a bit more on the terrace houses, the slates and ridge tiles are strips of paper. I will make a pavement and road in front of the houses and a fence on the front edge, so that it will drop down between the grass and the backscene. David

Thanks for the replies, it probably was part of glass works, Faith Hope Charity and Grace Street are all still there, but the houses have gone from Hope Street.

Do either of you know what the works at the end of Faith Street, Monk Bretton was. I've been looking at the old maps site and it has a rail connection to the HB Stairfoot line. Where was the Metal Box factory?

Looking at the map there aren't any obvious ways into town, from Carlton they would have to follow the coal railway or cross the Dearne Valley and enter from the north. From Stairfoot they would have had to turn across the valley and follow the GC. Which is why, after about seventeen years I have never settled on a name for the station. I did think about using road or street, together with maybe Worsbrough or Birdwell. David

Not had much time in the shed because I have been getting my car ready for summer on the road for the first time in three years. I have done a bit more on the terrace houses, the roof is glued down and chimney stacks made of strip wood glued to the interior walls. I will take some card to work this week to make the stone work. David

It all went wrong when I tried to fold the corner of the end house. I cut a V on the back but obviously not deep enough so it tore on the corner and across to the window. I've patched most of it up, just call it subsidence. The doors are sticky labels on clear plastic. The other corner is much better and interior walls are going in.