mac1960

My Grandad had a soft spot for std 5, but he was operating over the Pennines where creature comforts were more appreciated. However before transfer he was on ECML and said A1 Peppercorns were his favourite, he didn’t like A4 at all, and worked on them pre war when they were in good shape. His comment like “Race Horses light and flirty” . A1 “dug in “ his fav Kestral and Kiitywake I vaguely remember, he died 1984. On Jubliee which he worked on later “ poor on banks but good on the flat” . So runs to North Wales from West Yorkshire a rough ride on the hills, but good West of Warrington. His S&C knowledge was limited to being pushed onto it occasionally but appreciated what the crews had to do up there, especially in winter as he recounted to me once. Unfortunately I was by then interested in other things and perhaps didn’t spend as much time listening to him as I would know. Sadly my error which I fortunately I made sure I did not repeat with my own parents. Cheers Mac

I am sorry but I don’t remember them being that dirty . The early 70,s was an advertising age of quite bright colours, anybody remember the Canadian Pacific Containers in US / Canada or Alfred Bell Purple Container trucks on M62 over here , which were bull nosed Mercedes in early 70,s . The barges were quite clean. I moved away mid 70,s so not sure how distressed they became before their demise, but the one my friends Father looked at buying was still weathered Orange from photos and that was about 1973/74. Cheers Mac

Any recommendations for mechanical wheel cleaners for locomotives and stock. Cheers Mac

2nd a lot better, that bow is a noticeable thing with them. Watching you build this due to the close proximity to where I lived, and indeed live for part of the time, and my experience as a young man in Yorkshire Coal Field makes it a very interesting project to observe for me personally. Mac

I was at Uni in Sheffield late 78- 82, Four year course, and I remember bumping into 50s a number of times on a Friday when I was going to see friend's and girlfriends in Newcastle . 50 came off at York every time usually 47 or occasionally 46 on . My best memory was coming home in winter I think 1981 before Christmas. Newcastle finished after us, so went up to enjoy pre Christmas student life with friends and travelled home to Huddersfield. Unfortunately massive snow and ice. Control pulled everything availability together as points frozen in carriage sidings. We ended up with a varied rake of Mk1 , buffet, and post vans. Big mistake putting a Deltic on the front ! Trainspotters leaped on, by the time we got to Thirsk no room at the Inn ,but someone opened the door ! 5 students on platform one being me. Deltic off at York and Train spotters left . I don’t remember the Deltic that caused this unfortunately. Cheers Mac

Duncan Thank you for the kind comments. As for the exhibition circuit we will have to see, as I, and indeed Richard, have quite an intensive and distant work schedule, and indeed our location in the UK and height would limit safe exhibitions at certain times of the year ( we live at the same height as Ais Gill). So can I say watch this space, but it maybe awhile, however it may possibly be in print earlier if you know what I mean, which will give greater details. The other thing is it is designed as you will have seen, for the fiddle yard to be in the front of the model so under the hill you look over, which means at an exhibition you need an operator in that space which would push the viewing public back a little. However as I said we will see. Richard would like to take this up as a sideline, but I have quite enough building 1 to 1 in real life, but I am getting older and will retire, so we will have to see about this and future models. I know we will not do one this size though, or do the Ho to N Gauge perspective as it really extends the build having to look at various times in two perspectives though looks great. When we have finished, and everyone or even a majority say wow, then I dare say we may reconsider that, but neither of us are getting any younger! Thanks again and keep dropping in. Cheers Mac

Thanks Figworthy I will mention to Richard as he is doing this end of the build and I am sure he will appreciate it. Mac

Well another day and another bridge, this being a slew version of the one at Kirkby Stephen, and is a road bridge and has that Midland Red / Blue brick feel. Apparently quite a bit of swearing involved getting the brickwork right, it may have nearly been a bridge too far apparently. Both this and the occupation bridge now need weathering, and those are the last of the large structures to be done, so now back to the Grass again !! After this there is the fencing around the station and the smaller stuff like signs / people / sheeps / benches / AWS / Signals etc and of course the critical back scene. As I said earlier we were both concerned about the two slew bridges being a bit twee / bookend like but doing one in stone and the other in brick really makes them different, and as the back scene is curved we really feel it should work well, but we will see. You can tell we are growing in confidence with what we are about on this now , its only taken a few years, but we both are now saying we are getting there !!

vv Actually yes, as I am back to the weight I was at Uni which was just under 13 stone and I have dropped 6 stone since a change in diet and limited Lager. The Larger was due to typing on I Phone alas, and that's my excuse anyway 🫣

Just a quick up date as the first slew bridge on the occupation lane has been completed and now just requires weathering. This one was based on the one at Waitby the other one is based on the one Kirby Stephen. So one more bridge to go, and some further grass works (Richard still thinks he can make it better !!) then down to the finer detailing and the back scene. The latter has been the cause of much debate as Richard does not want to have breaks in it it and would like t do it on one roll but there is the problem of placing into place when built in the room it which it will live. However we have note in the N Gauge Magazine this month that Copenhagen Fields has a painted back scene with visible joints and we greatly admire that model so if good enough for Kings Cross its good enough for Horton !

I was a Lager drinker back then and can say I don’t remember any of the stuff in the pubs we we went to post shift in the mines in West Yorkshire back then. I vaguely remember Kestral, Hoffmeister , and something called Ayingerbrau which was I think John Smiths. I have to say all were supremely unmemorable and switched to Cider for awhile. Mac

Dunalastair Big Pie Country back then. Cheers Mac

Yes that is the one. Cheers Mac

Big Geordie was the big UK dragline I remember in the UK but if you really want to see epic engineering have a look at the German Lignite Opencast which are on a totally different scale . I fly over them coming home to Manchester from Frankfurt and it is mining on an epic scale.

Reorte Thank you for the kind words and your observations. It is the detailing that I really enjoy, even at these small scales. Indeed in some ways it is easier in N Gauge / 2mm than OO/ Ho, or even more of a problem in O Gauge . The latter is I feel getting onto my day job scale 😉ie building in 1to1. Anyway I hope to get a further update this weekend.

Any ideas when the Class 45 / 46 will be available please?

Ruston I love the way you deconstruct the kit to make it right rather than just use what’s available ,and the observation on the Coal HGV height and reason is perfectly correct. I’m really enjoying the building of your model.

Victor Vectis You are correct as I said very Dickensian in late 1970,s . I was only down there once, and it was enough. Spent most of my time in Barnsley Main as I recall and some others around there. I was sponsored by Consolidated Goldfields so ended up in Joburg at 12000ft below ground which is a different ball game to coal mining 🙂. There are no Drifts either and it’s a long way up and out 🙄

Try Treemendous. They have done really good work on Horton, but not cheap, so chose statement trees. You can use the other stuff for bushes. Cheers Mac

I had heard about the 2mm version but had not seen photos. The other thing re size I would respectfully point out when using large bits of road / off road kit is it’s not small, especially at open cast sizes. If you are squishing something in, it will looked squished, for example, if you are putting a 40ft trailer in a yard where there is no turn around space or manoeuvring space. I have built some distribution centres, and indeed airports at 1 to 1 scale, so I am aware of the scale of these things in reality. Even the cliched Cement or Oil distribution centre are large, look at the sizes of Liversidge back in the day (keeping it local) or Dewsbury Cement terminal currently. There are smaller terminals but they are very unique, like those that existed in the extremities of the UK but not many left. Cheers Mac

I think the thing with most depictions of Pits was that people forget how big they are. Just sticking a winding head in the corner of your layout just doesn’t do it. Drift mines are easier in that respect as infrastructure is smaller as can be seen at Calder Grove and indeed Skelmanthorpe but they still had quite extensive sidings. The model I am doing in N gauge loosely based on Horton in Ribblesdale only hints at the sidings as there were 4 miles of them back in the day.

The pits in West Yorkshire were much smaller than the super pits of Nottinghamshire and North Yorkshire and indeed South Yorkshire with over ground stuff being not much chunkier than your average road tipper. I worked in them as a student undergound, in that combination of pits 3 active one capped (Shuttle Eye) as all are on the Western edge of the coal seams, and all are, or were interlinked. Indeed these seams dip under the North Sea and out crop again in the Ruhr in West Germany. A lot of the coal was pretty low grade, but then there was Emley Moor which had very high grade coal which all went for export, mostly to Sweden, for very high grade steel production eg suspension legs on aircraft. Ironically that pit was the most traditional I ever visited, due to seams being very small and almost Dickensian in nature. Miners lay on their sides to literarily hack it out including timber props it was really old school. The good thing with timber was there was a warning of failure where as rams just fail. The downside was in the pit showers, where you could see the issues with bruising which with the dust stained like a tattoo. The coal came out from there at Clayton West and Skelmanthorpe, and there were independent drift mines further up that valley operated privately on a shoe string up until a decade or so ago, but all road access. The coal from Clayton West / Skelmanthorpe , came out on Class 37 hauled 16 ton un braked mineral wagons through Huddersfield, maybe one or twice a day during the week and the pit closed early 80,s worked out. All a longtime ago for me, and a lot of overseas stuff under and overground and then construction ( I saw the light) quite literally. Love the way your model looks, I could be in the yard in Orange boiler though my face would show respirator mask, unlike some who I worked with, who used it as a Tie and are sadly no longer with us as a result Cheers Mac

Well another little update. The barns as you can see below are nearly completed with two down and with one other to do. The first Barn photo is N gauge and a Skaledale one, but is off to the right, and slightly down slope and adds to the perspective view we are trying to achieve. We both think this, along with the Goods Shed, are probably the best of the Dales looking buildings from that range and are ready made, they just need careful weathering down to blend in. In comparison with Mills Bridge and Staly Vegas, Richard said he he has had to come a little lighter in the paint pallet as this is, and was a rural area, and even with 100ton steam engines and indeed coal fired houses in it, it was still relatively clean in comparison with East Lancashire / West Ridding depicted in the other two models. The other barn with the Grass roller is front and center, and is a Ho scale scratch build, and has a different orientation. We were both concerned we may go over board with Barns, and indeed symmetry with skew bridges etc, and the threat of looking bookends if you know what I mean, but having looked at satellite photos, as well as walking up there, you could argue there is always room for one more barn ! The German Noch Ho sheep which come a funny Yellow tint have been converted to Swaledales, though they look as though they have been on the Black Sheep beer in the photo, as not yet placed in upright position, but they are good models just wrong White ! On another front the Flock from Germany arrived in Peterborough yesterday, and was here this evening, which is a big tick. Unfortunately we have a bit of the White cold stuff around, and its -7c outside so it will be the weekend before I drop it down to Richard. However I should not complain as a colleague was in Sweden at -40c the other week ! The Yellow stripe 8F 48773 has yet to arrive from TMC but is imminent, so that will complete the steam locomotive fleet. However if a Crab came out that would also be added, and indeed overtime there maybe an odd A4 and indeed GWR class and Deltic, but they were the rarity, so it will be more of the mundane in reality, which to be honest is what I remember, so do not expect to see any Pullman carriages here ! Stay safe and indeed warm.

I had a pair of those Waders ! Cheers Mr Mac

My first degree was Mining Engineering and I spent a lot of time in the Yorkshire Coalfield as a student. The mines I was often in were around Wakefield and Barnsley. I don’t remember Scamell contractors being around then . I did see them in Africa but later with Availing Barford . Cheers Mac