BrianFH

In Spalding there was Bratleys, a hardware shop that sold Triang/triang-Hornby, and Charles Pask, who ran a toy shop that sold Wrenn and T/H. Always got the impression he didn’t like school kids, which I was when I bought my first Wrenn wagons. Also remember Orton Models in Peterborough, and The Model Shop on Lincoln Road. The first owner, John Fowler, was the president of Spalding Model Railway club when I was a member while at school. He gave me a discount on my first 8F and some Wrenn Presfloes. Don’t get that often nowadays.

Be a few days before I can get up the loft ladder. You’ve certainly made good use of the space, and four years for all of that isn’t too shabby. 

I was in hospital yesterday for a arthroscopy and wondered what to do while immobile today. Just gone through this whole thread and it’s really cheered me up. One part of me is envious of the space and the long straight runs, the other part realises the time and cost of 45 points and 70 yards in 12’ x 12’. I’ve been collecting points, track and stock for years, but if I was coming at the hobby cold I couldn’t afford to fill and stock as much as I have.

Congratulations, Russ, on a fine concept and execution. Seeing videos of some large layouts it’s obvious that board construction and track laying have either been rushed or boredom has set in, that’s obviously not happened to you. It all looks to run perfectly in the videos. Certainly inspiring me to crack on.

I live just up the road in Glinton, and followed this work closely, and I want to thank you boys for all of the YouTube videos that now form a unique record of this project. Back in the 1990’s I worked on the Werrington/Glinton dual carriageway and did all of the fly-ash infill between the piers of the A15 bridge. I never expected the road to be removed and the railway shoved under in its place. Many times I wished I was still in construction and working on this job, especially as it’s walking distance from home.

Sixteen years ago we came close to buying one of the cottages beside the old Lincoln Road bridge. The ones that stood where the cutting now runs.

Sorry, made a hash of that reply.  My bit ended up attached to the quote

On 21/01/2022 at 13:34, Nearholmer said:

Nowadays, a lot of this is done using conveyor-elevators, but sugar factories have huge tilting tables which elevate an entire articulated lorry to empty it out. Another method, used a lot in Germany and Poland to unload wagons, was an "elephant", which was a huge thing like a water-crane, which squirted vast amounts of water in, and washed the beet out into a sort of canal that carried it into the plant.

 

Modern French method - loading a train on the main line, no less. [EDIT: Actually, although its exactly as I've seen in France, I think this is Switzerland]

What you’re describing was used at several British Sugar factories. It was simply called “the wash-off” and the concrete channels were called flumes, like the log flumes in the USA and Canada. If the operator wasn’t careful it was possible to blow the back window out of a wagon cab, or tear holes in a wooden trailer floor. I managed to knock a lorry driver off his feet when he was slow getting back into his cab at Peterborough. I don’t think it’s still in use at the remaining factories, though. It had the advantage of pre-cleaning the crop as it was unloaded.

It’s been a learning curve, I could barely solder four months ago. I say last attempt because the speed I work I’m not likely to have time to do another one after this.

Hi, first post here. I was brought up close the GN-GE joint line, and can just remember the last steamers going through there. Model-wise it started with my brother’s old three-rail layout, which I played with more than him, until Dad sold it off due to space. At ten years old my parents bought me the Triang-Hornby freight set with the class 31 loco and seven wagons. Had one go at a layout in the shed, 6’6” x 3’10” but didn’t finish before going to college. 
 

I kept collecting stuff and remember when T-H’s Silver Seal range set a benchmark for performance, if not detail. 18 years ago had a second go, a 16’ long end-to-end in the garage, but this got frustrating as the car had to move out before I could access it. It was a good test-bed as I worked out how to use live-frog points and sectionalise the layout, and I had it all working a treat before a house move put the kibosh on the scenic side.

Now at the age of 60 I have started what will probably be my final attempt in a space 12’x12’ in the loft. After having a new roof fitted, I clad and insulated the rafters, fitted LED lights and now have a reasonable retreat. 90% of the track is laid, 50% of the wiring completed, and just about all of the stock I’ll need purchased.

you’ll see from the pictures, bare bones at the moment, and I don’t work very quickly, so there probably won’t be many updates. Haven’t even decided on a name for the layout yet.