spikey

The last time I drove one of Her Majesty's aeroplanes was an awful long time ago. It was only a Jet Provost, which younger readers may care to note was a two-seater military trainer with a VNCT* jet engine, so admittedly my feelings about what's sensible and what's not in military aircraft are somewhat at odds with contemporary practice. Nevertheless, I'm never going to be convinced that it's totally sensible for the RAF to have ended up with a fighter aircraft the successful operation of which relies to a significant extent on the computing power and display electronics contained within the pilot's helmet. "Wait one. Helmet needs a restart ..." (* Variable Noise, Constant Thrust)

Having just finished re-reading Richard Hardy's book of the above name, I'd like to commend it to anyone who's never read it. It's basically the very well-written autobiography of a chap who rose from Doncaster apprentice to Divisional Manager, it covers up to the end of steam and a bit beyond, and it's full of fascinating stuff about the reality of "the good old days" on BR - the human side as well as the operational. Apparently it's been out of print for yonks (it's a 1971 book), but it may well be obtainable from the likes of World of Books. Publisher's Ian Allan and the ISBN's 0711002118. However, if you don't fancy buying a copy and your library service is anything like ours, they'll probably have a copy or two in the county store. I certainly got a cracking good read for my 60p reservation fee ...

I'm thoroughly confused. I could have sworn that the "Mayflower" I cabbed regularly at Cleethorpes in the late 1950s and which was based at Immingham was 61379.

Very much obliged to you Mike for that clear and comprehensive explanation.

4mm here too. Got mine over a year ago now, so maybe current production comes with more suitable chain.

Ahah! If that is indeed the case, the way in which the goalpost-thingies are constructed would make far more sense to me ...

Cheers gents. That's all I could think. I guess we're never going to know why, if that's the only purpose, it's so elaborate. Ref the kit, mine was actually the first white-metal kit I'd met, and I was surprised by how easily it went together. The finished model's nice too, although the curb chain supplied in the kit is neither use nor ornament. I ended up using some very nice ready-blackened 42 links/inch trace chain from a website called modellingtimbers, but I believe it's no longer trading.

Thank you, sir. Demurrage and siding rent seem like the same dog with different spots to me, so I guess the change was of more consequence to the railway's book-keepers than to the customers - unless of course the cost per week went up significantly!

Look gents, I really am sorry but this thread is throwing up all sorts of fascinating stuff that I'm trying to understand. So once again, I have to ask - how did Siding Rent work, and did it stop in Jan 1948? And ... "circuit wagons"?

Ever since I built my Mike's Models kit if this crane, I've wondered what the purpose is of the two rugby coalpost-type thingies that are fixed to the rods supporting the jib. Obviously (?) the chain goes over the thick crossbars, but ... why? What's the point?

Gorrit! Thanks, mister. It's easily identified, and exactly like you said. That definitely gives me another option to position mine, which will help with access to the yard crane, which will mean I can move the coal merchant's office nearer the weighbridge, which opens up ... etc ... etc ... etc

Gosh, I'd never have thought of that! So am I right in assuming that running along the relevant siding from the rest of the railway, the store comes before the goods shed? Any idea why the two are to all intents and purposes together? Lack of space for it to go anywhere else? Vehicle access issues maybe?

Indeed. And whenever I've compared the two, the price on their own site has nearly always been lower than on Ebay.

Sorry, but that's a new one to me so I have to ask ...

Thinking back to the cantankerous old beggar* who ran the local coalyard in my trainspotting days, I could see that coming! Thanks Mike. So if I end up having to have my seed merchant's store building on the same siding as the coal merchant, it's the latter that wants to be towards the stops? (* He was, but he had one redeeming feature of hallowed memory. He still did the deliveries nearest to the yard with the horse and cart, and we kids used to eagerly look forward to the nosebag going on while the driver was delivering to a house in our street. If it did, you could guarantee the old horse would fart before the bag came off, and if you've ever heard a Clydesdale fart, you'll understand why we invariably got the giggles ...)

It's sometime between the last war and the early 1960s, and three full coal wagons are shunted into a siding alongside the coal merchant's yard. Is the merchant then under any pressure from BR to get those wagons unloaded sharpish? And how is the removal of the emptied wagons arranged i.e. does the merchant notify BR that he's done with them, or does BR just disappear them on an apppinted day?

Thanks Brian. This one was definitely up against the track, there being a wide sliding door on that side at wagon floor height, but all trace of the siding has gone apart from the start of it maybe 50 yards away. That's why I couldn't work out where it stood along the length i.e. how far from the buffers. So, in the real world it made no odds operationally where such a store was situated along the length of the siding?

Today I finally realised that one of the builders merchant's buildings in what used to be our town's goods yard must have once been a private provender store type of thing, and that's prompted me to wonder whether I can add a similar structrure to my own goods yard. But what was the score with the siding on which such a store was placed? Would such a structure only be on private siding? Working away from the running line, my goods yard has one siding for empties which finishes at an end-loading dock just past the cattle dock, and one alongside that which is intended for the coal merchant. Spaced somewhat apart from these is a siding with vehicle access on both sides (mileage traffic or whatever), and then finally the one leading to the Company's goods shed. The only sensible location for a private shed would be somewhere along the "mileage/general" siding, but should it go towards the end of it, or what? I can't quite see how having a private shed on a siding wouldn't unduly restrict the other use of that siding, so - how exactly did a private store fit into the scheme of things in your average small goods yard?

Couldn't agree more, Andy. That's why I started this thread last year after my own experience, which happily for me turned out to be reassuring. I think you'll find there's quite a few of us on here will join you banging the drum ...

If I may say so, a brilliant, inspiring post. Thank you for making it - and the very best of luck to you from now on.

Where we are, the bramble season has lasted exactly 21 days this year. During that time, Mrs Spikey and I have been out picking 11 times, always on foot and always well within a mile of home. The total haul this year is just over 63lb of really tasty fruit, most of which has gone to make a year's supply of the bramble jelly which we both very much like on our porridge of a morning. Whilst we were out picking, we saw but one family brambling, and then only in a very half-hearted way. Whilst in the local Waitrose this morning (which I have to patronise once a week on account of we can't get the yogurt Mrs Spikey likes anywhere else), I saw two people buying packs of Waitrose brambles. Obviously those are the cultivated ones, which are invariably tasteless. Those are £13.34 per Kg. At Waitrose's price, what we've picked would have cost £381 ...

0.5mm diameter, looks like bright steel but isn't attracted to a magnet, so perhaps nickel silver? Maybe I'll phone Ratio tomorrow and ask 'em what it is. Thanks for the suggestion! Er ... no. I can tell the difference. This kit contains metal wire, as did the last one I built. That's why I referred to "wires".

Thanks gents. I'm rapidly coming round to the view that leaving the wires as they are is probably the only sensible way forward ...

When I built one of these before, I ended up with the wire rails of the fencing the same colour as the posts and unsurprisingly it looked all wrong. Now I'm building another one, and I still haven't worked out the best way forward with the fencing. And of course, any guidance on finishing the wires is conspicuous by its absence from the painting instructions provided. It would be nice if there was a way of chemically blackening/colouring the wires before threading them through the already-painted posts, but I'm unable to find anything on the internets that leads me to think that's a goer. The only alternative I can see is brush-painting the wires in situ, the prospect of which doesn't exactly fill me with unbounded joy. So, if you've painted the Ratio Cattle Dock and you're happy with the look of the finished fencing, how did you do it?

And the scrap price of lead being what it is nowadays, your friendly local builder or roofer will probably be glad to fix you up with a goodly helping of lead flashing offcuts for the price of a pint