drmditch

Somehow, we have got to the dark days of November, but there are only six weeks or so before the days start getting longer again! My lack of energy this year has not been just owing to laziness but has now been identified as something quite nasty. The treatment is quite nasty as well. However, at least I know what it is, and I can stop blaming myself. There has been a little progress on the 2-2-4T which MarkC mentioned above, but not enough to talk about yet! Back in April, I did some work on the top-level Coaling Stage, which for some reason I didn't post on here. This building is based on drawings in 'North Eastern Record' Volume 1, which are in turn based on the coaling stage at Heaton. Mine is adapted so that it has only one 'shoot' (that is what the NER called them). Actually, in my research there was only one single-shoot stage, and that was at Haverton Hill. The basic structure of this building was made before the 'great move', and it was originally positioned in a more confined space. Had I started from scratch it might have had two shoots! It is also highly compromised in regard to track height/shoot height/and wagon and tender heights. It does not really work with LNER standard tenders, and large engines with eight-wheel tenders will just have to have plenty of coal when they arrive! Like most of my recent projects, there seems to be quite an amount of complexity with this building. It would have been easier if I had provided more protection to the coal men, and 'boxed it in' with corrugated sheeting. However, I think it looks more interesting with the interior detail on view, and my excuse is that there will not be much wind on this particular point on my railway. The shoot mechanism with counterweights demanded pulley sheeves. I could not find any to buy, so the pulley wheels are made up from plastic, and the sheeves are soldered up from brass. Two sizes of chain are indicated on several pictures, and the weights had to be soldered up from brass tube with an infill of solder. The handrails are soldered up from brass, except for the access steps which are plastic. (Yes there is a length of handrail missing. This will need to be added when locating screws are permanently fastened down.) The 'gallows' structure and the properly robust end-buffer stocks are made from my stock of rocket sticks and coffee stirrers. The roof beams are plastic, but the roof itself is re-cycled cardboard, with laser-cut paper slates from Stoneybridge Structures. .... link here.... (I have no connection with this company, other than being a satisfied user.) These are not expensive, and give a better result than my own printed and scalpel-cut slates that I have used previously. Having coped with the shoot mechanism, I then had the complex gutter and downpipe shapes to manufacture. The gutter is filed down plastic rod, and the downpipes are copper wire from mains electrical wiring offcuts. These form quite a distinctive shape, so I feel it was worth the effort. f the latest NERA publication on this subject ('North Eastern Railway Engine Sheds') been available when I made the basic structure, I would have allowed an end-shoot specifically for tank engines, but I was using the earlier NERA publication of LNER NE Area Locomotive Shed diagrams which are not quite as detailed. In addition to the books mentioned above, NERA's 'Servicing the North Eastern Railway's Locomotives', Paul Bolger's volume of BR Steam Motive Power Depots - NER, and Ken Hoole's book on the same subject have useful pictures. So - yet to make are some of the coaling barrows. Does anyone know how to obtain some 6 spoke wheels 2'10" in diameter?

Perhaps you should look at the Tanfield website .....here..... They have re-built some vehicles onto more modern underframes.

Highly unlikely. Recommend (amongst others) 'The Electric Locomotives of the North Eastern Railway' by Ken Hoole.

Are you going to plant rose bushes as well?

Thank you for the fascinating picture above. What do you think the vehicle/vehicles are above the locomotive's buffer beam. Are they two G2 vans, and the angle of the shot means that we can't see the end of the rearmost van? Or, and this would be more exciting is it a G4 Road Van? If the later, then the roof doors are arranged diagonally opposite each other. Do you have any idea of the date of the picture?

Is the lady in the blue dress out late or early?

Thank you for your extended post with the full article. (I couldn't read it from the link either.) Please can I ask a technical question about the performance of 'lightweight catamarans' as opposed to 'heavy monohulls' in North Atlantic sea conditions. Will not the catamarans bounce around in a heavy sea?

Perhaps it's nosebag is coming - just out of shot! (And the chains and handbrake should have been obvious, but I'm not very awake today .)

Excellent. Thank you. I should have looked it up! (Owing to health limitations I'm making too many posts, and not doing enough modelling. So, finish my cup of fennel tea and back to current project.)

Thank you Tony. I think it is good that people like different things. I do like watching trains run (long goods and heavy mineral trains - not just high-stepping big-wheeled locomotives!) And providing linking services/trains/railcars/coaches And shunting goods services And, of course, making things, rolling stock and locomotives and buildings and infrastructure. Of course this (in my available space which is still quite large (22'x11')) does demand compromises, especially in curvature, gradients, and couplings. Not prototypical - though it is set in County Durham and there were heavy gradients here! It does contain prototypical elements however, and I am scheming to add more. I'm sure you wouldn't approve of my railway, but it is my railway even if it's not likely to win any awards!

I know this picture has been commented on before, possibly by me. Do you wonder whether the hard-working railway horse knows it is pulling some kind of superior hunter/racehorse/favoured pony? But perhaps it's not all that bad. At least the railway horse works regular hours and gets fed properly. (Even if doesn't know what happens to racehorses when they can't race anymore and are not suitable for stud.)

But shunting is fun! (and of course necessary for any attempt at prototypical goods train operation.) Having said that, I did have a shunting problem last week which revealed a problem with a van which looks quite good but has a problem with its w-irons, of which I was aware but trying to ignore! This seems to have lead to a mini-project updating a couple of vans to LNER Dia.14, and updating research as well. So shunting has to be a good thing, doesn't it?

Thank you. I'm sure I should have remembered that. (And upon enlarging the red lamp is clear!) I will have to remind myself of the arrangements for the J71/72s at Newcastle. I would not like to get on your list for making inappropriate comments!

I like the different views posted by KNP (as above). However, please could I ask about the lamp code on the tank engine (pilot?) in the picture above. Has it just finished assisting a passenger train bunker first?

I think you may be missing the point - the centre of Durham is the Cathedral (and to a lesser extent the Castle) on the peninsula. The town and market place are just a 'supporting add-on'. Just because the 21st century judges things from it's own limited perspective doesn't invalidate the work of centuries.

Thank you for the link. I'm a bit surprised at the three year lifespan. I understand that waggonway/railway horses in County Durham lasted longer than that. So - just shows that city life is bad for you. Also, the present-day Fiacres in Vienna have a neat canvas shoot and bucket arranged so that (most) waste products are captured for re-cycling. Did no-one try this for Hansom Cabs?

Me to please. I haven't purchased one yet, and I haven't yet dredged through the posts.

Do modern ships still encourage the 'one hand for...' rule?

Have found it - Has been renamed (appropriately) because it is not an exact model

There is/was a rather nice model of Durham Gilesgate. I think I last saw it at Locomotion pre-covid. I tried to search just now, but couldn't find any reference to it. I agree about Elvet. A very useful station layout, with the signal box at right angles to the tracks, and a nice river bridge a bit further east.

A 'little walk' possibly, but quite steeply uphill! Mind you, so is North Road station (current main line), and I remember having to lug suitcases up and down, before the days of 'trolleys'. Heavy stuff (trunks) went PLA. Try that now?

Hope you have smoked out the gremlins (is that what gremlins need doing to them?) for today. And I hope the southern people are suitably appreciative!

The shunter, or the lamb?

My order for a set of chaldrons in Vane/Londonderry livery arrived this morning - despite the postal strike. I am sure others (somewhere above) have said the same thing, but these vehicles are amongst the most (if not the most) splendid RTR models I have ever purchased. Especially given the problems of small size and prototype detail the way they look and behave is magnificent. I haven't quite decided how I will utilise them yet, since my colliery yard is yet to be constructed. I still wonder if I can fit a rope-worked incline into a corner somewhere; thus requiring another set of chaldrons! I will make my own loads of course, using proper County Durham coal. Not being very well at the moment I've spent the morning immersed in Colin Mountford's 'The Private Railways of County Durham', looking for inspiration. Many thanks Accurascale.

But have you undertaken to protect them from National Socialist Hedgehogs?