clecklewyke

Can you lend me a couple? Ian

Here's my latest attempt at a dusk photo. I've also replaced the Portescap motor in the Y7 0-4-0T which appears in this photo. It now has a tiny Mashima motor and a High Level Models gearbox and it runs beautifully but with a horrible growl. I suspect that the motor or gearbox is touching something which is resonating. I'm looking forward to playing with it on Saturday! Ian

It's interesting that we are coming from the same starting point - John Cockcroft's article on Bradford Exchange operation - and are going in slightly different directions. I'm hoping we can share a lot of research. I do hope you get to live in Yorkshire! There has been little progress on BNW in the last few months although our local area group do operate it once a month or so. I've been busy rebuilding Humber Dock for this year's Scalefour North. This is now finished so I should now be able to get on with the BNW branch. The first developments will be on Clecklewyke and the viaduct as these are pencilled in for Scalefour North in 2014. Ian

I'm glad you liked it. It is as near as I could get to 18.83 sq. ft. The scenic part is 55" X 32" and the backscene is 23" high. It just fits into a Skoda Fabia estate car. The next cameo will be much smaller - four square feet. But my lips are sealed... Ian

How come everybody else's railway room is so clean and tidy? Not even any paint or glue drops on the floor. This is going to be a thread to follow with delight! Ian

A cycling dog - cool! And the layout's great, too. I like micro-layouts, especially out-of-the-way subjects, like this. Ian

Afraid so. Did you see the smiley? I think we worry too much about where particular engines ran. It would only take a stroke of a controller's pen to change the duty or allocation of any engine. We mostly have fictional layouts, so I think we can use our imagination to create appropriate loco allocations and duties for them. My layout is called Bradford North Western and I want to run my Kitmaster B-G to run on it - not for any reason other than I like Beyer Garratts and I happen to have one I can convert to P4. My fiction is that it regularly ran to my fictional station - and I'm far to much of a Yorkshireman to buy the Heljan version! Ian

I believe that there was also a regular turn to Gormley Junction near Bradford North Western, although the Kitmaster type was used on this, rather then the Heljan.

Cheek - Hull's a great place! Yes, we were at Halifax in 2011, Hull a couple of years before that and Hell... Ian

Tom, thanks for these superb photos. It's amazing how that tiny iPhone could get so close up and produce such excellent images. And hasn't Stephen Pauling done a great job on that tug? But... It's so good it shows all the imperfections that my rheumy eyes have missed - wobbly lamp-posts, leaning buildings, patchy paintwork... Still, two weeks still to sort them out for Scaleforum North, and maybe then another photographic session? Thanks, again to you and the other Craggies for a great afternoon. Ian

We run a B&B and have been deluged by cold calls, despite having TPS, so we now have caller display but even this is not enough to deter these pests. The most blatant example I have experienced was a call with a British phone number which was trying to sell me - wait for it - a telephone service which would prevent me receiving cold calls. Like many such callers he had never heard of the TPS and nor did he understand the irony of his action. Ian

Yes, Phil - but I am not so concerned as he was about children not being able to see it - they can always stand on the box I thoughtfully provide. No, it's the wheelchair bound I am wanting to help, as they have no other way of viewing an eye-level building. That man's comments really stung! It was over two years ago now and I still feel the anger! Ian

I've made a couple of models of the type of stacking chairs that I remember sitting on, listening to our boring headmaster at Hull Grammar in the 1950s. They're made of brass wire and shim. But - I cannot remember what colour their legs were. I know that the seats were pale plywood but the legs - were they a sort of hammered silverish/greyish metallic colour? Unfortunately there are no examples around here for me to check. Can anyone help? (Please forgive the blurred picture - it's a clip from a larger image.) Ian

I've just bought this for submariners who want to see Humber Dock at Scalefour North! Ian

Humber Dock at dusk - fancy a pint in the Athena? Mine's a Hull Brewery Mild, please. Ian

Not many are university librarians! I met PDH once, when I was a junior administrator at Edinburgh University, and he seemed to be a lovely, modest man. It always amazed me that the C+M empire ran around a small bedroom in a Dalkeith Road tenement, a stone's throw from where I worked. Ian

Clearly your nights there have affected your long term memory as well. I hope your planning of those unforseen circumstances is going well. Looking forward to meeting you at Wakefield. Ian

Yes, it's on Dagger Lane, once the Waterside Club, now the Sugar Mill. My model needs more windows on the side wall. One day... Ian

Hi, Tony, I referred to Tim as "son of Rice" as he followed on from Iain in MRJ, with inspiring articles on kit-building and RTR modifications in a style which was reminiscent of Iain's articles, in that they always were rounded, with lots of colourful and personal descriptions, none of " I did this, then I did that", lots of "why" as well as "how". So I was referring to him as an inspiring writer, rather than layout builder - this thread has got twisted - see post No 198 but I'm probably a bit OT. Sorry for that. Is Tim still writing? I see his name popping up as a tutor at modelling weekends etc. but sadly not as an author in MRJ. Ian

Ross Pochin's locos are in the safe care of the Cumbrian Railway Association, as I believe is Haverthwaite. I'll check. Ian

Four weeks to go to Scalefour North... And some progress to report. Details have been added to various buildings, such as gutters and downpipes on the warehouse, lintels and window sills on the terraced houses and flashing on all the buildings. I am amazed that I had not noticed the omission of these details until now. I must have been in a hurry to get it ready for Scaleforum all those years ago. I have also been reconnecting the lighting circuits and have discovered that several bulbs need replacing. Now where did I put those grain of rice bulbs? The backscene has been replaced and I have painted an improved view of the Humber and the opposite, Lincolnshire, coast, with just a suggestion of New Holland and its oil refineries. I found a nice picture of Lincoln Castle, one of the Hull - New Holland paddle steamers, which I have photoreduced and pasted on to the river scene. So here are some photos of a J72 returning to Dairycoates after doing duty on the Eastern docks, in so doing passing through all four foot length of Humber Dock: First crossing the entrance lock, with the Lincoln Castle in the background. Moving off the bridge over the lock and past one of the warehouses. Entering the street between the row of terrace houses and the Athena pub. Then a picture of the Athena and the adjoining warehouse. A wider view of the dockside buildings. And finally a view of the Lincolnshire coast, with Lincoln Castle on its way to New Holland. What's left to do? Well, surface colours can be improved. Some more details can be added (people, bicycles, etc,) the lighting needs to be completed and finally the rolling stock will be checked over and probably subjected to more weathering. And then there is the little matter of the tug, which Stephen Paulin has "volunteered" to improve. For once, I think I should not be having a last minute panic! Ian (Edited to remove some typos)

Here here! and possibly "son of Rice" Tim Shackleton?

Thank you, Serron. Do make yourself known if you get to Wakefield. I'll follow up that information on the tugs - I remember the fitting out berth well. A couple of years ago I travelled from Beverley to the Humber and back on a barge with the Railway Ramblers. There was no sign of any other traffic on the River Hull and the lock at Beverley and the lifting bridge for the "new" bypass both failed because they had been out of use for a long time, which meant we got back to Beverley after midnight. A sad contrast to the days of my yoof! Ian

A little more progress to report. When I first exhibited Humber Dock I ran out of time and never got round to detailing some of the buildings, so I am rather belatedly trying to do that now. The first to be attacked is the Victorian warehouse, which is now a night club - for a while the Waterfront but more recently the Sugar Mill. This should have a small crane, used to lift light loads to the upper floors. I've now constructed this, using bits from, of all things, a Slater's kit for LNWR signals for the bracket and three washers for the pulley. Here is the basic crane in Plasticard white (turned through 90 degrees): and the warehouse with crane, painted with Humbrol matt black and weathered with artist's acryics, black, white and yellow ochre (my standard weathering palette) attached: Gutters and downpipes still to be added - I'll do this as a batch job as there are several buildings needing such attention. If I remember I'll also add a rope and hook to the crane before S4N. The next jobs, currently in progress, are the re-build of the bridge over the lock and the lock gates. Photos soon...

A lovely job, Michael. I'll have to look to see whether I added the handles and piston tail rod covers to mine. I don't remember doing it, nor the pipes on the lubricators. I've never before noticed their absence but I will now. Grrr! Ian