Arthur

In the past I've supplied some prototype details to a couple of modellers on here who were interested in such a project. One certainly got started though I cannot now recall whether it was static or working. It was a a model of a ropeway used to move oil drums rather than tipping skips but the infrastructure is the same. What I have are some pages from a manufacturers cataloge which cover some details of construction and arrangements. If they are of interest I can pm copies. .

I've never seen a Taylor Bros. ad. before Dave, excellent. Here's an aerial of the works in 1929, it was built in 1920. That's the Bridgewater Canal forming the lower boundary. Very well laid out as you'd expect on a greenfield site. Over the following years, as Trafford Park hosted more and more industries, it became surrounded by other operations. Turners Asbestos Cement were their neighbour to the left. It was modernised in the 1950's and up until the 70's it made steel by the open hearth process. After that they reheated bought in steel billets. I've mentioned the following link before. It's Lindsay Andersons 1967 film, The White Bus. Like most of his work it's an odd piece but in the middle there is some footage from Trafford Park including a minute or so at Taylor Bros. Scroll in to 20 minutes. The rather disjointed footage shows the open hearths, and steam hammers and the 8,000 ton hydraulic press in operation. The Trafford Park coverage starts at 14.45 and shows, amongst the odd clips, other industries. https://youtu.be/ln5Lz8gMe_k A school friends father was a loco driver there and another's father also worked there and they lived in a company owned terraced house attached to the works. The works supplied their electricity as DC such that domestic appliances had to be modified or couldn't be used at all. . Like a number of smaller steelworks, during the 60s and 70s, it was often forecast that it wouldn't survive after upcoming rationalisations. Saved really by it's specialist expertise it survives, though much reduced in activities, to this day. .

They subsidise the sale of the printer/first bundle on the basis that you will then return and buy full priced cartridges over an extended period. Few people bother seeking out a cheap new 'introductory' bundle once they've set the printer up. I bought my Ricoh at a bargain price including a toner package knowing full well it would be costly to buy cartridges in the future. As I only ever use it to print off decals, that initial toner package should last me years. .

That does look interesting. Sod's Law that I have a laser printer but it's not one they have a white toner cartridge for. It's a Ricoh that I only used for the home printing of decals and the results are very good. I'd have bought a cartridge and tried it otherwise. I'll keep my eye on this, if it does work for decals I'd be tempted. .

Interesting and Impressive! Will you be doing the milling yourself Dave? .

Yeah, those big cast numberplates were a feature of Dorman Long's Teesside/Lackenby fleet. .

Yes, the idea of a thick rubber cushioning plate behind steel buffer seems very probable. The castings on which the moulds sat were known as 'stools'. They could be simple heavy 'plates' or complex multi-part assemblies with ceramic lined feed runners. The latter were used when trumpet or bottom up teeming was employed. Teeming was a skilled art, with several techniques used to produce ingots with different qualities and characteristics. .

These Tony, the small 4 wheeled bogies behind this Janus at Appleby Frodingham are casting cars. The buffer to which Dave refers is that central 'block' on the locos buffer beam. A few works, Port Talbot had longer, bogie, casting cars. Simple but heavy flat topped cars, ingot moulds are stood on them and then the liquid steel is teemed into them from teeming ladles. They steel is allowed to solidly sufficiently for the moulds to be withdrawn and then the ingots either go to storage or into the soaking pits prior to rolling. These cars can be seen moving empty ingot moulds, full moulds or the solidified ingots. They have simple couplings between them, often just a bar and link pins, but tend to operate in fixed rakes. Having said that, they were often involved in accidents with shunters getting caught between cars whilst coupling/uncoupling. The only fatality during my time at Irlam steelworks was such an incident. As a consequence automatic couplings were introduced at some works. Being lower than conventional wagons, locomotives cannot buffer up to them. Either a modified spacer car with a raised buffer beam at one end is used or, more commonly, a casting car buffer is fitted. A single heavy buffing block fitted on the locos buffer beam below the three link coupling. This enables the loco to buffer up against the casting car and it incorporates a bracket to enable the car to be linked to it. They're very much a steelworks only fitting and as traditional ingot casting has long since been superseded by continuous casting, the cars, and the need for such buffers, has gone. .

Good question Dave. I think that they are a replaceable cast steel block within a fixed frame. I have wondered whether or not they were rubber but have concluded they are metal for two reasons. Durability and resistance to damage by hot metal splashing about. The only advantage of rubber would be a degree of shock absorption and having seen ingot cars shunted about that doesn't seem to be much of a concern. .

It would be a tippler for handling scrap. As Brian says, Tinsley Park was a purpose built electric arc steel making plant and would have consumed fragmented scrap. That is lighter and shredded scrap, not big old castings, so handling by tipper would have been sensible. Tinsley Park would have had no need for anything else in bulk other than an amount of limestone and I doubt that would have been handled in that tippler. It may well have arrived by road from the adjacent Peak Distruct by the time Tinsley Park became operational. .

It is the same Paul. Originally Taylor Bros., then part of the English Steel Corp., then the BSC (Railway & Ring Products), then ABB Wheelset and today the Lucchini Group. .

Well, on the plus side, it moves the Nasmyth Wilson 0-8-0T one up on the list of the next RTR release. .

Great albums. Jon Hiseman later recalled that as he signed the sleeve notes to Valentine Suite his TV was showing Neil Armstrong making that famous `First step.... .

Ours likes nothing better on a cold winters morning than a nice frozen chunk of horse dropping. Mind you, like most dogs, she likes it frozen or fresh.... .

Thanks Osgood. I do like that first Hudswell, the one for South Durham Steel & Iron, a very nicely balanced looking design. Going on to wheelsets, their manufacture was quite specialised, requiring a decent sized forge, so many were farmed out to specialist makers. Along with Owen & Dyson, there were others including Steel, Peech and Tozer (later part of United Steels), also in Rotherham, and Taylor Bros. in Trafford Park, Manchester. The latter produced wheelsets under BSC ownership and is still in limited operation today. One of those threads I've been meaning to kick off for a while is one devoted to the manufacture of rolling stock wheels. .

Lovely work Dave. Straight from an ad. in a 1950s Iron & Coal Trades Review. .

Voice control!! Blimey, I can hear it now, ''Sorry, I didn't get that. Did you say 'launch the missiles' or 'lunch in the messroom'?" .

The Andromeda Strain was an earlier novel, and the one that first brought him widespread success, by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. He had a medical/science background and many of his novels incorporated science based themes. Quite a few made it to the screen, some better than others. .

There might be a clue in the first post.... .

..of ONE of the announcements. OMG! There's more than one! For pity's sake! .

The Chronicles of Lockes Sidings by the Revd. Alan Cliffe ran for several years in British Railway Modelling. IIRC it really ran for too long and was dropped after feedback from readers who had tired of it. .

Courtesy of Channel 81 I caught up with a couple of sci-fi turkeys recently; Target Earth, (US 1954). Death Dealing robots invade Chicago, never has a more fearsome machine graced the silver screen. Controlled by 'electronics' apparently and despite being impervious to any human weapon they readily succumbed to an irritating electronic wail.... And one mentioned earlier in this thread; Night of the Big Heat, (UK 1966). Horror stalwarts Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing sweat bucket loads whilst tackling alien invaders resembling glowing fibre glass 'rocks'. Bit like the Daleks, it occurred to me that they would be readily defeated by the first step or stairway they encountered. In fact, they were extinguished in a thunderstorm. So incandescent alien rocks, next time you invade another planet, check the weather forecast. Yep, that scary. .

No, not SOHF, I suspect that your reference to cutting machines, the Cricut, Portrait and CAMEO, was just not picked up. .

Whilst I admire his discretion in not naming and shaming the young 'lady' it occurs to me that, henceforth, whenever he introduces anybody, guilty or not, as his girlfriend, she will be confronted with, 'Oh, are you the one that laid the enormous log and then tried to hurl it through the window?' Hardly conducive to the path of true love. .

We've all been there, the 'log' that won't flush, smirking up at you like an aged crocodile. Even more embarrassing when you are guest at another house, even worse, on a first date.... Oh, what can I do? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-41167296 .