wagonbasher

I will check but as it sat at the black country museum only 6 - 9 inches were underwater - dry and empty. If you want to sink it more: 1 it should be sunk 'listed' or sitting on the bottom which as you know slopes to the middle. 2 If sunk more than a few MM's we need to flood it or put some load in the hold - I would suggest dredgings and rotten timbers. BW maintenance teams would think nothing of sinking these boats permenantly or temporarily to in fill , protect banks or as a work platform. I think we should consider where first - It can't go in the junction it would be in the way, could sit opposite the cottages or in one of the pounds although, if in a pound I think it should be there for a purpose - maintenance boat ? otherwise it would be a nuisence in such a small pound cheers A

Canals were also at the front of the modelling queue for me today. This is a Joey, pretty well unique to Birmingham and the Black Country. Built in there thosands, often no cabin,certainly no overnight accomodation and nowhere for a steerer to stand except in with the cargo. most were double ended, you switch the rudder depending on direction. They could have been a single boat with a horse and one boat man ( Man stands on the towpath to encourage the horse and operate the lock gear - steering is via a long boat pole / hook) or pulled in trains by a short powerful tug boat. A joey steerer may huddle in the coal with a small brazier to keep him warm This is in its ex works livery and needs distressing. These boats were treated with the respect you would give to a skip. I need a bit of colour either side of the bow to indicate ownership and maybe a fleet number. Their principle cargo was coal or maybe waste / salvage. Similar boats to a higher spec were built by the LMS and later became live aboard butties once ownership was transfered to Britsh Waterways in the 1950's

love it. next time you dash off to somewhere miles away to get English bond, ask your mate 5 miles away I probably had enough. It looks very robust and will work well with the canal tunnel bridge under the sidings Andy

Any waiting is the enemy, that includes mooring. Working boats moored at the powerstation they are going to, the colliery they are coming from, somewhere were they wait to get orders or on a long journey and overnight stop with the chance to wash some clothes etc. For working boats someone, young would be the lock wheeler... Run or bike ahead to make sure that waiting at locks is minimised. It is only since the 1970's (not sure when exactly) that wew were instructed to shut the gates. So locks were either empty and open or shut and fullish. Nowerdays they are shut and typically half full / empty. Passing boats would indicate how many locks in front were set in your favour so you didn't have to boot the kid offf at a bridge with his bike and you can approach the locks at speed even if it was out of sight - and they did!! Chris is correct, if you are waiting for the lock to empty or fill you shove your nose in the narrow approach to the lock up against the gate - if going up hill (against the flow) you can leave the boat in gear nudging the gates or tie yourself to the lock furniture if necessary. If someone is coming the other way, you can hold the boat from the toe path with a single line. Hope that helps, not sure what the original question was

I see the point about the corners but you dont have to do 100 scores... you scrib longer and then cut to width so you do 20 scribes and cut out 5 lengths. A

I dont use a hammer or a wheel puller.... Just a pice of 1/8 steel with a slot cut in it with a slim cutting disc in an angel grinder... then put a hardened nail from a picture hook with its head cut off in my tower drill blunt end down. Sit the wheel set in the slot of the 1/8 steel, support it in a drill vice and then use the drill (turned off) to press down as required on the centre of the axle. Lots of pressure with control !! A

just nice to have a picture from the spamster without a spam can in it !!

With an olaf cutter you could score the plasticard, as per the photo and then wrap it around some shaped timber. then paint. Andy

I don't really understand how: Beer bought to your door....... could fail as a business model If I can dial a Pizza, why wouldn't I want beer and pies on the end of a phone ? A

If I take a canal side walk of a lunchtime at Ettingshall which is very near Bilston I sometimes have a tray of chips.. just 1/4 of a mile from the site of the Bilston Steel works I am eating orange chips ??? They are nice but I don't get it.. If they are battered, and you do see signs for battered chips, the batter is very very thin... But orange and crispy they are Andy

Looks like a good day, sorry not to be their. looking forward to a post meet briefing. Some great photos, including a few that Andy York can use. Andy

Chris. Can you know say what the pavement to base board is - I had asked you for the drop to the towpath but in reallity the close proximity of the lock make that difficult so I will model the box to the base board and detail that canal side down to the bottom to give us all of the options. By the way, your calculation of building width via google earth measuring tool was 'bang on' Andy

Of course the buildings need to be EM gauge. You will remember the comments about my drooping tape measure when measuring the locks at Tipton. Its that Droop that converts the measurements to EM Andy

Measuring up for the drapes this weekend, we always leave it a couple of inches off the floor - just to show a bit of ankle Steady..... Andy

Thanks for that, I will give it a try.... I have just looked at the link and that is a massive improvement. Andy

BLGVI maybe ? Andy

sorry, that was the point i was tryingg to make - I was agreeing with you Andy

A good point well made. Both the examples I based the dimensions on (both in Heath Town) had some colour difference in the mortar to the brick. Years of acid rain reracting with the lime in the mortar probably. One of the problems is the various makes of plasticards feature too wider mortar line in comparison to the dimensions of the brick. It will need to be dirtier and it will get a further wash of something dirty when dressing the layout. I would have done this but as we are always rushing to a deadline I had to deliver it and further washes before the dry brushing had cured would have made a mess. Andy

with some firm pressure you can make the edge of the aluminium almost disapear, it is probably 50 micron at the most. You could do it in aluminium and stick it onto some plasticard for cutting out. warning if you apply too much pressure to the aluminium - what rivits. you are welcome to try my tool and tape Andy

More than you can imagine..... Morar first was Humbrol 83 turned out too yellow (there are some sections that look too yellow now) Dried Brushed Precision blue brick, then a bit of Humbrol 70 (brick red tinge here and there) then a skim of black. Defo too yellow, so a wash of 121, then more dry brushing in the blue brick and the black The green growth is humbrol 80 and looks a bit - in your face, we may need to knock that back but no point until we see where the scenery comes to. Finally white for the efflourecence, smudged and again knocked back with a bit of grey. Doing it again I need to find a better mortar colour - I probably spent 12 hours in total painting the damn thing A

I haven't tried it on plasticard but I cant imagine the spacing I was using creating such a distinctive rivit, I will give it a go.

Sorry for the delay, I have had a crazy christmas.. I then lost the bit of paper with the spot heights on. so If 1 is zero....... 2 = -1 3 = +18 4 = +19 5 = +32 6 = +40 7 = +23 8 = +41 9 = +38 10 = +61 I have place the cut out where the terainne is flatest, Orientation was a guess, Chris we will need vehicular access cutting into the bank off the road. If you need more spot heights, I imagine Geoff can answer, he has the board.

The christmas break has given me the chance to catch up a bit, Skew bridge ready for departure to Geoffs. I heard that he had down tooled yesterday with no track to lay because the bridge was missing.. Andy

mark those bolsters look great A

Chris is clearly keeping his options open like fleet numbering in the diagrams book A