Ready-meals have come on a great deal in quality and presentation of recent years. The other day I had a memorable ready meal from our local excellent supermarket, Booths. Here's the package image. The real thing looked just as good but for one (or 60+) thing/s - peppercorns!
I could, perhaps would, have died if I had eaten all these. I all conscience and concern for other victims I have written to Booths thus:Settle Station Water Tower
A record of the restoration and conversion of the railway water tower at Settle Station on the World famous Settle-Carlisle Line.
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Sunday 10 March 2024
Peppercorns
Sunday 3 March 2024
Camera Doorbell
Just installed a new front doorbell, its predecessor having failed. This time its one of those fancy jobs with camera and two-way sound via the house wi-fi and VHF. Annke brand, like our other security cameras
The low sun is spoiling things a bit but that's a pretty useful picture. From my i-phone I can view and listen live anytime - and have a conversation with the caller. £29.99 direct from Annke. That's about the price of an ordinary ding-dong doorbell. I might get one apiece for our four other outside doors.
Update: The doorbell showed its real use yesterday while I was sitting in the sun in the roof room. My iPhone sounded and it was my very first call from the front door bell. I pressed one of the several icons on the iPhone screen, more in hope than expectation. Bingo. There was a clear-as-you-like picture of a man and a woman at our front door. "Hello" I said - and the lady replied, loud and clear. The system was working fine! "We've come to give you a leaflet" said the lady. A distant bell rang. I told her I was at the top of the tower but our letter box was in the gate so they could deliver the leaflet. I told her that their visit was the camera doorbell's first test for real, we all agreed how good they were and they left. On emptying our letter box later I found the leaflet, inviting us to attend a meeting at Settle's Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. A close call.
Lift Shaft Clock Modified
Back in 2017 in an effort to somehow disguise the lift shaft we mounted a very large clock face onto it. It worked and looked fine BUT twice a year somebody had to climb a ladder and change the time. Similarly if the battery needed to be changed. Now that climbing ladders incurs severe local disapproval something needed to change. I wondered how it might be if I mounted the clock mechanism inside the thickness of the lift shaft wall and created access from inside with the lift platform halted at just the right level.
The job is now done and the clock can be serviced from within. Here is all you can see from inside - a steel cover, held in place with magnets:
Thursday 15 February 2024
Some Railway Water Towers
Courtesy of Ferrers Young of the British Water Towers Appreciation Society here are some pictures of railway water towers in or near Norfolk. From the top they are Norwich City, The Cow Tower (supplied the livestock pens at Norwich City station),Melton Constable, Holt Railway (a 2005 replica of the Norwich City tower), Bungay, Bungay demolition, Cromer, Mundesley and Weybourne. All different.
Tuesday 30 January 2024
Garsdale Water Tower
A new (to me) picture of Garsdale water tower. This is a postcard dated sometime before 1909 and one of a series, printed in Germany.
The water tower and the then Hawes Junction South signal box are in the background, The water tower was identical to ours and the tank panels are reassuringly contrasty.
The Hawes Junction tank, like ours, was in a prominent location as a landmark along the Midland's proud new extension to Scotland, so like ours, it was painted for showiness.
Friday 19 January 2024
Was our Water Tank Older than 1876?
There is no doubt that our water tower was built during 1876, as was Settle station. The line itself was opened for freight in 1875. Only then was it possible to transport by rail to sites along the line to build the stations and associated buildings. By far the heaviest and bulkiest components required were the massive CAST IRON beams to support the water tanks. Two of the line's water tanks - ours and the identical one at Hawes Junction (now Garsdale) - were far bigger than all of the others. Maybe Carlisle Durran Hill was a big one too.
Why so? Perhaps it was thought that those places would be busier than those elsewhere so bigger supplies of water would be needed. Maybe so but not that much busier. Maybe Settle and Hawes Junction had better or more plentiful water supplies locally. 'Better' may seem to be a strange term for water. Well as far as steam boilers are concerned the quality of water matters greatly. Neither too acid (as would drain from peat moorlands) nor too hard as might be expected from limestone areas. Furring of locomotive boilers was a serious and expensive problem. Costly and huge water softening equipment was installed at key sites across the nation's railways, at locomotives works especially. At the Midland Railway's Derby works there were several water softening tanks with cast iron panels identical to ours, at ground level without need of beams:
During the months I was working on the outside of the tank I got to know each component panel very well indeed, A few things puzzled me.
1. The painted letters on the painted panels. Only five or so panels bore letters, They were L., R.(inverted), E (inverted), Q (right way up but off-centre) and C (or perhaps another Q whose right side had worn off). If you enlarge the screen shot below from Restoration Man Best Builds you can see them. They make no sense. They had been applied to the outsides of already painted panels - perhaps to identify assembled panels on an existing but redundant tanks elsewhere. They appear random and incomplete:
Thursday 18 January 2024
A Wind Pump Supplied Water Tower
This appeared on Facebook from Hornsea Civic Society:
What a good idea. The supply was a local spring from which the water was pumped, powered by wind. What a fascinating spectacle it must have been. Hornsea is in the Lincolnshire flatlands with plenty of free wind.