A Building Site Next Door

We seem to have started a fashion locally with excavating into the embankment.   A huge great hole is emerging just along The Sidings and the area is becoming a very meaningful building site.   Here is the view form the top of the tower today:

click to enlarge

Immediately outside our goods-yard gates reinforcing bars are being made into mighty great cages which will be lifted into position against the newly exposed cut-away embankment and surrounded with concrete to form a retaining wall.

And Another One

The Ribblehead Viaduct just keeps giving

click if it's not big enough for you already

I like this picture by Jack Boskett taken on 21st March.  It is a spectacular image for sure but notice that the viaduct is not level - and that is just how it is.   The northern end (right) is some 12 feet higher than the southern end.   And the whole thing is built on a curve.   Clever eh?

Here we go Again

It has been quiet around here since our building work finished.   Apart from trains through the night of course.   Recent posts on this Blog have mentioned the new building that is to be built into the former railway embankment adjacent to us on The Sidings.

New Neighbours on The Sidings

All the trees were cleared last week and our solar panels don't know what has hit them.  Serious digging is now under way:

Click to make the Tonka toys bigger

This is very reminiscent of the scenes when our part of the embankment was being excavated for our annex.

In fact, we hardly hear a thing with our double and triple glazing.   The dog's a bit confused though.

A Very Lovely Picture Indeed

How's this for a picture?

click to enlarge

A Northern train going north past Ingleborough towards the Ribblehead Viaduct as the sun sets over Chapel le Dale.

Wow.

Happy Mothers Day and a Happy Man

Our beautiful, clever and totally delightful daughter Lorna sent her mum(my) this super bunch of flowers for Mothers Day.   They look and smell divine.

click to enlarge

I went as On-Train-Guide / commentator with a coach party between Settle and Appleby this afternoon.   The line is closed north of Appleby for much needed track repairs inside Culgaith Tunnel between Appleby and Carlisle.   The snow covered tops of the hills in broken sunshine made for stunning views.   Chatting to the driver at Appleby he remarked what a lucky chap he was to be doing his job - and for getting paid to do it!   He would gladly do it for nothing on days like this he said.

Bunches of flowers and people enjoying life lift the spirits.

Lighting in the Lounge

It was always going to be difficult to light the main lounge of the water tower effectively.   It is a vast space yet it is a home; not a cathedral.   I remember one dark night when the place was an empty shell meeting with electrician Jonathan Mounsey and the Restoration Man film crew to see what might work.   The results were not encouraging and the footage never saw the light of day.

In the short time since then lighting has come on leaps and bounds.

Here is how that part of the tower looks now.

click to enlarge

All of the lights are LEDs except the chandeliers which are low energy last generation bulbs.   Another chandelier is behind the camera.   All told a huge amount of light for peanuts.   The table lights with their greenish white glow, the chandeliers and the  lights between the beams are separately switched so you can mix 'n' match.

This is a wet and windy night in Settle but we are cosy and beautifully lit, I hope you will agree.

Oh, and just a reminder of how it was:

Melissa Mayne

I know that Restoration Man producer Melissa Mayne follows this Blog.   Melissa, you may not be a Twitter person but the following may amuse you in the context of Jeremy Clarkson:

1. George Clarke ‏@MrGeorgeClarke  12h12 hours ago

   On my way to Margate for filming today...myself and the producer have planned our "fracas" on the beach! @GCAmazingSpaces

   • RETWEETS41
   • FAVORITES96
   • 

   8:10 AM - 12 Mar 2015 · Details
2. Mark Rand ‏@follyatsettle  12h12 hours agoNorth West, England

   @MrGeorgeClarke @GCAmazingSpaces If it was Melissa, she'd win! Take care.

   0 replies0 retweets0 favorites
3. George Clarke ‏@MrGeorgeClarke  11h11 hours ago

   @follyatsettle I don't doubt that! I hope you're well

   0 replies0 retweets0 favorites

New Neighbours on The Sidings

To the south of the water tower is a light industrial estate, built on the former railway sidings associated with Settle station.   The industrial estate was built around 1984 when the Settle-Carlisle railway was expected to close for ever.   Seemed like a good idea at the time but the reprieve of the railway from closure in 1989 made a nonsense of it.

The industrial units are still here and some flourishing and varied businesses operate from them.   Had things been otherwise The Sidings would have made an exceedingly useful car and coach park for the railway.

Recent happenings, not least our Water Tower's restoration and adaptation to residential use, are changing the nature of this end of The Sidings.   The process continues with the building of an apartment block on the Sidings embankment adjacent to us:

click to enlarge

Trees presently cover much of the site and these are to be removed on Friday.

The design is imaginative, making best use of a seemingly impossible site.   It respects the railway location, is to be made of stone with a slate roof.   Windows and doors must be painted in Midland Railway colours.

Here is the site at present - none too lovely but full of promise:

Our solar panels on the navvy hut (left) will benefit greatly from the removal of those trees.

Shades of Grey

Pat has got a new car.

Just as much fun as her old one but a bit darker grey:

Looking at the new one's number plate I wonder if it will be called Pixie?

Pixie's roof folds down at the touch of a button.

Pat has thought of another number-plate based name but it is far too rude to repeat.

A Lazy Sunset After the Snow

 There was a time when you could not take photographs like these.   The snowstorm ended and the sun struggled through.

 click to enlarge

I thought I should go outside and give my new camera a try.   Network Rail have brought their snow plan into action over the Settle-Carlisle line.   Just mean the trains go a bit slower, that's all.

Wintry Showers on High Ground

Heavy snow this afternoon.

click to enlarge the snowflakes

 The summer house takes on a bit of a Swiss Chalet look.   Seriously big snowflakes.   Proper snow.

Oh no, not that old picture again.

If this was London they'd be declaring a national emergency.

I'm taking a group on the train to Carlisle tomorrow.   They should be in for a treat.

Pen y Ghent Spectacular

   This part of the world is so stunningly beautiful I could let the scenery run away with me and forget the water tower.   Even so, I could not resist this one from Paul Jackson's emerging website.
https://jacksoninribblesdale.wordpress.com/
Paul used to edit The Dalesman magazine.

Pen y Ghent from Horton in Ribblesdale
Click to enlarge (recommended)

Seasonal and spectacular, Pen y Ghent occupies the skyline from our summerhouse and from the top of the tower.