POTUS* has Passed His Driving Test

Throughout July and August every year Settle's now famous Flower Pot Festival is held.   Flower pot creations of increasing size, complexity and novelty appear throughout those two months.

Our contribution has been modest and unchanging in the form of a stupid looking f,p,m. with very artificial hair called POTUS*   POTUS* took part in the very fist F.P.F. years ago.   He was what marketing people call an 'early adopter' so was rather small and comparatively unimaginative.

He has variously appeared on top of the water crane, on the tower's top railings and on varying steps of the Hairy Scary Ladder.   In fact, if you look carefully at the header picture of this Blog you will find him.

This year I have had the Hard-Word about climbing ladders and such so a more down-to-earth location was called for.   I discussed this with POTUS* who suggested that he might look good and suitably daft if sat on the driving seat of the little tractor.   So here he is:

 Click to enlarge

* POTUS  -  President Of The United States

Filming Again

Busy day yesterday filming for a series on Railway Architecture.   The sun shone on the righteous on this occasion.

Presenter Tim Dunn surprised us and himself when it turned out he had grown up in Gerrards Cross and had been to Dr Challoners Grammar School, just like our grandson James.

We had decided to give Gladys a run out at lunchtime - her first proper run for two years.  Common sense prevailed and we restricted ourselves with a run to Booths supermarket in Settle to get some lunch for the film crew and ourselves.  Gladys behaved impeccably and even posed for a picture back at the station.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-JxKMyWkAAsI9E.jpg

It looks as though the radiator is leaking but it is simply overflowing on a hot day,  Fear not.

And to keep a promise, here is the re-bodied wheel-barrow - 

I knew you'd be impressed.

Gladys Bulled Up

This was Gladys Emmanuel with a good coat of dust on first exit from her garage:

During the last couple of days since Gladys Emmanuel was started for the first time in a couple of years I have given the old girl some t.l.c. and here she is:

Taking bull to extremes this is the back axle.  The shiniest in Settle I bet.

I have decided against slavishly polishing the brass, spraying it with WD40 instead.  This gives it a brassy glow without the hassle.  If ever it is required for some posh do or other the brass can always  be polished again.

Tomorrow we are filming again in the morning - for a TV programme about railway architecture.  Not too many water towers survived the post-steam cull and ours is one, we are proud to say.   They've been at Ribblehead today in glorious sunshine which promises to be with us tomorrow.   Might just tempt Gladys out for a picnic or pub lunch - and Pat of course.

A Day of Wheels

Three wheeled-vehicles have featured in my life today.

1.  My Karcher pressure washer.   Well, it does have two wheels.  I had a couple of joyful hours pressure washing the lorry turning-circle at the end of The Sidings as our concrete lorry had left abundant evidence on the road from yesterday's operations in the form of tyre tracks and extravagantly large builders' footprints.   Anyway I got carried away and 'did' the double yellow lines too.   When clearing up I just could not resist this picture of the Karcher just shouting out for a parking ticket:

2.  My beloved three wheeled truck.   I have posted about this ad nauseam.   The 'search' facility will get you there if you are a sad person who should get out more.  I have been trying for ages to appoint it with a Geest badge on the engine cowling but have drawn a blank.  But I was recently sent a copy of a Geest catalogue with the once familiar Geest logo on it.   This was painstakingly copied by Nigel Robinson at iPrint across the road and he produced a set of vinyl logos.   I found a piece of galvanised steel on which to stick one of them and here it is on the front of the Geest truck, below the tongue-in-cheek 4 x 4 badge:

3.  Finally, it's back to just one wheel - a wheelbarrow actually but the poor thing has been in the wars rather.   It may have had a coming-together with a digger or such when we were doing our original tower work.  It is very bent but being a hoarder I have kept it, perhaps hoping it would get better.   I had wondered about putting it on Settle Sell & Buy on a 'no-reasonable-offer-refused' basis.   Having done a risk assessment and method statement I decided to repair it so have bought a new body for it.  It may be fitted tomorrow and you shall learn of it, of course.

Concrete Foundations Poured

The weather Gods were kind to us yesterday as we poured six massive concrete foundation blocks.  Thundery showers were forecast but Settle dodged them.

Click pics. to enlarge - well worth it.

It may not look like it but this was a millimetre precise operation.   The perfectly flat surfaces of all six foundations, slightly below surface level, had to be exactly 700mm below the finished floor level (ffl).   There were laser beams and impressive looking instruments all over the place.   These contrasted with the mud and wheelbarrows that were needed to get the concrete to the waiting holes - which first had to be drained of water.

 The welded and galvanised steel uprights and beams are being made offsite right now.

Just for interest here is a drawing which shows the complexity of the steels below the floor.   Almost every support location has a different welded and galvanised connection between the support post and the horizontal steel beams.

Gladys Emmanuel is On The Road Again

For those new to this Blog Gladys Emmanuel of a 105 years old Ford Model T.   I did think a year ago that my Model T Days, or indeed my days of any sort, might be over.   Not so!

Gladys has sat forlornly in her middle bay of our garage hut for nearly two years, gathering dust.   Today I decided to grab Gladys by the headlights and see if she still worked.

Praise be, and without any tinkering beforehand whatever she started 'first pull'.   I was able to reverse her out of the garage and give her a much needed wash:

The brass is dull and I might just leave it that way for a while at least.   

After a wash-and brush-up she started again and I was able to drive her back into the garage - with her hood up too!

I tried out some black (of course) Simoniz polish on one rear wing and that absolutely sparkles:

The curious linear intrusion on both pictures is a leather strap which secures the hood when it is down and resting on its supports at the back of the car.   The red rear lamp is a very modern high intensity bicycle lamp - a sensible and probably illegal addition on a slow moving old girl in today's mad world.

Me? On the Bed? Nooo

Click to make those tell-tale-toes even bigger

Jolly Gardening Weather

Ours is a garden of two halves just now.   One half is the building site, muddy and wet in the extreme.  Here are some of the already dug foundation holes for the piers that will support the extension.   They are 600mm deep and full of water:

But the other half of the garden is spectacularly good.

This clematis is conquering the old iron window frame we removed from the tower long ago.   No clematis would grow up it so I gave up on fancy fussy hybrids and gave 'common-or-garden' a try, with modest success:

I couldn't resist this ?hebe, so densely covered in flowers you can hardly see the leaves.   The bees love it.

Settle in the ?Sixties

Within 100 yards or so of the water tower we have the dentist's, the local DIY shop which has everything and a print shop that does everything.   The last one, is iPrint, the business of Nigel Robinson who is always on the look-out for images etc of the railway coming through his busy workload.  Today he gave me this wonderful picture of Settle in the ?1960s, judging by the few visible parked cars.

The water tower is full of water, the bridge on the top can be seen clearly and is prominent towards the top left.

click to enlarge

There is almost nothing to be seen on the far side of the railway, to its west, apart from Settle Gas Works on the site now occupied by Settle Coal.

Gas Works were smelly things and a good supply of coal was needed to generate it - coal brought in by rail of course.

A Sign of the Times

Way back in May 2018 a lorry reversed into the Settle Station sign - mentioned in this Blog from time to time.

Network Rail took it away but there was no sign (sorry) of a replacement for many weeks, dragging on into months.   Meantime, visiting motorists were seen daily dithering at the station drive, then driving on.

FoSCL took up the matter which seemed to have fallen into an administrative black-hole between train operator Northern and Network Rail.  In the lead-up to the anniversary of the sign's demise we took to social media with daily shaming updates.  On the actual anniversary we gave it both barrels which caused panic activity and the attendance of orange army representatives, diverted from a job at Whitby.  Yes, Whitby.  Northern had declared they had a 'team' working on it and that the original sign had been destroyed so a complete replacement would be needed.

Time went by and D-Day was in the news.  It transpired that D-Day in 1944 had taken less time to plan than the replacement of the Settle station sign in 2018/19.   Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy and Northern MD David Brown, social media followers both, were taking an interest.

The sign was replaced today Wednesday 12th June 2019, and very fine it looks too.   The original sign was recovered, intact but tatty from a Network Rail facility Somewhere in England.  It is now an exhibit in the Settle-Carlisle room at Settle's Folly Museum.

One immediately obvious result of the sign is that the station car park is once again full with paying customers.

Back in late May I took a picture of the empty car park, late morning on a sunny day when it should have been full:

In complete contrast, at the same time on a wet and dismal yesterday morning it was full and overflowing, thanks in large measure to the station sign one supposes.

The loss of fare income and car parking charges to Northern these past 13 months must have far exceeded the cost of the replacement sign.

That Manor Tank Paint

Super picture of the outside of the water tank by nephew and expert photographer David Kay

Click to enlarge

I painted those west facing panels in 2011 and they still look as though they were painted yesterday.

A tribute to Manor Paint of Shipley who worked out the paint system for me - and supplied it free of charge!!

www.manorcoatingsystems.co.uk

I must say that when I was applying the paint I wondered how long it would last before needing re-doing.   On this evidence I reckon I shall not be facing that particular problem any time soon.

Steels

Because our first floor extension has to be built on a steep slope a perfectly level platform must be created on the slope on which to locate the structure.   This has meant some serious excavation and foundations concrete and some serious steel supports.  Here are just some of the drawings!