We've Moved!

 A lot of thought went into the design of our new extension (Terminal 2) on this challenging sloping site.  Among the reasons for doing it at all were:

1.  More bedrooms to enable family visits

1a. To create a retreat to make family visits even more enjoyable all round . . .

2.  To make use of an ungardenably steep slope

3.  To create a level, self contained suite of rooms should old age or disability arise

4.  To make use of modern efficiencies and so reduce our carbon footprint

5.  To add back-up to our reliance on gas for heating

6.  To invest in property in an era of sinking interest rates and economic uncertainties

7.  Should circumstances change, to have a workable 'retirement home' on site, with potential for resident carers

8.  For the challenge and satisfaction of doing a project from the ground-up

There are probably more.

Well, as the very final bits and bobs are happening* fate has intervened and forced us out of the tower and into Terminal 2.  The gas central heating has failed.  These things always happen to us at Christmas.  The Worcester Bosch nearly new boiler was overdue its first service and we have been on JD Mounsey's service list for weeks.  Our fault.  Man coming on Saturday to service and fix it hopefully.

Sooo, sooner than intended, we have done the obvious thing and moved in to Terminal 3 for now.

* An example of a bit and a bob is the second-fix connection of an outside light by the kitchen / fire-escape door, done today:

The wires had always been there but the actual fitting had to await the cladding panels.  The illuminated windows are from the kitchen, treated with sky-blue blinds.  Besides making the kitchen distinctly warmer they work well from inside - as you will I hope agree from the images which follow:

Cosy eh? 

Above- slightly cosier when the LED 'sky lights' are turned off

Farewell 2020

 

Little to show for it but I have actually been making great progress with the cladding panels, doing preparatory things which should ensure that the final results will pass inspection.   The severe frosts have been irksome though but the winter sunshine has been welcome.  I know you've seen all this before on this Blog but yesterday afternoon's sunlight was just perfect to get this glowing picture of the tower's west side.

2020 has been horrible for everybody but we've made it.  Among the Christmas cards was one of those letters from officialdom that rarely bring good or interesting news.  It was from surgeon Chris Newman to tell me that he had the results of a recent CT scan and blood tests which showed I was cancer free five-years-on from the operation that he couldn't personally do as he had a fallen off his bike!  Nonetheless he had been in charge of my ongoing monitoring

Glad to see the back of 2020 but glad to have seen it at all.   Actually looking forward to 2021.

South Wall Cladding Beginning to Look Good

 Since the arrival of the final pieces of cladding the weather has been pretty awful with rain, extreme cold and high winds - not ideal.

Today though, Christmas Eve, has been bright, cold and calm enough to position the two lower panels either side of the kitchen outer door.  This is how it looked before:

The panels to be fitted are C2 and C3.  Why those panels first?  They and the lower panels alongside doors and windows have to fit the door and window frames precisely both vertically and horizontally.  The final positioning and spacing of the upper row of parapet panels can then match up precisely too.

Before the panels go on I go over the black Tyvek waterproof membrane seeing to any tears or fixing damage.  I mention this for your amusement and to reassure architect Stuart Green whose reputation hangs by quite a public thread here.  And I know he will come along and inspect!

Ignore the uneven gaps which will be sorted out in the final phase.

Christmas Comes Early and a Lovely Screenshot

Well Christmas this year is going to be different for everyone.  No family get-togethers, social distancing and lots of Zooming this year.  Hopefully Christmas 2021 will be back to normal?

Always one to adapt and to get things right our darling daughter Lorna brought Christmas to our doorstep this morning in the form of a bang-on-time delivery man bearing a wonderful and necessarily early gift for her lonely parents - Christmas Dinner in a huge and heavy box:

Impressively insulated and beautifully packed was absolutely everything - ready cooked!

We quickly stashed it all  away to the freezer drawer in the Fisher and Paykell BAAF*.  We shall report on or soon after Christmas Day but it is already clear that we shall eat well at New Year and possibly Easter too!

*BAAF, for new viewers, Big Arsed American Fridge.

For a while now, in my capacity as FoSCL's media contact, I have been doing what I can to help a DVD production company with a new DVD about the Settle-Carlisle Railway.  Yesterday the finished item arrived in the post so I settled down to view it on the BA75"TV (work it out for yourself) - all 1 hour 48 minutes of it.  It is superb and will be a great addition to the dozens of S&C DVDs which have already been done of course.   It reveals for the first time film of the line taken during the 1980s when closure threatened and besides showing that old film it explains matters S&C in a better way than I have ever seen before.  That's fine of course but imagine my surprise and delight when the southbound story got to the end and this appeared among the credits:

Chuffed to bits doesn't cover it!!

Final Panels Delivered

 They're here!   Delayed on several counts, not least having been stove enamel painted the wrong colour by sub-contractors.  To be fair, they have worked overnight to correct it and first thing this morning the first of two final deliveries arrived, in pouring rain.  The remainder later today.

We have in fact been lucky to get them done by the splendid Burnley Central Sheet Metals Ltd. 

Central Sheet Metals

They were able to squeeze them in between urgent COVID related orders.  The latest is for hundreds or thousands of cubicles for patients getting COVID vaccinations - starting yesterday!

 

The plan now is to hoist the final top row onto the flat roof directly behind their eventual parapet locations.   The lower panels will be stacked at ground level.

That way the panels can be fitted gradually and accurately as the day-by-day weather conditions allow.

Snow Lines

This stunning photograph appeared on Facebook today:

 

I thought it was far too good not to share it on Facebook and to Tweet it on Twitter which I duly did, entitling it 'Snow Lines'.  A bit of a play on words as the image showed two snow lines - the most obvious was the meteorological snowline - the line between the snow on the mountain and the green valley below.  The other snow line is of course the railway line snaking across the Ribblehead viaduct.

No sooner had I relayed the image my iPhone started to beep almost constantly as perhaps hundreds of people either liked or shared it.  I had done the proper thing and credited it to The Yorkshireman.  I still do not know the name of the photographer but would dearly like to know.

The picture has provoked a good deal of online comment and discussion.

As first glance it gives the impression of being an aerial photograph from an aircraft or a drone but hang on - the is snow in the close-up foreground.  The sun is to the right and we are high up on or near the top of Whernside looking almost south towards Pen y Ghent - the southernmost of the Three Peaks.  Ingleborough is out of shot to the right.  We are looking at the outer curve of the Ribblehead viaduct with scaffolding around the middle piers.  The Station Inn and Ribblehead station are just below centre.  To their right is the crater of the former Ribblehead quarry.

Three Nice Piccies - and a 'Well Known Person'?

 

 

I love this one showing a Virgin West Coast diverted train crossing Arten Gill viaduct.  Nowadays they prefer to bustitute people down the M6.  Madness.

And here are a couple of our magnificent neighbour Pen y Ghent in the recent snow

How lucky are we?

I might have arrived on God's Earth.  Network Rail have asked me as a 'well known person' to contribute a short bit of  internal video aimed at NR workers who will be working over Christmas.  They have to put up with a good deal of abuse when the railways are only able to run a limited service because of engineering works.  Here, filmed by expert cameraman Mike Farrington is my effort.  Michael Portillo has also been asked so I expect I shall end up on the cutting room floor but anyway - 

That may well not work, in which case you are lucky.

Well I didn't quite end up on the cutting room floor:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1342022633513242624

Gaskets and the Telegraph Front Page

 Our useful but old and small diesel tractor decided last winter it was not going to start.  I have just got round to tackling the problem which involved dismantling much of the engine, requiring a new cylinder head gasket.   Problem is that nobody stocks them anymore.  To the rescue though came Dobson's gaskets of Keighley who made on, which was delivered by hand yesterday:

Impressed eh?  I knew you would be.

We had snow yesterday and Thursday, to the newsworthy extent that this super picture of that viaduct  was the front page lead in the Daily Torygraph:

Working From Home with Zoom

 Our darling high powered lawyer daughter Lorna seems to spend much of her time in high powered international Zoom meetings.  Me too increasingly.  There the similarity ends though.  She is a real one for keeping up professional appearances but I just don't bother, appearance-wise.   Here she is in Zoom mode.

- in 'her' colours of green and blue.  

But all is not quite as it seems lower down:

Beautiful and sensible eh?

Talking of beautiful things, here are a couple of Yorkshire Dales pictures on Facebook this week:

There can't be many better views from a railway station platform than this of Dentdale from Dent station - now owned by The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line too!

And below is Littondale: