A Stove on the Roof

No, we haven't elected a Pope.   This is the chimney of our newly fitted roof room stove on its first day of action.   It is deliberately set back far from the edge of the roof room roof so that it is invisible from many perspectives of the tower from ground level.

 And here is the very neatly installed stove and inner flue pipe.   HETAS installer Richard McGeoch fitted it in full accordance with building regulations.   As Settle's former fire chief he has knowledge of the consequences of badly fitted stoves.   The embarrassment quotient if our roof room caught fire would be high.

 The stove is small - just 4kw but it heats the otherwise cold roof room magnificently.   We knew it would from experience of these little stoves on canal boats.   We have found we have had to open all doors and windows on canal boats in the bitterest of winter weather so knew it would deal with the roof room.   Besides that, 4kw is the maximum output you can have without recourse to fixed ventilation to feed the fire.

Today has been dull and dry but when it blows and snows this will make the roof room really cosy.

The water tower has been designed to be as green as an old building can be - rainwater harvesting, high insulation, solar panels, heat recovery ventilation and so on.   All that gives a certain satisfaction that we are doing our bit for the planet.   Why then the solid fuel stove?   Besides being psychologically warmer than the electric devices that have heated the roof room so far (some days assisted by the sun when shining) the roof room is very cold in winter, perched on top of a tower and heavily insulated from the floors below it.

The solid fuel stove also makes us reasonably independent, in extremis, from the politics of energy.   Unlikely but possible the Russians COULD turn off the gas.   The electricity supply is vulnerable short term to outages and longer term to rationing.   Then where would we be?   Cold in winter!   Everybody should think about alternative sources of energy - heating especially.

A Super Video

Sound on and see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCfH6dwbogU

for a super video of the Cathedrals Express going through Settle late yesterday morning hauled by the locomotive Galatea.   By the looks of it the film was taken from the top of Castlebergh.

Our water tower appears about 1 minute in to the video and you can see that we get quite a grandstand view of the trains.

The video also shows very well how the railway marched mercilessly through Settle when built.   Not all the citizens of Settle approved - a stance still taken by some today!

The engine sounds to be pulling well on the uphill gradient but it still has about 14 miles of 1 in 100 to go before Blea Moor.   I understand that when passing Selside (about half way up the hill) it was struggling.

Here is the same train, same day - just a bit closer-up!  :

Somehow today's tin box apologies for trains don't quite have it do they? 

Trainloads of Talent

I took grandson Ben (5) on the 1146 today.   He told me afterwards that going on trains with his grandpa was his favourite thing.   Isn't that nice?

One of the joys of being a volunteer On-Train Guide is the opportunity to meet interesting people.   Today was no exception.

On the northbound train was Prof Paul Salveson.
Besides being a very bright guy, Paul is a thoroughly good chap, as this picture testifies.   He is a walking encyclopaedia on railways.

Then, on the return train was Dr Ian Dewhirst.

Ian is one of the most modest and unassuming of people yet stick him behind a lectern or behind a microphone and he undergoes a metamorphosis.   A historian, he has the ability to make the past come alive.

Not just that he is a Yorkshire icon - to the extent that he has a Northern train named after him!

Here is Ian at the naming of 'his' train.   This honour is not  easily won, especially if you are still alive!   Among other names we regularly see on trains passing through Settle are Barbara Castle and Freddie Truman.

He was returning home from lecturing in Scotland.  I asked Ian if he had checked out the train at Carlisle to see if his name was on the side of it.   He hadn't, which did not surprise me.

Whoosh - the Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express

Late yesterday afternoon, Settle station almost deserted:

The Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express at Settle

The nation's appetite for steam seems insatiable.

In passing, during the horrendous flooding, storms and hurricane force winds the S&C has run almost like clockwork.   At times it has been the only available rail route between England and Scotland.   WHAT a good job it wasn't closed.

If you are going from Leeds to Glasgow the S&C:
- is as quick as the East or West Coast routes, sometimes quicker
- is 60 % cheaper (Which? magazine, January 2014)
- is spectacular
- is not prone to overhead wires getting tied up in knots
- and doesn't flood

What more could anybody want?

How odd then that the National Rail Enquiry website does not offer it as an option - until you dig deeper and ask it to show 'slower trains and alternative routes'.

Spread the word they still don't want you to hear.

Surrounded by Wow Sound

We've done it.   Fitted a surround sound system in our main room - with some difficulty!

We had been wired for speakers but the wires led to a cupboard downstairs.   Yet the box of tricks, a Yamaha 3066 if you revel in such detail, has a display on the front which gives important information so you need to be able to see it.

Also the Infra Red remote technology would not work for us.

The same cupboard was where our satellite aerial leads ended so we were satellite-less where we needed it.

I reverted to low technology and have run wires from the cupboard downstairs to the TV etc upstairs.   You live and learn.

Anyway, everything now works.

That cannot be said for the LED light bulbs, which continue to fail (two in the past week).   Like many people who have fallen for the LED sales pitch I have a box full of halogen bulbs and propose to fit them as the LEDs fail.   It will be cheaper by far.    The LEDs that keep failing are Kosnic 5W GU10s.   They cost £9.60 each and have a claimed life of 30,000 hours.   Mmmmmm.

Winter Steam

People are often surprised to hear that steam trains run over the Settle-Carlisle route in winter too:

The winter Cumbrian Mountain Express goes from London Euston to Carlisle and back.   Details at
http://www.railwaytouring.net/uk-day-trips/winter-cumbrian-mountain-express-2
The S&C can be fickle in winter.   Some days you cannot see a thing but more often than not, it is glorious.

White, one Sugar

The Settle-Carlisle's trolley service is first class - but they cannot cover every single train.   It is especially appreciated by train crews so it is really missed when it is not there.   It is a long way from Leeds to Carlisle and back.

Yesterday, an enterprising train conductor used Facebook to contact Paul Brown at Settle Station explaining that there was no trolley on his train and he and the driver were both gasping.   More in hope than expectation he even specified how they liked their coffees.   Cheek and enterprise were rewarded when the train got to Settle thanks to Paul the station supremo and Stephen the trolley supervisor.