Rooftop Gardens Revamped

The insides of the water tank have been problematic from the start. What colour should they be? What is the best use for the sunken parts to the east side which were a planning requirement to deter us from overlooking the neighbouring gardens?

On the matter of colour we have tried dark green, which looked er, dark. Then rust red which looked er, rusty. Daughter Lorna has better taste than at least one of her parents so she was consulted about colour - room by room and the inside of the tank. Her recommendations were accepted in full, in accordance with family tradition and bitter experience. The actual colour changes are being adopted from the top down, starting with the insides of the tank - which are now light grey - and by Jove it works. I hope you agree:

Concorde Over Ribblehead

This remarkable photograph is circulating on social media. It is in fact a lenticular Helm cloud in the uncanny shape of a Concorde aircraft with the Ribblehead viaduct in the background. There has been a spate of these clouds in this area in the last day or so. They are particularly likely in this part of Cumbria and North Yorkshire, especially when there is a north easterly wind, known as the Helm Wind.

Our Liftshaft - Quite a Test of Vision

From the ground floor the view up our lift shaft is quite impressive but intimidatingly boring perhaps:



To add interest to the journey we have stuck a little conversation piece to the inside top of the shaft:

A Staggeringly Beautiful Landscape

Our (FoSCL's) four web cameras along the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle line display live images worldwide and among the most popular cameras is the one that overlooks the Ribblehead Viaduct, mounted on the Stationmaster's House at Ribblehead station. Not just live pictures but hourly stills too, plus the motion activated pictures as trains pass. Railcam's dedicated volunteers weed these images to avoid a build-up of repetitive monotony but they leave for posterity the more interesting ones.

I have just stumbled across this amazing image from late March this year which escaped my notice at the time:



click to enlarge

It well illustrates the way the weather can change, for better or worse, in the high Pennines. And for comparison:

Tornado Shows the Way

Fresh from its 101.6 mph fling on the East Coast Main Line Tornado powered uphill through Settle this morning with a Leicester - Carlisle special train.



Of course, the camera freezes the action but the sight, sound, smell and ground-shaking presence of Tornado at full throttle are impressive indeed.

And just minutes later at Horton-in-Ribblesdale:



The Web camera takes far better pictures than I do but sometimes the motion sensor web cam trigger catches a load of steam, as at Ribblehead:

How to use a Shunting Hook

Many moons ago former Carlisle steam engine driver Ian Graham presented us with a shunting pole which now has pride of place in our entrance hall, along with an increasing collection of railwayana.

Ever since I have wondered how it was used to link the very heavy chain links between the draw hooks on the wagons. Today presented an opportunity to find out in the form of ex railway track engineer Dave Winstanley from Liverpool:

As it happened, friend and local character Steve (Scouse) Roberts was here and he and Dave Winstanley spent a long time telling the tale about Liverpool. Inevitably, Steve had to have a go:

The trick is to get a swing going on the three links and let their momentum do the work, with guidance rather than lift from the shunting hook. Experienced shunters could do the job with the merest flick.

The design of the shunting hook dates from the very earliest days of railways and did not change.

The Tractor Works

Easter, and the family are here.   A chance to test the now (almost) restored tractor.   Over the winter it has had new brakes and new steering, both items essential for the conveyance of daughter and grandson 2, sitting on garden chairs in the trailer for test purposes.   Older grandson 1 couldn't quite find the time.

Here you see a happy grandpa at the end of a successful test run.   Further work needed on the passenger seating arrangements.

 click to enlarge

Details of fashionable headgear available on request.

For avoidance of doubt we only went round the station car park.     The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, as amended were stretched a bit.

Grandson Ben, seen dismounting the trainer, appeared underwhelmed but his mother was well and truly whelmed.   So too her Dad(dy).