Super Steam

We have been blessed with some magnificent steam locomotives flying past in recent days click any pic to enlarge:

Union of South Africa, alias Number Nine on what may be one of her last main line runs before her boiler ticket runs out

British India Line alias Bil seen here at Kirkby Stephen on a round Britain tour

Princess Elizabeth alias Lizzie heading last Tuesday's weekly Dalesman sadly caused a lot of delay on the S&C when a points problem at Hellifield meant she could not enter the down loop so she blocked the down main line whilst taking on water, meaning the service train could not pass.  This situation got worse approaching Appleby when that water supply ran dangerously low.  If this cannot be remedied quickly the only answer is to drop the fire onto the track if a boiler explosion is to be avoided.  In the end she was allowed to run onto the up main line to take on water from the up-line-only water supply at Appleby, causing further delay.

What a Day the First of May

The re-landscaping of the south end embankment and the dire and dangerous state of the small wooden terrace by the summer house meant a re-think of that little area.   Ideally the platform needed replacing and some properly made railings put in place.

The rotten wooden platform deck was soon swept away leaving us with a need for some stylish and functional railings if it was to be reinstated.  I turned to the place where anybody who has a rather specific needs turn these days - EBay.

Lo and behold these turned up in Blackpool:

They were described as brand new, galvanised and powder coated and were precisely the length I needed - 3.4m.  Bids were invited from £50 so I put in a bid of £50, fully expecting it to be soundly beaten but no. I won them.

That unexpected result meant we would have to go to Blackpool (an hour or so's drive) and collect them from an industrial estate near to the airport.

Our newly acquired Mitsubishi Shogun and the huge trailer I made from a caravan chassis would be called upon for their first major test - and mine for driving an automatic. I used the Yanmar diesel tractor to manoeuvre the trailer into the station car park, the hard way via the station drive zig-zag entrance. Both vehicles had stood largely unused throughout the past year.

Everything worked perfectly and what a bargain those railings turned out to be. Seems they had been made to order but the client had had a change of mind, preferring twisted uprights to straight ones - that's Blackpool for you I guess. Anyway we got £1,200's worth of brand new railings for just £50!  The makers were lovely people and were glad to see them go to a good home despite their loss.

All told a delightful May Day thanks to two astonishing EBay bargains (the tractor and the railings), the powerful and luxurious Shogun and the home-made trailer I knew would come in handy one day. Oh yes, and a take-away lunch from Greggs at Salmesbury (don't knock it until you have tried it).

The grand finale was a text-book 'push-reverse' operation with the little tractor to get the enormous trailer and load back into the water tower yard - in the critical gaze of a a coach load of passengers waiting at the station for their coach from Carlisle. Two of them gave us a welcome shove when the tractor's back wheels lost grip in the yard's gravel. Think of those tugs that turn huge aircraft in tight spaces at airports - same sort of process.

Today has been a major milestone of post-broken-neck achievement.

We Are Under Way with the Build

From Tuesday last things really started to happen with a 3.5 ton JCB excavating as necessary for foundations for the extension. The steeply sloping site has meant that a great deal of thought and calculation has had to go on beforehand. The finished floor level (FFL) is somewhere near half way up the embankment and the actual foundations are something like 1200mm below that so a lot of earth and boulder clay has had to be moved, mostly to be re-located on site.

In just four days most of the digging has been done. The pictures do not reflect the magnitude of the task.

Below is our existing summer house, with its balcony removed and sitting rather high and dry. Below is the temporary digger access road, which may remain as part of the eventual landscaping, this going a long way to taming the formerly ungardenable slope:

The Sidings entrance area has become a temporary store for some topsoil and a huge number of glacial boulders which will be incorporated into the slope as has been done with success at the north end of the site.

Ground conditions are exactly as had been predicted with lots of good but previously unused topsoil below which is heavy boulder clay.

The extent to which the steep embankment has been tamed is seen below:

Journalists Visit Tower

In glorious sunshine yesterday we hosted a group of visiting journalists who were doing features on Settle.   Their first port of call was the water tower.

Here we are with two of the group.   The leafless trees confirm the time of year.

Steamy Saturday in Settle

What a steam-fest there was here on Saturday.   Three steam trains charging through Settle during the day.   First came a  double-headed 'The Citadel' at 1043 heading north, seen here at Ribblehead:

Not long afterwards came Tornado with The Border Raider, seen here at Carlisle setting off for her return south via Settle:

It's Out

See the current issue of RAIL, on sale now, for an (ahem) exceeding well written fifteen page feature to mark the 30th anniversary today of the saving of the Settle-Carlisle line from closure. Hurry while stocks last. Thank you Michael Portillo and many others.

Two New Pictures

A couple of novel views of the water tower posted on Facebook by one of the local holiday cottages: