Kukri
Well-known member
As a little boy I had the huge pleasure of travelling on a train hauled by one of these magnificent beasts between Nairobi and Kisumu:
EAR 59 class - Wikipedia
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- Thread starter Kukri
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As a little boy I had the huge pleasure of travelling on a train hauled by one of these magnificent beasts between Nairobi and Kisumu:
EAR 59 class - Wikipedia
Tradewinds
Well-known member
For quite a few years (until covid and retirement) I produced various souvenir mugs etc for the Longshop Museum (Leiston)
rotrax
Well-known member
When I first bought my house in Belgium it was oil fired, there is a big tank under the sun lounge that fed it, it holds something in the region of 9,000 litres (aprox 2,000 gallons) Filled it once was still a shock to the pocket!
I rented out my house until I was ready to move in but the tenants managed to wreck some of the upstairs, so an insurance claim for the repairs helped me convert from the oil fired heating to gas, still it cost me around €7k for the conversion and replacement of original pipework, gas has been a lot cheaper to run over the years.
What ever the tenants had done they managed to break the outflow waste pipe from the bath and it had flooded the upstairs and it was the drip in the lounge downstairs that alerted us to the problem. The previous owner had a business in decorative ceilings and had used the house to display different types of finish, with the kitchen having a fake wood plank plastic ceiling. The kitchen is 5m x 3.5m with the ceiling being 2.65m from the floor, I removed the edge finishing pieces and got to the last plank to start to take them down one by one, I touched the first plank and a ripple went along the whole ceiling and then a big wave - literally - and the whole ceiling came down as one, and I got washed on to the wall with a flood of water.
The ceiling had been sealed and the water had built up between the bathroom and the kitchen, the floors here are made of concrete beams about 0.5m thick, 1m wide and 4m long with hollow sections running through the length and the water had sat in the hollow sections until I inadvertently released it. Well a few hours work was done in about 2 seconds
I had a ceiling - an old lathe and plaster one - come down on me once.
I was up to my knees in ceiling debris plus I was a dead ringer for the Homepride man..........................
penfold
Well-known member
The lath and plaster is bad enough, but it's the filth that is usually piled on top of it puts the tin lid on the proceedings.I had a ceiling - an old lathe and plaster one - come down on me once.
I was up to my knees in ceiling debris plus I was a dead ringer for the Homepride man..........................
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
In Edinburgh they call it "deafening" and it was traditionally a mixture of ash from coal fires plus any rubble and rubbish the builders had lying around. Quite effective at sound insulation but by golly it's foul stuff when it comes down with a water-logged ceiling. BTDTGTTS.
Alicatt
Well-known member
In my house in Scotland the space between the ceiling below and my floor is filled with at least 30cm of ashes, that house was built in 1853. We had work done on it in 2009 when downstairs had a water leak, the builders replaced the ashes with insulation under our lounge floor.
sgr143
Active member
I'm really enjoying the free-ranging thread drift here. I wonder where it will end up?
Alicatt
Well-known member
Was enjoying seeing Mr Burnham taking his Smugglers Blues 2 back down the Dart and round to Torquay
TwoHooter
Well-known member
I've only just seen this thread. There's plenty of people who like steam and railways so I shouldn't be surprised to find a few on here.
My wife and I built a steam railway and we still live here, we retired from running the business in 2014 which was when we bought our first boat.
The business has survived Lockdowns, just, so will be operating again from April 12th. Please come and ride on the trains, it's going to be a hell of a slog to recover from what's happened.
My wife and I built a steam railway and we still live here, we retired from running the business in 2014 which was when we bought our first boat.
The business has survived Lockdowns, just, so will be operating again from April 12th. Please come and ride on the trains, it's going to be a hell of a slog to recover from what's happened.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Having been to Perrygrove I can recommend it, though in retrospect I wish we'd gone on an enthusiast day rather than general opening. Infinite numbers of children! Am I right in thinking that the Heywood stuff (yours?) is now elsewhere?
TwoHooter
Well-known member
Thanks for the recommendation.
Children are the principal customers for a railway like this, as you would expect. On the big heritage lines the grey market (me!) is equally important.
The Heywood rolling stock was partly owned by James Waterfield (who built all the replicas) and I owned a half share of the historic items. James now owns the entire collection and it is on a private garden railway in Lincolnshire.
For those who wonder what "Heywood" means: Arthur Heywood - Wikipedia
In this video clip is James's replica of Heywood's last engine, Ursula, hauling the genuine saloon carriage from the Duke of Westminster's private railway at Eaton Hall. This carriage had a number of notable passengers at Eaton including royalty and Winston Churchill. I got a phone call one day while I was at work in Birmingham to say that the saloon carriage body was about to go on a bonfire and did I want it? If I did want it I had to get a Hiab lorry there the next day to take it away. I found one!
This clip is from one of the best videos of Perrygrove when it was really a sort of hobby railway, in the days before it had to become totally self-supporting and provide an income for a family with young children and part of the retirement income for my wife and me. Lots of never-to-be-repeated scenes, quite nostalgic really. There are a lot of small railways hanging by a thread at the moment. My advice is that if you have a favourite line, or one you have always wanted to see but never got round to visiting, you should go this summer. You really should. If the vaccines don't work as expected and there is another Lockdown next winter a lot of places will be just rusty rails and weeds this time next year.
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sgr143
Active member
Thanks for this. I'd not heard of Perrygrove before, but it's now on the "should visit" list.
TwoHooter
Well-known member
Just to point out that the videos show the railway during special events - not normal operations when there will be just one or maybe two locos working.
If any forumites are going to come you can PM me and if I'm around I'll say hello. But hopefully I'll be on our boat
girlofwight
Active member
Check! Starting training as a Guard and Platform Foreman (Forewoman?) when we reopen next week.
One of life’s dilemmas - play with trains or play with boats?