The Shankly and Gdynia Railway

[IanAlan]

Football Fans and Forest


Dazzling Diesels


Sunday Afternoon with Shankly Reds


The diesels haven't been weathered, so they are indeed dazzling. When my son was a little boy, the first ever book he loved was called Dazzling Diggers, which I used to read him every evening with very expressive zroom, zroom effects. Happy days. The book is still on my daughter's bookshelf. A classic.

[IanAlan]

Shankly Gerrard Street


Coaling Tower at Shankly Sheds


Looking Towards Gdynia Docks


I did have a photo session a few days ago with the new industrial building placed on the layout, and the photos weren't bad. But since then I've pushed on with the small bases that go with the building and I think I'll wait until they are finished before Uploading any photos. That way, everything can sit correctly in the landscape. I hope that the final result will be worth all this suspense.

[IanAlan]

Thank you Pierluk, I'm glad you like it. I've put a lot of TLC into it. And here's a few random photos.

[IanAlan]

Hi everyone,
Four weeks ago I said that I hoped to get my industrial revolution scene onto the layout in a fortnight. So I'm only 100% over the deadline. On the positive side, I'm not a penny over budget. The model is the Wills Kits water mill and sluice gates (Craftsman Kit). I actually got it for Christmas 2017, so it really has been a long time coming. Neither the building or the scene are finished, but they're good enough to get onto the layout. The building needs a chimney, drainpipes and guttering. The landscape needs some PVA to create a more watery effect. And then a bit of touching up the paint. Here are the photos and you decide if it was worth the wait.











The light had faded when I took these photos, so they are a little more grainy than I would have liked. I'm calling the mill Arkwright's Mill after Richard Arkwright who built the first water-powered factory in Cromford, Derbyshire and ushered in the industrial revolution. I studied this for O-level history back in the 1970s and, what do you know, my wife booked us a lockdown holiday cottage in Cromford this summer, so I was well pleased to take a look. My wife's inspiration was from Bill Bryson's book More Notes from a Small Island. Bryson points out that Arkwright was a cruel taskmaster and employed orphaned children, but I'll name the mill after him - warts and all.

[Chops]

Impressive scene, and the water gate looks smashing. Bryson one of my very favorite authors. So this would be a
new book, More Notes... I shall have to find it. His small volume on Shakespeare was illuminating and fascinating,
and I’m too much of a low brow to keenly appreciate the great man, but Bryson cracked that acorn for me.

Studying these images, I am again impressed with the ingenious use of space- looks to be three lines traversing
the area, and it does not appear quashed, but rather well planned out- a mixture of relative modernity
butressing an ancient world, mill e.g.

[IanAlan]

Hi Chops,
Thanks for your supportive words. They are always appreciated. Regarding Bill Bryson, yes, you are right about More Notes from a Small Island being quite recent. I think he wrote it in about 2017. Bryson is sometime hilarious, sometimes infuriating, sometimes both at the same time. A good example of this is his anecdote about going into Marks and Spencer's. I won't spoil it for you. The book is certainly worth a read.

You mention the mixture of old and new on my layout. I should have mentioned yesterday that the real Cromford Mill is now a heritage centre, so mixing it up with modern diesel locomotives and cars isn't illogical. Even the horse-drawn cart fits the 'theme park' style of bringing contemporary heritage museums to life. Sadly, when I was there, nobody was allowed into the mill buildings because of the pandemic restrictions, but we were able to wonder around in the large courtyard and watch the water gushing through the water mills (and use the very high-class toilets).









I had a little running locomotives session this afternoon and took some more photos. Again I left it rather late in the day and paid the price with poor lighting.

[IanAlan]

Hi Everyone,
Last weekend I tried to have a nice train running session, but the locomotives weren't running well, so I cleaned the track even though I had done this only about a month previously. This didn't make much difference, so I decided to clean the locomotives as well. I dusted, cleaned the wheels with IPA and oiled seven of them. Then I gave them the standard 30 minutes running without any wagons or coaches as per new locomotives. Marvellous. It worked a treat. Since then, I've been busy playing trains, so I haven't managed to take any new photos. Hence, I'm uploading some from my pre-cleaning photo sessions. I haven't counted how many locomotives I own (or how many I've got which belong to My Friend Stan), but I'll have to work my way through servicing the lot. A bit of a tiresome job but well worth the effort.

Arkwright's Mill Heritage Museum

[JimRead]

Hello Ian,

Lovely railway you've got there fair play to you for putting all that effort into it.

I see you went to Cromford not far from us, Scarthin bookshop is one of our favourites. I wonder if you don't my asking did you get to Lumsdale? Interesting 17th C. watermills and some lovely falls.

Cheers - Jim

[IanAlan]

Hi Jim,
Sorry for the delay in writing back and many thanks for your supportive remarks. It's a labour of love although there are a few model railway jobs that are chores to be got through such as cleaning track and putting 'glass' (transparent plastic) into the windows of model buildings. But mostly I enjoy it.

Regarding Cromford, you mention Scarthin bookshop. Is that the one that overlooks the pond? We didn't go in on account of the virus, but I would have loved to. We stayed in a house that overlooked the pond with a view of the water wheel - inspiration to get my water mill model finished. Very pretty. We didn't go to Lumsdale, but we did visit Chatsworth House (the grounds, not inside the house). We also drove further north to do a real walk out in the wilds to Kinder Scout - a round trip of eight hours on foot. I especially liked this as I had read in the National Trust magazine about the mass trespass of 1932 that paved the way for public access to this and many other wild places. I was well beat after that.

What I noticed about the Peak District was the stone buildings. Obviously, it's very hilly as well, but I was expecting that. Here in Essex, traditional buildings are brick, so I enjoyed the look of the place, especially the mossy patina that the stone acquires in the very wet conditions. Fond memories.

Here are some photos of the newly cleaned locomotives in action.

The Flying Scotsman is Coming to Town


In Your Face


Snaking through the Landscape


James Bond

[JimRead]

Hello Ian

Shame about the virus and the bookshop, it's a real rabbit warren of a place. We moved to an old mining village to the east of Cromford very friendly people there, three cars at the T junction is a traffic jam.

If you go again the stone centre up the hill from Cromford near Wirksworth is a very interesting place examples of stone walls from all over the UK to look at.

Nice clean locos in the pics and I like the Flying Scotsman they soon buried the tale of the GWR Castle doing London to York 20 minutes faster and the FS limping along the London to Exeter line and was quite late. Mr Collett knew that short wheelbase bicycles could accelerate fast.

Cheers - J