The EWR.

[RailwayRobbo]

Very nice. Coal mines need two separate shafts to let the air flow through so placing a smaller shaft somewhere will make it look real. Paint one on the backscenes if needed. That will do the job!

Lots of other equipment such as big pumps and things like that and yes. The area needs to look black. Best way is to paint the board black and sprinkle coal dust and small fragments of coal onto the paint before it dries as the paint will glue the dust onto the board. I learned this trick when I was using foam scatter for grassy areas where I needed to paint to prevent the wooden baseboard colour showing through, and I thought "Why am I waiting for paint to dry and then trying to glue scatter on top when I can do it all in one go as the scatter will stick to the paint".

A few coal mines worked with one shaft being ventilated through underground connections to a nearby colliery.
I started at my local colliery as an apprentice surveyor in 1970. Whitwell colliery in Derbyshire was on the Worksop to Nottingham line (closed to passengers by Beeching but reopened in the late 90s as the Robin Hood Line). The next and last colliery on the line after Whitwell as you approached Worksop was called Steetley. Steetley had one shaft and was ventilated by 2 underground connections. One to Whitwell and another to a colliery called Shireoaks.

[captrees]

Very nice. Coal mines need two separate shafts to let the air flow through so placing a smaller shaft somewhere will make it look real. Paint one on the backscenes if needed. That will do the job!
.

A few coal mines worked with one shaft being ventilated through underground connections to a nearby colliery.
.

I have decided that there must be a shaft through to the limestone quarry then. Will that do?

[Mountain]

A shaft going into an open space where one can see the sky is fine. But do you mean a drift or a tunnel? Drift mines don't neccessarily need headgear but they still need to make sure they have access to a flow of air and a means of draining water.
The earliest coal mines I know of are under neath where I live and these are known as "Cell mines" as one would see a seam and follow it into the ground horizontally and go in a certain way and mine around the seam in a cell like space and come out and find another seam to repeat the process. One could not go in too far incase if flooding or a lack of fresh air to breathe. These mines were around from the 15th centuary onwards in my area because the industrial revolution began early here with an abundance of iron foundaries which made cannon balls and things like that... And they had entirely cleared a very large acerage of woodland right up and down the valley below us which was once known as "Kings Wood" with only a small remnant of this very large wood remains on the side of the mountain near where I live. (Coed Y Marchog and Coed Rheal if I have spelt them right!). When they ran out of wood, they saught to find another fuel which was coal which is what first started the mining off in this area of Wales.
Naturally, when steam pumps came along in a smaller form, it opened up the possibilities to follow coal seams right into the ground so one can pump water out of mines which were not possible to have mined (Prior to this water audits were invented where they would make a tunnel to drainthe water out and near the bottom of the other side of this mountain is "Stanleys Pit" which has a comprehensive water audit system which leads out to the sea. I forgot to mention that audits were invented as an intermediate stage so they could mine but they were still limited until steam pumps came along.
Pit props were vitally important if the terrain is loose such as mining through soil... Anything which is not rock and could therefore collapse, so it was common inthe early days to see tree plantations to supply wood for these props. One such plantation is right next to this house... (The remains of one!) When the mines were nationalized in Britain, so were these plantations whichnis where the Forestry Comission was formed).

Mines are nothing new though. In a rockier area at the end of this mountain was an old Roman mine and they were mining for silica to make their bricks. This mine was later extended many years later to mine for coal. It is surprizing how history repeats itself and how they learned in the past how to do things only to be forgotton and years later they had to learn things all over again!

Limestone. There were limestone quarries near here. One of the nicest quarries I have seen to explore is the middle Carmel quarry (The square that appears on an O.S. map in the upper right hand corner... I think it is sheet 159 of the pink Landranger maps? Carmel is a few miles north of Crosshands...) and there is a walk through the quarry and the scene is breathtaking, and that is just looking at the rock before one follows the track around and up! Then one climbs up to the top of the quarry with views of Carreg Cennan castle in the distance, and then one follows the path past the very narrow pot hole caves (No longer safe to explore as the entrances are too narrow these days) down to mainland Britains only turlough, and back to the small car park area. Is only about a half mile walk but bring suitable footware for it as the quarry floor is usually wet and the path from the top down towards the turlough is a little steep in places... Is well worth a visit though as is an area that one never sees advertized on tourist places to visit and yet is a real "Gem!"

[RailwayRobbo]

Very nice. Coal mines need two separate shafts to let the air flow through so placing a smaller shaft somewhere will make it look real. Paint one on the backscenes if needed. That will do the job!
.

A few coal mines worked with one shaft being ventilated through underground connections to a nearby colliery.
.

I have decided that there must be a shaft through to the limestone quarry then. Will that do?

You could have a surface adit (sometimes called a drift) somewhere off the layout.

[glencairn]

Some interesting reading and photographs of the coal industry and history of Cumbria.

https://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk/a ... ries/coal/

Glencairn

[captrees]

Sorry, should have responded to some of the above, but had various issues' including a laptop meltdown, and both my internet and railway time were non existent for a while. However my still adit-less coalmine has very recently become almost finished enough to take photos of, and I have decided its time to allow visitors into my little shed in the garden.

I have had a few visitors of course, but really I don't know many people who are actually interested. I share Groucho Marx's view on joining clubs too. My interest really has been more of the modelling and historical side of this hobby. My sidings, points, signals etc are not connected to power, and I remain staunchly and simply analogue. However I needed to improve the actual running of the trains too.

I've been blessed with having a well insulated shed/studio in a climate that is not damp, and does not suffer the depredations of insects or rodents, or the accumulation of dust. So I have finally got around to tweaking all the errant fishplates that have slowed the effectiveness of electrical current. I have cleaned the track, using what we termed as India Rubbers when I was at school. And I acquired a Gaugemaster device that cleans all my locomotive wheels in a very short time. And boy what a difference did all that make, after what was effectively 4 or 5 years of neglect. I'm am now proud of how it all runs, non stop of course, being a twin track roundy-round if you want to call it that.

So here are the latest pics of the new extension with scrap yard and little (sorry, still adit-less) coal mine.

[captrees]

Not much activity at the East Westmorland Railway recently, but a couple of changes this week after a random visit to a railway shop. I'm always on the lookout for used 57' Hornby coaches. They are far less likely to derail through my S bend when running them fast. I've only ever seen maroon Stanier coaches in 57, and have accumulated enough to run long express trains. My best engine, a 22yo Princess Elizabeth will tow 8 of these up the Shap Fell gradient, and 13 with the help of a banker.

The long passenger trains of my youth, c1960, were usually a mixture of maroon coaches and red and cream ones. So I was delighted to unearth some 57' red and cream ones at the shop. I couldn't get the entire train in the photo, but above is the result of an 8 carriage mixed train, seen here passing the Lowgill viaduct on its way to Oxenholme.

Another rare find (for Australia) was a Ribble Burlingham Swallow coach. Previous Ribble buses had to be sourced from the UK. The bus is at the bottom of Huck's Brow, heading to Kendal. It seems like the passengers and driver have abandoned it. I might have to work out how to open it up and put little people into it.

[glencairn]

Adding local items like the Ribble bus brings an individuality to the scene created. Well done.

Glencairn

[captrees]

Adding local items like the Ribble bus brings an individuality to the scene created. Well done.

Glencairn

That is the intent. Though it is all lost on the occasional (mostly Australian) visitor to the EWR. It never ceases to amaze me that there is so much stuff relevant to the NW of England c1960 that is actually available here. Must be due to lots of ex-pats that share our hobby, though I don't know any of them. There is a great railway modellers shop in Perth, selling 95% used stuff. I hardly expected him to have a Ribble bus, but when I expressed my delight and surprise, the proprietor said he had 4 more, if I wanted. All new in boxes. And sourced presumably from a collection here. I mean who would buy 5 of them?

I am sorely tempted. My proposed extension could have a bus station! I may trade in some longer carriages. He wants $15 a coach. I can't imagine he'd sell any of them in a hurry here.

A very interesting article on the Burlingham Seagull here, with much reference to Ribble.

http://www.lthlibrary.org.uk/library/PDF-012-2.pdf

[GeraldH]

Great scenic work on the new addition . I wonder if it would be possible to connect the tracks up to the main line?

[Mountain]

I like the hills on the backscene. Funnily enough, where I am now has hills like that in places which makes it look interesting. The viaduct is most effective.

[captrees]

I wonder if it would be possible to connect the tracks up to the main line?

Its a bit late to change it, and it was never the intent to join it. FWIW the track to the Lime works, and the tunnel to Kirkby Stephen are dummies too, but I could power them up. Shunting yards and coupling trucks up really never entered my head when I started this. Its more about reproducing familiar territory with constantly running trains.

Her indoors has surrendered her half of the studio/shed, so I could possibly enlarge the EWR in time. This might mean taking it as far as Carnforth, incorporating railway workshops and industrial stuff. Rebuilding our veranda has precedent over any other projects at the moment.

Carnforth has some possibilities.

[Phred]

I really like those Carnforth structures. Hauntingly beautiful...

[Dad-1]

Hi captrees,

You certainly get the dirty effects right, no rose tinted glasses
for you !!
Continuous running 'V' shunting ? If you've gained some space why
not both ? I tend to get bored with continuous running, but shunting
you have to be driving all the time, or it goes wrong !!

Geoff T.

[Phred]

Dad-1 beat me to it! I was just about to post that I love the air of industrial neglect that you've created.

I reckon on a quiet day you can hear the iron rusting.