Our world in miniature, hobbies

I will show you Pam & my new boat that's being fitted out, Dreamtime. Through the gates we go. Just a small cruiser. Calcutt Marina do not have a dry dock, instead they use roller jacks in a shallow dock, that can support the full weight (seventy tons when needed) that can slip a boat for bottom blacking & so on. They use four jacks when needed. I've not seen them in use for two decades, but online they still advertise slipping boats for blacking. The jacks sat on submerged rails, so when needed could move the whole boat several yards.

Beautiful, your boat wouldn't have a name by any chance would it? Must be shown before the launching.

Hi all, Grove, the posh road. Lord & Lady Luvaduck live here. Probably on equity release though.

Oh, just up my street. Excuse the pun!

Hi all, Commuter time. The slow train to Gosford Green.

Your sandstone cliff makes me think of a story I was told about a power station slag heap. Periodically large slices were cut out of it to be shipped off for various construction jobs, leaving cliffs in the stuff. One year the staff went out to organise another dispatch but found that a large number of sand martins had moved in. The delivery was cancelled until the babies were fledged and the staff organised an area for the birds that they could use the next year so that neither side would be inconvenienced. Nature loves industrial sites as they can move in and be mostly undisturbed. Though when I was working at Courtaulds I had to shout at the pigeons outside my office window for having a lot more fun than I was. In turn I was thoroughly told off by a weasel for invading its territory.

Hi Helen, Hi all, Sandstone cliffs are not common inland. It was a visit to Bewdley, many years ago that gave me the notion of having a sandstone face. The river Severn may have had quite a turbulent history, compared to its comparative shallow drop in height over a vast distance nowadays. Some geologists make a case that at some point in the past, the river actually flowed in the opposite direction, draining into the river Dee. Who knows? Anyway, the legacy is the inland sandstone cliffs for all to see at Bewdley. On our model, those cliffs with The Boulevard & Mill Hill lane on top, hide the through fiddle yards. They in turn connect with the main fiddle yards underneath the church & town of Hounds Hill. The timber section supporting the road is 4", from rail height, or 10 Mm, which in scale terms is the equivalent of about thirty feet with the road top added. Our nearest similar sandstone is the crag or outcrop at Corley. The fiction existence of our railway & canal is a redundant sandstone quarry, so any other rock material would not match the story. What's left of the quarry is the ground valley now full of scrub. Over the years, I've varied the colour from a very red sandstone to a grey. Water colour makes that relatively easy depending on my mood. As the face is a machine cut cutting, the civil engineers are very nervous of vegetation growing that might loosen the integrity of the face. They have constant issues with owner of the last house, who doesn't keep her garden overgrowth in check, visable in the first photo.

What about Corley Rocks, Philip? Google view.

I was thinking of Chester canal.

Hi Robthu, I did mention Corley Rocks in my text. Hope you are ok.

That looks fabulous, Helen.

Sorry, Philip, I have given myself a severe ticking off ("Hope you are ok.") Mmmmmm, we will leave that question.

I am with you there Helen. When I do any research to put on here if I don't write it down I forget it straight away, even if it is just a date or a name. At least I have a big monitor now and can have 2 things open at once so I can have HCF open and the newspaper archive both open together and copy from one to the other. I was never any good at exams as I couldn't remember facts, that is why I prefer things like maths.

It's good on here hey! Most of my posts I edit three or four times so as to clear out dead donkeys. Pannier tank waits for a clear signal with a short transfer goods from Longford Park to Hounds Hill.