An IMPORTANT discovery

Well well.,,, look what I have just found whilst swanning about in my ether driven chariot on't web.

                                                       ^^^
It's a 1950's Ordnance survey map of Sheffield as used by the local council,,, now if you scroll up in line with the three arrows,,,,,,,,, [above] to the first bright red copy-write marks and attack the view with some form of magnifier you will see the following,"Salmon Pastures Yard coal and coke depot".

I never knew the Pastures had a coal and coke yard,,, HONEST,,,and not only that I have now got a track plan of the yard and it's feeder line which swoops majestically over the canal and then over the River Don ,,,  if you look at the next map,, which I haven't included,,,Salmon Pastures Yard appears to be almost an island surrounded by the river.

I can already see it forming in my minds eye,,,,,the picturesque River Don complete with it's weir's,, babbling brooks,,, kingfishers,,  [yeh right]  more like,,sewage outfall's,, old lorry front axles,,,surplus to requirement 45 gallon oil drums,,, toxic waste pipes containing goodness knows what,,,,and while you are there have another good look round that map just about every road in the industrial bit has at least 3 steel workshops on it,,, YO HO,, all that grunge and grime,, lovely,, what more could one ask for.

WHAT A DAY,,, what a discovery,,, I'm going to have to go and have a lie down as I can see I am going to be VERY VERY  busy.

Anybody got any pictures of a Coal and Coke Plant????

Watch this murky space!!!

The Joys of Intercontinental Blogging!!!

Hello Sunshines!!!!! [now you know I'm extracting the wee-wee]

I have just been reminded by a person very close to a force of immense power, that, it is rapidly approaching 2 years since I  made a worthwhile entry on the blog.

Don't time fly!!!

Now here's an interesting fact about blogging,,,, the last time I looked at the blog which was some time ago I'm sure I had about 5 or 6 disciples [& very welcome they are too],,,, I completely ignore it for a bit [approx 18 months] and the followers jump up to double figures,,, believe me I'm going to do more of this ignoring stuff as it seems to work quite well as a recruitment aid for an international blogger,,,, not to mention "who are all these people????"

You are probably all sitting there wondering what is happening in the sunny isle of Malta,,,, and the answer is I don't know as we are back in Norfolk!!!! to cut a long story short when it dawned on us that the weather was warmer here on the Norf Norfick Cust we thought knickers to all this,, deflated the LiLo,, scraped off the factor 30,,, got the anti-brexit jabs  and booked ourselves back.

It didn't work,,, lovely people,, lovely place,, especially for a holiday but quite simply not for us.

Having said that after endlessly watching that national institution of ours the  "Auntie Beeb",, its as though we have never been away,,, they are still banging on about our relationship with our continental allies,,,  the american stand-up/president and now the end of the world is nigh due to the great orb in the sky!!!! THE SUN.

Now I hate to mention this,,, but,,, "THE WORLD WILL NOT END" due to temperatures approaching 100 degs,,, some time ago I lived with my family in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and occasionally it was 100 degs there in autumn and spring,,,, in summer it regularly got to 110+ and if you had decidedly strong masochistic tendency's [ & who hasn't!!!] you could jump into a Suzuki jeep and trundle off out into the desert and cook an egg in tinfoil on the bonnet of the car,, just for fun,, it took about 15 minutes but you could do it,, now lets be realistic that was a tad warm,, but great fun,, and another point worth considering was,,, I remember a great roof party in Jeddah because for the first time in over 2 years it rained!!! we were all leaping about in it like kids at a kindergarten,,, in fact I still have the red wellies,, here in UK we get to Regulo 2 and it's OMG,, close the curtains,,, shut the windows,,, drink 15 pints a day,,,[no change there then] and look after the elderly,,, these day's I AM THE BLOOMIN ELDERLY,,, and it just is NOT THAT HOT,,, it's sunshine not a small thermo nuclear device that's been dropped from beneath a Mig29.

You know I feel much much better after a bit of spontaneous blogging,,, it's good for the sole,, and that pair definitely needs repairing.

Don't ask me about what's happening on the modelling front,,, NOTALOT,,, but when I finish trawling through Mr Rice's book on Cameo layouts you might be in for a shock,,, I really fancy,, small,, GWR,, cows,, fields,, 3 trains a month,, pristine stock,, larks,, swifts,, babbling brooks,,, 

HA HA  get real,,, that Salmon Pastures fella has been in the sun too long!!!! Dont be Greedy.

L1 Zeppelin progress report.

Sorry but having spent the best part of the day fiddling with the chassis you will have to look at the progress in pictures in the Pastures Flickr link,,, in the Work in Progress section.
We now have a working chassis, footplate with multitudinous S bends, buffer beams and buffer shanks.

As for a full blow by blow description sorry but:
 1: I can't be *rsed,, & don't forget a pictures worth a thousand words
2: T's ready.

But rest assured it is coming together,,,, like the rest of it's stablemates,,, "slowly"
Just don't get in it's way co's the brakes on these were hopeless,,,, but more on that later!!

SAD

Manchester Exhibition December 2016

For anyone interested in the Manchester show the full album of "westerners" photo's are now on the flickr link under Manchester 2016. Next time you wear that shirt Neville can you also provide sunglasses????
Roger is proudly presenting a new bottle of oil he has just purchased,,,, I know not why.

Where do we start with trying to explain how much we enjoyed this exhibition,, it's not easy.

We are all influenced by our parent's and I most certainly was by mine and from being 10 years old onwards one of the highlights of the year was to jump on a train with father at Sheffield Victoria station and be pulled by an EM2 to Manchester so we could pay our annual visit to Manchester  Club Xmas Exhibition,, it was an important event as that is where the Xmas present was usually purchased.

Memories come flooding back,,, watching Presson for hours,, how did they get them to run that slowly,, and the almost invisible couplings,,or visiting the K's stand to see this years new arrival,, how did they get them to run at all!!!  and one that never leaves me is watching Eric Laithwaite demonstrating his flying beer tray,,, the start of magnetic levitation that has developed into various worldwide trains now running at speeds once thought impossible.

This years show was just as good and we were a part of it,,, a weekend to remember,,, and I will.

Highlights,,,, 

Listening to a bunch of local modellers who had partisan views on all manner of subjects,, some were interested in the GC stock others in the LYR offerings and one poor soul admitted to being a GW fan,,, there was nothing for him to look at and oh dear did he get some stick,,, some things in modelling will never change!!! 

Meeting Mark of Grime Street fame,, not only a lovely modeller but a personality to match,, and his advice on all things TRAM will be remembered and incorporated at some time in the near future.

For me looking at the MMRC "History Board" is another one that will stick out,,,, these days we complain about delays from China,, prices,, liveries,, wish lists,,,, and forget that back in the late 40's if you wanted to take railway modelling seriously you had to make your own motors, wheels,, etc etc,, if your standards were high then non of the essentials were available commercially  and this board shows you early examples of what they could do and how they did it,,, fascinating and truly impressive.

I can now proudly say I have actually slept in Gorton,,,, not the Tank,,, that is now a fruit and veg market!!! but the hotel on the same site,, it was fine,, the accents of the lady's serving the "Boddies" brought back even more memories and the curry on the closing night was something else not to be treated casually.

Thankyou Manchester Model Railway Club,,,, to go out on a show like yours was a real honour.

That's yer lot

A time expired Salmon!!!!!!!

Crickey after a weekend like that we all need a bit of R&R,,,, even the poor old elephant.

It is dear readers with some considerable regret I have to announce that we have just completed the last exhibition with Salmon Pastures.

It is now over 10 years since the first show and that was a very low key affair to raise money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance,,, today we have just got back from doing Manchester exhibition and how things have change,,,, we have all got older,,,, I am convinced the layout has got heavier and it never was the easiest of things to hump into the back of a van so,,, "lets call it a day".

This does not necessarily mean the Salmon Pastures blog is going to finish as well,,, I KNOW I am going to need a vehicle for future rants & I also know there is a veritable plethora of crazy pictures hanging out there in the ether just waiting for future inclusion,,, things like this shot of the Pastures Infirmary "neuro anaesthetists away B team",,,, a likelier bunch a lads it is hard to imagine.

It has been a real pleasure,,,,if we have brought a little sunshine into your life then it has all been so worth while but on the exhibition front at least I have to say enuf's enuf,,, and not to mention the mehmsaab and myself intend heading off to sunnier climes in a last ditched attempt to avoid endless English winters.

But as has been said on several occasions over the past weekend,, never say never,, and so we won't mention it again.

We will however be offering a post Manchester show report just to let you know how we got on,,, and that will be a lot easier when I have the pictures back from the chemists!!!!

In short IT WAS A CRACKER,,,, the definite highlight in my personal modelling career,,, you just ain't lived till you have done the |Manchester Exhibition,,, truly wonderful,,,

There's a terrible echo in here!!!!

Had the "pleasure" of going to Spalding exhibition today with "westerner",,,, I wouldn't register an official grievance but I was slightly disappointed,,, why you ask,,, well we had both seen enough after just under 2 hours and that included a 15 minute coffee break. All this fun for £6.00 at concession rates!!
It was OK,,, well it would be as Gresley Beat was there,, but apart from that and an S4 Lancs & Yorks layout not much else took my fancy.
I was hoping to buy a book I was looking for and the choice of books was poor to say the least.

And just in case anybody from Spalding club reads this then can I politely suggest letting proud young parents in with a 2 seater [side by side seating] buggy which was approximately 4 feet wide into your already cramped 6 feet aisles was not conducive to a happy visitor experience!!!!
Gridlock,,,, and lets be honest the darling kinder were not in the least bit interested in the exhibits.
That buggy would block the M25,,, never mind a model railway exhibition.

Anyway on to more pleasant things,,,, also recently visited Little Bytham again and our host was conned into reproducing the wonderful shot from my last post of a B3 earning a crust.
See the comparison above,, many thanks Tony for a wonderful day out and a smashing pic of Valour.

Was it really July when I last posted,,,, no excuse,,, whatsoever,,, other than to say I have been very busy getting ready for Manchester exhibition which is the first weekend in December,,, if you want to see it for real then please come along,,,,,

After his outstanding debut at Crawley I'm pleased to advise Neville and his hat will also be in evidence and if you feel the urge to get litigious with anybody we can introduce you to Roger & apparently he is very good at that sort of thing,,,,
Roger I really do think I need some counselling after the trauma of that 4x4 buggy,,, my life will never be the same again,,,, I am finding it difficult to concentrate,,, off my beer,,, curry,,, in fact everything that a good weekend in Manchester could possibly offer.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

If you like this sort of thing,,,, and why wouldn't you as you are looking at something rather special,,, then can I suggest you have a browse through the following website

The David Hey collection

It is absolutely jam packed with pictures like this,,,, well not as good as this obviously,,, but there are even things of interest for the Collett,, Bulleid and Stanier afficianado's [is that a dance or a green pear shaped thing that tastes like homogenised  polyfilla] and if trips down memory lane are what "floats your boat" although I much prefer "turns your table" then some of David's personal memories of being chased out of steam sheds are well worth a read as well,,, we probably met at some point in the past,,, I was "offered a seat" in Doncaster shed scrap line foremans office on more than one occasion in the early 60's.

What a magnificent picture of a Lord Faringdon earning a crust in the early 30's,,, soon to be reprised on your very own pastures at Manchester Exhibition in December,,,[ there you are,, the plug]

Why won't yesterday leave us alone,,, I'll tell you why,,, because in railway terms it was a darn sight more interesting than the current stuff,, and that go's for music, cars, aeroplanes, lorry's as well,, in fact just about everything,,, apart from pensions and dentists.

Be warned,,, you are going to be offered lots of similar shots to this one,,, so why not save my time and go and have a look at his site for yourself,,, truly wonderful pics and memories,,, where's me kleenex!!!

Lets finish with a light hearted look at a group of Swinedon trainspotters.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking!!!!!

And lets show a comparison shot of Doncaster when I was a lad!!!!
Many thanks to the David Hey Collection