Ropeway

For a long time I have been contemplating how to make a ropeway for TS2013, ever since I noticed one at the St Helen Colliery, which will be part of the extension to Ben Yates' Cockermouth Keswick Penrith Route.

I eventually decided to give it a go this week with the following results.

It is essentially a road 17m in the air (the ropeway) being followed by vehicles (the buckets). It didn't prove too hard to create, however, getting the vehicles to run on the rope, instead of mid-air, was a process of trial and error. The down side is it's not possible to have one vehicle (full bucket) going in one direction and another vehicle (empty bucket) going the other way. I hope to come back to this and try to use a track loft, rather than a road, so I can have greater control over the vehicles traveling the loft.

Update

Just an update showing the finished quenching car model. In game and working after the usual hassle with the couplings. (thank heaven for the RWCoupling program)

8 Wheels on my wagon.

Continuing with the coke oven theme, I have built the quenching car that is used to collect the coke from the oven, then carry it to the quenching tower for cooling.

Wish I could model the spectacular sight of the coke being loaded, that would be fun.

A drop of water with that?

Have completed the quenching tower to go with the coke oven, complete with particle generator for the steam.

This is based on the Moss Bay coke oven quenching tower, at Workington.

It's grim Up North

Just a quick peek at a w.i.p. for a northern steel works.

Rawthey Viaduct

There were three viaducts in Cumbria on the Little LNWR route, the third of which was the Rawthey Viaduct.

A single-span iron bridge, it carried the Clapham to Lowgill line over the River Rawthey. (SW of Sedbergh). It's now owned by the Gas Board who run a pipeline across it.

So I took the dog for a walk along the Dales Way to have a look at it, as I just had to complete the set.

Lowgill Viaduct

Further down the line from the Waterside Viaduct is the Low gill Viaduct, which consists of eleven semi-circular arches, each with a 45 feet span. From end-to-end, it is 620 feet and carried the Ingleton-Lowgill line 100 feet above the stream below.

The Waterside and Lowgill Viaducts were part of  the Ingleton Branch of the London & North Western Railway. Opened to passengers in September 1861 it went from Clapham, through Ingleton, roughly following the route of the River Lune, via Kirkby Lonsdale, Barbon, Middleton-on-Lune, Sedbergh and Lowgill, before joining what is now the West Coast main line at Lowgill, just south of Tebay.

Passenger services ceased on 30th January 1954, but the line remained open for freight traffic until 1st March 1965. The track was lifted in 1967.

Made from the same material and to a similar design to the Waterside Viaduct, I had to make a model of the Lowgill Viaduct as well.