Normal Service - Day 1

Normal service has been resumed, in that I’m away in the campervan and much of the week will be about railways, both open and closed. 

After a very busy time at work things had settled down to the point where I could take a week off, so the question was where to go. My first thought was back to the North East but diary commitments would have meant putting that off until October or only having a few days away, neither of which really suited. Another option was Derbyshire where I had some unfinished business with a couple of the old railway lines, and that fitted well with a visit to the 009 Society’s 50th anniversary event in Staffordshire as I could visit that on my way home. 

I then needed to choose a site, there was no chance of booking Chatsworth at such short notice, I’d been to Belper and Carsington Water, so that left Buxton, which is well located and the fact it’s a town I’ve been through without really visiting adds another good reason for stopping here. 

I decided on a leisurely journey up, avoiding motorways, which worked out well enough. Having been driving an automatic since my last trip in the ‘van I did forget the clutch when pulling up a couple of times but only actually stalled once! It soon comes back but I do miss the driver aids of the newer vehicle. For once I was fortunate with traffic, the only delay was showing as a whole three minutes and wasn’t even that long, so I avoided the stop start traffic that plays havoc with my left leg. I stopped at Sainsbugs in Ashbourne to get some fresh stuff but also visited a farm shop just outside Buxton - I’d sussed this out and it’s mainly a butchers but I did get the necessaries for breakfast. 

I was wondering on the way up where to stop for lunch, as I was going to be too early for the site, but that was easily resolved when I saw the High Peak Bookstore and Cafe - I think the only thing that could be better is a bookstore and pub combined. There was one railway book, on preserved industrial steam engines, that I might have been interested in but I did have a look and decided it wasn’t worth the £20 price tag. I may visit again at the back end of the trip when I can afford to fill up the limited storage space in the ‘van. The lunch menu was interesting, basically sandwiches and salads, but the Stilton Pork Pie Platter sounded good, and didn’t disappoint. 

Although I wasn’t short of fuel I knew I needed to fill up at some point so went in towards the centre of Buxton rather than cutting across directly to the site, that also helped fill up a few minutes so I arrived just about on the 1pm earliest arrival - inevitable there were a few units already ahead of me! The processing system changed during and after COVID so now, at least on busy days, you get greeted and checked in at the entrance, then go and find your pitch before visiting the office to complete the process. The other change is that, since they introduced a small booking deposit, you can opt to pay in advance which saves faffing about with cards - it all works very smoothly and quickly. 

As it was very hot I did little in the afternoon, just read a bit and watched some rugby. Unfortunately the views from the ‘van are dreadful (not!) This is just behind my pitch. 

I’m posting this early evening before I settle down to watch England v Argentina, possibly the game that will define the World Cup for the Red Rose. I’m not optimistic but hope I’ll be surprised. 😊

Added for the history books, England (well George Ford) 27, Argentina 10 after Tom Curry was sent off within 3 minutes. 

Battery Woes

Back in May, when I last used the ‘van, I had to charge the starter battery - no real surprise as it hadn’t moved for a few months. Last week, while starting to sort things for the next trip, it was flat again. 🙁

I put it on a reconditioning charge, eventually it did show charged but it took longer than I’d have expected and did show an error at one point so I wasn’t totally convinced. The ‘van started and ran round the block OK but it didn’t last - when I went out today to do a couple of things the battery was completely dead again.  I headed off to Halfords for a replacement; the old battery was at least 5 years old and had suffered through little usage during lockdown and ever since so I’m really not surprised it failed. 

I need to avoid the same thing happening again, which means finding some way of trickle charging the new battery. Mains charging isn’t really an option and I think trying to hook up the big solar panel (which charges the leisure battery) for dual charging wouldn’t be easy or cheap. The answer is to get a small panel just for the starter battery, quite by chance I’ve already got a spare controller (bought for £1 at a boating event). I’m thinking I can mount the charge controller under the bonnet and mount the panel on a bit of ply. I’ve got some strong magnets “in stock” I can use four of those to attach the panel to the bonnet when the ‘van isn’t in use for long periods. 

Yorkshire Again

This weekend was the annual meet up for a Berlingo Facebook group at Sentry Circle, just outside Northallerton. After being away so much recently I was in two minds about going and only made my mind up on Thursday when I went shopping. I’d left the ‘van ready to go, and was pleased to see that the previous fridge problems have been cured as it was running off the solar all week. 

Having declared POETS day on Friday I got away at a reasonable time but still hit some traffic issues. I trusted to TomTom and ended up diverting from the M1 across the M18 but then I further diverted, ending up back on the A1 via the A19 and M62; I could have stayed on the A19 but with it being rush hour I followed instructions. Friday evening was spent around the fire pit with a beer or three, the site owner provided us with a load of scrap wood, offcuts from the building trade, at no charge which was generous of him. 

Saturday I walked into Brompton village, largely just to get out for a while. Inevitably I ended up in a pub for a pint, I was just leaving when friends from the meet arrived so it would have been churlish not to join them for a drink. You could tell it was a dog friendly pub, the water for Eddie the JR arrived before the beers did! Saturday evening was back around the fire pit, with a quiz to liven things up (I came second, largely due to my lack of modern music and film knowledge). 

Having been woken early by the resident cockerels I was away from site by 8am; due to roadworks on the A1 the SatNav was initially suggesting the M1 again but having stopped at Wetherby services for some breakfast I did a recalc and decided the extra few minutes were acceptable to go my preferred way - it was a bit stop start for a few minutes but overall a smooth journey home. 

There’s no real conclusion from the trip, the ‘van behaved OK, beers was consumed, end of story! I’m not sure when I’ll be away again as it’s dependent on outside factors. 

Trains and Boats and Planes - Planes

Today really made up for yesterday’s paucity of the title transport - there were a lot of planes at the Yorkshire Air Museum!

I had a chance to visit the museum about 12 years ago when I was stopping near Pickering, but on that occasion the nearby Museum of Farming won out - it hosts the Derwent Valley Light Railway which wasn’t running but I could at least have a look. The Air Museum wasn’t the ideal stop off for the journey home as it’s only a few miles from the caravan site, I ended up wasting time waiting for them to open. As usual with aviation museums they cram a lot into the hangers, although there were also outdoor flight lines and several huts with displays on various topics such as Air Gunners and Zeppelins. Inevitably the info concentrates on Yorkshire and the squadrons based there at Elvington Airfield, I noted a couple of omissions, or at least missed detail, as a result but that’s being picky! 

In general there was good interpretation attached to each aircraft, with added signs detailing the roles played in both the Cold War era and the Falklands conflict. The bulk of the aircraft are various jet fighters but there’s a reasonable number of earlier craft as well, some very early (such as a replica of George Cayley’s 1853 “Steerable Parachute” glider). The “history of flight” display was one that was a bit lacking, jumping from Cayley to the Wright Brothers, ignoring other pioneers such as Otto Lilienthal and Percy Pilcher - it’s possible the latter actually flew a powered plane 4 years before the Wright Flier but a broken crankshaft prevented the planned public demonstration and, having taken up one of his gliders to at least show something, he was killed. Recent studies showed that his plane could have flown with some modifications (the replica added wing warping which he would likely have been aware of). 

I’m reasonably knowledgeable about the history of aviation from reading and visiting other museums but there are always new things to discover. This tiny aircraft is a real rarity, a Port Victoria P.V.8 “Eastchurch” Kitten recreation (a big name for a little plane!) These were designed by the Admiralty in 1917 as a disposable interceptor to be launched off a battleship to intercept the Zeppelins before they could bomb the mainland, it would then be ditched and the pilot would hope for rescue. The bombing threat had receded before the project was completed so it was cancelled, no originals survive. 

To go to the other extreme, unusually for aviation museums I’ve visited in the last few years they don’t have a Vulcan, they have a Victor instead! It’s one of only four remaining complete aircraft, and one of the two that can run it’s engines. The aircraft never really captured the public imagination as the Vulcan did, possibly because they were mostly converted to tankers, but it’s lasted better than the third member of the V Force, the Valiant, which only has one surviving example. 

All in all it was a worthwhile visit, with plenty to see and a reasonable “NAAFI” canteen. 

When I set off home from Elvington the satnav was only showing 11 minutes difference using the A1 instead of the M1 so, as I prefer the former, I took that route. Unfortunately the delays started to mount up to about 30 minutes but I was able to avoid them by going through Oakham so I was home by just after four pm. Overall it was a successful trip away, the campervan behaved itself - I even managed to remember about the clutch and gears, mostly (the Suzuki is an auto). 

Trains and Boats and Planes - Boats

OK, I’m stretching things a little bit with the title but as the main visit of the day was to Jorvik, and the Vikings arrived by boat, I can justify it! 

Driving to the park and ride did mean the ‘van needed a bit more tidying and sorting but was justified by how much I got done. I can thoroughly recommend York’s bus service, with attendants at the main stops helping people and dispensing tickets, and certainly for me it worked out a lot cheaper and easier than driving in to the city. 

My ticket for Jorvik was timed for 10:40, I’d decided to locate the place when I first got there and then go for a wander but a convenient coffee and butty stall grabbed my attention. I was a bit concerned that the queue, when they opened at 10:00 was very long but in fact by 10:25 they’d cleared all the first two booked sessions so I was admitted 10 minutes early. Due to planned maintenance they were only accepting booked visitors which possibly helped. It was my first visit but I knew roughly what to expect and fortunately, post COVID, got the front seat of one of the capsules to myself - we’d visited their attraction in Oxford years ago where you travelled in a “Monk’s Bench” which was a lot less comfortable! 

You do get up close and personal with the displays, sometimes a little too close - the Viking sitting on the loo certainly didn’t look very happy at being on show! I’d heard that the smells could be a little too strong but I didn’t find them so, the fact I’m recovering from a cold may have helped there. Overall it was worth the visit and I’d recommend it. 

I decided to continue the museum theme and visit the York Castle one, I declined paying £11.50 to climb up to Clifford’s Tower, the original motte and bailey, although apparently the view from the roof deck is quite spectacular! 

The Castle Museum was the first in the world, they say, to feature exhibits displayed as shop frontages rather than in glass cases, and that part of the museum works well. Slightly less effective was the prison museum section which was basically just videos playing in several rooms. I did have coffee and, of course, carrot cake in the middle of going round so that kept me going. 

I returned to the bus stop via the Shambles and chanced upon The Last Drop Inn, a Black Sheep house. As I’m partial to their Best Bitter, and with the brewery in administration, I felt it would be churlish to not have a pint, just the one though as I still had to drive back to the caravan site. Having enjoyed that, and having just missed one bus, there was a few minutes wait to get back to the park and ride then to the site, but driving was definitely the right thing to do. 

Trains and Boats and Planes - Trains

This is the first blog post for quite a while simply because circumstances have dictated I haven’t been away in the campervan. Since last year I’ve spent Easter in Huddersfield (in a hotel) and been to Norway on a cruise so there’s been no chance to get away. The other change in circumstances is that the ‘van is no longer my daily driver as Suzie Two, a Vitara, has been added to the fleet. 

I’m in York, promoted by a model show at the National Railway Museum, hence the Trains in the title. The only issue I had before the trip was to get the starter battery fully charged, as the vehicle hasn’t moved since January it was completely flat; I need to do something about that so I’ll make sure it gets charged every few weeks if I’m not away - it would be good to contrive some way for the solar panel to keep both batteries topped up but I’m not sure it would be easy to do. Apart from that it was mainly just restocking food and checking things over.

I drove up to the caravan site outside the city on Friday, via the barbers and Sainsbugs in Market Harborough. I was a bit ahead of time but a break at a service station and then delays on the A1 (which I avoided by staying on the M1 but it added time to the journey) meant I arrived at a bit after one. One concern on the way up was a bumping noise; I checked the roof rack was secure when I stopped, all fine as it should be, I was almost at the site when I realised it was almost certainly the radio aerial hitting the roof rack! I had hoped the site might have a fish and chip van visit, they often do, but it turned out they have a pizza trailer instead! It was a nice pizza from a wood fired oven but give me fish and chips on a Friday for preference. 

The site is just over two miles from one of the park and ride locations, just on the cusp between walking and driving. I decided on the former and it wasn’t too bad but when I saw the plentiful bike parking I wished I’d brought the folder with me. Everything went smoothly and more quickly than I expected so I was at the Museum just after 9am, with the show not opening until 10. Although I wasn’t actually first there I did end up being at the front of the queue as it formed - that turned out to be a huge advantage as by the time we started to go in the queue was getting very long and, due to limitations on overall numbers, they were admitting people in batches of 30 or so. 

The show itself was spread over a few rooms and a corridor in the conference centre which wasn’t ideal. I understand it wasn’t what was envisaged when the venue was chosen but circumstances prevailed. It was enjoyable enough, and I had a few chats with people. The company I bought the last batch of ballast from were there, which gave me a chance to congratulate them on their product which, to my mind, is about the most realistic one you can get for N Gauge in both size and colour. I also talked to the people who’d brought some briefcase and suitcase layouts, in three separate places as they ended up spread out which wasn’t great; I picked up a few useful tips for the one I’m currently building and clarified that I’m going the right way. 

The next attraction was the railway museum itself, as it’s a few years since I last visited. Unfortunately part of it is currently closed for refurbishment (roof problems I understand) and they’re reorganising other bits so everything is even more crammed in than normal. It was still enjoyable though. 

After that I wandered back into the City, grabbing a pint of cider in a cellar bar, sadly the nice peaceful drink ended when a group of noisy youngsters came in, one of whom was very loud with a grating voice. 

A few weeks ago, for no reason, I had a thought  that I hadn’t had hot fresh doughnuts for many years, as they’re not sold in our village I didn’t think much more about it! As I was ambling towards the bus stop, and thinking a snack would be nice, a donut van (I’ll use both spellings to avoid arguments) hove into view. “What a coincidence”, I thought, or words to that effect. As they were cooking I was chatting to the lad serving and mentioned I’d been to the railway museum, it turned out he’s descended from the Kitson family, locomotives builders in the Leeds area from 1835 until 1938. If you think hybrids are a new idea you’d be wrong! In 1926 they built an experimental Kitson-Still system steam-diesel hybrid loco for the LNER, the theory being the steam would provide the high tractive force needed for starting things moving but the diesel would be more efficient above about 5mph. It worked and was economical but was complex and any savings depended on the price differential of diesel and coal which was unfavourable at the time. They didn’t have the finance to develop it into a commercial product and ultimately the development costs contributed to the company going into receivership.  There’s an added coincidence for anyone who’s read my blogs over a number of years, at one time Kitsons employed Charles Parsons who later developed the steam turbine and built the boat Turbinia, which changed maritime history and is now in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. 

That’s about it for the day, I got the park and ride bus back then walked the couple of miles back to the caravan site. It was a bit warm, having been chilly when I went out this morning, but fortunately after a hiatus caused by COVID the site shops are back open so I was able to procure a Magnum Mint on my way to the ‘van. Tomorrow I’ll probably drive to the park and ride, it’ll give me more opportunity to then visit the city centre without completely tiring myself. 

One final oddity, the local sports ground was on the walk between the bus and the site with the usual sports teams listed, plus a model railway club!

Scotland 2022 - Conclusions

Having just got home after a slowish run back from Dunblane I thought I’d post the usual conclusions from the trip. 

First the good bits! The electrics behaved impeccably, I checked this morning and, having not driven since Thursday afternoon, the leisure battery was still about fully charged so the solar panel kept up with the coolbox despite some typically Scottish weather. The recent additional storage was beneficial, the overhead net carried my suit for a posh dinner and the IKEA hanging pockets were also well used - the one I’ve hung inside the rear passenger door means I can now open that door without loads of stuff falling out! 

Nog so good, I still haven’t managed to fully reseal the roof vents, although the leakage is a lot less they still weren’t proof to heavy rain. My site planning was awry in hindsight; I should have just spent the one night at Whitley Bay, then moved to a site in Northumberland after visiting Cragside. From there I could have done Morpeth and either returned to that site or gone a bit further North rather than heading straight to Edinburgh. 

Part of the reason is that it turned out that getting in and out of the Edinburgh Club site isn’t all that easy, if I’d stopped another night in Northumberland I could have visited the Museum of Flight, spent a night in Edinburgh, visited the Bo’ness Railway then stopped a bit further North. It would have saved a lot of driving! 

I’d pondered over whether to take a bike. Security issues at the Edinburgh site were part of the reason I didn’t but I regretted it afterwards. There were at least two occasions when I could have explored further, at Whitley Bay and Bo’ness, if I’d had even the folding bike. One job over the winter therefore is to work out the best way of carrying the folder, ideally without using the big bike rack. We’ll work on that.