Crown Farm and Blidworth Reg.

Can't remember exactly where the earthmover was now but it was more accurately a loader for those massive quarry trucks that can carry a small housing estate in the back.

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:54 pm

boxelder wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 7:03 pm

Burned to the ground by a mysterious arsonist?

Be more than mysterious to burn down a rock howf.

Amazing amount of heat comes off a blazing rucsac

Well the Dark Ages hill fort at Mote of Mark in Galloway has fused stone. Archaeologists have failed to re-create it - doubt they tried petrol infused backpack

I recall a couple of folk on a WRT many years ago sleeping inside a fallen over wind turbine.

In Reverse wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 11:23 pm Fell asleep with my head in a bassbin in Amnesia in Ibiza. Sven Vath was DJing.

You slept through a Sven Vath set, wow

I managed to do the same at Love Parade once, the Leeds version not Berlin

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:25 pm

macinblack wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:44 pm down the pit

Which pit(s) did you work at? Apologies if you've already mentioned.

One of the oddest for me personally was four of us in a massive earthmover bucket when I was on an outward bound course.

Excellent! Four in a bucket, must've been a biggie . Corby's giant R&R draglines come to mind. Incredible machines. Very nearly kipped inside one (the famous 'Sundew') at Shotley Quarry but bottled it. Or if coal, 'Ace of Spades' at Stobswood mebbes? Intrigued .

We went over to look at the walking dragline at Corby before it got cut up, would of been '84 or '85. I was around fourteen at the time. You could have parked a car in the bucket, I was also fascinated by the diameter of the power cable coming out of the back of it.

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:25 pm 'Ace of Spades' at Stobswood mebbes? Intrigued .

It's still there, let me know if you fancy it

Rob S wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:13 am We went over to look at the walking dragline at Corby before it got cut up, would of been '84 or '85. I was around fourteen at the time. You could have parked a car in the bucket, I was also fascinated by the diameter of the power cable coming out of the back of it.

Noooo, not another dragline fan . Now you've gone and done it, I've had to dig out my old B&W photos of her and scan them in. "Sundew" at Shotley was of course the one that was "walked" from Exton Park - quicker and cheaper to do that than dismantle and move. They had to string the 6000v(?) cable out behind her for several miles on the walk. A real shame she wasn't preserved but it would have cost a fortune in upkeep of course.

Built in 1957, 1675t, 282ft boom, 27t capacity bucket. Five eventually entered service in Corby's ironstone quarries.

At least one cab and the bucket have been preserved at the Rocks By Rail Museum in Rutland - so if four Boners want to try kipping in the bucket it's still possible . A few pics, featuring Reg's Mini 1275GT for scale..... standing under the massive boom felt like standing under the Forth Bridge...

Great photos!

I don't want to overexcite anyone, but I worked on a couple of Bucyrus 680 W modular draglines in Jordan back in the 90s. I even have some candid photos of the filthy beasts.

The Cumbrian wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:03 pm I don't want to overexcite anyone, but I worked on a couple of Bucyrus 680 W modular draglines in Jordan back in the 90s. I even have some candid photos of the filthy beasts.

Post 'em!

RIP wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:05 pm

Rob S wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:13 am We went over to look at the walking dragline at Corby before it got cut up, would of been '84 or '85. I was around fourteen at the time. You could have parked a car in the bucket, I was also fascinated by the diameter of the power cable coming out of the back of it.

Noooo, not another dragline fan . Now you've gone and done it, I've had to dig out my old B&W photos of her and scan them in. "Sundew" at Shotley was of course the one that was "walked" from Exton Park - quicker and cheaper to do that than dismantle and move. They had to string the 6000v(?) cable out behind her for several miles on the walk. A real shame she wasn't preserved but it would have cost a fortune in upkeep of course.

Built in 1957, 1675t, 282ft boom, 27t capacity bucket. Five eventually entered service in Corby's ironstone quarries.

At least one cab and the bucket have been preserved at the Rocks By Rail Museum in Rutland - so if four Boners want to try kipping in the bucket it's still possible . A few pics, featuring Reg's Mini 1275GT for scale..... standing under the massive boom felt like standing under the Forth Bridge...

Nice Mini

The Cumbrian wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 2:03 pm I don't want to overexcite anyone

Ah, just a smidgeon too late methinks .

Going even further off topic, anyone for engine porn?

Admittedly smaller scale than the dragline above, here are two MAN engines, on the left an in-line 7 cylinder compression ignition engine. This runs on a 90/10 methane/diesel split.

On the right is a V20 spark ignition engine, this is 100% methane. Both are coupled to 6.5MW generators.

I look after the electrical/control/instrumentation side of things.

RIP wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 5:07 pm

I just tryiing to get the Image out of my head, of Reg calling the RuPaul Drag- Line.
RuPaul:"Tell me a little about yourself..."
Reg: "my interest started in Corby when I was around 14.... cos' I still was wearing my little shorts.
When looked round the back and was filthy but fascinating! "

led wrote: my interest started in Corby

I'd just like to point out for the record that I have no interest in trouser presses (*).

(*) Obviously apart from the Bonzo Dogs' classic "Trouser Press": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoWs8ER6PJo

"Do you like soul music?". "No". "Well do the Trouser Press baby!".

Give it all you can, it's much better than, the Prefabricated Concrete Coal Bunker!

RIP wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 9:10 pm

led wrote: my interest started in Corby

I'd just like to point out for the record that I have no interest in trouser presses (*).

(*) Obviously apart from the Bonzo Dogs' classic "Trouser Press": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoWs8ER6PJo

"Do you like soul music?". "No". "Well do the Trouser Press baby!".

Give it all you can, it's much better than, the Prefabricated Concrete Coal Bunker!

but someone might, possibly with a career in the sales (or sails) dept.?

Rob S wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:51 pm Going even further off topic, anyone for engine porn?

Admittedly smaller scale than the dragline above, here are two MAN engines, on the left an in-line 7 cylinder compression ignition engine. This runs on a 90/10 methane/diesel split.

On the right is a V20 spark ignition engine, this is 100% methane. Both are coupled to 6.5MW generators.

I look after the electrical/control/instrumentation side of things.

fancy the apprentice doing a spark plug service & getting the HT leads mixed up....

Lol! Fortunately each cylinder has it's own coil mounted next to the spark plug.

I recall a couple of folk on a WRT many years ago sleeping inside a fallen over wind turbine. :-

Yes, that was me and Markenduro from Burton-on-Trent after a mass WRT rider imbibing session in the pub in Llanbrymair. Some just slept in the pub, some slept in the pissing rain in a nearby field, we, however, cycled on a little bit further and came across the recumbent turbine towers. Slept pretty dam well in our seperate bedrooms.


150/365 - Monday Morning Inside the Windturbine Bivi by Richard Lowerson, on Flickr

Probably the oddest place I've slept is in the trailer of a moving lorry between stacks of wobbling boxes of melons on a journey from Eilat to Tel Aviv - I had to go and buy new 26" bike tyre* so I could continue my year long bike ride around the Near East. - I didn't sleep that well as my fellow trailer companion (the driver's Alsatian) pissed all over my sleeping bag!

*(the only component I had to replace in a year of cycling was the rear tyre - I took a spare set of XT brake blocks for my Saracen Trekker U-brakes out with me but brought them back unused).

I've slept in a concrete hut at the side of a disused railway line, now a cycle route. No door or window, the remains of an old tent on the floor, I guess a real tramp had been there before me.



The out of focus picture makes it looks nicer than it was But it was dry and out of the wind.

This wharf on the K&A canal.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0RxA5pI ... _Allington

I was really wanting to sleep in one of the WW2 pill boxes that are on the canal but one wasn’t available in the right spot.

lune ranger wrote: ↑Sat Nov 27, 2021 12:11 am This wharf on the K&A canal.

IMG_28112021_121751_(600_x_800_pixel).jpg (127.33 KiB) Viewed 917 times

I was really wanting to sleep in one of the WW2 pill boxes that are on the canal but one wasn’t available in the right spot.

well done for staying dry...
I'd have had to move down a bit (risking a bollard in the bollocks), otherwise i'd wake up swimming.