MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Big Kev]

Not operated from a signal box and not interlocked to any of the points or the level crossing gates?

[plaques]

Aren't signals positioned on the right hand side of the track so that the engine driver can see them. If that single pole is carrying 'main' line and side line signals then one or both are wrongly positioned.

[Stanley]

These are all sensible attempts and all are wrong. Unless someone reads all that has been written about the Barlick station I don't see how they can get it so here's the answer. Even when first installed, the signal was obsolete and had been abandoned by the mail line companies. The rotating top had been replaced by the semaphore signals we used to be so familiar with. Sorry about that, I thought someone might have known.....
Next one?

[Stanley]

It's a fitting on the Ellenroad engine. Can you tell me what it is?

[Gloria]

Is it some sort of valve?

[PanBiker]

Safety blow off valve?

[Stanley]

Yes Gloria but Ian has it exactly, it's a safety valve to guard against excessive pressure in the cylinders, each cylinder had two.
Next one anyone?

[Stanley]

Manpower Services workers cleaning the Ellenroad engine in 1988. They were mostly good lads and did good work.
But this is a mystery object! Can you tell me exactly why the crankshaft has a 4" hole drilled through it?

[Stanley]

No takers? I shan't let it run on for long.

[Big Kev]

To put a bar through it to lift it out with a crane?

[Stanley]

Sensible suggestion Kev but unfortunately not right. More fundamental than that.

[Gloria]

Would it be for lubrication?

[Stanley]

Again, sensible. But not right, very fundamental....

[plaques]

The hole is to remove the 'piping' that occurs when the ingot is first cast. Most of the slag is in the centre core which is elongated during the forging. This slag is removed by boring the core out removing any possible stress points. QED.

[Stanley]

Exactly right Ken! This was very common at the end of the 19th century when Bessemer Steel was beginning to be used. Steel composition wasn't perfectly understood and for a while it was accepted that boring the pipe out of the shaft was the best solution.
Next one?

[Big Kev]

20220508_082127.jpg

[Stanley]

Looks like an extremely overcooked omelette!

[PostmanPete]

Being a Cumbrian by birth, I recognise this as hematite (or kidney ore) I had a piece which I found on a spoil heap near Frizington in my rock collection when I was a kid ..!

[Tizer]

And I have several pieces, one of them football sized, in my present collection. The bubbly `habit' is known as botryoidal or mammillary. Red iron oxide, Fe2O3. It forms in rock under aerobic conditions whereas black iron oxides such as magnetite (Fe3O4) usually form where it's anaerobic.

[Stanley]

Sounds as though we need a new object!



This is a typical style of construction in the Lake District. What were the buildings most often used for?
(This one was at Cropper's Burnside Mill.)

[Stanley]

You all seem to be stumped. If we don't get movement I'll come clean.
Big clue, what were many watermills in the Lake district doing during the mid 19th century?

[Steeplejerk]

Tobacco/snuff

[Wendyf]

It's a paper mill, so timber?

[Big Kev]

Being a Cumbrian by birth, I recognise this as hematite (or kidney ore) I had a piece which I found on a spoil heap near Frizington in my rock collection when I was a kid ..!

It is indeed, that particular bit is on display at Cliffe Castle, Keighley.

[Stanley]

Tom was right in that both his suggestions were milled but Wendy is closest with timber. But specialised timber....