Tuesday, June 22
Grave of the Sundew
by
Billy Goat
on Tue 22 Jun 2010 17:46 BST
I visited East Carlton Park a few days ago as we had to entertain a young family member for a few hours. As well as being the location for East Carlton Hall it also houses a Heritage Center for the Corby Steelworks.Some history (Copyright Wikipedia) on both the Steelworks and the famous Sundew Dragline:Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd moved to Corby, Northamptonshire in November 1932, enabling them to make use of the local iron ore to feed their blast furnaces and Bessemer steel converters. The new construction was carried out to a very tight timetable, from the clearing of the site in 1933 the first of the Corby blast furnaces was lit in May the following year. This was followed by coke from the new coke ovens the following month and the ore preparation and sinter plants in September. No.2 blast furnace was lit in November and the first steel came from the Bessemer converters on 27 December. The last of the originally planned blast furnaces (No.3) was lit in October 1935. Following a rebuild to increase capacity of No.2 furnace Corby works became the third cheapest pig iron producing plant in the world. The end of Stewarts & Lloyds ownership ceased in 1967 when the steel industry was nationalised for the second time, and they became part of the British Steel Corporation. Due to the high cost and low quality of local iron ore, steel production at Corby was set to close in November 1979. This was delayed until 21 May 1980, due to a national steel strike, when the last coil came off the mill. In nearly 40 year of steel production they had produced almost 2.5 million tons of steel. Tubemaking continues to this day, initially based on steel supplied from Teesside, and today Corus Tubes is the largest customer of steel from South Wales.Sundew DraglineBuilt by Ransomes & Rapier and named after the winning horse of the 1957 Grand National (Sundew), it began work in a Rutland iron ore quarry belonging to Stewarts & Lloyds that year. At the time of its construction Sundew was the largest walking dragline in the world, weighing 1675 tons. With a reach of 86 metres and a bucket capacity of 27 tons the machine was able to move a substantial amount of material in a relatively short period.Propulsion was via two large moveable feet which could be used to "walk" the dragline forwards and backwards, while directional control was provided by a large circular turntable under the body of the machine.Sundew remained until operations at the quarry ceased in 1974 and plans were then devised to relocate the machine to a recently opened British Steel quarry near Corby. At a cost of £250,000 and taking two years to complete it was decided that dismantling, moving and reconstructing the machine was not a viable option, and so over a nine week period in 1974 Sundew was walked thirteen miles from its home near the village of Exton in Rutland to a site north of Corby. During the walk the dragline crossed three water mains, ten roads, a railway line, two gas mains and a river, before finally reaching its new home.As part of a major restructuring of British Steel in the late 1970s the Corby site was closed down and there was no longer any need for a large dragline to assist in the recovery of iron ore. On 4 July 1980 Sundew walked to its final resting place and the huge boom was lowered onto a purpose built earth mound. There it remained for seven years until being scrapped over a six month period from January to June 1987. East Carlton House Bessemer Converter base (I think!!) Mould for a 7 ton ingot The finished 7 ton ingot Over reach bucket from the Sundew Dragline More over reach Even more over reach A Dragline very similar to the Sundew Shunting engine used in the Steelworks
Monday, May 17
Green Light
by
Billy Goat
on Mon 17 May 2010 11:26 BST
Ok, time to breathe again....Things have been very stressful since February, Mrs Billy Goat was suspected of having a very serious illness and all this time has been spent at hospitals getting loads of tests done, waiting for results, then getting more tests done, waiting.....blah blah. Bikes (and pretty much everything else) have been on hold, hence the lack of posts here but on Friday we got the letter we have both been waiting for and luckily for us she has the all clear  So its Green Light time at Goat Central.....normal service will resume here shortly....stand by for a bunch of new posts  
Thursday, April 22
Status change...
by
Billy Goat
on Thu 22 Apr 2010 08:56 BST
Friday, April 16
Now breathe.....
by
Billy Goat
on Fri 16 Apr 2010 13:12 BST
Without airing my private life online, lets just say the last three months have been among the worst I can remember for the last 15 years....hence me 'Going Dark'......To summarise....my life has been like this since February: And now it's like this: Normal service will be resumed shortly
Friday, January 22
Home Theatre Makeover Project 1
by
Billy Goat
on Fri 22 Jan 2010 10:10 GMT
Apart from bikes I've always been a big fan of Microsoft Media Center and have been using it for years and years, in fact I'm still running MCE 2005, having avoided Vista Media Center at all costs. Technology improves however, particularly hardware and this year its time to totally rebuild my Media Center box with some serious horsepower  Currently I have an old Pentium IV with 2gb RAM, 160gb system disk for the OS and 4 x 1TB drives for media content (1Tb for Recorded TV (700 hours capacity), 1TB for DiVX/AVI movies, 1TB for TV Caps and 1TB for Music and Pictures), 1 DVD ROM, 1 X Plextor DVDRW, Card Reader, Gigabit Ethernet, Hauppauge TV-Nova PCI TV card and a 512MB HDMI out graphics card. This is hooked directly into a Samsung Series 9 46" LCD TV and the sound runs into a fairly low rent 5.1 Surround Sound.The stuff that's gonna get changed is as follows:Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME which is an Intel Core-i7 X58-Express board with DDR3 RAM.CPU - Intel® Core i7-920 Processor (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz)RAM - Kingston KHX16000D3T1K3/6GX DDR3TV Tuner - Hauppauge PCI Express Dual Tuner WinTV-HVR-2200 MCAMP - Onkyo TX-SR 607 AV Receiver (Full 7.1 HD Audio/HDMI Outputs)Speakers - Kef 3005SE K2's in gloss blackAcquisition wise I already have the mobo and RAM and hopefully next week will have the KEF's and Onkyo. Most likely I'll use the Onky and KEF's immediately on my current system until I splash for the i7 CPU, at which point I can rebuild my Media Center and reload it with Windows 7 Ultimate. I'll post up some more pix when there's a bit more progress but below is some of the kit that's either coming or already in use at Billy Goat Towers.KEF 'Eggs' Samsung Series 9 46" LCD (LE46A956D1MXXU) Onkyo TX-SR 607 - Front
Onkyo TX-SR 607 - Rear
The 'Onk' has plenty of future proofing built in, I can add two more satellite speakers and turn it into a 7.1 system or I could add these, plus a second sub and have a full 7.2 system (my neighbours would hate me though  ). There's several extra HDMI inputs here that could be used for Games Consoles, Blu-Ray players etc, it also handles Sirius Satellite Radio too and has fill support for all of the current HD Audio standards!
Thursday, January 7
Being upfront pays off...
by
Billy Goat
on Thu 07 Jan 2010 14:21 GMT
So you guys and girls all know the score....Xmas/Thanksgiving comes along, family and friends all do that "Hey, what do you want for a present?" thing, you Ummm and ahhh, suck air through your teeth...say "Hmmmm, I dunno" and weeks later unwrap something mundane like aftershave, nasty socks, wine you wouldn't pour on a skunk, a hideous sweatshirt....you get the idea So this year I decided to be more assertive, I needed a bunch more bike and DIY tools so I assembled a wishlist of tools, added the exact Part Numbers, prices and web site addresses and stepped away, telling people to "Please be precise, or fallback on the skunk wine/socks route..."Et Voila....it worked Santa Claus brought me:      I'm one happy goat....everybody wins
Tuesday, December 1
No Sleep Til Hammersmith.....or Leicester even....
by
Billy Goat
on Tue 01 Dec 2009 18:24 GMT
Monday, November 23
Laugh? I nearly fell off my chair....
by
Billy Goat
on Mon 23 Nov 2009 17:30 GMT
No intro needed....regardless of where your allegiances lay...this IS funny  Help From The VRC(sound required.....)
Wednesday, November 4
Happy Birthday Wallace and Grommit
by
Billy Goat
on Wed 04 Nov 2009 13:55 GMT
I dunno if this stuff reaches outside of the UK but I must say I'm shocked to realise that Wallace and Grommit celebrate their 20th Birthday today  This makes me feel really old as I can remember A Grand Day Out as if it was yesterday and remember the tears rolling down my face as I split my sides laughing. To celebrate in the coolest manner Google have given over the Google Doodle to them for the day Happy Birthday
Monday, November 2
Back From the Grave - Saracen Kili Flyer
by
Billy Goat
on Mon 02 Nov 2009 17:27 GMT
If you were into MTB's in the UK back in the 1980's then no doubt the name Kili Flyer will bring back misty eyed memories of a long forgotten iconic steed.
Well, I had an email from Simon Wild at Saracen today and he tells me they are re-launching the Kili and its going to be Fillet Brazed Tange Prestige and built around a modern 120mm fork. There's not much info around so far but Singletrackworld have some pix available here: http://www.singletrackworld.com/2009/10/saracen-revive-the-kili-flyer/
It certainly has a nice clean look to it, the bike will be available in either SLX or XTR flavours when it hits the streets.Picture - Copyright 2009 Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine
Tuesday, July 14
Health & Safety Nightmares - Lesson 1
by
Billy Goat
on Tue 14 Jul 2009 12:40 BST
Using your brain to solve a complex practical issue or plain stupidity? You decide...
Friday, July 10
Walking with Wolves
by
Billy Goat
on Fri 10 Jul 2009 14:58 BST
This weekend I am going walking with Wolves.....yup, real ones with long legs and teeth.
The guys from The Anglian Wolf Society have it organised.
If I don't get my ass eaten i will post up some pix on Monday of the adventure.
About AWS:
The
Society was founded in 1999 by Phil Watson in collaboration with Runar Naess,
one of Scandinavia's top canine behaviourists. Phil has a Post Graduate
Certificate in Canine Behaviour and Dog Training from Middlesex University. We began planning to construct
our own site to offer homes to zoo surplus wolves during the spring and summer
of 2000. We became a Company Limited by Guarantee (non-profit company) in
September 2000 and began building our site over the winter of 2000/2001. We
acquired our first wolf cubs in spring 2001 from a surplus litter born in a
centre in southern England.
We spent most of the year 2001 raising our cubs and developing our site
(with private funding) and only started facing the public in December 2001 when
we began the process of building membership and making contact with overseas
conservation projects which we now raise funds for.
Within the Society, the core group - which runs our site and looks after
our wolves - operates on a consent and majority basis; a bit like a family.
There is no rank within the Society; there are no 'job-titles', no 'managers',
no committees and no politics. There is a special place in our Society for
ideology - it is round, about 18 inches high and emptied twice a week. We have a company resolution
that states that we will not compromise the cause of wolf conservation by
indulging in competetive, abusive or defamatory behaviour towards other wolf
conservation groups (even though some indulge in it regularly against each other
and occasionally against us as well). Our site is manned and the wolves watched
over 24 hours a day.
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