Jubilee Greenway 7

A very cold day today, but we were brave and decided to walk the last section of the Jubilee Greenway route. For various reasons, we ended up doing the last few sections out of order, but we did cover the entire route.

We caught a train to Lewisham, then the DLR to Cutty Sark. After some issues finding the lift (we had Rocco with us), we eventually escaped the station and headed for the river:

Nice to pass the Cutty Sark without hordes of tourists crowding the place! Rocco was soon off the lead as we headed along the Thames Path with the Greenwich Foot Tunnel entrance behind us:

There was an interesting information board about the long gone Greenwich Steam Ferry (forgottenhighway.co.uk/greenwich2.html) – you can see what remains of the ramp for the moving platform behind the railings:

A bit further on was a statue of Peter the Great:

There were several diversions “inland” from here, but eventually we reached some green at Sayes Court Park and Pepys Park before rejoining the Thames at Deptford Wharf:

There were light flurries of snow at this point! There were a series of docks to cross, thankfully all with bridges:

By this time, we needed a pub; the first one we passed wasn’t open, but the next one was not only open, but gave the dog the best welcome he has had for a while. Nice beer too:

Suitably refreshed, we headed on to Rotherhithe:

and stopped for lunch (and more beer!) at The Mayflower. It was quite busy, so we had to sit in a semi-outdoor terrace OVER the Thames (which you could see through the gaps in the floorboards). One of the few times we were grateful for patio heaters!


A nice view of the Thames from the pub:

After lunch, we followed the river towards Tower Bridge:


This is the official end of Section 7; from there it was a short walk to London Bridge station and a train home. A nice day!

South London Exploration

It’s been a (long) while since I had a “play” on the trains, so set off explore Surbiton Station – a classic “art deco” style station. With a fast train to Waterloo and a fast to Surbiton, I was there within an hour of leaving home!



From there I caught a local train to Hampton Court:

and walked across the River Thames through Bushy Park:

Not really a good choice as there was a biting wind in my face the whole time!

From the northerly entrance, it was a short walk through suburban streets to Teddington Station:

A very posh entrance.

From Teddington, I caught a train to Clapham Junction (via Richmond), then an overground service to Canada Water.

I’m not sure what I expected there, but again a biting wind and a bit of a building site:

From there, it was a tube to London Bridge and a fast train home.

Lunch at Downe

It’s quite a while since we’ve managed a day out, and with good weather forecast, we decided to repeat a walk we did back in July (see Lunch at Downe) though in the other direction.

We caught an R11 bus from Orpington High Street (having just missed one, of course) to Green St Green. After negotiating the busy A21 roundabout, we were soon away from roads:

Rocco appreciated being able to run around and chew sticks:

Soon we were in High Elms, gently climbing through the autumn leaves:

We needed to cross High Elms Road at Sparrow Wood Car Park:

and then followed the permissive footpath into Downe village:

And then to the Queens Head for lunch, washed down with Timothy Taylors Landlord Dark – an excellent beer we both enjoyed.

After lunch, we had a bit of road walking, then escaped across the fields by Farthing Street:

Then back into the woods:

and across Farnborough Fields to Farnborough Village, where (again) we just missed a 358 bus back to Orpington. Not long to wait for another one though!

Packing 3D Printed Kits

For the last year, I’ve expanded my voluntary work for the Model Railway Electronics group to pack 3D printed kits. I was given two more 3D printers to do the actual printing:

The one on the right was very old and had many problems, so I’ve passed that on for spares. The one on the left spends many hours printing parts for these kits:

This is one of the finished prints:

The kit also contains lengths of piano wire. I buy this in 36″ lengths (914mm); each length needs to be cut into to six 150mm lengths. I made a jig to do measure the right length, and used an old pair of bolt cutters to do the cutting:

This will cut around 10 lengths at a time. You do need to hold the cut pieces otherwise they fly everywhere!

Gloves are essential as the wire is a bit greasy and the ends can be quite sharp. Half an hour later, I’ve a bundle of wire of the correct length:

The kit also contains various fixings, which need counting and putting into little bags:

I count the various screws and nuts into the tray, put them in a small bag, then once I have 10 bags, weigh each on the “drug dealer” scales you can see on the left – this is a useful check that there is the right number of each in the bag.

Finally, a front card and instructions need to be printed out:

Then all the bits can be assembled into a kit. There are two little tabs at the end of each 3D print. These are broken off and pushed into the print to hold the servo wire and little bag of fixings to the 3D print:

The front label and instructions are put in a bag, followed by the 3D print and fixings:

I pack around 400 of these kits a year, and 150 of a similar (but simpler) kit:

The main kit makes 6 mounts for Servo Motors to drive the points on a model railway layout. The servo moves the white arm at the front, with the piano wire connecting the arm to the point:

 

Robinswood Hill

The roads are nice and quiet on a Sunday Morning, so it’s an ideal time to drive to Robinswood Hill Country Park for a walk. A bit cold to start with, but after a few uphill bits, we soon got warm. And of course Rocco was constantly running around with a stick.

Eventually the top came in view, but for us there was still a way to go as we took the gentle route up.

But nice to get to the top. Still a bit murky in the early morning mist, and quite breezy at the top as they’d removed some trees to (presumably) improve the view.

A nice walk!

Gloucester pub crawl…

A lovely sunny day today, really warm…

We caught the bus into Gloucester:

We walked the dogs through Gloucester Park; nothing exciting but Rocco could let off steam…

None of our usual pubs were open yet, so we stopped at a Wetherspoon Pub for an early beer – this was a converted cinema:

Lovely sitting in the sun…

Then on to Gloucester’s Micro pub, in a different location from a year ago:

As it was sunny, we sat outside:

The dogs attracted a lot of attention from passers by, mainly as they were blocking the pavement!

Then on to The Fountain, a regular haunt:

High Elms in the frost

A cold start to the day (-5C) so it’s dress up warm to walk Rocco. The fields by High Elms looked lovely this morning, and quite surreal with the moon behind:

Rocco doesn’t mind the cold, and was soon destroying a stick:

And then into the sunshine:

A lovely walk once I’d warmed up!