ROCKWOOD HARRIERS WITH A DIVERSION!

Dry but gloomy, a Saturday meet at the kennels in a huge ménage yard. Some absolutely superb sausage rolls suited me – source 'Ros' of Thorncliffe Farm Shop, which is at Emley- Thorncliffe Farm Shop site

So much for the advertising but I will also mention that I am very partial to their excellent chicken pie too.

The link below is to a terribly poor video. I have a bullet shaped helmet cam for use with my bike and it actually takes decent video but this is not one. Apart from anything else it saw too much sky which darkened most of the video. I had it in my hand as I walked round to find the huntsman to ask for some directions. I will have to learn editing as well, as this is just raw footage. Makes me realise I need to work on my diction too! Click, if you must, to see a Crap video of the Meet (Just discovered YouTube Autofix facility so maybe some correction).

Grim determination? Copyright image by David Swanbury

Moving off. Copyright image by David Swanbury

A distant view of the Field from an old railway embankment.

The embankment now hosts the 15 inch narrow-gauge Kirklees Light Railway. From when I lived nearby as a child I can still remember the sound of the heavily laden coal trains losing some traction with the sudden burst of speeded up chugging from the normal steady strain on the way towards Huddersfield. It always seemed to happen as they emerged from the edge of Blacker Wood but maybe it was just more obvious then. (My past connection with Blacker Farm ). Copyright image by David Swanbury

I did something I have never done and walked along the high railway embankment to watch the hounds in the fields below, not expecting a train to be running at this time of the year – but one was. Maybe cashing in on the current Flying Scotsman euphoria. This one appears to be a recent purchase called Katie. Copyright image by David Swanbury

Link to the KLR website - Kirklees Light Railway

After it passed, hounds appeared. I thought they might which was one reason for going there.Copyright image by David Swanbury

Further down the track three bodies were ‘working’ as linesmen or gangers or something. Enthusiast volunteers I suppose. I was walking towards them some distance away although not intending to go much further. I could see from the body language that one wanted to do something about my interloping presence there as he was working up to it, so finally they came along the track toward me en masse; well all three. The leading light called to the huntsman down below to keep his wandering hounds off the embankment and then we had a short polite conversation regarding my unwanted presence before I went back the way I had come.

And then another little train, loco 'Owl, came back from Skelmanthorpe direction on its way home to Clayton West. They travel to Shelley (with a tea room there), through a longish tunnel at one point, and back. I really must have a trip sometime before the leaves block some of the view but I fancy Katie most.

So, copied from the KLR site about Owl there is this -

"Owl is our most unusual engine. It was built by Brian Taylor in 2000 at Clayton West. It is based on an engraving of an engine that was never actually built. Similar engines were constructed in Bristol and Leeds and exported for use abroad.
Its cylinders are arranged in an unusual ‘V’ formation and it moves itself along by an arrangement that is usually found on diesel engines – it has gears!
Owl is painted in the colours of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. It is mainly used on our weekend trains."

I got the text below off Miniature Railway World site. I am most impressed that they built locos in Clayton West.

"The Kirklees Light Railway first opened in 1991 and is situated near Huddersfield, running on the former trackbed of the standard gauge Clayton West branch, which left the Sheffield–Huddersfield line near Shepley. The line was constructed by Brian and Doreen Taylor after they previously set up a miniature railway at Shibden Park, and strived to build something bigger. Originally operating to Cuckoos Nest, the railway was gradually extended over a period of 6 years, to meet its current terminus of Shelley, making the line 3 ¾ miles. The line passes through scenic countryside and the 511-yard Shelley Woodhouse Tunnel. The line was sold to the Hurd Family in 2005. At the line’s main station Clayton West, there is a visitor's centre, dual gauge elevated model engineers track, play and picnic areas and ex-BR Mk2 TPO carriage together with a DMU for parties. The fleet of steam locomotives used on the KLR were all built by Brian Taylor and have since undergone modifications by Ian Screenton. Coaching stock was also all built on site."

This hunting business involves and awful lot of standing about. A very social thing. Copyright image by David Swanbury

The inevitable phone. Copyright image by David Swanbury

Athletic mum has caught up again. Copyright image by David Swanbury

More standing about and no sign of huntsman or hounds. Copyright image by David Swanbury

Some final standing about. Copyright image by David Swanbury

It was final as it was the Rockwood Harriers Hunt Ball in the evening and all the young ladies were eager to get home to put on their ball gowns and powder their noses in readiness. Copyright image by David Swanbury

UK WINTER WEATHER FORECASTS

For the third year running the forecast of dire winter weather has been wrong. In the past I quoted the Daily Mail headlining the gloom and doom predictions. This time I will pick out the Sunday Express and The Telegraph to show no prejudice.

I have come to the conclusion that things never seem to turn out as 'experts' predict. Doesn’t anyone ever call them to account or do they just move on to predict the next catastrophe. Like when the boy who cried wolf too often, one day when we really do need to take notice no one will.

THE BIG WET!

In this neck of the woods, the Pennines of Yorkshire, it has been a sweeping cascade of horizontal rain almost daily since the beginning of November and I have yet to lift a snow shovel in anger. As I write it is a picture of waves of water sailing down the valley here. Non stop curtains of rain sweeping along, day after day and I am sick of it.

Lest we forget! -

Britain braced for long, snowy winter as strongest El Nino since 1950 expected

The strongest El Nino for 65 years could bring a winter like the 2009/2010 Big Freeze

A woman walks through the snow in The Big Freeze of 2009/2010

Is Britain heading for a snowy, long winter? Photo: PA

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

4:09PM BST 14 Sep 2015

Winter is coming, and it could be colder and snowier than normal after forecasters predicted that this year’s El Nino weather phenomenon could be the strongest since 1950.

Met Office meteorologists said conditions could mirror those of the 2009/2010 winter which was so long and chilly it was dubbed ‘The Big Freeze.’

That winter, heavy snowfall brought transport chaos to much of the country with airports closed and train services suspended. In parts of Scotland temperatures dropped to -8.1F (-22.3C) as record 19 inch snowfall fell in the highlands. In December that year, the average UK temperature was just 30F (-1C) the coldest since records began.

This year's El Nino looks set to be more powerful than usual with forecasters predicting the strongest since 1950. In that year Britain suffered one of its snowiest winters ever. Snow lay for 102 days in the Highlands while 15 inches fell on the Isle of Wight in just three and half hours. Bournemouth saw 10 inches, Scarborough and Lowestoft, 14 inches.
The weather phenomenon happens when ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific, near South America, rise due to a change in the normal wind direction, creating knock-on effects across the globe due to the amount of heat released into the atmosphere. The polar jet stream tends to move further south, and brings wetter weather across the Atlantic, which causes heavy rainfall in warmer months, but can bring snow in the winter.
Met Office meteorologist and BBC forecaster Thomas Shafernaker said: “This time round it could be the strongest in decades.
“In Europe sometimes winters end up much colder and drier and last much into spring. In 2010 the El Nino played a part in bringing huge amounts of snow to the UK.”

The Met Office believe they are now better placed to predict freak winter weather. Photo: Andrew Crowley
Met Office climatologist Dr Doug Smith said El Nino was one of the most important factors for the UK winter, but added that it was too early to tell just how big an impact the phenomenon would have on British weather. The 2010 storm was made worse because El Nino coincided with a solar minimum.
And because each El Nino event is unique, it is impossible to say exactly what the consequences will be for any given year. Dr Smith said the phenomenon was not linear and so a medium strength El Nino could actually cause more disruption than a strong one.
“It is one of the most important factors on our weather,” he said, “But there are other things such as the North Atlantic Osciallation and Sun output. It is not clear right now. We will know more in November.”
However this particular El Nino – known as a Modiki – does appear to be causing concern.
“The latest indication suggests in may be starting to move westwards and cooling near the South American coast,” said Leon Brown, Chief Meteorologist at The Weather Channel. "This is then called a Modiki type El Nino with warm sea surface temperatures in the mid Pacific.
“If that happens then the impact may shift the jet stream and give us a greater risk of a colder negative North Atlantic Oscillation this winter, which usually brings us colder winters.”

A police car is seen as up to 40 cars were stranded on the A171 between Guisborough and Whitby in blizzard conditions Photo: Paul Kingston / NNP
El Nino - which means ‘the boy child’ because it was first observed at Christmas - is linked to major global climate events including monsoons in India, heavy rain and storms in North America and Europe including the UK, and floods in Australia. It occures every two to seven years and is already bringing havoc agross the globe.
Experts warned that Britain could be impacted by rising prices in coffee, rice, sugar and cocoa as staple crops in tropical regions are hit by flooding and droughts.
“We could see an increase in food prices,” said Dr Nicholas Klingaman of the University of Reading.
“Typically in response to an El Nino event we see crops rise by about five to 10 per cent, particularly for staple crops like sugar, rice, coffee and cocoa and that’s because El Nino causes floods and droughts in many tropical regions where these crops are grown.”