Do you actually know what the local people think?

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I can post links to the various web sites which are against this development, where local people do not want it, if you wish. There are no doubt some who are also for it.

There is also the issue of the route of the road and what is being destroyed to makeway for it. (my point)

There is also the issue of funding to the linkroad being cut so perhaps any possibility of a bridge across this area has gone.

It has stirred up some strong feelings amongst some of those for and against it.

My gripe is about what is being destroyed using the current plan.

The local people I was referring to were the ones who walk through this area regularly and live nearby. I have spoken to one or two and also have seen comments on a facebook group concerned about the way developments have been done in Camborne about it as well.

My impression from what I have heard, read and seen is that more have spoken up against it than for it, but unless the council poll everyone in the area, the exact percentages relating to who is for and against this development will remain unknown.

But if anyone can show that the majority in this area are for the road and its current route, I will gladly revise any posting on the forum.

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Just like a question time audience and climate data, local views can be cherry picked on both sides.

(usually the wrong sort). :lol:

and don't forget all those who don't care or who are not bothered, until you tell them it will shave 30secs off from the journey time to Tesco's.... :confused:

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so are they going to have traffic lights at both ends of this new road? you need some way to start the raceing !!

The subject of the Robinsons Engine has been doing the rounds of late and talking to some of the guys at Claymills re this engine and the Nanttle Engine a while ago , one of them made the point....
The real difference here is that alot of waterworks engines were running quite late on and were fully maintained as back ups and that maintenance gave them a fighting chance into preservation as moving parts etc were pretty well greased and coated with oil etc. Removing rust and painting the rest is relatively easy and given most of the bits on a lot of these engines are in fairly good condition they don't have the same issues as looking at engines that havn't moved for 40 - 50 plus years"

I agree with the comments on funding for this idea, it would take a huge amount of contracted members such as with the Patriot and Tornado steam loco groups and they can only do what they are doing by earning revenue on the mainline once its built based on Novelty value. The trouble is with a beam engine it is only viable to run it on high days and holidays, most of the stationary engines around here that run were restored by skilled volunteers but were taken over before they had got to a bad state. Papplewick and the Cromford engines I believe have both had some outside funding but it has taklen them years of hard work and publicity to put the engines on the map by advertising the steaming days which in my opinion get well attended.
They even do weddings at one venue and themed visits in fance dress.... who cares as long as it keeps them running.

I too would love to see a Cornish Engine pumping water in Cornwall but the interest has to be there in the form of a large volunteer backing to do everything from Fund raising, Project Mgt, Labouring etc, on top of which you need professional engineers and accountants etc. We are lucky in rail preservation as we have alot of professionals who are interested. Then there is the issue of components which if missing or requiring replacement, the costs are astronomic as I cast items for these things on occasion at cost, pattern making and moulding, and finishing is very expensive unless you have your own workshops with machines and skilled turners, fitters etc.

Whilst I would willingly contribute to a project to see it running is there the technical base there to do this now, are there the volunteers to do the donkey work and is there the will within the powers that be and the community to see it through all the hoops of fund raising etc etc......????

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I would have thought that getting the engine to pump water would be nigh on impossible given all the nonsense about health and safety and the fact that you'd have to install pitwork back into the shaft. Would they make some more pump bodies, or would they cobble something together? Where would you get bits of wood that big from and how much would it cost. How would you get them down the shaft, given the headgear is in the way.

My mate Mike and I could do it using a couple of cars tied together, some old bits of rope and a 100m exclusion zone, however the method statements and risk assessments would drop a lung at the thought of this.

I'm not sure what a "condemned" shaft is, but i gather Robinsons is. This probably influences people doing stuff in it at all. Then we have the question of what it is going to pump and where from. Water is about -30m at the moment. If crofty start pumping (sorry, when) it will probably be a "tad" less than this. 600m ish? So, will there be a cistern in the shaft and what sort of risk does this pose (I gather Pool College weren't allowed a biology pond due to the mine).

Even the odd engines which pumped from adit to surface for a variety of uses (Little engine at united) used a fair bit of coal! That wasn't even an 80"

If they are to have the engine moving, I think the best, realisticly achievable (but still a very big task) would be to have a series of dams and a syphon system at adit level, operating the engine via it's pitwork.

The question would be, how much water could the adit system feed and how big would the cisterns have to be in order to overcome friction?

It's a load of coal to get the thing steaming! Is that what the road's for? Do they have a coalyard in the RDA thingy, or has it been replaced by a stainless steel sundial, or a sculpture which celebrates woman's role in creative candy, or something?

NB:- Also, I imagine, regardless of how lovely and romantic this all is, Crofty rightly would probably rather not have some people pissing about with big heavy things in one of their shafts.....also, I forgot, Robinsons has a very sad skip road and ladderway in it which would probably need to be removed before anyone even thinks about anything.

It's probably better that Mr Midas puts a showhome on top of the shaft and everyone gets on with their lives.

I'd have to agree that the only way to see an engine pumping would be to have it operated via its pitwork, driven in turn by some sort of sufficient flow from adit. It would need a set of pump bodies to survive in a usable state, and I don't know if this is so; or, you could simply have a waterwheel or turbine out of sight somewhere.

I don't believe any of this is viable at Robinson's, AFAIK, for a variety of reasons.

I'd have to agree that the only sensible course of action is to accept that Robinson's is a lost cause, or at any rate the RDA course of action will not be significantly changed

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One of the problems would be that any pumping would dry out the lodes in the area and everything adity in the area doesn't seem to collect much water. From what someone who I have talked to remembers, water in the Deep Adit section from Robinsons is slightly below adit and it's all quite dry. I think this may be due to the adit level of Roskear shaft being where most of the water in that area comes out of! That's slightly above New Dolcoath adit, which is slightly below most of the other, older deep adits.

I think the adit water idea is probably a non starter.

However, it would be possible to use some of the adit/shaft station as a bloody great big resevoir and then have a set of guides for the bottom of the rod, as well as a couple of cisterns above, one on the rod and one on the wall of the shaft. All fed by an electric pump, put the pump on, water gets pumped from resevoir to top cistern, upon being full, valve opens discharging water into rod cistern, engine makes down stroke, second valve opens, water discharges back into resevoir. By some careful tuning, it probably wouldn't take an olympic amount of water to operate. It would demand everything being in very fine balance. I imagine the inertia of all that kit as well as the friction is pretty big.

I suppose the next thing is to hack open the cylinder and install a bloody great big hydraulic ram inside!

Let's face it, the people who come to see it are either so interested that it's working doesn't matter, or are that ignorant, a video on the wall and the ability to walk around it probably suffice.

I can't see it being put back in steam in a million years. Even if it was, I couldn't see it being the outcome of any cost/benefit analysis, even a EURO/RDA one!

What would be a bloody good idea is opening the ladderways up and having a "through trip". Down Robinsons and up Palmers!!! Or a cage ride to the adit level and then up the ladderway.....forgot they took the guides out of the headgear.

NB:- The information I have about the adit system was from a third party who went there many years ago. It is very secure and all access points are heavily grilled/locked in wide open places.

As i said further up the only way i could see them getting the engine moving again would be Compressed air with Electric assist on the beam or maybe a gas steam boiler with electric assist and minimal/nuetral load on the engine to keep running costs to a minimum, the shaft cannot be used for anything if its been condemed by men with hi viz and clipboards, this would stop any chance of pumping from adit and im sure the yoghurt weavers would have something to say if you start stirring up the silt in crofty

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opened one day, the vandalism has already started (arson / fire last night at midnight! no damage, just paper)

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Perhaps they were protesting at the price of the parking. 😉

Interesting link :
http://www.heartlandscornwall.com/events/engine-house-tours-5.php 

It appears that some restoration is still on-going.

Also there is a small but growing Facebook group starting up protesting about the fact that the playground closes at 5pm.

They are probably annoyed at the fact that if you arrive their after school (4ish)or work, pay your £1.80 to park and then want to take kids to playground and/or tour the engine house (or not?)

Should you choose to visit on a weekend, they kindly raise the parking charges.
😠

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Perhaps it's a jibe at Pool Market matey, as everyone will park on his land.

If I remember rightly, rumour has it that some RDA bods wanted his site and he told them to foxtrot oscar.

I'd be interested to see the total budget for the project and every amount spent over £100.

I think the aim of the 3rd sector is (in the majority) to spend most of the money on themselves and then set about the task with the rest. Don't get me started on bloody charities.

Charging for the parking is ridiculous.

If they can afford to have a plane flying around all day with a banner saying 'Heartlands Open!' then they sure as hell can afford to give people free parking at their adventure failground.

If you want to know the information on costs then sumit a
"Freedom of Information Request"
To the councill.
They must reply within 20 working days.
I find that they will first try to fob you off but if you are persistant they will produce information.

Suggested format below.


Dear sir/madam,

I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the freedom of information act. In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as possible. If however this request is too wide or too unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

Enter your question here!!!


I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm by E-Mail that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.



Yours sincerely,
:smartass:

I'm split on Heartlands -
On the one hand its a great community facility that to be frank is greatly needed in the area. I spent quite a few hours up there last weekend, the grounds look great, the hard landscaped areas are fab, even the "Red River" is a nice feature. The play park the kids absolutely love, my niece spent an hour in there and we had to drag her out kicking and screaming!

More concerning to me is the heritage side - it has a very "arty" take to it - the audio visual show I just didn't get, to me it failed to show the Cornish Mining Industry at all. On the other hand my wife put it down to me thinking to literally and she found it very thought provoking (Shes doesn't get mining!) So perhaps if a new audience find it interesting it may have something right - myself I prefer KEM!

The controversial areas are the parking and the Cafe Firstly with the parking, the project has huge overheads in terms of staffing and needs to be self financing, one of there ways of achieving this is the parking. If you don't want to pay it then don't - theres plenty of free parking in the area.
The cafe on the other hand is bang out of order with what they are charging - £4.95 for a pasty, £4.75 for a sandwich or £2.95 for a piddly slice of cake! The aim of the project is supposed to be to give the locals somewhere to go - they are tourist attraction prices and locals going for a walk or to the park just won't pay it - as I am sure they will find in time - there is a pub across the meal where you can get a damn fine meal or Rowes Bakers within 2 minutes walk! I know what I'll be doing!

In terms of the capital cost - I don't really give a monkeys, the bulk of the funding was lottery grants that were going to be awarded to a large project somewhere in England - this one won the competition fair and square - there wasn't an option for the money to be spent on schools, hospitals or tax cuts - to me it was just fantastic to see the money spent here! And to be frank without it, what do you think the site would look like now? The chances are the entire site including the engine house would have been burnt down by now!

The point being,was it an authentic Cornish Pasty?

Although for £4.95 i d want to split it with an hachet.

I wouldn't know if it was authentic - I hope it was - but what self respecting Cornishman would pay £4.95 for a pasty! ;(

Well said Butty.