Our world in miniature, hobbies

Hi Tricia, Hi all Not a lot happens at Hall Brooks on a Sunday, being a very secondary of secondary branch lines running off the Foleshill line. Empty parcel coaches have just arrived from Tippers Hill, (our fiction junction with the Nuneaton to Birmingham line) & await detachment & marshalling into the parcels bay by the pannier tank just visible in Bishops Heath. The pannier tank crew have not long finished their "Heel of the loaf". Very crusty though, Tricia! ps Whilst shopping at the Ricoh recently, I watched a mature gent being disciplined by his wife for breaking off the corners of her just paid for loaf & eating them. What a pip! Edited by PhilipInCoventry, 1st Dec 2013 10:48 pm

Hi all One of our forum ladies is a bit under the weather, so I hope that this pic will cheer her up, as she & a friend are still stood on Bishops Heath platform. Also, super power for the evening parcels in the shape of WD 2-8-0. It picks up more parcel vans on route & by the time it reaches Curzon St, it is over fifteen coaches long. It's normally a Class 25 Sulzer that powers this service. For our friends Midland Red & Dutchman, I hope to have a Coventry landmark advert on our Hounds Hill overbridge soon. I hope that you like. Picture moved to post 789.

Thank you Philip, that's lovely. I do feel a lot better today, pains in the head subsided. Had a good nights sleep too.

Hi all Picture with natural daylight. I have experimented with coloured bulbs & even room d

Hey Mayjan, You get better soon do you hear. You shouldn't hang around on station platforms too long. Philip, your latest picture is 'spot on' - thank you.

It's amazing the difference in lighting makes!

Hi Pannier tank resting in between shunting duties in Longford Park. For this photo, all of the room lighting was off. I allowed light from the hallway to enter. The camera shutter was open for nearly a minute.

Reading the article about Airlite, it mentions using Sundella board for the panelling - I think this may be a mis-spelling of Sundeala board, which I seem to remember was highly recommended to railway modellers as a baseboard some years ago! Post copied from topic Coventry Steel Caravans Ltd by Midland Red, 8th Dec 2013 8:23 am

Hi, Sundeala board is still used by railway modellers, the snag with it is that it swells when damp & a spilt cup of coffee can be disastrous. On our Hall Brooks railway, the main running area is under battened chipboard with hessian (upside down carpet) as the softer surface. As Hall Brooks is an open framework, we need more strength or integrity than Sundeala, for the running surface, so upside down hardboard being used, which is strong enough to hold small screws. I may move this post more appropriately later.

Hi all, A non-railway job in the railway room completed whilst Pam is out shopping meant that I decided to reward myself with a coffee, sat just daydreaming whilst looking at our railway, pretending that I am there. No locos about, just the two parcel coaches in the parcels bay and empty fruit vans in the down siding. Our two forum ladies delighted at the winter sunshine following yesterdays bad weather. ps. I have often wondered what Coventry would have been like with a third rail electric system. On our model, it would be very easy to add the third conductor rail, similar to the check rails visible in the picture. Food for thought, hey! We might just be having a two-sub unit from Surbiton to Bishops Heath. Next stop, London Bridge.

Didn't know there were any 2-subs 3- or 4-subs, yes, or is this just a fantasy railway!!!!!!!

Hi all, Washing nets & a clean window allowed me to record this picture of our railway from outside, a view that is rare for me too. Part of the fiction of our railway is that it is intended to be a happy place, where sadness is not part of the scene. Sadly, this is the real fiction, because for many people sadness is all too real. The events recorded on our forum just in the last forty eight hours are enough to blow away any myth of there being somewhere that is without sadness. I actually believe that there is such a place, but that is my belief, & is of little value to anyone else. I am so caught up with the misery that so many are feeling just now.

Perhaps if those two ladies used the trains instead of standing around gossiping all day, stations would not have to close