Our world in miniature, hobbies

You'll have to be careful of fires in the undergrowth as the heat dries out the foliage.

Hi Philip, some of the wagons in one of these pictures appear to be "tin plate"? How old would they be?

Hi Mick, No tinplate anywhere. Some of our stock is sixty years old.

Hi Philip. Thought you might like this picture I have found. It is Mecanno's Binns Road Factory in Liverpool, midd 1920's. Production line making Hornby Railways.

That's lovely, Thank you! They were in competition with Basset's of Germany. O gauge, both electric & clockwork. A surprise to most folk, was the power supply for the electric trains. Full mains voltage. Not many homes had mains electricity in those days. Certainly no health & safety.

Hi Philip. I also have some OO/HO coaches that were made by Rovex, I guess they are early 50's Best wishes Mick

Hi Mick, In this scene, a 3f 0-6-0, has arrived with the first of the summer fruit trains from Broom. The shunter just visible is waiting for access to the reception siding so as to detach the vans from the back of the train, then deliver them to Arkwrights jam & pickle factory in Hounds Hill. It's a maximum length train, so the loco is at the buffers. Our railway, except for a steam shunter, was a steam free railway, so this is quite a surprise. Talk on the grapevine is that there is a Southern Regions 0-6-0 knocking around. Just to recap, hopefully for your enjoyment, Mick, the location of our railway is near where I live in Holbrooks. The names of the locations are themselves real. If you look on a heritage atlas, Hounds Hill & Burrow Hill, are located in the area of Corley. Longford Park, Bramble Lane, a corruption of Blackberry lane & so on. As a trainspotter, whilst the fast mainline trains were spectacular as they raced by, I enjoyed watching shunting going on. Loose shunting of coal wagons was fun to watch, where an over active shunter would send a loose wagon too fast, so hitting the static wagon so hard, that coal shot over the top into the next wagon. Them wert days.

Can I advise that the strawberries are particularly good right now?

With cream, Maddam?

However you like them. A bit of extra stupid cream is but one possibility.

Hi all, Once empty, the vans are taken to Longford for steam cleaning, ready for returning for new fruit. Two trains a week, one from Broom, the other from Basingstoke, with imported fruit from Southampton. In this picture, Southern Regions E class, the freight version of the infamous T9, waits to leave with empty vans, for the short trip to Tippers Hill yard, where more will be attached for its then longer trip south.

Hi all, I'm amazed at the picture quality off an everyday mobile phone.

Well, well & well, We've all heard the excuses as to why trains are not running. Mine because I like looking at it in the station. My fully restored blue & grey Mk1 Buffet Car, marshalled inside the Hounds Hill to Banbury daily service. I'm really chuffed, do you get it, "chuffed". To buy new from Hornby or Bachman, around £60+, but this little darling cost £19, it was a ready to run, but I needed to strip it, replace the four axles with Airfix, which were cannibalized from a scrap box. Then a lot of time 're-decorating, adding detail, the corridor connectors, correct buffers & subframe stuff. As said I'm really pleased. A longer view. The menus include a guaranteed three week old B.R. Pork pie, & Lions fruit pie. Please enjoy.

Hi all, I went to chapel on Sunday. Not much happens on Sundays. The Sunday evening parcels can be seen in Bishops Heath, due to leave at 9pm for Curzon St. The parcel service had to be reinstated as Grove couldn't cope.

For the model train fans It starts Thursday the 19th at 9pm on More4.