Our world in miniature, hobbies

Hi Dreamtime, Hi all The pub is called the Wheatsheaf. I have kept the pub, the same name as Hornby had labelled it. I have happy memories of my time with the Coventry Wheatsheaf orchestra. Bramble Grove has another rare visitor in this pic, where a type 4 originally Brush designed diesel electric loco is resting. The TOPS numbering system reclassified these locos as class 47, lasting in regular service right up to today, most reclassified as 57. Can anyone update me on this?

Love both Philip I must be inside the pub getting Jan & Tricia & Dreamtime s drinks.

Of course it was the Wheatsheaf Philip, see what happens when I have one B & Coke too many. Did you know they do a nice Ploughman's lunch in there too

Only a total of 33 Class 47's were rebuilt by Brush into Class 57's Philip. The Class 57 has a reconditioned EMD (USA) engine and traction motors reclaimed from a Class 56. Class 57's used to be regular performers in this area when Virgin operated 16 of them. Sadly that is no longer the case; indeed Virgin no longer operate any locos at all, just Pendolinos (electric) and Voyagers (diesel).

Hi all There now remains three principle projects to complete on our HallBrooks railway. Track ballasting. A messy job. Mer-control of points & signals. An intricate job, that needs good eyes. Also, with Morgana's garden pictures in mind, my favourite kind of job, forestation or landfill. Now that the railway is complete end to end, no more track laying or changes, so to speak, it is my intention to add more none railway detail, on portable surfaces, which can be moved under the railway when we want to use the room as the music room. The postman has just delivered two bags of readymade trees from China. Trees are among the most difficult item to model, most of the trees you see on our railway are home made, from seaweed & all manner of materials. Some are ready-made that I have received as gifts. The difficulty is borne out by the fact that they are often absent from model railways. They can be bought from model shops, but are very expensive. The total cost of the fifty trees in the bags from China is less than £10, which is why I am giving them a try.

Can't wait to see your trees Philip on your model. I just hope they are not on the UK banned evasive plant list least they will come in to your house and dig them out

Hi all Tar tanks just arrived in Hall Brooks & are being shunted into Longford Park. No more leaky roofs hey, When the light is right, I will get a better photo later. Whilst showing off with our railway, I do enjoy any skill at whatever. I cannot knit, but I am very grateful for those that can. I cannot plaster a wall, but I love watching a plasterer plastering a whole wall doing in an hour in what takes me a day to do when I am filling a small hole or crack. So it is with model railways. In the next pic, is a (not Swindon built) but a Phily built "Airfix" kit of a Prairie Tank that I assembled in 1976ish for my son's railway. In those days, I funded my hobby by building two kits of any locomotive simultaneously & selling one of them. This is one from that era. You can see it on my album file running on my sons railway from all those years ago. In spite of its age, it is a good smooth runner, even though it is a little noisy compared to modern motors & gears on current locos. In the picture, it is area pilot for the next week at Hall Brooks. ps As it is such a good runner, I may add more detail to it, noticing that it has no vacuum or steam heating pipes. Assembling kits was easy for me, I worked hard to achieve good reliable runners. The person that I do so miss, is my best mate Mick Gibbs, who died from cancer just a few years ago. He gave me all the help & advice that I needed for me to paint & finishing. It took me a week to assemble the average loco, but a month or more to paint it. I am really pleased with my efforts to get this prairie loco with its sooty look finish, with top of boiler grime-shine as I used to call it. Thank you so much Mick. I hope that now you are painting the heavens with you skills with paint brushes. That is no jest of a comment from me. I mean every vibe.

Hi all The latest pictures from Midland Red on our real railway topic & conversation with Arthur, have induced me to have our own local tar wagons. Thank you both so much. In this scene, three empty tar wagons are being returned to Manchester, included in our Banbury to Bescot freight link as it thunders by Bramble Lane crossing. Grove goods platform is accommodating our local Folehill Gasworks tar tanks, No1 & No2 which have just arrived empty from Whitely Wharf. I have no idea of the numbering style, relying on the memory of a former gas worker. If anyone does know what they were like, please can you tell me.

Playing trains, or big boys toys as some call it, is little different for me now, than when I had my first Hornby Dublo train set in 1953. Imagination was the key where somehow, what I was doing was pretending to be real. Continuing the theme of our local railway operation, in the next picture, the two local tar wagons, now refilled from Foleshill gasworks, are included in a short goods train, assembled in Longford Park, now waiting in Hounds Hill for the clear line to Whitley Wharf sidings. I have learned that since the sidings were off the down side of the Rugby to Coventry line, these trips to Whitley often used the Coventry voiding line, where at Humber Rd, it worked wrong line onto the down main, the loco then running around its train so as to propel it to the wharf. Guards vans at both ends were essential for this. This local train headed by a Coventry allocated filthy 3f, travelling tender first, will not get the all clear until the Banbury to Bescot has passed. The Banbury to Bescot freight had priority over all freight trains around Coventry, with the exception of the Blue Spot Fish freight train to Birmingham when it ran. An extract from Whitley history states that --; "An interesting curiosity about Whitley is that it must be the only suburb of Coventry, which does not have a street in it. It has roads, avenues, closes, ways, lanes, a drive, a grove, a village and a corner (work that lot out!) but not a single street. For several years, in the twenties, there were even residences in Whitley known as Railway Carriage Bungalows, numbers 1 to 8. These were at Whitley Wharf, adjacent to London Road railway bridge, and they are believed to have been old London and North Western Railway carriages converted to living accommodation for railwaymen". So, playing trains, my expression to start this post comes to an end for this weekend, the picture telling its own story, like "Bag Puss" where all of the live characters, go back to being just a picture, ready for the next operating session.

They both look great Philip what is the church in the last photo. Last week the train by the gas works was carring tankers like you see on the tanker lorries. Where have you placed your new trees.

Hi Morgana, It is based on St Wilfreds, Arley. It is a modified Hornby kit which I have added a sandstone finish.

Yes know it well relations live there owned Jacksons camping. I t is a lovely church, wonder if the red sand stone came from the same place as Coventry s. I was reading the other day some ones memory s during the war the old Radford school was build with red sand stone.