Our world in miniature, hobbies

Is the third rail live Philip? I ask because I spent several summer holidays in Kent where one of the amusements after dark was watching sparks fly from the pickup shoes.

Hi again, No, not live, just pretend. The above instruction info shows that each chair has to be individually glued to the sleeper. By utilising white sleepers & trimming them, the fact that they fit perfectly between the running line sleepers means that they are held in place like a glove. The illusion is nearly complete. Conductor rail sparks Sparks closer to home I have just experimented with a short section of conductor, using just one sleeper chair & it is ok, sandwiched between the running line sleeper. Also, it looks as though my grandson may have a few odd pieces of concrete sleeper track.

Hi all Back to steam, Jubilee Hong Kong has replaced the WD for this week, undergoing a tube inspection in Bramble Grove depot. In our fiction stories of Hall Brooks, Grove depot was in times past a significant depot when this was a through line to Coventry power station, but is now only suitable for basic servicing & cleaning. Sorry about the leaf litter on top of the bus, I must remember to check for debris after doing any job. Just fitted a cab floor & doors to the Jub. The tender coupling is not close enough to the loco but adding the floor helps to disguise the gap. I need to colour the cab doors too. The real enjoyment of our model railway for me is the stories behind the people. I would like to think that I was the fitter inspecting the tubes, or the person buying petrol at the garage from the mechanical Fina petrol pump paying 3/9d per gallon, whilst watching the dial hands go around. Imagination is a wonderful thing, couple with memories. Being very serious now, a lesson that my mum told me was the value of letting our hair down or getting lost in a theatre drama. I often ponder just how many stress related illnesses might have been prevented by a weekly dose of relaxing fiction. Ok, when the matinee is finished, we have to come back to reality, but are our minds in a better state to handle it?

For Midland Red & Dutchman, As well as Hong Kong, bought two years ago, we have the first Palitoy (Bachmann spam-can motor) Jub, Orion, which I bought at a bankrupt stock sale in Stratford upon Avon, about thirty years ago. I bought the Bachmann weathered flywheel jub about 1992. Did I mention that I like Jubilees. All very good runners.

Hi Midland Red, Sadly, both locos have been reduced to freight duties, even though the Jubs were never given an official freight rating. A phrase used by loco men "too high on the wheel" meant that the Jubs were not so sure footed on freights, noticeable when they were replacing a Hall or a Grange for a similar duty. It may have been that a different driving technique was required but I will never know that. In our fiction stories, these two Jubs are heading for Banbury yard with a freight from Washwood Heath. Edit. It gets worse, as the returning freight today had a pair of class 25 Sulzers growling away. They do look nice though. There are two pannier tanks knocking around Tippers Hill (Tippers Hill is the local depot & shed next to our imaginary junction with the Nuneaton to B'ham line at Fillongley) which look as though they will trundle down to Hall Brooks. One on parcels & the other with vans for cleaning.

Hi all Certain jobs on our railway, I need to be in that right frame of mind or kick started. If you look at my post on the 17th Nov, a visit by a forum member & his wife did just that. Today, following my & Pam's visit to the home of another forum member, I am so uplifted that a job which I have been putting off for ages has been completed this evening. The railway planted trees, both to screen the houses in "The boulevard" as well as to help stabilise the sandstone cliff, were in need of straightening as well as being re-foliaged, so that is what we have done. These trees are made from a sea-weed, the woody nature remains very stable for years. I might even add a couple of new trees tomorrow where there are gaps. So, for our railway, it is springtime into summer. I have also freshened up the sandstone cliff rock-face with water colour, as well as re-grassing the top, up to the brick wall & wooden fence. I do hope that you like. ps Thinking, as I am reading my own post, the fact is that as much as I enjoy our railway, deep-down, it's the people that matter most, the imaginary people on the model, but when I have been uplifted, like I have today, somehow, it is those whose company that I have been in, who I project into the model. Whether in an abstract art form as here, or stood somewhere on the model. This might sound barmy to some, but this is exactly how it is.

Hi all, Ooooooooooooooow! I have just ordered one of these 2 BIL units. I do hope that our regular forum passengers, will enjoy the comfort of these vintage electrically powered trains. They last ran in regular services in 1956 in the south London area. They are iconic, designed in the 1920s & upgraded several times up until the early fifties. For our forum ladies, they are similar to our steam hauled non-corridor suburban coaches, except that they collect the current from the third rail. If demand increases between Bishops Heath & B'ham Curzon St, we might in the new year have a Bachmann more modern version dating from the early sixties.

I hope the ladies get seats, as I think they are generally full to overflowing

Hi There are two, third rail electrified platforms at Bishops Heath, & the fiddle yards that they run into will each accommodate two 2 BIL units. If there is overcrowding, then we will add a more modern 2 Sub unit, in the new year, giving two trains an hour. The parcels might have to be diverted via Three Spires. Of course, it will mean the end of the last steam hauled local to Leamington, as the DMU that the EMU will replace will cover that service. This is a last ditch attempt to keep Bramble Lane station open. I wonder if there will be big crowds to see the last steam hauled local. A pannier tank has been in charge of that this week. This sounds like a joke, but I went to several last train services in Coventry & Warwickshire.

One of the scenes that will vanish, as more services become multiple units. This is how the editorials used to read in our railway magazines during the sixties. On the subject of the 2 BIL units. These trains were the basis of the original London to Brighton Pullmans. One of my favourite interlude films in old black & white days was the 4 minute journey film.

Hi all Two of our regular commuting forum ladies are engaged in conversation with the driver of Coventry's first third rail electric 2 BIL unit. Notice that although there is no corridor connection between the carriages, these units did have internal corridors for access to the toilets. Also full first class compartments, which I have to tell you have been totally sold out for use by our forum members. (Hey, I am actually starting to believe this). In our fiction, the electric third rail has been laid between Bishops Heath (that's in the picture) to our imaginary destination at Curzon St in B'ham. I would like to think, though, that if Rupert can have a lift going from Nutwood to China, then any of our members can have our train going to wherever they want & if that means down-under, then so be it. "Hold tight"

As Philip himself would say.... Brill!

Hi all Thank you Tony. Our model railway is totally fiction, or, how I would have liked a railway to have been in Coventry. View any of the fabulous model railways on YouTube & you will soon see what a fires up a particular modeller. My contacts with family in Cornwall have left an indelible mark on me which is why I have such a soft spot for the Southern Region railways. The sight of the steam hauled Atlantic Coast Express that travelled from Waterloo to Padstow, which at its height of activity departed as three separate trains from Waterloo on summer Saturdays, but upon reaching Padstow (its furthest westerly point) was often just one loco with two carriages. The train held the record for the number of destinations that bits of it were broken off to reach at various points en route. Sadly, nothing like that in Coventry. Coventry only had through stations, so for me as a child on hols in Padstow, it was fascinating to watch the procedures as the stock was shunted around for cleaning, whilst the loco was detached & sent back, light engine for servicing & turning at Wadebridge, in readiness for the return working the next day. Almost a world apart from Coventry. Often as not, the loco was an unrebuilt West Country, so you see why I like them on our railway. The nearest that the Southern region reached to Coventry, was Banbury or Cheltenham St James (closed in the 1960s). There was a period when the Southern had summer Saturday trains from Coventry to Bournemouth & I do remember the green liveried stock at the time, but the only Southern Region locos to ever appear were on specials.

Our forum ladies cannot believe their fortune as they are about to travel on Coventry's through service to Bournemouth. I will need to sort them out with a couple of suitcases, but for now, I am sure that they have sent their bags on in "Luggage-In-Advance". Now, who remembers that service, when on the Wednesday before the start of our hols, the big van came for your luggage? Like the EMU stock, this is fully compartmented with first class in the carriage hidden by the waiting room. Now, where's my ticket? The ACE according to Bradshaw started as Five trains at its peak, serving nine separate destinations. ps I live in one of those semis with outside loos in that picture, whilst to Pam's annoyance, her sister lives in the big detached house further along. Trouble is that she does not keep her overgrown vegetation in check and so constantly receives letters from the railway civil engineers.