Our world in miniature, hobbies

Here are a few pics of my Model railway - MSTS in computer form... A few pics of my Swiss route I'm working on. It's played out in real time, and took me about 3 months to complete the route. I have also done a route from Milton Keynes to Stafford via Coventry, and B/ham New St etc, using BR / V. traction and coaches. The rolling stock, buildings, trees, etc are all downloaded and are copyrighted by their owners, Only the downloader can use them on there routes, and are not for selling on. If you have MST Simulator, then try out UK Trainsim .com.

Hi Baz, My grandson has several virtual reality railway programmes, but my first experience of a night pilot aeroplane flight simulator has put me off for life. Please don't ever fly Phily-Fly, as I am hopeless at landing! I am not sure where I might drift out to today, in the shade most likely. Thank you for your post & pictures & you keep cool today.

Hi all In a week of news that most of us in Coventry have dreaded, sometimes we have to return to what we have in our own lives & what we value. I tell you what, I very much value our members on our forum. The sight of the two class 37 locos on the special train to York, recently has prompted me to consider adding another class 37 to our fleet of diesels at "HallBrooks". I am sure that Mayjan, Tricia & Annewiggy would be delighted to be trainspotting at Hounds Hill & see one of these brutes go by. ( Am I on the right planet, I wonder?). It will have to be on-line order from Hattons in Liverpool if we do decide to buy. Is that Dutchman that I can see on the far platform? The class 37s were the first really reliable main-line diesels that I saw in the Coventry area, 1958 onwards. They were nearly as powerful as a Stanier 8f steamers, & considerably faster. Built by English Electric, mostly in Staffordshire, there quality is proven by the few that are still in service today.

Photo for Philip in case he's getting withdrawal symptoms!

Hi & thank you Midland Red. With commercial advertising for model railways on main-stream tele' now, it is very difficult to escape from railways, even if I wanted to. Heaven forbid!

I assume you mean the Model Railway Village magazine Philip? Your Model Railway Village The first issue is good value at

Hi & thank you Dutchman. I cannot remember model railways figuring on main stream tele' advertising since Hornby teamed up with BT's yellow pages adverts. Regards the actual model, "Little Benton", it is a roundy-roundy. So many model people like them, but I never have. I like the idea of a train going somewhere, rather than the same train at Silverstone. Make no mistake though, there are many licenses taken with our Hall Brooks. The fact is that to reproduce a prototypical model railway in 00 would need a quarter of an acre in space, as well as modelling skills that I don't have. One of the snags with Hall Brooks is that it is a slow railway, so is of little interest to anyone but a model enthusiast. Once a train has passed, that is it. Just like the real railway, which is why young trainspotters in the fifties would sometimes get up to mischief to kill the boring time, waiting for the next train. ps. The other big snag with Little Benton is that it is mounted on a flat board. That means the scenery only comes up. Just using Coventry as an example, nearly two thirds of our local railways, the scenery is below rail height. I recorded this picture on the day that my first Hornby Grange arrived, nearly eight years ago. This kind of picture requires the railway to be above the scenery. The other big snag with Little Benton, is that you need a huge room to put that into. What usually happens is a board like that gets pushed into the corner of a room & as we all lack a six-foot arm reach, half of the model is inaccessible. It needs the same space almost as a billiard table. Imagine that in anyone's average size room. On our Hall Brooks railway, which is basically an L shaped layout which utilises one corner as a dumbbell U return. The bit where the windmill is. That is almost inaccessible for me without steps, which I only access once in a blue moon for maintenance. I have home made tools specifically designed to clean the track on that section. A decade on since I started Hall Brooks, I put up with the none-scale sharp curve of the U return, doing all I can to hide it with the station building this side. There are no points or any complications. The sharpness of the curve is highlighted by N class hauling a local goods to Burrow Hill yard, indicated by the fact that the junction signal is cleared. Both of these pictures are from about the same date. I swapped the N class with a friend, for his B1.

That top picture looks like The Duchess of Montrose which I used to have on my old 3 rail Hornby layout.

"Duchess"?????? Other than the colour Disorganised, I'm afraid I can't see the slightest resemblance? Hornby-Dublo Duchess of Montrose

Hi, It's a Southern region N class 2-6-0 mid range mixed traffic loco. Common on the secondary lines on all of the Southern region, right up as far as Cheltenham St. James.

You're right Dutchman - my memory is evidently not all I think it is.

There's a great deal of speculation about the origin of the moulds being used in the new partwork with the most popular suggestion being old Bachmann ones. Apparently due to the cheap introductory cost people have been buying several copies as a cheap source of carriages for repainting and detailing. By the way is anybody else going to the N gauge show this weekend at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre? If you're free on Saturday or Sunday it's well worth a visit - just don't forget your glasses if you wear them

There's been a big response from existing railway modellers but I suspect non-modellers are thinking: a) "