Our world in miniature, hobbies

I don't understand real auctions at all. It takes too much effort to work out how much stuff costs and then how to work out delivery. Ebay's much more user friendly. With anything, I work out how much I want the item (after a check to see if I can get it cheaper). Even if I've paid too much, if I was prepared to pay that much, I've not been robbed. Usually my feeling is 'I'm not paying that!'

Morning all, It's ages since I posted anything regards our railway, it's ages since I've done anything with it. Hardly surprising as Pam was such an integral part of our hobby. Yesterday, I ventured into the control room, where the spring natural light from outside is highlighting what needs attention. Artificial light is not so good. Winter light is ok, but the light from March onwards is so much better. Mechanically it's really good as I ventured forward with a set of sequences. The art & craft brushes will be put to use over the coming days. A busy scene at Hounds Hill, with two West Country light pacifics, both in passenger duty.

I've missed it. You're right, the light makes such a difference and the cool colours indicate that there's still a bit to go before spring proper. The way you capture it from different angles and distances makes it look like it's immense. I must have seen it before but I don't remember the water tank and barrel store. The attention to detail is a true art form in my opinion. Art requires skill and observation but too many examples of modern 'art' lack both.

Thank you, lovely Helen, Yes, what a bit of sunshine does.

Good evening all, Sunday evenings are the most profound in the sense of me missing Pam. A mostly very active social day, play commitments & so on, then suddenly, all quiet at home as I simmer my thoughts of the day & projections for tomorrow. I still enjoy a venture into the railway room, where for a few brief moments I'm lost inside the fiction of Hall Brooks. I can see Pam & I when in our courting days, wandering through Penny Park, even holding hands whilst sat on a park bench. Near to the Wheatsheaf pub, half a decade has passed where we two old souls are waddling along. The odd thing is, for those few brief moments, it's real & I love it. Not a sentimental thing, a happy thought, even though Pam isn't here. As I've explained before, Pam was very much part of the railway, actively involved in many construction areas. The sequins used for lenses of the signals were her idea. She rarely did much controlling, but did the real stuff like announcing that the parcel vans had been emptied ready for steam cleaning. In her mind, she meant it, just as I do in my imagination. She enjoyed the reality fiction associated with the fact that it's Sunday. No through trains, only a few local services, nothing venturing past the level crossing gates. It's just as though she is still here. I read an article recording what the children's author, Enid Blyton, had said about her writing her Famous Five & Secret Seven books, she became each of the characters in her mind & so enjoyed the re-living experience. Some things are so odd, hey! Goodnight all, sleep tight.

Keep those memories, Philip, we don't realise how precious they are until a change occurs.

As we get older Philip it is good to remember what you did when younger. Our son and daughter keep telling us we should do this and do that now, but we are quite happy just to sit and potter about the house and garden. They say we should go away but we can look back and think we have done a lot with our lives and we can live the memories. We may not have travelled to far continents but we have been to a lot of places in this country. We lived in Luxembourg for a couple of years and been to several places in Europe and done lots of things besides. We have the memories as you do, Philip. Your lives are still there in your head, so enjoy them.

Hello, A bit of a cold (I tested clear) kept me indoors for two days, but I recovered enough on Friday to give our railway a real good spring clean, including the time consuming fiddle yards. Prior to any touch up art work, that is, but it all appears to be ok. Taking all of the scenery sections off that cover the fiddle yards took around four hours, the cleaning & tutti-flutti took ten minutes. The casualty in that picture is the signalman. He's ok.

What happened to him? Did he fall down his steps or get whacked by one of the levers in his err... signal box area?? At this time of year your model needs dots of yellow, the dandelions are everywhere. Spring has very much sprung.

Hi Helen, I've enjoyed possibly the most lovely weekend since becoming a widower. An almost club like atmosphere, where the railway was really on its best behaviour. Working so well through a full sequence of trains. Enthusiasts who appreciate correct or prototypical operation. Everything finishing up in the correct place, so ready for the next operating session. So an evening out now for the five of us, at one of our favourite curry pubs, I'm not long home. So I've recorded some pics, only with my camphone, but so nice a scene, so tranquil compared to earlier hustle & bustle, when the site more resembled Clapham Junction. It's a big boys' toy that, just as my Hornby Dublo from when I was seven, became almost real, so now after four very adult visitors entered into the fiction minds along with me, each of us taking on a distinctive role, to ensure that every train & shunt movement would be satisfactory to the rail inspectors, it simply became real. And now as I'm drinking my nightcap, yawning away, I just wonder if once pus & I have gone to bed, the little figures on the railway all wake up & the trains, buses, cars & lorries all start working, all on their own. Is it my "Night Garden"? Thank you, Anne, for your comments too.

Hi all, Whilst our model is & will only ever be a model, the fiction of it in my mind I turn into a picture of reality. Longford was once the centre of the universe as far as our local coal industry existed until after the forties. The Craven & Alexandra colliery coal made its way onto the rail network at Longford. Longford was never an off-sales goods yard like Foleshill or Gosford Green were. In my fiction, I've evolved it into being both a small loco coaling siding as well as the coal yard. Even adding a small platform for parcels & peak time commuter service. That was once on the cards for Gosford Green in 1948. A lorry waits to move onto the weighbridge outside the coal office, having been filled by the mechanical bucket. The siding to the left is for loco coaling. The back of the coal office, the lorry almost out of sight, being weighed. Although the quality of picture is not to the standard of my SLR, I can at least get my mobile into small spaces, that my camera wouldn't. What a technology, hey!

Funny how we've spent so long living at ground level but observing models from above but now we can view the world from drones and get a person's eye view of the models.

Just for Helen on the subject of dandelions. The snag is, bright colours. When we look at something close up, we see very vivid colours. As distance is increased, so the colour fades. They become shaded by reflection & sky. On a model, we try to create the illusion of distance, so using bright colours in any volume is quite trying. I've added a bit of yellowing in the picture above, as well as dressing up Bishop Heath's tub garden. PS. Please keep away from the conductor rail, which when live carries 730volts at very high current. That is a siding sometime used to stable an EMU, over night. One colour associated with railways is the plant, Rosebay willowherb. On models, that has to be taken right down from its close up bright pink. Your comments please.

Looks good, Philip, but more like gorse than dandelions. I always thought that gorse was a random weed like bush but the medieval Conventronians would have deliberately harvested it to use in animal fencing and the storage of grains. The idea was that putting gorse under and around stored wheat and oat stems would stop mice and rats climbing into the stores. It would also allow air to circulate underneath to keep the seeds from getting damp and sprouting. Not sure how successful it was as later store houses were sat on stone toadstools to stop creatures climbing up at all. Your flowerbed looks like it has primroses or narcissi. I'm sure the staff would never have allowed dandelions on show. I used to live by a reservoir and rosebay willowherb was rife. I see it much less now.

Philip, I am most disappointed to see there are no 'For Sale' boards in your village, but now see why. I would love to live there. I can almost smell fish 'n' chips. I dare not ask what the property market is like.