Our world in miniature, hobbies

Good evening all. Mondays are usually my domestic duty day, but getting a good toe hold of that first thing, I'm also able to enjoy some choo choo time. Bishops Heath, originally a parcels depot, but seized upon by the Southern Region takeover nearly a decade ago now, is a fast EMU route to Curzon Street, for both passengers & parcels. The platform lengths were totally inadequate, so whilst laundry was airing, I've lengthened both platforms.

Oh dear, modernisation is really kicking in. We could now comfortably operate a non-steam railway at Hall Brooks, not all blue, but certainly authentic for between 1966 and 1977. & Whilst our national rail network descends into striking chaos, our Hall Brooks railway is booming. New trade from the recently opened direct line to Rugby via Gosford Green. What a pip.

Hi all, I love the intrigue of old ruins. I'm glad nowadays that a bit more public pressure is brought to try & ensure that historical buildings are kept in some measure at least. We have all witnessed the distress that the civil works associated with HS2 has brought during the last & current decade, so just imagine the canal & railway engineers having freewill in the past, how little attention was paid to buildings that "were in the way". I'm fascinated by the articles that our members bring to our forum. Helen's current article about the Cook St Gate & Swanswell Gate is rich. When joined by Anne & Neil, we've got a university degree on going. Over the years, I've visited many such that are simply in a state of complete ruin. Many in Scotland, but maybe Cornwall takes the biscuit for such industrial ruination, whilst Scotland is littered with economic abandonment. One of my Hall Brooks contributions to this industrial sabotage is just a remaining gated wall. I was going to build it into a substantial ruin of some kind, still a possibility in the future, but who knows? Thank you to all of our team & members who so painstakingly bring this history alive. Brill!

Philip, your gate reminds me of the arbour that was in Little Palace Yard and later the Memorial Park. Perhaps you could put a lion on top?

To me it looks like the gates into the Barracks. Will there be bunting next weekend?

Philip. Just how much more room do you have to spare to spread your amazing miniature world? I would hate to see some having to be replaced after all the building and landscaping you have designed. Dare I ask what plans are on you mind for the future?

Well, Dreamtime, Continuing to add flowered gardens, to improve the visual aspect, but possibly an easier to use desktop control system. A couple of visitors arrived yesterday for an evening play trains session, where such would make it simpler to operate. Hope you are ok. It's lovely to have conversation with you. Love Philip. This morning's parcels about to leave Bishops Heath for Curzon Street.

Thank you, Philip. I do believe it's such projects like yours that make this world a smaller place - excuse the pun. I can't imagine the hours you have spent and what you are thinking when working on it. I think the details alone look mind boggling. Just imagine how many of us members may be looking in at it right now. Your imagination is a gift. It takes me back to see my father's model planes he had hanging in his shed, mainly bombers and the like, plus the smell of the warm glue pot. I would stress they were the days before television. What would we do without our memories (as said by many of us). Goodnight, take care.

Hi all, I've been doing Rhododendrons, I hope. Very therapeutic.

Hi all, it's story time. I've been asked by so many folk, well one anyway, what keeps the railway economics going since the demise of the quarry. It's like this. That was the question that I asked myself right at the start of Hall Brooks as a project. A serious conversation then took place between Pam & I. We didn't want any nasties. No armaments or the like, we wanted something nice. So a jam & pickle factory was our choice. At the time, the last Pan-Yan pickle had been produced as the Suffolk factory plant had burnt down. So, that's about it. Our late friends Ted & Jean took over the old textile factory & started producing all kinds of bottled fruit. It made a good operation for trains, delivering the fresh fruit & stuff, whilst the washed vans take away the bottles & jars. Trainspotters in the fifties & sixties might remember the chaos at Evesham passenger station during high fruit yield times. Ted & Jean's Jam & Pickles factory. Pickles & jams being loaded. What do you mean? I am taking the pills.

Funny you should mention jam... I just bought some scones and I think I'll go looking for the strawberry stuff to go with the cream. I wonder if it might be from your factory. Yummmm. I liked the rhododendrons but in the garden I'm partial to azaleas.

Hi all, Folk are so kind! A gent at the Saturday local church coffee morning that I often attend gave me a gift today. An ornamental footbridge intended as a fish tank ornament. Well, it's in place. Once the glues are set, Monday, even in this dry atmosphere, I can finish the detailing. I'm absolutely taken over with delight. It wasn't so long ago that a D-Di ice cream van arrived from a not very well forum member. I'm so grateful. Hope you like. These pictures highlight the need to line the viaduct arches, very easy to do using toilet roll cardboard, but, at present I need to see through to the plug selectors, so until I modify the position of those, mentioned on a previous post, lining will have to wait. I've two of the four brooks of Holbrooks, not sure where the other two are on our railway. The second brook, by the Romany caravan, copied from an earlier post.

They look like my railway trees. I wondered where they came from.

Hi Philip, they do look fake. I think that they're the trees that were planted before the war. They look odd because they were pollarded?

Most of our railway trees are cut up & reshaped wire brushes. Now you can laugh.