Our world in miniature, hobbies

Hi Philip Croft Quarry is only three miles from where I live. Aggregate Industries have recently put forward proposals to expand Croft Quarry and extend the lifespan of the site. They plan to further extract minerals from the site and then to fill-in the quarry with inert materials such as clay, soils, concrete and rubble. Ultimately, the plan is to create a long-term wildlife park for the local area and avoid the dangers associated with other quarries filled with water.

Hi 3Spires, That's fascinating. During its full operational days, there was always activities in the extensive sidings at the quarry. Thank you so much for that.

I'll have cod and chips, just salt please and after I'll pop in to the tea room and have a chocolate

So much of my life, Helen, is fantasy. Amateur drama, kind of thing. When I'm reading a book, or listening to a radio play, I like to get right inside of the characters. So, on our railway, I really am the signalman, or the porter. I'm Ted doing his garden. In drama I did the parts of small people. Jimmy Clitheroe, comes to mind. Doing the laundry today, I was "Wishy-Washey", a panto character. Accountants often die young, so maintaining sanity was paramount for me. Drama was perfect as I was able to get lost inside the character. Gone off subject now, but I like Bulgarian jam!

LITTLE BOYS TOYS. The clay wagon train, with guards vans at both ends (two reversals on route), were despatched from Grove to Hounds Hill, behind Diesel Hydraulic class 22. They now wait for a gap in traffic & a loco to continue their journey to Croft, via Water Orton. An otherwise light engine running towards Nuneaton will be used to take the load as far as Water Orton. Probably a Leicester loco will complete the journey back to Croft. I should take the loads out of the wagons, but please ignore that. Having sufficient fiddle yards does so aid prototypical running. Those wagons will sit in a fiddle yard, might not see them again for weeks. I brought a freight train out of a fiddle yard today, headed by a Southern Region S15 steamer, on a through train that I don't think I have seen since Christmas week. The S15 returned light later this afternoon, I haven't a clue when it will be seen again. We have two what I call 'once in a blue moon' fiddle yards. One of them has an express passenger train, with smooth casing West Country locos in both directions. Oh I've got this so bad, hey!

Hello again, it's me/him. Anyway. Getting the colours & scenery texture right, to me is so important, so I appreciate natural daylight. Modelling railways is thought of as a wintertime hobby, but the best of artificial light never replaces sun & shade for me. What railway time I have had today, precious little actually, has been looking at what needs attention when I have the time. I do have a couple of so called natural daylight spot lamps, but they are for night time operating, not art work. I so enjoyed seeing those China clay wagons, I've added them as a schedule to the timetable. Ted's started manufacturing hot water bottles for next winter, in his factory, well, can you think of something better? I have a few more of those wagons, some with canvas tent hoods. Before Pam became so ill, I had marked out the space for an industrial estate, including a gas works & holder. That's in the vicinity of the Wesleyan chapel. They could rarely afford expensive sites, like my own chapel in Foleshill, right next to the old Foleshill railway station. So, there we are, I like Bulgarian jam Good night all. Faller gas holder assembled kit. Our Wesleyan chapel in situ. Looking over the small engine shed, you can see the chapel in the distance, then the petrol & car repair garage. There's sufficient space to put the gas tank, but needs a lot of work for it to sit & look right.

The Foleshill gas holder is vaguely familiar to me, working in Little Heath and living in Longford. I seem to remember missing out on seeing them blow it up from the tall red brick building at the north end of the Courtaulds site but there would have been a good view. I curse that digital cameras weren't really a thing by then or I would have some cracking photos and the skyline and the buildings.

Hi Helen, The Faller kit, of German origin I believe, I chose because they model HO scale at 3.5mm per ft, not 4mm as in the UK. So it sits slightly smaller in the restricted space that I have available, when I get round to it. The reason for this scale difference is that the original gauge scale was called half O, or HO in Germany where the hobby was developed. Their locos were much bigger than ours. British model makers couldn't get reliable electric motors inside models of British locos, they being so much smaller, so they increased the scale size, but kept the track gauge, renaming it OO.

I had OO guage myself at one point but my sister's N gauge put it to shame - though to be fair she is 6 years older than me. If I ever make a physical version of Coventry I was thinking T gauge. I have a slight affection for industrial buildings but it's the old style cooling towers that make me sentimental. Courtaulds Little Heath had a mini one and in the gravel at its base were suitably miniature poppies, perfect in every way but about a tenth of the normal side.

My Pam bought some Liliput ornaments that adorn our railway. This Romany caravan is one of them.

Hi all, The Fridays only service to Banbury, increased to three coaches, such is the demand. The Owen Owen ornament in view, along with a couple of fish tank ornaments.

Hi all, My previous post on the hobby of my lifetime was 7th May. The intervening four months absence doesn't need much explanation, hey, but our railway is still there, intact, used & in good order. Folk talking about "Three Spires" on our forum has lit me up so nice. Out of site, at the far end of Mill Hill tunnel, we have our imaginary Three Spires junction, but on our railway, it's been upgraded to a passenger station. On a model like ours, we can do that where we have out of site storage fiddle yards. It's behind the scenes scenario as in a stage play. Autumn gathering time as now, my attention is turning to my hobby. The one name in our city that is not anywhere in Hallbrooks at present is "Croft". So that is in my fiction mind now. Tunnels on railways often had more than one common name. For example, Berkswell tunnel is officially called Beechwood tunnel. On our railway, some folk call Mill Hill tunnel by its common name, Three Spires. I have to have names, the names have to make sense, the correct chronology as well as the topography making sense. It's no good me pretending that a line used to continue on, if there's a church that predates it in the way. I've written fiction stories, a bit like Rupert stories, so it all has to connect up.

You should write some children's stories, you've got an audience of a few big kids I don't ever want to grow up completely. Have you ever been to one of the Heritage Open days for model railways? There are two days this weekend. Coventry Model Railway Club