Our world in miniature, hobbies

Behind the houses to the right of Rowley's Green Lane when walking from Wilson's Lane? Allegedly, the crater was caused by a stray bomb from an attack on Poppe and White's munitions during WW2.

Hello, Thank you both. I love the drama, mixing reality with fiction, so it's got a sense of purpose, but only in my mind, hopefully never extending off the model. Thank you for sharing your memories & recollections. I regularly use YouTube ambiance videos, often varying from night time, day time, street scenes, peaceful picnic scenes. Then on another device, railway sounds. Another Ambiance Video. In reality, the Severn valley suffered a mishap when an empty coach train was reversing into the platform at Kidderminster, hit & demolished the buffers stops, as well as damage & derail of the coach.

Hello, First train of the Day, Northampton to Hounds Hill, via Gosford Green. Out of sight is a GUV parcel van, that will be detached & shunted into Bishops Heath. It's all in the mind.

Thank you so much, I have several class 37 locos, right from a green split headcode. Our most numerous class of diesel.

Hello Our out-shopped EMU, 1938 Sub unit, now fitted with a high quality battery for working over none-electrified lines. It's on trial in Hall Brooks. The main commute line from Bishops Heath to Curzon st, is DC third rail, but nowhere else. Who writes this stuff! It sounds good anyway. Any railway enthusiasts will laugh at my DC third rail conductor, in the midlands. They never existed. I think Watford might be the northern limit of that system. As soon as a third rail is added, traditional signalling becomes a hazard. Steel cables connecting signals along with steel point rodding don't mix with electricity & conductor rails. Which is why on our railway, only the none electrified routes are mechanically signalled. Besides, the sheer economics of having electricity distributed makes sense to use the electricity to work relays, solenoids & bulbs. Electric signals (lights rather than semafores) have been used on none electrified railways for ages, particularly distant signals. A distant signal can be three quarters of a mile away from the signal box, so just imagine the weight of steel cable that long, that the signalman has to pull or push with his lever from a signal box. Along with the counterbalances, several tons.

Oh dear Philp with you being such an ardent railway fan, I am surprised you don't know about signalling. The wire between the signal box and signal arm on a long length would have compensating cranks and other aids, the Signalman would not try and pull it just on his own. I did the training and past the exam to become a Signalman in the Shackerstone Signal Box (2017): The home signal down the line by Barton Road bridge was not really that far away, it was lever number 2. In the locking room below, attached to the bottom of lever 2 was a heavy weight, so when I released the lever, the weight would help pull it over: There was a distance signal further out, but that was not in use or connected to the lever frame when I was there. In a book I have on signalling, there is mention of the longest known distance between signal box & signal post, it was 5 miles!!!

Hello, I'm learning all of the time. 20A-Manor House. My only experience of a lever box is on a preserved railway, plus an official invitation to spend a whole shift inside Coventry power box, where so much was explained. I'm a toy train man. I listen & watch. I haven't taken or passed a single exam in any aspect of railways. I hope this adds info. The Winchcombe video is fabulous. I've never seen that one before. I'm out of breath watching it. I will stick to my model. Signal maintaining Signal Box operations Full signal box operation at Winchcombe

@PhiliPamInCoventry and anyone else who might be interested, there is a Model Railway event in the Warwickshire area next month. With it being out of Coventry, I'm not too sure where I stand on naming events, but I'm happy to share the details if anyone is interested, and I don't get in to trouble...

Warwickshire is near enough, Mike - please feel free to add the event to the "Event diary" (left-hand menu) if you like.

Thanks Rob, and added. And a link to the events diary HERE

Hello, I've tidied up our signal arms so that they sit level. Also our SeaCow ballast boggie wagon, salvaged & decorated as new.

For my friend Lollipop, It's a kit, where I had to turn the tower around, also reduce the length. It's appropriate because our model has an imaginary junction with the line at Arley station. I & two friends spent several days walking the three & half miles, recording photos of the route twenty six years ago. Our final act was to have dinner in the Wagon Load of Lime, pub. The kit model church was constructed during the first stages of our railway. I was completing it the Saturday afternoon when Her Majesty, the Queen Mother passed away. So that's how I can date it. Pam always liked it.

Hello, Unless I'm answering a query, I tend to post ad-lib content at times of quiet, so please keep posting. I'm going to post some pictures which I will load off my phone. Between now & early November is a fabulous natural light time for modelling. So amongst other railway jobs I shall be paying attention to the sky meeting the railway. The first picture is a very desirable detached residence, internal furnishings by Pam, (Pam put the curtains in). It's the first property in Mill Hill Lane. The second picture, where I've still to add the sky, are the remaining properties, in Mill Hill Lane. Adding the sky here is going to take a lot of thought. You also see why it's called Mill Hill Lane. THERE'S A WINDMILL!

Hello, Model railways will always present issue to overcome. Most hobbies do it in some kind of a way. The view in my last picture is physically, six feet away from my body standing as near as I can get, & whilst a crawling board was ok ten years ago, I'm not so agile now. All of the houses in that Mill Hill lane, sit on their own sturdy base, so I am able to remove the whole assembly to work on. I cannot do that to the hill that the mill sits on. INTERLUDE:- An evening picture of our fully detailed large Prairie loco, Airfix body, attached to a heavy weight chassis, the largest five pole motor that we squeezed in, around 1978, to run on Michael's railway that was in his bedroom. The painting took weeks. It's a fabulous runner, never needed maintenance other than cleaning, being fully bearinged throughout. It's booked here to run this evenings parcels from Bishops Heath to Curzon St parcels. We have a Hornby verson of the old Airfix, kit, which is also a fabulous runner, but thirty years separates them. So I think that I will make the sky board so that it's attached the the last house base. I can then fine taper it into the corner behind the mill. Ok?-?