Our world in miniature, hobbies

My favourite diesels are the classes 37, 40, 43 and 47. I cursed them at the time for replacing steam, but these four have a life and soul of their own. The 37's and 40's only the British could make, the sound, the clag clouds, the 43's for just being the fastest diesel service in the world, and the 47's because the big Sulzers could be entrusted with anything, even Intercity.

Hi Mike, We only have one class 37 & 47 at present, both green, but an early blue 37 may be joining the fleet on loan from Nethermill. Nethermill is my son & grandsons modern image railway.

Hi Midland Red Probably because of the same reason that we have not got a Duchess or an A4, a King or Castle or any of the big passenger locos. Being a secondary branch it might spoil my illusion. Having said that, the fact that you have mentioned the Deltics, they will always be in my mind aspecially as I am physically going to Hattons in Liverpool next month. You do realise that your suggestion of a class 55 Deltic, might just be the loco to see off the last steamer. Since my earlier post, it is a Fowler class 3 tender loco that has gone into the storage cabinet, its duty now in the hands of the new baby deltic. The class 55 are currently in stock. "O'h goody," I have just heard Pam mutter as she goes up to bed!

Hi all Much of the enjoyment of a model railway is what it conjures in our minds. Hall Brooks is totally fiction. Initially it was & is how I perceive a railway in Holbrooks might have been, based on my nearest railway location, which happens to be the Coventry to Nuneaton branch line & the Keresley colliery line coming off it, as it still does, but today serves the new Prologis industrial estate, even though it is years since a train visited the industrial estate. Sticking to the topic of models, Hall Brooks does not copy any specific location, the space to do that to scale would require a village hall at minimum. Model railways always contain compromises or licence as we call it. Even so-called actual scale models of specific locations, like one that I saw of Birmingham New Station, which was a work of art, had compromises. Even if a model was spot on, our perception could never be spot on! Where would anyone stand to see the whole of Birmingham New St. Station? Google maps might be the nearest. Our brain over-rides what we can actually see in reality. I once went to a model exhibition in Derby where the railway scene was a train crossing a viaduct. I tell you it was perfect, because it was exactly what I could see if I went & stood looking at the real thing from the same view-point. As we (my ten year old son was with me) were watching, my son soon got bored with it as it did nothing else, other than a train crossing the viaduct about every quarter of an hour. Visit any real railway & the chances are that all you will see is nothing but a static railway. The only movement being people & cars on the roadway. He soon wanted to watch a railway more like Hall-Brooks where, there was lots of activity, a junction, a station, lot's of trains. At heart I am that little boy now. I could have attempted to copy any short section of our local railway, but it would have been easier to have employed an artist to paint a 2D picture as that is little different. Model railways will always be a compromise, by their very nature. So what we run on them, is what is in our mind. Who knows, we might just have a class 55 Deltic.!! It is comments on our forum over the last five years that have directed how Hall Brooks has developed.

Hi all Teddy class 14 on loan from Stewarts & Lloyds at Corby. All detail added & ready to oust another steamer. O'h no! In the second picture, it is next to the saddle tank which it will render redundant. ps The Saddle tank has had a reprieve, the large western prairie has gone to store instead. Will the prairie finish up at Woodhams?

If you convert to 'preserved' status, you could run all of the classes..

Mike H - my thoughts as well. Philip could build a preserved branch to Hawkesbury Lane, that would be a good place for a preservation society to be based. All Philip needs is to take over another room in his house - hang on, we are getting into 'men in white coats' territory. Regards. Roger

Hi all The one "BIG" loco that might find its way into Hall Brooks is this survivor of the iconic class 40. This is a preserved loco now the entire class were redundant, having been overshadowed by the Peaks or class 45. into the eighties. We will see, Hey.

Hi all Just as I believe heartily that our forum is actually a community, so to our Hall Brooks railway is a community. I try to have a balance so that there is plenty of none railway activity. In this scene, Wally (driver) is with his conductor in the tea rooms, before departing for Solihull. A general view of the same picture. It is only after a tidy & shift around of furniture that this view point has become available. The railway branch line, along with the canal, can just be seen disappearing under the town, where it enters its own small fiddle yard. We pretend that the fiddle yard is Priors Field & Nether Mill, where my grandson's railway is. It's all in the mind.

I hope there is a "No Smoking" sign in the tea rooms, we don't want to see it looking like the old Pool Meadow cafe now do we ? Otherwise Philip I think you have just about thought of everything.

One last picture for now, where both of our new locos are in view. This picture is not stage managed, the locos happened to be there from last evenings session, whilst I was photo'ing the other end of the railway this morning. The baby deltic waiting to run down to Burrow Hill to fetch the local parcels, whilst the teddy class 14 is shunting utility vans. That is a nice word to say slowly hey. Utility. What a pip! ps Just noticed that in the distance, both our forum members, Mayjan & Tricia along with a porter are waiting on Bishops Heath platform. I am under the canopy, eying up both of the lovely ladies.

Actually Dreamtime, if I was in the café at the pretend date of our model, I would have been puffing my pipe. O'h-no!

I bet there are tomatoes growing in that greenhouse too. I am a stickler for detail. !!

The good old days.. you at one end with your pipe and me at the other with my Capstan Full Strength.. nice.. live and let live, I say..