Copley Hill Works

For me Simon, you've gone a very long way in this blog post to defining what a sizeable part of this hobby is about; and when it's done well, as you have - it captures a real essence.

 

That hard-to-achieve element is the suspension of disbelief, and you've summed it up in the line 'sometimes I will squint at eye level and see my grandfather climbing up the cab of Kestrel.'

 

That's got this hoary old punk a mite moist-eyed, as it takes me back to Patricroft in June 1968 when my late uncle hoisted me, as a very wee boy, up onto the footplate of a Black 5 courtesy of his neighbour, a 9H driver by name of Fred Hassall, if memory serves.

 

Great stuff - you're practically single-handedly bringing that nebulous element of rail theatre alive - nice one!

Thank you very much chap That's exactly what I was trying to go for. I keep looking at my late grandad's pics, and the collection I've amassed at exhibitions of Copley Hill, and the one thing I've always wanted to capture is that smoky atmosphere and just - I can't even define it! That something that takes it from being a few model trains to being something more tangible and emotional.

 

It's not even the accuracy that defines it - its that moment where you believe, for a fleeting moment, that it is real.

 

It's not even the accuracy that defines it - its that moment where you believe, for a fleeting moment, that it is real.

 

Exactly, and thats what you have done, congrats mate really well done.

 

You never cease to amaze and be an inspiration!

Thank you Tom,but you want inspiration? Jim S-W's Birmingham New Street, or Roy Jackson's Retford, Tony Gee's work on Narrow Road or The Gresley beat.

 

All of those have that factor of believeability which is attained through breathless detail - but I would wager with a little steam in a still photograph, could look a thousand times more real than my own efforts.