Hi .

Before going into further etching, an answer to to a question I get asked on odd occasions. " Do I regret parting with the Aire Valley"? I will dodge that question and just say it is in the past and you cannot change the past. A move of house with no room for the railway was the reason for the sale. I know it's been mentioned before that the locos, except two, and rolling stock went to friend in Australia. On a visit to Australia some years later to visit my wife's sister my friend gave me every thing back, It had some minor damage due to a garage fire. On getting the models home it was realised there was no was no way the AVR could be resurrected and after a while the stock was passed over to the 009 Society. Two of the locos, Arthur and Aire were bought by Audrey Boston as a birthday present for Teddy. After Teddy passed away my long time friend Paul Tower's persuaded Audrey to pass them over to the 009Society. The layout went to a modeller in Leicestershire and I think parts of it were exhibited a couple of times.

I had a go at a simple garden line and built a Manx Electric winter car. The line and of course the car were built to a scale of 10mm to the foot The gauge was 30 mm. This did not get very far and was the first of several model railways that got part built and then sold on.After the aborted MER line I started a long period of radio controlled model boats The first three were railway connected. These were models of Lake Windermere vessels.The first of these was Raven, the little freight vessel that served the hotels and the like on the lake shores. It was, still is, an odd little vessel. It's tiller steered and this position is behind a deck mounted vertical boiler. The only other deck mounted item of note is a railway goods yard type crane..It must have been a rough job for the crew in the lakes rain and winter months. Legend has it that tips the crew got at the hotels was often in the form of ale! The course back to Lakeside was often quite erratic. The hull of the model is constructed on the bread and butter method in balsawood. The deck and fittings are plasticard plus bits of brass wire. The scale is 1/4" to the foot. The crew of two are Slater's 7mm loco crew. At 17" long and a beam of 3 1/2" it was a job to fit the then R/C into it.The last time it sailed was at the Blackpool Model Boat Show in Oct 2012. I still haven't got around to further etching, I will try next time.