Part 1 – George Pepper

George, a retired widower, is the lone resident of “Yew Tree Cottage” – the thatched dwelling which peeps its way through the trees at the top of the embankment next to the tunnel.

A keen gardener, George bought Yew Tree cottage following the death of his wife, Mary, last year. At the time the cottage was in quite a state of disrepair. Throughout last summer George was often seen out in the warm sunshine, clad in his overalls, bringing the building back to its former glory. He repainted the doors and windows and trimmed back the various ivy plants which had threatened to engulf the walls. Rumours have suggested that the back garden is immaculate too. Not that many people can confirm the statement. The cottage’s rear is well hidden and very few people have ventured inside the cottage since its new owner arrived.

George is a quiet fellow who keeps himself to himself. You would think that he would not upset many people, but sadly that is not true. Aside from gardening, George has another passion – bees! He has several bee hives at the rear of the house, and has recently added a further hive at the side of the house. The bees often have a habit of venturing down to the station to frequent the stationmaster’s developing station garden. This does not go down well with the passengers.

Here George can be seen attending to his newest hive, appropriately clad in his immaculate beekeeper’s overalls. No wonder he has gained the local nickname of “The Spaceman”.

In truth George is nothing more than the latest figure added onto my Skaleby West exhibition layout. He is a Harburn Hamlet figure, purchased from the Bakewell exhibition recently.

This has been the only development on the layout of late. A few problems at work have taken up a fair amount of my time and so I have not been able to turn my attention to any serious modelling of late. The extension remains un-started and I am beginning to wonder if it will ever get done.

I have continued to operate trains on my home layout, Skaleby, throughout. Here is a shot of my Standard 3 tank arriving with a passenger train.

Planning for this year’s Weston show continues though. Although, after such a stressful week, the last thing I needed was the school summer fair, it did give me chance to have a few leaflets and posters on display. I keep printing these out and dropping them off at every show I visit so hopefully it will produce a decent crowd.

This year I have also written off to two of the four major modelling magazines. I plan to do the others in the next month or so. Not only am I trying to get a free advert in each magazine’s event diary, I am also trying to get a small feature on the show or even one on the layout. Sadly I have heard nothing back yet.

I am reaching that crucial point though where I need to discuss the accommodation with the headteacher. I will need an extra room in order to fit all the layouts in. Hopefully this will not be a problem as I will be taking out one of the attractions from last year’s show. The crèche / children’s room which was dreamt up by one of the other members of staff did not receive enough support so will be dropped this year. The member of staff is leaving the school in July anyway so someone else would have had to run it. Removing this should allow me the chance to have an extra room for exhibits. Fingers crossed!

Until next time…