I've just come back from the Three Spires show in Truro (Falmouth MRC), and we all had much fun operating 'Engine Wood'.

This was a very nice show, and friendly hosts, and there were some other nice layouts present as well. It was particularly good to have the chance to have a good look at the lovely 'Treneglos' and meet 2Manyspams and his colleagues!

I found myself admiring the operational discipline of the 'Treneglos' team, in terms of the fact that you only ever saw locos on their layout that would have worked the North Cornwall line. All the trains were also correctly formed.

This got me thinking about my own slightly more liberal motive power rostering policy on 'Engine Wood' and my other layouts too.

There's no shortage of published material about what locos worked on the S&D, both from the point of view of locomotive classes, and individual numbers too. The amount of material available in books and on the internet means it has never been easier to research the correct type and number for one's motive power choices, and indeed, I have ensured that most of my 'authentic' loco types have numbers appropriate to the S&D.

However, the 'slightly more liberal motive power' policy I mentioned above, means that I sometimes use other types of loco as well, in particular the use of diesels. We all know that the S&D closed in 1966, yet it amuses me to run green diesels too, sometimes in a 'diesel-only' operating sequence, sometimes mixed in with the steam locos.

My use of locos like the WD 2-8-0 is also a bit on the liberal side, and last weekend I also found myself enjoying seeing John Farmer's 45XX prairie tank working trains as well!

It occurs to me, that a goodly proportion of exhibition visitors will be non-enthusiasts, who wouldn't necessarily be able to tell the difference between an authentic loco and a non-authentic one. On the other hand, there are plenty of folk who will know!

On balance, I think I will keep the green diesels on the roster, because at the end of the day, it is my train set, and I think I'd prefer to run what gives me most pleasure.

Now then, should I weather that Robinson 04 and fit scale couplings to that next, or what about the Super D? I wonder if I could really get away with a Class 17?!!....