I was very pleased to receive the award at expoEM for "most authentically operated model railway" - the Reverend Peter Denny Memorial Cup, presented by his son Crispin Denny (of automatic Crispin fame) and judged by Bob Essery.

However, it seems that some people seem to think that correct operation implies trains arriving within seconds. Even gaps between District line trains in the rush hour seems to exceed some people's attention span.

In my book, correct operation means adhering to what the prototype would have done. So on Clutton there is a lever frame, with interlocking, bell systems with virtual tokens being released, signals that work, the role of signalman and driver split - the list goes on. Plus when there are no trains, there is something to see on the layout.

I did some timings at the show, it takes a full minute to get from the staging roads at the back to the station at the front, and a full minute to get from there back to the staging roads. That could mean nearly two minutes between trains.

I know that my layout is not to everyone's taste, but so be it. You can't please all the people all the time.