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A parcel for Mr Ahern


Mikkel

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Our story begins inside a parcels van on the Westbury to Farthing stopping train. The parcel in the middle is of particular interest to us. It is addressed to a Mr Ahern at No. 7, Memory Lane, Farthing.

 

 

 

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Safely arrived in the bay at Farthing, the parcels are handled by Porter P.W. Saunders. The one for Mr Ahern is under his hand. The flat package in front contains a scientific manuscript, in which a certain A. Einstein proposes that space and time are not constant. The parcels van is to Diagram W1 and was kit-bashed from Ratio sides (described here).

 

 

 

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On his way to the parcels office, porter P.W. Saunders passes the train's engine and is intercepted by a customer who enquires about departure times, apparently oblivious of the timetable behind him. The steam effect is out-of-focus cotton wool, a trick stolen directly from the cover of the latest MRJ (no other comparison intended!). The MRJ cover can be seen in this RMweb thread - but better still, buy it!

 

 

 

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After sorting in the parcels office, our package continues its journey. It is now carried by porter C. Walker on a kit-built barrow from P&D Marsh. Walker himself consists of one part worker and two parts signal man from the Monty's range. His once youngish face has been heavily re-sculpted, and the cap filed down to represent a GWR type. Despite all this, Walker sleeps well at night, and is seen here having a brief exchange with shunter George Mullins. Meanwhile one of the old pre-diagram brake vans of the 1882 design awaits its turn on the evening "mixed" to Overbourne. The van was scratch-built by Chris Edge many moons ago, and is next on my list of restoration jobs.

 

 

 

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The parcel for Mr Ahern awaits loading in front of the horse drawn delivery van. One of the other packages contains a painting by a young Spanish artist by the name of Picasso. It is not clear why the painting is headed for Farthing, and to this day it remains hidden and unknown in an attic in Wiltshire! The lettering on the van was based on photos from the period (including the use of different fonts), and drawn up in MS Word with a brown background to match the van colour. It was then printed on thin paper and stuck to the van side. This shot is ruthless but from a normal viewing distance it looks OK. The poster is an original GWR example from 1907, reduced to scale size and printed.

 

 

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The parcel has been delivered at No 7 Memory Lane, and the contents have been presented by Mr Ahern to his son John.

 

 

Postscript:

The boy is of course John Ahern, who was four years old at this time (1907), and who went on to pioneer the scenic aspect of railway modeling. This included building the revolutionary Madder Valley Railway, now at Pendon. I am aware that at this point in time the tin-plate loco would most likely have been from Maerklin or similar, but I couldn't resist the temptation to use a photo of my own Meccano/Hornby M2 for the scene. My grandfather gave it to my father, who passed it on to me.

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Edited by Mikkel

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I'm not usually attracted to blogs, but this one is Brilliant... I have John Ahern's books, and appreciated the thought, time and effort that has gone into your little tale!

Thanks for taking the time to do that.

Happy Christmas to you too.

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Thanks a lot DonB and johnteal, I thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge one of the "greats" in our hobby. For me the scenic setting is as big an enjoyment as the railway itself in modelling, so I think we owe much to John Ahern.

 

I realize there are limits to how far one can go with these little stories, but it's good fun to do and I like to think that there is scope for improving the human dimension on our layouts. As all the books about life on the railway so amply shows, there are thousands of stories to tell!

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It is not just a story of words - it is the incredible dedication to the detail.

 

I have to keep telling myself the scale is not 1:1

 

The photography is pretty darn marvelous too.

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Thanks Kenton. The reason I like micros is that there is more time for attention to scenery details than with larger layouts. One of the downsides is that the locos don't get a chance to stretch their legs so much!

 

The photos are done with a cheapo point-and-shoot camera, using that all-important macro-function for taking shots at close range. Larger SLR cameras may give you better quality, but you can't just plonk them down anywhere on the layout as you can with the small ones!

 

 

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Mikkel.I really enjoy your storytelling.Did you know that Charles Dickens was a director of the GWR ?

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Did you know that Charles Dickens was a director of the GWR ?

 

I'm sure he would have been a great asset to the famous GWR publicity department! biggrin.gif But you had me checking the web there - the dates overlap so he could have been a board member! I found this bizarre piece of information, very appropriate to the season:

 

"... in 1869 Dickens had his christmas turkey accidentally incinerated by the Great Western Railway in a parcel van fire..."

I kid you not! Source: http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Charles_Dickens

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I fear the incinerated turkey would be too much of a challenge to model - although of course for a prototype to study all I have to do is look in our own oven biggrin.gif

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I fear the incinerated turkey would be too much of a challenge to model - although of course for a prototype to study all I have to do is look in our own oven biggrin.gif

 

You 'll have to 'pluck' up the courage to model that.... :P

 

Wheres my coat........

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The mention of Dickens reminded me that in his "Barchester Chronicles" Trollope makes many references to his fictional Clergymen travelling up to Paddington, mentioning the train departure times, which has given rise to attempts to identify the station/city on which he based his stories.

Again good publicity for God's Wonderful.... Sorry, getting of topic! :blush:

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That's interesting DonB. I just checked up on Trollop's fictional "Barsetshire" universe, some useful names of towns etc in there if anyone needs a fictional geography for their layout.

 

I wonder if anyone ever succeeded in finding out what area his stories were based on - probably a little bit of everywhere I could imagine, but nice to know it was GWR territory!

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Have only just seen this thread, after following the link in your kind comment re my O gauge micro -

Actually, I'm sorry to say I've only just seen it!

What a fab little layout.....

...superb atmosphere, and I really like the tales you have attached to some of the cameos...

super stuff, and great choice of "container"

 

Marc :D

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