queensquare

I'm inclined to agree with you John although the new Windsor Hill extension is meant to be several miles south of the colliery. Jerry

Anyway, in full festive mode, I’ve been down the workshop playing trains with my top team - great fun!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

With you now Rich. Still mulling over what to do with it - if anything! Jerry

?? The entrance is at the far end, I purposely didn’t put one anywhere else because of the way they are perched above the lane. Jerry

Where’s the groan button!😊 Jerry

His Bobness. You can go off people you know! 😊 Jerry

Spellcheck !! - although we did once do Subterranean Homesick Blues - proto rapping! We are on YouTube - blues and Americana but no rapping! Jerry

I was sent to the workshop for a couple of hours this evening as kim had wrapping to do so I thought I’d knock up some puddin’ and bed in the cottages. The puddin’ consists of sculptamold mixed with water, pva and a squirt of paint to give a colour that can only be described sludge! Before spreading the mixture around I slipped some shiny plasticard between the boards so that I could take them apart should the need ever arise. The cottages, which straddle the join, are removable. I’m still undecided about the rather nice plaster cast thatched cottage. Tomorrow I’m charged with entertaining our two grandsons in the workshop whilst kim and our daughters prep our big family meal - the only day of the year I don’t do the cooking! Expect some high speed running on the N gauge roundy, roundy - what fun !! Jerry

I think there are many Eds on RMWeb!😊 Jerry

A superb issue in my oppinion, PK has put together a cracking collection of articles. My particular favourite is Chris Cox’s London and Croydon Railway No5. It’s also great to see Chris Pendlenton back. Regarding the perceived cliquey nature of contributors and dearth of post steam content I can honestly say that, as a regular guest editor, it’s not for the want of trying. My last issue had a piece on putting together a representative stud of East Anglian diesels and I have two articles on OHE locos in the pipeline. That said, finding D&E content of a suitable quality that contains a degree of modelling and is not just a collection of nicely assembled RTR (not that theirs anything wrong with that I hasten to add), is difficult. I’ve approached a number of potential contributors but all too often, despite their promises, they fail to come up with the goods. We would be more than happy to publish material from immediate post steam to the contemporary scene if we are sent it. If any readers of this have something they think is suitable I can be contacted via pm. Jerry

Im another big fan of Ed Reardons Week, still mourning the loss of Elgar! Ed Reardon would definitely be someone worth following on RMWeb - not sure how long he would last! 😊 Jerry

Great progress Jim, I’ve sent you an email. Jerry

Its a pretty good list. We always have pork for Christmas, I could do with a new barrow, I always have a bath at Christmas whether I need one or not and who doesn’t love a new bike!! 😊 Jerry

Pigs, barrow, bath and bike - I think that will do! This has been a really enjoyable little fireside project. Hopefully I’ll find time over Christmas to work up the ground around it. Jerry

Bit small to worry about in 2mm! We have chickens so almost certainly have rats though I never see them - except the remains of an occasional dead one. I suspect our two cats and the numerous other cats belonging to our neighbours keep things under control! Living in a rural area I’m not too bothered about rats, they perform a very useful function clearing up the mess we humans leave behind! I have a couple of rabbits on the colliery Tim. Kim used to complain that the uncoupling magnets weren’t marked - you had to remember where they were - so I added a couple of rabbits, their little white tails being just about sufficiently visible! 😊 Jerry

Bit of gardening in front of MOTD this evening. Veg, pigeons and chickens - bit more to do. Still like the idea of a pig in the far cottage! Jerry

All of the above! The two plate layers huts are really nice little etches from Severn models, the others are a combination of some resin castings I picked up in a rummage box - unknown origin - and plasticard. With 20’ x 10’ to fill they’ll all find a home! Jerry

….and here they are in situ. The aluminium angle to the left of them is where the old loaded/empty cassettes docked on the colliery. These will go but not sure what’s going in that space yet. I have a good selection of small buildings to choose from. This batch includes a couple of plate layers huts but also sheds, thunder boxes, a pigeon coop and some beehives. A lot of miners kept a pig so that’s another possibility. I want it to be interesting without being twee! Jerry

The walls are laser cut foam from Osbornes and are surprisingly effective with the great advantage of easily following the slope of the garden - they will be dry brushed when I paint the cottage walls to further blend them in. I saw them in use on Nigel Ashton’s Drys y Nant. Tin baths definitely Tim. Still debating toilet provision. I may add another pair in the centre of the block and I do have a couple of little single stall wooden ‘thunder box’ earth closets which could go at the bottom of the garden although two toilets for a block of four cottages would not be unusual. I shall play around with various configurations and see what looks best. This is the sort of look I’m after - albeit a century earlier. The garden shed is too modern but the other little buildings look suitable. Jerry

When Highbury became Foxcote I added a row of cottages loosely based on those at Camerton colliery, the rear wall of which was hard up against the back scene and therefore blank. Opening up the southern end exposed this so over the last couple of evenings I've rebuilt them. There’s a little bit of work to do around the door and window headers then it will be painting and the fun of dressing the gardens with veg, outbuildings and maybe some chickens! Jerry

I don’t know the legal ins and outs but I dread to think how many thousands of pictures have been taken of my models over the years. On the whole I’m not bothered what the photographer wants to do with them although it is nice to be asked, mainly so I can pose a train for the photographer and get my ugly mug out of the way! I’m not even that bothered if they are subsequently published either on line or in a magazine as a postscript to a show. I did have one run in with an editor who published pictures (joint copyright, previously used in an article) where they wrote an article for one of the layout of the year type bookazines , without my knowledge that was wrong from start to finish. Essentially he felt it was ok to just make it up!! After a bit of a battle the magazine printed an apology and corrections. What I do object to is people banging away without asking with a flash. This is not only incredibly rude but can be dangerous. I’ve been known to get very grumpy if the offender objects to my objection. Usually they desist and apologise although one particularly objectional chap at Wells this year just carried on and then made the school boy error of squaring up to me - he was lucky to get out with his self and his camera intact!! Jerry Edit to say I’ve just reread this and I do come across as being a bit grumpy - I’m really not. Please feel free to take as many pictures of my models as you want - just don’t use a flash! 😊👍

Sorry to hear that. I first exhibited at Warley in 2008 or 09 and became a regular demonstrator around the same time as you. I knocked it on the head last year, I’m afraid the increasing faff of exhibiting there meant it just wasn’t fun any more and at the end of the day we do it for fun - plus a bit of diesel and a bed for the night. Jerry ps. I should add that it was the NEC organisation I became fed up with, not the club who always looked after us very well.

One of my main fireside projects this winter will be finishing the great barn that is the S&D wooden shed thanks to the arrival today of some quite exquisite etched windows from Jim Watt. They capture the very complex cast frames of the prototype beautifully - many thanks Jim. Also in my little pack of etches was some signal parts - including LSWR style lattice posts for the area around the colliery and a ground signal for Downside quarry siding. I’ve never built any working signals before so these will be a steep learning curve for me but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I probably won’t start on either of theses projects this side of Christmas as I’m way behind with work thanks to a fairly unproductive few weeks but the mojo is well and truly back. On the Clifford livestock front, the new chickens, which have been busy freeloading since their arrival several weeks ago, have now starting laying- the Paxo threat has obviously paid off! 😊 Jerry

pm sent

Thanks Frank. I’ve struggled to do anything much in the workshop since loosing Jazz and some simple , messy tasks with rapid results was just the the therapy I needed. I shall be back at the bench this morning making a start on the backlog of things that haven’t been done over the last few weeks. Jerry