Rich5ltr

Wasn't Alf Roberts place in Coronation Street rather than Grantham ;-)

I've just read this thread from start to finish and I love your railway, the detailing is exquisite. May I ask what seems a trivial question... With so much detail in the scenic s, how do you keep the dust off the layout? Clearly you can't vacuum it so do you cover it with gardener's fleece or similar when not in use? Just curious because my garage is very dusty. Cheers Rich...

I have no idea but as the halt closed in 1926 that's not surprising I'll look for some pictures and see if it jogs my memory. All I remember was a disused sewage works at the end of Trumpers Way then a foot crossing and a piggery on the other side. You could then cycle down the footpath to Osterley Park to go fishing... p.s. there was a huge timber yard/warehouse at the end of the Grand Union down towards the docks... where the canal was covered by the warehouse for a few hundred yards in order to allow the timber to be off-loaded in the dry.

That's right, they turn on the Hanwell/Greenford/West Ealing triangle...

I will follow this thread with interest because I grew up in Ealing in the 60s and remember the 'Golden Mile' on the Great West Road very well. At Christmas the factories and offices were always illuminated and Dad would take us for a drive there to see the lights. Brentford station at the Half-Acre would be where we went on holiday from - up to Waterloo or Clapham then down to the coast! As a small child I watched the end of steam on the western region from the UD milk depot depot near West Ealing station or on 'Jacobs Ladder' footbridge which crosses the multitude of lines there. Then later when I was mobile I would cycle to Southall sheds and like a previous poster, stand on the footbridge there or sneak down into the sheds for a nose round. As for what ran on the Brentford branch I can confirm there was a Pannier tank in the early/mid 60s. I used to play football in Elthorne Park and the playing fields overlooked the Grand Union Canal, bluebell woods, the pig farm, and the old branch line beyond. I would often see the old pannier chugging up and down the line. Once for fun we hid along the track and bunked onto the back of the waggons jumping out again near Brentford. We then bunked into a truck at Brentford to get back up to Hanwell! Happy days...

Totally absorbed reading this thread for the last half hour - one question Robert, if it's mostly all your own work how have you found a hall ig enough to build it in? Surely you don't dismantle it every time you finish work...?