GRASinBothell

You could, of course, emulate the Pride of Sussex flour mill in Robertsbridge, who purchased a P class 0-6-0T to take their materials (presumably grain in and flour out) to the station at Robertsbridge. Traffic lasted into the early 1970s (so just in your timescale). That way, you could use that to bring in the traffic and then have a diesel shunter come down the branch to collect it, adding to the play value... Gordon

If Cuckmere Haven is the terminus of the line, presumably it would have something a little more prepossessing in the way of station facilities than the huts at Southease or Normanton. Perhaps something in Art Nouveau style, like the Southern Railway built at Seaton when they decided that was going to be a resort... Gordon

I guess that's a positive side of the railway builders' habit of siting stations well outside the town they purport to serve, that we don't have to model too many buildings beside our stations! Of course, if they'd built them nearer (or, heaven forfend, actually in) those towns, more of them might have stayed open! Gordon

The other place we used to go (apart from the Bath Pram & Toy Shop and the Modellers Den) was Cyril Howes, by the Abbey. Their main business was cameras, but they had a sideline in model trains. Of course, we also had Woolworths for Airfix wagon kits too. Gordon

Was the picture from the early 1960s? My first Hornby-Dublo loco came from the Bath Pram & Toy Shop (near Bath Spa station), and I recall a photo in the local paper shortly after I got it, showing swans looking in the window as they swam past. Gordon

Glad to hear the books will be in shortly. We used to live in Batheaston, on London Rd, just a short walk from Bathford Halt and Bathampton station, both now alas long gone. Gordon

Any updates on arrival of the reprints? I have one on order... Gordon

Penallt Halt and Redbrook must be one of the very few pairs of stations that were actually closer together than the scale distance between stations on most model railways!. In 1958 (the last Summer of the line), we spent a couple of weeks in a cottage in Penallt. At the end of the holiday, my mother and sister went home (to Bath) by train, which they caught at Penallt Halt. I, unfortunately, went home with my father in the car. Can't have been too many people after that catching a train there! Gordon

There's always the Oakwood publication on the Wye Valley line. Gordon

And there was the Airfix Queen Mary lorry, so you could also put a 1/72 aircraft on the trailer. Besides being used by the RAF, Hawker-Siddeley Aviation used them to transfer Harriers, Hunters and Hawks between the Kingston factory (that had no runway) and Dunsfold aerodrome. Gordon

That seems to be the large scale version, not the O scale version. Gordon

I also have the Kinlet Hall. It came in a "Shakespeare Express" set with headboards both on the smokebox front and on the tender rear. I gather that the only noticeable dimensional error is that the tender was stretched to fit the electronics. I choose to ignore that! One day, I'll get around to applying black paint to some parts of the tender that need it. Mostly, it tuns on a short loop of O-36 (18" radius) track I added to the layout to run my AC locos on, and keep them separate from the DC. Gordon

Is that a Dinky phone box? S and D Models do a nice market stall in the Phoenix Models range, plus a selection of fruit and vegetables in baskets or trays, should you wish to speed things up. Mind you, my market has also included the Woodland Scenics farmers market set.... Gordon

I guess that's another difference between train shows on opposite sides of the pond. At least here in the US Pacific Northwest, the layouts all seem to be accessible to the public on all sides, so there's nowhere to hide! Gordon

I rather wonder if you're going to want different arrangements for "home" and "away" operation. Having the fiddle yard on the outside makes sense at home when it's against the wall. But do you want it there at exhibitions, where the visitors get to see more of it than you do? Gordon