mike morley

This was originally intended to be a quick and easy scenic backdrop for a lorry kit I was building. Several months later, the shell has been rebuilt three times (first time because the original version still looked more like an Airfix church than an up upland longhouse, second time because I caught it on one corner as I picked it up and ripped it apart) and it's on it's fifth roof. The lorry kit never did get finished.

Do we have the word of anyone more reliable than the notorious Mr Dunn himself that the company is actually for sale? I've just spent a while on Google, searching every combination of wording I can think of, hoping to learn more but have found precisely nothing.

Definitely! I have hefty, powerful, well-balanced 0-4-0's that can be easily out-hauled by comparatively light, moderately-powered 0-6-0's.

Par for the course with most Cambrian kits, I'm afraid. Unco-operative corners and bump-stops that don't line up with axleboxes are also regular problems.

Almost forgot. Opposite Llandogo

Former village tap. St Briavels. Moat and castle behind. Village well. Still in water. Lots of Hart's Fern inside. Unfortunately the picture I took looking in was way out of focus. That grid is about five feet tall. Not sure what the tuft of wheat(?) hanging from it signifies. Also St Briavels. Remnants of a chicken coop. St Briavels common. Semi derelict milking shed for cattle. About 15 yards from the chicken coop. I doubt if either will be there for much longer because there was a JCB hard at work at the other end of the field they were in and much newly-delivered building materials stacked around. Intriguing one, this. You often see old rail turned into fence posts and sometimes it is of quite lightweight nature, probably of narrow-gauge origins, but this bulb-head rail is is so dainty it's difficult to imagine what it was originally used for, The entrance to someone's property on the lane down to Brockweir. Finally, a warning and a plea. Countless times yesterday we found footpaths so badly overgrown through lack of use that they we had to fight our way through and a few times things got so bad changes of route were forced upon us. On the return leg (our intended route was St Briavels/Brockweir/along the Wye to opposite Llandogo then angle up through the woods back to St Briavels) nature had reclaimed the path completely - and I don't mean the path had become so overgrown it was impassable: I mean that nature had completely reclaimed the path to the extent that it was impossible to tell a footpath had ever existed. Four or five times in little more than a mile we found ourselves struggling to fight our way through, looking for paths that had ceased to exist, and we came dangerously close to running out of daylight. So, everybody, use the country's footpaths while they still exist and by using them help them remain in existence. Take a pair of secateurs as well as your camera with you, plan plenty of alternative routes in advance and allow far, far more time than you think/hope your walk will actually need.

Severely cramped bridges were usually low rather than narrow. A major problem with what you are proposing is what might happen if there was an accident or breakdown while the loco was under the bridge. How would the crew get out? If there was a real bridge that narrow it would probably be worked by horses.

You might find these help. On special offer, too! https://www.booklaw.co.uk/booklaw-publications/modelling-aspects-of-the-coal-industry.html https://www.booklaw.co.uk/booklaw-publications/modelling-furthur-aspects-of-the-coal-industrty-vol-2.html

In the old 'Ericplans' book, published by Peco, there was a drawing of Dunster level crossing. It's a bit basic, but there should be enough there to make an acceptable model.

Inspired by Jonathan's picture, here is the view from my bedroom window. I think the word we're looking for here is 'festooned'.

I find it's stupid little things that set me back. I started to convert a couple of old Airfix churches into an upland longhouse farm and used a few of the leftovers to make an agricultural shed of undefined purpose. I must have made and rejected five roofs for the longhouse and every failure has simply inspired me to try again. Over the weekend I had my first attempt weathering the corrugated iron roof of the shed. It wasnt a success but was nothing like as big a disaster as some of the longhouse roofs. Even so, I now find myself seriously considering giving up railway modelling (I've only been doing it for 50+ years, after all) and finding a hobby I'm good at.

Would a station that small and simple have a signal box? I think a ground frame is more likely.

Not long after the Verney Junction to Bletchley line was first abandoned I took a walk along the stretch between Swanbourne and Salden Woods. Every few dozen yards there was a scatter of insulators cast aside by whoever had stripped the cables and metalwork from the telegraph poles. I was surprised how big they were and astonished to find how heavy they were. I kept one that for many years acted as a very effective doorstop. I'd love to know what happened to it.

I've been on that website before and feel it only fair to warn people that they need to set aside a couple of hours at the very least, preferably an entire afternoon, before venturing into its depths!