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I found this in my collection of photos but, unfortunately, I do not know its provenance. An earlier example is to be found on p.102 in Brian Arman's book 'BG Engines of the GWR, which shows a passenger train at Pangbourne c.1865, with several carriages, followed by a horse box, then a carriage truck (with carriage) and, finally, a luggage van.

Hi Maurice, I very much enjoyed your article in MRJ and welcome your additional material here. I was relieved to see that I am not alone in the thoughts i have been wrestling with recently about the state of our great hobby. The adrenaline rush of acquirement does seem to have usurped the gentler reward of building a world of your own, through your own skill and imagination over time. Our hobbyist selves align more closely with our everyday, consumerist selves. The high fidelity of the models produced by the big manufacturers have perhaps dulled our skills of observation in that we assume all the detail is there, thus we don't even need to look at the real thing. What inspired me most as a kid was seeing Lima diesels, tweaked by their owners using etches and whitemetal castings, the presence of which even then I knew pointed to the modellers love of the prototype and were like monuments to their skills (or simply enjoyment) of observation. Also, the level of detail on the locos today on a layout tend to sit in sharp contrast to the quality of the layout itself (often not for lack of skill, but as you say a person's skills cannot often match up to the perfection of injection mouldings) thus wrenching us from the suspension of disbelief. I see your point about exhibitions encouraging dissatisfaction. I find some layouts are simply showcases for the amount of consumption that has occurred, particularly demonstrated by the amount of DCC sound Diesel depots on the circuit. Perhaps I am just jealous though!! Many thanks for sharing. Dave

Oh! Must be an exquisite train. I hope we get to see some photos one day. Many thanks Mike, nice combination with the Siphon. BTW those platform buildings are very elaborately detailed, quite intriguing.

His younger brother, Frederick (FJ) Camm shared an early interest in model aircraft, and then went on to be instrumental in the technical education of the British public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_James_Camm

Incredible (to me) that Sydney Camm worked on everything from biplanes to the Harrier precursors:

I worked on Harrier's and Hawks, plus various other aircraft including the FAA Historic Flight at Yeovilton and a Sea Harrier that's in the museum there. Worth noting too that were part's common to Sea Harrier FRS1, where the drawings for the parts were first used on the Typhoon then re-issued for the Firebrand, Sea Fury, etc.

Always good to see St Ruth and nice to have a catch up. Haven’t seen the layout since you modified the lighting but it works really well For the record, I managed to exit without any 7mm purchases...assuming foam storage for stock doesn’t count...

More use to Train and Aircraft terminology than Armour - so that's my excuse . Also I've only built 3 tanks (now) in over 40 years of model making (I'm not counting @gwrrob's Cromwell or my RC 1/16th Scale Challenger 2 in that (I must get the upgrades fitted on that))

I have the loco, and the coaches, but not yet the horsebox. (Both the loco and the coaches are in need of a touch of TLC and repainting.)