phil_sutters

Having missed the tour at Hampden Park - Eastbourne buses seem to travel the most circuitous routes possible - doubtless to serve their communities well, I ended up back at EBN . I won't stuff my snaps in here as there some good quality pictures here already. If you want to see them they are in my album -

I don't know whether this would be of any interest, but my father had a notebook with details of locos absorbed by GWR. From the writing I think it was probably drawn up just before WW2. This is a sample. If it would help anyone's research, they are welcome to it. It may well all be information that is well known. He had no railway connections apart from his keen amateur interest.

This one appeared when Covid was causing shortages in the shops.

How about a nice hand-painted job

I wonder - why?

Electric scooters may be generally illegal on public roads and pavements, but seem to zoom around with impunity. Electric bikes seem to go as fast as mopeds but seem to be regarded merely as push bikes. Technology is moving faster than the laws can be made and even when they are available enforcement seems difficult. Remember the coppers, Welsh I think, who got into trouble for following youngsters on an electric bike, who sped off, losing the police van, and were killed in an accident.

The first three lines of the notice tell you who is making the order. It did look suspiciously sharply defined, not just in the lettering, but also around the edges and the fixing holes. That wasn't just a good paint job. Maybe it was a copy from an original with the mould given a modern edge.

Groombridge on the Spa Valley Railway could be a starting point. It has a station house with an extension that could be trimmed off. The central section could be reduced to fit your space. That currently doesn't have any canopies. There are additional lower height sections to the north.

Why not have the goods shed through line on the edge. That would put your road access on the platform side of the shed and leave you room to get your road lorries and cattle trucks through with ease. Your option two puts the through road in the middle of the shed, when it would be to one side with the platform on the other side. You can see the Highbridge shed in my album above.

Burnham only had any significant buildings on the north and east sides of the station. The area to the south was only really developed after the railway was closed. There are a few rather grainy snaps of the buildings to the north in this album. To the south the line passed through fields and further south past brick works, as it made its way to Highbridge. By the way, does anyone know where the little hut from the through platform at Highbridge has ended up? It was in the grounds of the County Infants School, when I lived next door in the early 1970s. But when I looked more recently it had disappeared - maybe onto a bonfire!

Outside a shop by one of Rye's town gates. I like its rather vague limit. What was its 'Ordinary Traffic'? Did that change over time? I can't remember what it was being sold for. They had several similar signs and I had my doubts about their authenticity at the time.

Clearly a spelling mistake - now corrected

Clearly Party Gate is a pared down version of -

This more of a quirky juxtaposition - 'COOP Funeral Care' next to 'Window to the Womb'. No, I haven't Googled the latter. You can if you want. Poor quality snap. I was heading for my bus home having had a stimulating afternoon perusing the offerings of the four finalists of this year's Turner Prize. I followed the message of one but the others were beyond me. What I really liked was a winged Assyrian bull made out of date product tins, which sat majestically outside the Towner Gallery.

Another example of someone creating business for themselves

I thought that I had a photo of one of those signs, but it turned out to be this one. I am not sure how many 'engines' pass through Henley with trucks in tow now. Perhaps they were still doing it in 2015. That seems a long time ago now.

I was run into by a Dial-a-Ride disability minibus and fairly gently tipped over, landing astride my fallen bike. I did ask the driver if he was looking for more clients. Although I wasn't noticeably hurt at the time, I have since wondered if my inguinal hernia, which became apparent 20+ years later, was caused by the way my legs were forced apart. The driver did keep in touch to make sure I was still OK in the days after.

My god-father translated one of St Paul's letters to the Corinthians, for The New English Bible around 1955. I have a dedicated copy of NEB with his signature.

The younger 'us' had to do our own paint jobs. There were few options back in the 1960s.

Looking through my file of old prints, collected by my grandfather, to see if there were any trows in them, I came across this view of Gloucester Docks. I think that the Foster Brothers No.2 may be too small and un-named to be a trow. But it is an interesting scene.

Of course you are in the territory of the western end of the Dorset and Somerset Canal branch, which should have run from Vobster, through Coleford on the aqueduct, to Edford, had the funds not run out. https://www.dorandsomcanal.org/features.htm

Isn't that a brilliant family group, Granny & Grandad, Mum, Dad, boy in his school blazer, bucket in hand, spade over his shoulder, three toddlers and another in the push-chair probably. There could even be another boy in a blazer - between the grandparents. Grandad looks as if he has the lunch. Not sure what Dad has got in his shopping bag. All of them crossing within feet of the 4F.

Burnham didn't have an engine shed, as Highbridge was only a couple of miles away. Generally speaking local trains used the original platform, while excursions used the longer platform, built for that purpose. Illustrations are provided! I was interested to see your back-story and map. I lived at Wells, Coleford and Highbridge in the 1950s & 60s. My father started a layout, in the late 1960s, with the rather unlikely premise that the GWR built a branch from Mells Road to Coleford, via Vobster where there was a junction with an S&D branch from Radstock, I think. The GWR gave the S&D running powers from there to Coleford. I built most of the rolling stock from Triang clerestorys and Kenline wagon parts, with the locos part repaints, conversions (e.g. SR L1 to S&D 2P) and part scratch tops on HD and Triang chassis. Those still around are gradually being worked into a highly compressed version of Highbridge Wharf. Gathering additional rolling stock and building buildings is a fairly bonkers way of doing things, as I almost certainly will have too much of both when I actually get into baseboards and track! Although it has photos from way before your period, The Mendips in Old Photographs, compiled by Chris Howell, has a photo of the brewery's locos, Oakhill and Mendip, and lots of atmospheric scenes from the area. I shall look forward to seeing how Holcombe progresses. Best of luck with it.