phil_sutters

Careful now! All this taking of photographs in a military installation could get you in an awful lot of trouble. (Kitchener's Army pg95)

The third class passenger bit was needed to make this tri-composite. The rest came from one or more of the non-brake clerestorys, with the wider panels between the windows. This and the other three were made 50 years ago and for most of those years they have been in store. The hand painted lettering and crests look terrible now, but transfers were a luxury to me and Dad in those days.

Looks like a Friday club night at Olympia - taken on my way to a South London Warlords 'Salute' wargaming event in the 1990s.

Of course if you don't have an original castle to knock a hole in you can always build your own and even have the Empress pass through its portal.

I can do you a 2-2-2 or GNR 222 - but they are not by me or Dad - but they are from his collection of photos.

I agree that the standard of modelling looks good.

and there is Portchester station a little bit north of there on the line from Portsmouth to Fareham and Southampton. Any further to south and east of the castle and you are into the harbour. A curiously improbable scenario - although I am only going on one photo and the brief description. Here is the afore-mentioned Conwy Castle - sorry about the slightly post-grouping train.

No, but she was good fun to go round with. She has a good sense of what is decent art and what is pretentious nonsense - although that is not what she called it.

You might get my grand-daughter on a trip to Tate Modern with me - Just don't get me going on the other exhibits and her reactions!

While in the Brighton/Sussex area and if you like a mix of industrial items Amberley Museum is one we have returned to several times. They have a good website so that you can see the mix of different technologies on display. You can see some of my snaps at http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/album/504335

While out and about in Somerset don't forget Wells with its beautiful Cathedral, Bishop's Palace and Vicars' Close. Please bow to no.15, where we lived when I was about seven and my Reverend father was chaplain to the theological college that was there then. Wells had two stations then, but none now. That's the only reason railway-mad Dad retired to Oxford not Wells.

I think my involvement with the poster was the coat of arms - although there were a number of different ones mooted, so mine may not have made the final cut. Looking back, unsuccessfully, to find my input, I realized that the Seaford poster had originated from here and the 'current' view was posted in reply - back in July when there was a previous outburst of poster posting.

I had a go at one of those back in about 1967-9, although I don't think I tried moving the doors on that one. The foot boards seem to have got lost in storage over the years and the absence of battery boxes/gas cylinders/brakes etc. is thus revealed! The crests were all hand-painted though. I did loads of Triang clerestory into S&DJR stock, but never got brave enough to change the grab handles. The middle is a K's kit - a plastic one. Did you ever try one of their white metal coach kits? The 6-wheel clerestory never stayed on the track and weighed a ton and the autocoach sagged under its own weight.

I did one because the picture looked as if it should be one - it was more inspired by railway posters than for use on a model, A rather tatty wharf with no passengers wouldn't need one - that is when I actually stop buying bits and pieces and get going on the railway side of the wharf!. My poster stock has been from the southern counties - Bluebell, KESR & IOWSR. I rather like this one from the Bluebell Railway. We have had some good meals in what is now The Moorings restaurant at Pevensey Bay. I am not sure if that was the hotel on the Southern board or whether it just acquired the name, Yes, I know that it is post-grouping but when has this forum kept on the main-line?

A now and then comparison - mind you the 'then' is decidedly circumspect about letting on that the port of Newhaven is at the far end of the bay. It was far busier then than now.

Could you adapt this? https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/lx189-oo-4ft-post--chain-fencing-oo4mm176-1895-p.asp No connection with the supplier. ..or this https://www.howardscenicsupplies.co.uk/busch-1023-real-metal-chain-fence-00-ho-model-kit/ but that seems a lot to pay for 30cm of fence.

The Zeppelin is an unusual subject. Those involved in early air warfare do not have many memorials. The Saint Saviour's Parish War Memorial near London Bridge has had its Historic England listing upgraded to II* in large part due to the panel on the side of the base depicting WW1 aircraft. The principal figure is an infantryman and there is a panel with naval warfare on the other side of the base. Our neighbouring church, Saint Leonard's, Sutton with Seaford, has a memorial window to the memory of a young man from WW1. I think I remember seeing another, very similar, one in another church.

I have just realized that I have a second Dorcas/Tabitha window and felt that I should upload it simply because of the glorious names involved.

I suspect that to make a model railway or group of model railways of good enough quality to become a visitor attraction would take a major investment of both time and money before you can even open the doors to the public. In the past there have been model railways as attractions for holiday-makers at the seaside, usually on or near the seafront, but I don't recall seeing any recently. In this area of Sussex the Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway is primarily a 7.25" steam railway with scale locos and ride on coaches. It has a small model section. I only have a photo of the N gauge layout, but there may be more. The other outfit is the Brighton Toy and Model Museum, which has an 00 scale layout and a large tin-plate layout, as well as a large collection of model railway stock in a number of scales. In both cases the layouts are a small part of the total. This is part of the large tin-plate layout.

You seem to have set yourself a mammoth task and it looks impressive. Here are a few photos my Dad took in North Wales in the 1960s. It looks like you will need a lot of containers! There are even appropriate road vehicles in one! Good wishes for 2019 - may your good progress continue! Here are a couple I took later - but which show Conwy/Conway Castle and station ...and finally a couple of shots! within the castle to show the state of the walls in 1992.

Here in the south-east we have a very useful database of stained glass church windows, thanks to Robert Eberhard. It does not have illustrations, but it does give subject, maker, dedication etc. by church, by town or village by county. http://www.stainedglassrecords.org/. I have used it from both ends - so to speak - to identify what I have photographed and to find more examples of the same artist or see what a particular church has. The oldest fragments I have found locally are these butterflies at the base of this window which, in 2004, replaced one damaged by fire. The date of the original is not recorded, but it is believed to have been by a Flemish artist, in the late 18th century. The new one is by Paul San Casciani, who also created a beautiful Millennium window inspired by the reputedly 1600 year-old yew outside the church.

Having spotted that a church a few miles away but inaccessible by public transport, had some windows by 'The Wimbledon Ladies Arts College' I asked a friend to take me there. There seemed to be very little information about said college and few known examples of their windows. Their windows were fairly conventional in their subjects and style, but one stood out. Tabitha's son Timothy is shown as a deacon in a dalmatic (or possibly a sub-deacon in a tunicle), with a modern hairstyle.

In this area of Sussex there appears to be very little old glass about. A few churches have odd fragments, usually set in plain glass windows. The 1850s seems to be the earliest period for full images. We have some very nice works by Charles Kempe, Edward Burne Jones and Franz Mayer and some surprisingly modern looking glass from Harry Clarke, (1889 - 1931) without which, it seems, no self-respecting Irish church can exist.

The lady on the left is Dorcas a.k.a. Tabitha - she and Eunice would fit nicely in the right hand window. It was installed in 1885, so in period I think.

Where will this forum go next?????