Not Jeremy

The Siphons have landed! Now available to order here, books are also on their way to our regular stockists. Here is the glorious whole page image that appears on page 260. "County of Gloucester" is photographed approaching West Drayton with a lovely mixture of siphons in tow during 1931. Photograph by C. R. Gordon Stuart, copyright Rail Archive Stephenson. And the new book on milk traffic by Matt (Karhedron) is currently being laid out... Simon

I travelled on the Cambrian and was at Towyn (as a TR volunteer) back in the days of semaphores, Class 24s, gunpowder vans and coal in mineral wagons for the Town and TR. It was lovely, and I feel nostalgic etc, but given the reality of things fifty years later (feck!) I find the above characterisation of how it is now to be waaaay too negative. I travelled up to Tywyn (see what I did there?) back in November to spend a fabulous few days with good friends, and the whole journey experience was utterly magical. The Class 158s I travelled on were spruce and comfortable, the staff were all unfailingly great, cheerful, engaging and friendly the scenery was as beautiful as ever, and it struck me that the whole enterprise had a sense of purpose and future about it. Apart from Barmouth bridge itself, there was evidence of much work just outside Dovey Junction, Dovey Junction had sprouted an additional loop and long platform that crosses trains ingeniously, there was evidence of more work elsewhere and the trains were running with quite a lot of passengers on board (and on time) The base at Mach has a wonderful self contained atmosphere too. And there is even freight to Aber again, and the VoR - Wow! I don't know when you travelled on the line or what you experienced or have been told to make you feel so bad about it all. For myself, I truly got a very positive impression from the whole experience, get up there and travel the line - it's bloody marvellous!

The closest to that I have managed was some weird yellow "weathering" to the front of the Ruston when it ran over a slug on the old line - eccch Mind you, having just built a tunnel who knows what other wildlife I might see... There is much pleasure to be had in a garden with trains!

New England Cut and cover tunnelling An unusual trespasser.... So nice to have some sunshine!

I was there a very long time ago..... Grace, Colin, Jean and Not Jeremy(!)

It implies that he copied what was there before, (ie the “wrong” spelling) You can’t beat a storm in a virtual teacup on a Friday morning, thanks to all contributors!!

I have a picture of a more or less ex works fruit D W92057W at Kingswear which is most definitely maroon with black painted ends, I (as Wild Swan) hope to publish it a new book in the near future with other colour pictures of stock in service. On the other hand, on the rear cover of "Dorset Steam" from Capital Transport, is a fab picture of a fruit D in all over maroon. Didn't the change to body colour ends come in with the spraying rather than brush painting of stock? Great looking vehicles in any livery! Simon

That's really lovely, and yours must be the only goods yard with a resident pianist - pure class. But then we'd expect nothing less from a person as esteemed as yourself. It's still raining on my train set....

I have been advised that delivery of the new siphons book will take place on Thursday 18th April, these dates are usually pretty reliable. I will get it up on to the website as soon as it arrives. It has been a long time coming, something of a relief to have finally got it out there....

No ballast yet, but I'm working on it...

I have for long been an admirer of the most excellent and delightfully idiosyncratic French magazine Voie Libre. Published by LR Presse it sets out to cover the modelling of narrow gauge and "off the beaten track" sorts of subjects, with a style and panache that is all of its own. The accent is on creativity and construction, but always with wit and pragmatism, and the whole outlook of the magazine is wonderfully "across borders". Edited by Francois Fontana, it has since issue 80 (5 years ago) been produced in an English print "International Edition". If you search through RMweb you will find various references to past issues. Although in my "business life" I am now concentrating on publishing and selling only Wild Swan books, I am sticking with supplying the Model Railway Journal and Narrow Gauge & Industrial Review magazines and from today have added Voie Libre to the magazine titles that I already offer. This may not be a sensible business decision, but I feel that this is a wonderful magazine that doesn't get the visibility or profile that it deserves in the UK, and I would like to help more people become aware of it and enjoy what it has to offer. It has been, and is, already available from John Sutton and Ebay in the UK, but nobody seems to talk about it much or promote it, so with Andy's kind permission I am starting this thread to do just that. I have issue 116 in stock now, and my price is £10.00 per issue plus postage, which makes it £14.25 for a single issue bought direct from me. A link to my full description and the opportunity to purchase from the Titfield Thunderbolt is here. The magazine is a quarterly production, with issue 117 due from the middle of April, and I intend to stock new issues as they come out. Please feel free to add your own thoughts and experiences of the magazine to this thread - the more pictorial the better! I know that many people do subscribe or see copies in other ways, and I think it would be really interesting to have an ongoing thread in which it gets featured and discussed. None of the above is in any way meant as a criticism of any other railway modelling publication, each has its own strengths and appeal and long may they all continue.... Vive la différence!

Model Railway Journal 302 has just arrived and is now available here in Bath. Another good issue, with the new future retro cover for this issue being produced in a fetching shade of green. The contents and my thoughts on them are here. Simon

Ye gods man, couldn't you have dunked them?!

A rare shot, D602 "Bulldog" in ex works blue livery captured on a West Country milk working this afternoon.

Apart from wanting to stir up a pointless discussion in the hope that it goes pear shaped, I can not think why anyone with any intelligence should be "thinking more of a model railway with marching Hitler youth etc...." A definite contender for a RUCA RMweb Utter Cobblers Award

Well, quite.....

That's great Phil, but try as I might, I couldn't find one anywhere between Bath and Paddington yesterday(!) It was a quick journey in each direction, but between the overcowding, hard seats and yes, some quite "bangy" running, it was quite a dispiriting experience when compared to many journeys from the past. It would be great to look forward to the future again, I think some of us used to!! From slightly glum of Bath.

Cripes, well caught Baz…. I do recall slicing the “corner” off my left index finger off when trying to construct baseboards with a knife. I’m not sure if CK was there or not, it was in the original basement “empire”. I did take myself to A&E but ought to have taken the “off cut” with me, the finger has since then had a somewhat “streamlined” profile…..

Never mind the perils of labelling and people talking cobblers on the Internet, (the latter something I excel in), the thing that keeps me awake at night is the horror of railway modellers making limp jokes..... Away from the keyboard now, I'm off to wreck the garden to create my own personal HS2 - more cobblers later I expect.... Watch out you flowers!

I wasn't driving, honest - it was Dave wot dunnit. Come to think of it, he's got "form", here's the same buffer stop on another line after he'd been "shunting". Maybe its the concept of headshunts that he struggles with, which is cause for concern when operating on the current line's "headshunt of doom"!

A day in the life of a very minor railway in the West Country.... "Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea..." Need to tighten the fishplate bolts on that buffer stop!

So make a kit, or scratchbuild, this obsessing over what is and isn't produced by XYZ manufacturer is, to my mind at least, desperately uninteresting and even depressing. Are we railway modelling or railway model purchasing? I know which I prefer....

Here is my stuff, the small coach with the Ruston was built by the very talented John Dale, a model of the tiny brake on the Liskeard, Looe and Caradon Railway. Behind the Stench stuff is the mortal remains of Pomparles Siding. The corrugated iron hut was made out of Heinz bean cans and has lived outside for ten years and counting. The Ruston pottered up and down, I ran a train or two in Howard's memory... And here's the ever wonderful Barry Baker, with his teapot from PaulRHB! A really lovely day, thank you to all. Simon

A really nice day in great company, lots of reminders and memories of all those fantastic "Small and Delightful" shows that Howard and Co. cooked up over so many years. I was next to Paul with a display of Peter Barnfield's 16mm models, a bit of Gauge One-ery and the infamous "Stench Electric", built to run in Brian Clarke's garden over 45 years ago. All hugely enjoyable as Paul and others have said, a great celebration of Howard, a big character in every way. Of course there were other "big characters" involved, Alan and Roger; And Barry Baker, of course, seen talking to Alan later on; On the other side of me was another model railway legend, Paul, with Minehead Quay Town, which features some lovely coastal shipping; Across the way, "our" Paul was studying something on Richard and Ray's stand;

I have set my alarm for, and am very much looking forward to, tomorrow. I am bringing varied "stuff" for display, including Peter Barnfield's 16mm scale models. Simon