Not Jeremy

I am very Happy to report that the card machine on the Wild Swan Books stand is connecting impeccably and working perfectly……

Wild Swan books is all set up, it is a nice spacious venue and there is lots to see, I look forward to seeing lots of people over the weekend!

This weekend Wild Swan Books is attending Guildex at Stafford and will have plenty of copies of James' new book for sale. I look forward to seeing O Gaugers reaction to it, as I think that although the book as written generally features 4mm scale modelling, it has a lot to offer the larger scale modeller. Including Gauge 1 - it has certainly given me a few new ideas for what I am going to build here! Have a great weekend whatever you do! Simon

On Friday I was impressed by this natty guard at Staverton Bridge on the South Devon Railway, smart operation amidst a jolly beer festival on the station. Great to see younger people in charge! Simon

Sounds like a pot of the good old magnolia to me!!!!

Evidence? On this thread? Shome mishtake shurely.... Emmanuel Strobes

Or worse still - Radio 4....

Ah, this will be your "judicious levity" speaking then....

Railwells Postscript. Motivated by two very nice days immersed in the hobby and its characters, and even getting a few bits done over the weekend, I last night got down to the shed and more or less finished the point I had at the show. I would not have managed this if I had not taken it to Railwells. Churrs!

Hi Nick, thank you for your order and I am glad that you like the book. Thank you also for your considered comments. Font wise, that is an interesting thought and one that we will consider for future publications in this format. Looking at the text again and being a bit brutal, we also have a lot of quite long paragraphs, which feature doesn't help readability. The apostrophe police, what can I say, I thought we'd got all the blighters but obviously not! It must be those young APSOs that get put on to the job, they just need more experience....(Apostrophe Police Support Officers) Hand written text, both James and I completely agree, we will be doing exactly as you say in any future work. In our defence this book was largely worked up from existing artwork on James' Blog (I hope you appreciated that apostrophe) and re-doing everything would have added significantly to the work involved and time taken, whilst we were both keen to get the book out and see how it went. It is going very well indeed and we are both feeling suitably encouraged, James has other good ideas and thoughts that I hope we can build a new book or books around in the future. Personally, I like the landscape format a lot, which came as something of a shock as I am a bit of a traditionalist on the book format front. Hopefully not a dinosaur, well not quite yet at least.... Thank you again for your thoughts, and to everyone else for all of their responses too. Simon

A very lovely show, really nice to be back and to have seen and spoken to so many folk. Thank you very much to Chris and all his organisers and helpers for putting it on.. Thank you for the picture Paul(!) I did stick the chairs down, but only today after I brought a proper straight edge which which to make sure the straight rail was straight - which it wasn't on Saturday! Apart from talking I today managed to also repair the 48DS roof and steps, so when I have touched the paint in, I will be able to run the very first train on the first part of the new outside line, which just has to be powered by the Ruston. The point I was building goes at the end of this bit of line, where it joins the quayside, arf arf.... We have a great hobby! Excellent!

Thank you for all the positive comments, it is great that so many people are enjoying James' book, it is certainly giving me new modelling ideas! Yes Stu, it was Father, an unofficial outing on to the roof. Whilst I may be as daft as he was, I have not inherited his head for heights... I very much like the sound of your workshop, sounds just the job Simon

For those of you that would like to know more about the book, further details are now available on the Wild Swan website here. Thank you very much to George for technical support beyond the call of duty! Simon

Keen to support our stockists, James new book is now also available to order from "Narrow Planet", to whom stock is now on its way. You can order it right now from them here, alongside other interesting publications and of course the rest of their fantastic range of products. Stock is also on its way to the Vale of Rheidol railway shop if you are over in that beautiful part of the world. Simon

Kris Give it a day (or two at most) and there will be examples of the inside of the book on the Wild Swan publisher's page, the technical department hasn't quite caught up with the sales department yet(!) The webpage you will find it from is here. I will not be placing it with Amazon, some of my trade customers may do so however. Simon

Just into stock - an exciting new layout design book from Wild Swan and James Hilton. In a fresh new style and an easy to flip through and read "landscape" format, this is a complete guide to its subject, full of fresh and innovative ideas for space and time starved modellers. 210mm X 280mm, printed on high quality paper and 80 pages long, £16.50 plus postage. Based upon his blog, this is an original and imaginative book that I found very interesting and motivating - it really does show that small in size does not mean small in either interest or enjoyment. I found it reminiscent of Iain Rice's approach, in that it is both thought provoking and motivating, and it also reminded me in many ways of the fantastic work of the late and much missed Carl Arendt. Following a general introduction and discussion around the subject, featuring several of the author's own models, the book then sets out a number of worked up schemes along various prototype themes, featuring plans, sketches and photographs. In stock and available now direct from Wild Swan and on its way to shops around the country as I type.

I have just produced a new catalogue for Wild Swan Books, featuring new and forthcoming titles. One of which is due to be delivered this week, more details later.... Also included are a set of very attractively priced "special offers" which cover four groupings of books which have been in print for some while. For full details see the special offers page of my website. For the moment at least these are only available direct from the publisher.

Thank you very much, I think that is what it is. Similar thoughts and the same conclusion over on Western Thunder. Very much appreciated! Simon

You are quite right in that the 02 is the GW Siphon type that this vehicle most resembles, but if you look at the axleboxes, roof height and other details then it doesn't match any GW siphon or type, 02 included. Which is what makes it so interesting... Thank you for your thoughts!

Dear all Currently working on a new edition of Great Western Siphons for Wild swan books, we have recently come across an image showing two identical six wheeled milk vans, photographed at Clapham Junction in the 1920s - after the Grouping. We have our own theories, but would be extremely interested to hear from anyone with their thoughts or information as to just what they actually are. Ideally backed up with evidence, photographic or otherwise. Thank you in advance for any information or thoughts you are able to contribute! The book itself is currently in the course of production and will be published this year. It has been written by John Lewis and is very detailed! Best Wishes Simon

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe our Government signed up to the scheme whilst we were still in the EU, so to that extent your statement is not correct. I believe that the motivation for all of these changes was to try and protect European markets and producers from cheap Chinese imports. All absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.

See https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_3098 Nothing whatever to do with Brexit, applies to every country, not just us. Went completely unreported by our National Broadcaster, hence all the ignorance and confusion on this thread. Personally, I am suspicious it wasn't reported precisely because it actually does not play in to the "Brexit is bad" mantra to which we have all apparently fallen prey. Another reason to scrap the license fee, oops sorry, wrong rant, over yo you guys to carry on.... Simon

Farewell Robbie, a character indeed. From my own limited contact and knowledge he lived his life with energy and to the full. I quite liked his pictures too! RIP

A great day, thank you very much to everyone who exhibited and visited and also for all the lovely feedback. Still recovering, sorting out the admin; we will give the "results" shortly, including a date for next year's show, but suffice to say that we will be making decent donations to both of our charities after everyone's efforts this year, so thank you again to all. Kim's crew in the kitchen were fantastic, Kim, Georgina, Edna and Dave - thank you all so very much. Feeling quite humbled by the whole thing really, the amount of effort and goodwill that was so clearly evident, the quality and imagination displayed by all of the exhibits - we truly have a wonderful hobby. I took some photographs, not all entirely sensible... An aerial view of Brian and Branchline... Next to Richard from YouChoos... Amazing how some of us can have so much hair after all these years.... Timmy Two trousers was a bit too busy to visit all the exhibits, he was a bit overwhelmed by everything at Black Rock.. But found York a bit smaller than he remembered it... He was a bit bothered by the spotters sitting on the platform edge, but was persuaded to leave them be as the layout was temporarily disconnected from the rest of the 2mm scale world. Rich Phipp represented the Watchmouth Railway with quiet dignity, in the background is the Gordon and two Martins. And then there were the big trains! A fantastic day! Simon

Hey, let's not forget DJMmodels and the Ickle Locomotive company, they were both in your "Brave New World" too. They both made some great models, and "listened", and were going to do so much better....