Not Jeremy

Anyone who has not been notified should be in the "carrying on" list, I am just sorting out a message for this group now. Simon

As we approach Railex, judges have been considering the very many entries and have now contacted all shortlisted and non shortlisted entries. There are in addition a number of entries, 19 in total by our reckoning, which the judges have decided are going to be insufficiently complete to be exhibited at Railex this year, and these are effectively "standing outside" of the judging process at this stage. David Lane has kindly agreed to stage a further display of Cameo competition entries at Railex 2020, and so we are keen that these entries carry on building, as there are some really good ideas and great layouts under construction. Any entry that withdrew due to time constraints is welcome to carry on for consideration for the 2020 show, but we stress this is not a new competition open to any new entries. The standards have been really high, and the variety of ideas wonderfully varied, as we can all see from the great variety of threads here on RMweb. The judges job has been genuinely very difficult and all of the entries were considered to be of a high standard. I would also like to particularly thank Andy York and Warners for very generously hosting this Cameo section of RMweb for entries, which has added hugely to the fun of the whole thing and also been incredibly useful in sorting through all of the great ideas and superb modelling. Thank you Andy. Broadly speaking, there are 8 in the final shortlist, 11 not shortlisted, and the 19 standing outside of the competition. The initial entry was staggering at something like 95 entries. It is difficult to be completely precise as not all original entries responded to requests for information earlier in the process. If anyone has any queries about any of this, then please do contact me. So a big thank you to all of you, on behalf of Iain Rice, Gordon Gravett, Chris Nevard and myself! And see you at Railex.... Simon Castens

I have an absolute mint copy of issue 15. I'll happily sell it to you for £10.00 inclusive of very secure and bend-proof P&P. PM me if interested. Simon

Now in stock at the Titfield Thunderbolt, and very good it is too. Titfield P&P within the UK is £4.00, Australia and New Zealand is £17.30. http://titfield.co.uk/Book-shelves/Books-N5-det.htm#5137 Congratulations to publisher and authors. Simon

And stock is now on its way to the Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop, although it might be a bit delayed by the weather....

Announcements will be made very shortly, here, on WT and then in MRJ. Apologies for "radio silence", stuff is going on and thank you to all entrants for participating in the first place and for your patience now. Overall the response has been terrific and the standards incredibly high. People also seem to be enjoying themslelves, so thank you again to all participants, including those who have "fallen" along the way. I haven't started my own Cameo yet - waiting for the rest of life to settle down a bit... Simon

Ooooops! Sorry Zero, that was aimed at me, not you. Must pay more attention, apologies again!! Simon

Bill Smarme, Twerton's most famous son: Think Lee Marvin, "I was born under a wandering star" I was bor-r-n in the Twerton Spa Pilchards was me shelf mates, custard was me pal in between the toilet rolls, The Andrex and Izal... Pure class.. Viva Las Vegas = Viva Lyme Regis http://www.billsmarme.com/ And what's more, Mickey Tenfingers is good friends with Crispin Denny, so there is even a model railway connection! And nobody's mentioned f*cking WH Smith yet, oh wait a minute.... Simon Not a busy day in the shop, can you tell....?

A good issue I think, in stock here in Bath and available on my Titfield website at: http://titfield.co.uk/Wild-Swan/MRJ-Journal.htm For what it is worth this is my brief summary of what's inside: Edited by Gerry Beale, musing on what makes us model what we model and the joys of catholic taste. Main layouts featured are both Midland, Robin Whittle's epic P4 rendition of Bristol Barrow Road shed and a wonderful 7mm model railway depicting the Midland 100 years or so ago. Nothing so unusual about that you might think except that it is in the Antipodes and built by a genuine Australian gent. Actually I think it is a type of model railway which we in the UK have sort of forgotten about as we all apparently strive for ever more accurate renditions of "scale" - some of us apparently believing that only models of real places are "proper" models. What utter tosh sez I, Graeme Lewis, his wonderful writing and his layout are all real breaths of fresh air, so thank you and well done Graeme. Having upset everyone, the rest of this issue contains more stock by Gerry himself, Mark Humphries finessing a Pannier chimney, Rodney Cooper building a stylish DMU, John Darch doing a large Prairie, a superb bit of the old Talyllyn from Peter Kazer and an obituary to the incredibly talented Stewart Hine. And letters, one being illustrated with a very fine bit of North American modelling by my highly talented friend Dave Easto. As Bill Smarme has so often sung, there is nothing like a Dave... And to add a bit of value, here is one of the pictures of Dave's model: And not adding much value at all, here's when Bill Smarme came in to the shop.... Simon

Sorry Paul, I did not mean to suggest that you were when I made my post. I haven't seen any proofs and am not in any way involved, although I do believe there has been some sort of issue with the printing, which may possibly not yet be resolved. No doubt David (Postle) will fill us all in when he knows what is happening, I am sure he shares our frustration! In the meantime I look forward to seeing it along with everyone else. Best Wishes Simon

I would guess that the ongoing "delay" will be largely due to both the author and David Postle endeavouring to produce the very best book that they can. On which basis I would say that whatever the delay ends up being, it will have been worth the wait when we all see this book, which I am absolutely sure we all will. As regards printing, sure there are many printers out there, and it has quite probably never been easier to produce good books than it is now, but believe me it is easy to make mistakes (don't ask) and there are even now books on the market that show that printers and publishers can still produce less than stellar results. So, I am disappointed not to have seen the book this month, but pleased that David and his colleagues are taking such care in producing it and confident that when we all see the book it will prove to have been worth the wait. Simon

I have it stock in my shop too, well done Robert (and Tony) http://titfield.co.uk/Book-shelves/Books-N1-det.htm#5088 I think it's great that you are prepared to share so widely the images that you have collected Robert, both on the web and in books too - thank you very much! Simon Here is a gratuitous picture of a model hydraulic out in the garden, Steve Harrod's very lovely 1/32 model of "Tiger" from a Fred Phipps kit.

This very impressive book has now been published and I have it in stock in my shop in Bath. It will also no doubt be available direct from the publisher and from other specialist outlets, here is a link to my webpage: http://titfield.co.uk/Book-shelves/Books-H4-det.htm#5090 Well done to the author and publisher, a fine record of a terrifying subject. Simon

How sad, thank you for sharing the information. As you say, a great writer and with talents that covered a very wide range, from art through to great technicality, just amazing. In recentish years I had been more interested in his Gauge One thoughts, from a few years ago now, but over my modelling life I have always enjoyed and latterly looked out for anything he has written. A life well lived as you say. Simon

Not related to the o/p, but yes it is significantly different to a painting. Steve added the extra dimensions of sound and also smell(!) and in addition it makes a great setting in which to photograph different items of rolling stock. So not an operating layout by any means but much much more than a painting.

I think it did, the coal merchants were Hamlen's.

I agree, not to knock the Marston series, but I too think these are actually better. Although the plots are possibly less "linear", which might not suit everybody. Coincidentally I am just finishing Andrew Martin's "Night Trains" which I am really enjoying. In this (factual) book his father and his railway connections are relevant and feature quite significantly at the beginning of the "story", highly recommended. Simon

Bless you! Geek alert, your line is in scene 163 starting at 293 feet into reel 2A, and is followed by Dan responding from 332 feet: Righto. That'll do. Pack it up. Pack it up. Sounds like he's on an MRJ thread!! Simon

Hi Paul Really nice to see you at Woody Bay on Saturday, and to paraphrase the Bishop; what a pair of beauties what an experience what an experience In the meantime the book was indeed delivered to me today and looks pretty good, even if I say so myself. I will get it on to my website tomorrow, it is already in stock and on sale at the most excellent Oldfield Park bookshop, run by the estimable Harry Wainwright http://www.theoldfieldparkbookshop.co.uk Simon

I know Brian said that above he'd bought the older version, but for the sake of clarity for those that don't know, the older book (1981 I think) is a vastly inferior book to the new one. Which at £25.00 is, in my opinion, an absolute bargain. http://titfield.co.uk/Book-shelves/Books-H2-det.htm#5051 As for sending books across the pond, well it's a blooming long way from Blighty, invloves a lot of that salty and wet stuff and I haven't yet found anyone who is prepared to carry them over there for nothing or even next to nothing. Happy reading! Not Jeremy

quite

Yes

There are in fact going to be two books. The first will be available very shortly and is a revised and much improved second edition of my 2000 book "On The Trail Of The Titfield Thunderbolt", currently going for absolutely silly money on eBay etc Just about to go to the printers, it should be available by the end of September and is a copiously illustrated and comprehensive guide to the locations used in the making of the film. Details about the filming are also included, but the next book will cover this side of the story in more depth and will include many more pictures. A5 format, sewn binding with a spine, quality art paper throughout, and 56 pages long, so perfect to keep in the pocket for field trips and a snip at just £8.95. If you have unwanted copies of the original book then I suggest you put them on eBay right now, as values will shortly be plummeting(!) The second book will be called simply "The Titfield Thunderbolt" and will complement this one, being largely all additional information, together with some absolutely fabulous photographs. I hope to have produced it by next Spring. I should say that the photographs in the book that is about to come out are also quite fabulous, just in case you were wondering. Simon Castens

The book is now in stock and available, I will be taking copious quantities with me to Telford. I should get it up on to the Titfield website tomorrow.

I slightly hesitate to post this here, as Peter was in many ways peripheral to the model railway hobby, but I figure that he will nonetheless have been known to quite a few folk who read RMweb and so deserves a mention within these hallowed pages. In fact this has already been mentioned on another thread and I also appreciate that quite a few people will already know the news from earlier Facebook posts. It is with great regret that I have to announce that my friend Peter Barnfield very sadly passed away on the morning of Wednesday 15th August. Peter was a hugely talented artist and a long time observer and photographer of the railway scene, and much else besides. He was also a great writer, able to memorably evoke atmosphere and memory with words, which skill was happily put to use in the recent series of books that I and Wild Swan produced with him. He was an individual of great character in so very many ways and I feel that a light has gone out in my own life. I know that he will be very much missed by very many people, no-one more than his wife and lifelong companion Ginny and his son Ian, to whom I send my deepest condolences. I would hope to feature Peter and his work more in the future through Wild Swan and on my own website, but in the meantime his own website carries on at: http://www.peterbarnfield.co.uk/ More on his Whimshire series is also available on my website at: http://titfield.co.uk/Barnfield/PB_main.htm He has left us all with a huge legacy of wit, wisdom and of course his work. Apart from the recent books we produced together for Wild Swan, Peter's work has been extensively featured in Railway Bylines and also in many of the books that Irwell Press have produced down the years. Here is a picture from one of his recent books. Peter and Ginny Barnfield at Talybont on Usk while on the SLS last train to Brecon in May 1964 Farewell Peter, and thank you for everything. Simon Castens