Not Jeremy

Thank you for the comments and for everyone who came along and joined in with this year's event. We had a great time, lots of talking, tea drunk and Lesley and I both got ourselves scanned by Alan at his ModelU stand. Hopefully there will be some photos later but in the meantime great to catch up with lots of friends including a number of RMwebbers -!talking to Arthur it appears that he may well be working on a new model railway based Downfall/Hitler parody... And thanks very much to various friends who really support the event, including our own Captain Kernow, all in all a great day celebrating our fantastic hobby. Simon

Floor plans finalised, there are enough tables, keys picked up, it's insured, lettuce and ham being sorted out by competent individuals, Steve Cook is on the road and from conversations had there are a number of folk heading for Larkhall tomorrow. Only disappointment is that the new Wantage book hasn't quite made it for tomorrow, I will be receiving stocks later in the week. More significantly this year we will remember Dave Finney who has sadly just passed away, Dave was a friend and great supporter of my shows over many years and will be much missed. Thank you again to everyone who helps to make this such an enjoyable event. Simon

Suitably edited, don't want to incur the wrath of Cornish Archaeology on the event…. Shame you can't make it, next year's event will be on the 14th July…. Thanks for the "p" heads up! Simon

Larkrail 2017 Saturday 15th July 2017, 10.00am to 4.30pm £4.00 admission to all comers, accompanied children free. New Oriel Hall Larkhall Bath 1.5 miles out from bus and railway stations, bus No 7 from outside Debenhams in front of Bath Spa station. Robin Gay's P4 Wantage station and Nic De Courtais' EM model of Wantage lower yard spearhead a fairly Wantage-ish show which will also hopefully see the launch of Nic’s new book on the subject from Wild Swan. Roger Bird’s beautifully observed Tralee and Dingle diorama, Annascaul Llanfair: Welsh Narrow Gauge from Andy Cundick Portskerra: Highland Railway terminus circa 1916 EM by Tim Tinknell Drews Sidings: RMweb featured Br Blue inglenook OO from Adrian Full Demonstrators Iain Rice will be in attendance with something jolly interesting. Phil Coplestone will be representing S scale Simon De Souza: Wantage Stock and plastikard modelling Justin Newitt: fiendishly clever wagon etchings Gordon Ashton: P4 wagon building Ted Olney: OO kit building Dennis Lepper figure painting, plus two G1 locos painted in full glorious Southern Maunsell livery Dave Easto: Larger scale scratchbuilding, American boxcab Steve Harrod: Weathered G1 diesels and new OO project Laurie Griffin: locomotives and miniatures Steve Parks: Wellow diorama in N Jonathan Persse: Larger scale structure scratchbuilding Jerry Clifford and or John Greenwood: smallscale wonderfullness David Whitcomb and the Festiniog Railway roadshow Trade Dave Simpson's Gas Cupboard Brian Osborn's Branchlines And Alan Buttler’s ingenious ModelU come to Bath for the first time. I think that's it, it all seems to fit in, I must have forgotten something…. As before profits go to Julian House, a locally based charity supporting the homeless, last year's event raised £600.00 and finally, Roger Swan’s ode to 2016: At The Larkrail Train Show Let us not speak for the love we share for these trainsets: Let us drink Tea and look. She, checking watch: eating cake Tapping foot: He, acquiring another Railway Book. And both, Puzzled for a moment, In this Larkhall Inglenook Edited for taking the P out of Copplestone

Always a really good show, hope it goes well for everybody. I'm not there with the books as Titfield has retired from shows but Ian McCall is attending with Mainline and Maritime and is carrying a good stock of Wild Swan books. This includes lots of copies of Peter Barnfield's new "Memories of West Country Railway Journeys" which I hope many visitors will pick up over the weekend. Have a great time and I look forward to attending as a visitor in future years, it does feel a bit odd not being there. Simon

Just to let folk know that all entries have been received and "logged", we have not as a matter of course acknowledged all of the entries, so don't worry if you haven't heard anything yet. Iain and I sat down and reviewed entries so far on Sunday, and we have a great variety of ideas and approaches, which is very pleasing, many of them unfolding on this thread. Iain is concocting a letter with which we will be contacting and acknowledging all entrants shortly, I will let you know when we are doing this on this thread so that everyone can be sure they are "included". He also has some further thoughts and even guidance(!) having seen the entries so far and we will be publishing these here and on Western thunder, and even on my website... Simon Castens

What with you being the new editor of the most illustrious Snooze and all, is there any chance you might be able to correct your sort of "post cider" spelling? as in "Rastock - Midford Tramway at Wellow" Or this some cunning subterfuge to prolong pondering and pontification around the considerations concerning the very highly unlikely building by your good self of an imaginary model of an imaginary tramway that never existed? and "more interesting than the S&D" indeed - pshaw! Perhaps you have been on the cider after all... Yours as ever, a concerned Scalefour member

Here are a few pictorial extracts to give a bit of a "feel" for the book, in no particular order... All photographs copyright Peter Barnfield and Wild Swan Simon Castens

Not exactly, one view shows the rear end wall and most/part view of front elevation. Interestingly, the war memorial has been removed from the end wall by the date of the photo, August 65. I think this particular view has appeared previously in one of Irwell's "S&D Files" books, it also has the roof ventilator to "A" box in it. Simon

Available now, Peter Barnfield's photographs and recollections of travelling over Western Region lines in the West Country. Subjects are the ex Great Western lines, and photographs feature some early diesels and units in operation, notably a brilliant low angle shot of D6315 heading the "Cornishman" at Truro. There is also an extended chapter on a run along the S&D branch to Burnham, headed by a "Bulldog" and featuring extensive photography of Highbridge and Burnham. Printed and produced by Amadeus up in Cleckheaton. Gloss laminated cover, sewn spine, 120pp, heavily illustrated, ISBN 9781912038725, £14.95. Available direct or from any good bookseller. In common with all Wild Swan books this will not be available at reduced prices from Amazon or any of the other cut price merchants. Simon Castens

I had a brilliant day, talking cobblers as usual but this time without any books..... Lovely venue, top quality visitors and nice trains too. Thank you to Jerry for organizing it and to Kim and the girls for all the glamour and cakes. I enjoyed sharing my gauge one bits and at least managed to de-mask my sprayed brake van and ream out one hole in the BR van kit ready for roller bearings. All the layouts were good I thought, Arun Quay was clever and visually pleasing - the whole show was very inspiring. Apparently all the bread pudding I made got eaten too, wonders wil never cease....... Simon

My copy has arrived, I haven't had a detailed study yet but it looks properly good, oodles of detailed wagonry and some stonking plans too. And very nice to see it has been printed by Amadeus in Cleckheaton too, who also packed it very well. Well done on all fronts! Simon

Belated tailpiece: A great show, as ever, thanks to David and the team for all their hard work. All aboard for beer…. Here's to 2018! Simon

Perhaps this would help?

GWJ 102 arrived in the shop today, so will now be going out to subscribers, other outlets and even WH Smiths branches. Apart from finishing off Snow Hill, Newbury and Castles in traffic, there is a very informative article on Collet bow ended coaches, with good drawings included - It'll be missed when its gone. I'll be bringing a good few to Railex at Aylesbury this coming weekend.. Simon

Issue 255 has arrived in the shop this morning and is no doubt now winging its way to other retailers, subscribers and even Smiths branches. Here is my description of the contents: Karl Crowther is in the editorial chair once more, and leads with a thought provoking and uplifting piece on the benefits that visiting exhibitions and involvement in the wider hobby offers us all. The main article is an update on developments on Hywel Thomas's wonderful "Morfa Bank Sidings" featuring a canal and locks running through the centre of the layout - jaw droppingly good modelling. Other features include an examination of the coal drops on Karl's Hebble Vale Goods, the award winning "Mill" layout by Jason Thomas and Chris Rogers (also with well modelled coal drops), a glimpse of Edge Hill and a retrospective on operation at Dewsbury Midland from Bob Essery. Constructional articles are Pete Jary on building a bunch of 7mm scale banana vans and Adam Chapman scratchbuilding a Swindon built Lowmac, an inspiring mixture of fretting out brass, plastikard wrangling and the odd commercial casting - all of which produces a superb result and makes me want to take the piercing saw of its hook and get going. In addition, small suppliers forum, diary, letters and an obituary to mark the sad passing of Chris Crofts back in February, the author of the seminal series on scratchbuilding wagons in MRJs 12-15. Another vintage issue I think. Simon

Wild Swan is about to publish Peter Barnfield's "Memories of West Country Railway Journeys" which has a glorious full page low level shot of D6315 on the front of the "Cornishman" at Truro, in its original form with discs and no warning panel. There are a fair few other Class 22 images featured, in addition to the units, although most images in the book are of steam traction. At the printers now, out in c 3 weeks time and available from all good stockists etc. I myself have a 1/32 Fred Phipps kit that I intend to finish as D6315 in this condition too. Simon

Fascinating idea, wasn't there a very early steam locomotive trialled in the coalfield whose history could be "adapted" or was that the 1826 machine? I hope you do, and I'm sure you'd get extra points for working horses!!! Simon

My reading of the book and Iain's cameo concept suggests to me that "operation" is a key part of what Iain has in mind, and I think that you can interpret "operation" as widely as you wish. I take Graham's point about operation wanting to be a bit "hands on" but on the other hand some layouts are too hands on, and as a result provide unenjoyable operation. I say that based upon my own experience with "Pomparles Siding", which is the small G1 layout that is fleetingly mentioned in the book. It's "problem" is that the working of the wagon turntables is incredibly fiddly, being manually operated and in positions with minimal clearance for stock being turned, and that the points are operated by scale board mounted McNee levers but the electrical switching of the crossings is done separately by switches - an absolutely guaranteed recipe for forgetting one operation or another with operationally unimpressive results. People are getting too hung up on the height thing. "Spotty Siding", as it quickly became known, was designed on a flat plywood base, with all wiring above, such that it could sit in a table at exhibitions, which it did. The most realistic views are undoubtedly to be had from near track level and it may have looked better at shows higher up. Of course you can always sit down to view it, and the digital camera will open up all sorts of views whatever height the layout is sitting at. I suspect that in the larger scales the "height thing" is less of an issue as in scale terms the model is closer to the viewer no matter what height it is displayed at, a 2mm model displayed at the same height will look less "natural" - unless you are an aeroplanist of course. But at the end of the day, build it to a height that you are happy with and which suits you, but perhaps giving some thought to providing natural viewing angles. Was Spotty Siding a cameo layout? It lacked wings and a proscenium arch, but then again I'd given quite a lot of thought to its "framing" and the lighting, and so I'd contend (possibly controversially) a "yes" on that front. On the other hand it was an unwieldy shaped layout, which made it near impossible to store, and it took absolutely ages to set it up and take it down again, breaking down into a myriad of awkwardly shaped and delicate parts. On this Cameo criterion it failed spectacularly... Operationally, although tedious as I have described above, it worked pretty well as there was quite a lot you could do with it. The highlight of its operation was was chain shunting wagons in and out of the kick back siding - which could and did result the situation as in my Avatar! And finally, it was built as a direct result of the RMweb "Six Square Feet Challenge" of 2007, without which I would not have come up with the idea, much less built it, and would have missed out on truckloads of fun as a result. Did I win the competition? No - but that bothered me not one jot and I will remain eternally grateful to the original "competition" for getting me off my **** and building something. As an aside, I'm hoping to have a bash at a cameo in G1 by cunningly re-using bits of Spotty Siding, but however far I get with it it won't be an entry in the competition. So, don't worry about rules, be inspired by the concept and take it in whatever direction you wish - no-one is going to be "wrong" whatever they do. As far as the competitive element does go, I suspect (as various folk here have already alluded to) that the "key" aspect or ingredient is most likely to be an element of theatre, so I'm personally trying to think entertainment and presentation as I consider my own cameo contribution. Let's go Cameo! Simon

Hi Peter Was that your very lovely model, or parts of model, that were displayed next to your layout at Taunton last week? If so then whether you were the only entry or not I think you were a very deserving winner indeed. I thought the Peco competition a very good idea, although I didn't follow it up with any attempt to model the PPM. There is something very fascinating I think in "single unit" trains and this subject is also an intriguing prototype and a great collection of shapes, I enjoyed a run on it up on the Chasewater Railway quite a few years ago. Great to see such creative scratch-building too, I must get back to my own railcar projects.. Simon

Great idea - you could "do" the Antiques Roadshow too - I'm sure they'd appreciate it! Could do wonders for the image of the hobby too....

Ah, speaking of dark secrets, here we see the good Captain outside one of his emporiums "somewhere in Wales". No wonder he didn't build many train sets, what with this and Network Rail to organise....

Ah, the Kernow quondam days..... Herewith the good Captain engaged in practical testing of Matalan's revolutionary range of lineside high visibility clothing that strangely failed to gain popularity within the railway industry.....

I disappeared at lunchtime to the WSR as it was the gala and my friend Alan Dorrington was driving. He was driving the superb visiting standard mogul, here seen having just arrived from Norton Fitzwarren - the weather was a bit wet and cold. Here we see Alan on the footplate getting ready for the off(!) I followed him on the QB set hauled by 53808, returning on the same coaches double headed by the mogul and a visiting 4F, all very enjoyable albeit everything running rather late, points failure at Minehead or some such. Here are the locos moving off to the shed after arrival at Bishops Lydeard. Altogether a very grand day out indeed! Simon

I took a few snaps, not great quality but there are some people in them... Graham "Muz" with Canute Quay featuring an interloper Interloper enlarged Interloper made on to the modules too, Arthur and Culmhead officiating Admirers admire, I think I've seen that bloke in the shirt before…. KIm, Phil and Tim by the bring and buy Simon