ParkeNd

I suppose it's a matter of degree. Most cyclists will already be qualified motorists and thus meet all those stringent requirements - kids excepted. The damage you can do on a bike is pretty limited compared with a car, but if you crank up the dial a bit, then heavy lorries, light aeroplanes, passenger jets, and military jets in turn require an ascending scale of what you call regulation. Bikes really don't need any regulating as you call it. I think the invective directed towards "cyclists" as a single homogeneous group seems to me to come from motorists who expect to take precedence in any road situation and want to think themselves above having to actually look for anything smaller or slower than a car at road junctions, roundabouts, and at exits from blind bends. By the way I am a motorist but don't feel the need to bad mouth cyclists as if they are all the same. PS. Unregulated pedestrians haven't got a mention from you.

Just for clarity, what is a " totally unregulated cyclist" ? I assume it's not a term of praise. As a keep fit cyclist myself and a motorist of 48 years, I am ashamed of the very few cyclists I see riding on pavements at high speed or deliberately riding past red traffic lights, but they are few and far between compared with other motorists using phones to text at the wheel or doing 60 mph+ in villages on B roads in 30 mph speed limits - or worse still the "regulated motorists" who overtake me on my bike without pulling out and driving between me and a lorry or tractor coming the other way in a country lane.

"Wilbert" leaving Whitecroft on the DFR.

Wednesday runnings are starting to taper off as October approaches so I tried to make the most of what is left and visited Whitecroft this morning. My plan was to photograph the 10.53 leaving Whitecroft for Parkend but managed to miss it by about 3 minutes!! So I was left with the next journey at the same place which was 12.30 and bright bright bright. This is from one of the crossings down the line from the station towards Parkend. What train dear? I really didn't hear it - was there just one?

Lydney Model Railway Show - here are a few photos with the details as I remember them. Abergavenny Brecon Road by Richard Cox. Tennessee Extraction Company. Just about everything moved. By Slim Gauge Circle. Brimscombe in N by Shirehampton MRC. Long. Castle Wharf Kendall in 009. By Ian Kirkwood. Short but far more characterful than many others. Hollow Fosse in TT. By John Thomas. Actually didn't look that much smaller than OO which surprised me. Every item was scratch built of course - stock, buildings, and track. Wartime OO - I think. A demo of electronic doodads. In a quiet location this proved that model railway sound is not a waste of time despite some forums which expect to 'feel the thunderous base in their guts" or it's no good. A funfair in OO scale by Martin Nash. There was much more but 12 photos is more than enough least you all get bored. It's a flavour anyway.

I visited the Forest of Dean's Lydney Model Railway Exhibition at the Dean Academy this morning - and it was truly excellent. Anyone who didn't go today should definitely visit Sunday (tomorrow 27th Sep). This was my first non-national show and I have to say it was more fun than even Warley. The layouts were very good, the layout operators were really friendly, and lots of action could be seen. I spent ages talking to Dr Paul who was building a Metcalfe kit of a church for a Forest of Dean Model Railway Club N gauge layout of Baynards next year - and also spoke at length with DFR's Rob Aplin who had the points layout for the Parkend signal box with him. The hot freshly cooked bacon baps were great too!! I took photos on a little Panasonic CSC camera and the RAW files need processing over the next day or so - but I will leave you with the Dad's Army crew on the live steam layout whilst I do this. More later.

I certainly shall - but I usually find the huge range of different light sources on all the different layouts at an exhibition a bit of a nightmare with colour balance.

Just for a change of scales I am going to give the Forest of Dean Model Railway Show at Lydney a go on Saturday. The videos of last year look pretty good and who can sniff at 22 layouts for a fiver. I have even found out where Dean Academy is.

In parts of the North of England "while" means "until" as in "I have to go to work while 5pm". In the eastern end of Colchester in 1972 traffic could be badly disrupted by the level crossing gates so continental barriers were tried. A cyclist born in the North was killed though. The new signs said "Wait while the red lights flash" and he waited UNTIL the red lights flashed and promptly pulled in front of a train.

The Great Marquess at Bridgnorth on the SVR about 1993 ish. Taken on a Nikon FE and scanned recently on a Nikon Coolscan IV with Silverfast SE software. But well beaten by digital I have to say.

A man walked into a pub with a full grown alligator and ordered a beer in a bottle. He drank the beer, hit the alligator on the nose with the empty bottle, the alligator opened its jaws, he unzipped his trousers and put his manhood between the alligators teeth filled jaws, and when everyone in the pub was watching he hit the alligator on its nose again with the empty bottle - whereupon it clamped its jaws shut with terrifying force. After a few seconds he hit the alligator on the nose again - it opened its jaws - the mans manhood was completely undamaged. He zipped up and said "Anyone else who can do that I will give an instant prize of £1000 in cash". Every man in the pub shuddered and shook their heads and went back to their pints - clearly no risk takers tonight. Suddenly a blonde girl came forward and said she would give it a try. The man was just about to guffaw when she said "but don't hit me too hard with that bottle".

I used that technique for this attempt - along with Zerene Stacker.

Not really a locomotive, more like some locomotives - but all connected as a triple header.

A last few samples of the photos taken at the DFR Diesel Gala on Saturday 5th September 2015. The first is of the gentleman who owns D9555 on his own loco, then some shots of the double header including running around the train at Parkend, and finally the owners salon which was hauled by Gladys the Class 08, and finally Don Corbett - but don't know what he went on to do.

I think a part of the problem was the shortage of diesels. The posters made it clear that we would see an 08, three 14s, two small industrial diesels and the everyday DMU. OK so the triple header was novel and worth the journey. But go a few miles south to the West Somerset and you get Class 47,Hymek, Warship, Class 22, and probably a visiting Western - which is what folk expect of a Diesel Gala. Had the 73 and the 31 not been hived out for a year that might have helped.

I think there is a resistance to N gauge within the shop itself. I have had it referred to as "nasty diddley fiddely stuff that you can neither see nor hold" and their has been no interest amongst the shop staff to look at the article in the DFR Summer 2015 magazine - and a few copies of RM in the shop for sale is where they can most benefit the advertising it could bring them. The Parkend railway history isn't pushed by DFR at Norchard despite the village of Parkend being infinitely more interesting than Norchard. I have mentioned it to both the Group who maintain Parkend station and to the Museum Curator so we will see if anything changes by Thirsday.

Whilst it is still fresh - a few photos of today's Diesel Gala. There are more but this is just a first sample. It was overcast, raining in the wind a bit, and pretty quiet. But I enjoyed myself.

Good info there from Arthur. Went to this morning's (Saturday) session of the Diesel Gala. After a slow start it got quite lively at Norchard with trains running from both platforms. Will publish some photos soon including The Triple Header with 3 x Class 14's. Whilst buying a new book at the Norchard book shop they told me they won't be getting in any Railway Modellers featuring Parkend after all because they aren't interested. Surprised and a bit dissapointment since the 1400 word article pushes the DFR quite hard. Oh well.

I would be surprised if anyone says that in 6 weeks time. Why I pondered about mentioning it at all was that I have a morbid fear that folk will be really pleased for me - but like the way your work colleagues are really pleased for you when your company car gets upgraded.

I am experimenting with focus stacking with my pictures at the moment. This is an early attempt. Plus I have been pondering wether or not to mention this - but this layout is featured in the October Railway Modeller out this coming Thursday 10th September.

It's been a bit quiet on here for a week or so, thus I thought I had better post a photo or two. Went to DFR on Wednesday morning and took quite a few photos. They were running two trains simultaneously with passing at Lydney Junction, Norchard Lower Platform, and Parkend. Here is 5541 actually running around it's train at Parkend but appearing to come from Speech House Road because it is on the other side of the gates. Then waiting for the Class 108 DMU to arrive to clear the line, and then again at Oakenwood No 1 approaching Whitecroft.

I visited the DFR this morning under the mistaken impression I could shoot some steam shots I had worked out in advance. Wrong. Parkend was packed to the gunnels but approachable and had the two Class 108s hitched together to form a five car unit. Norchard was totally impossible to get anywhere near with the entire car park overflowing with cars - so I gave up and went down to Lydney Harbour thinking to try a 70-300 zoom that has not been used much since I bought it two years ago. It looked like very good news for DFR and the two photos below explain why. The third photo is one of several I took of a very small boat that had been just launched off a trailer - when it got about 25 yards out into the river it really struggled with the current. Given the ferocity of this river the boat driver looks a bit too brave to me - that shirt doesn't look very buoyant to me. But the lens did OK.

We followed him back about half a mile to where he prepared to park the van on a piece of ground next to a house on a council estate. I motioned to him to wind his window down which he did. Despite the obvious fact that he watched us following him after the ducks were mown down he immediately started bellowing that he had pulled out away from the curb to miss them. He was an unpleasant looking guy and a number of equally unpleasant looking individuals started to emerge from nowhere and converge on us. Hanging around trying to convince them that mowing down ducks deliberately in a van is a despicable thing to do was clearly valueless so I drove off. No doubt it would not have mattered if they had been ducks, farmyard chickens, rabbits, or a badger - they would have been splattered like skittles just the same and laughed about afterwards. I don't believe there is any organisation who would take the incident seriously to be honest. But he does know he was seen and may wonder for a day or two if he will get a knock on the door.

The new Dapol N gauge Class 121 vanishing into the Forest of Dean.

Thanks for the confirmation about the signal box. The enhancement of Whitecroft station to something like its original format will make a great photographic project for me. I have heard that it's going to take about three years which will make me approaching 72 years old so I hope to stay the course (69 is the current record for males in our family). Speech House Road in 2025 even if on time would need me to reach 78 so I made sure I visited the site by car this year.