Anthony

Gilbert Is there any chance of seeing the make-up of the parcels train? Or am I just being idle and not searching back several eras on the thread for a previous appearance? There is something very appealing about parcels trains - perhaps it's the ability to invoke Rule 1 without fear of shame! Anthony

Dear Gilbert Looking again at the photograph of the original, is there not a doubling up of the fencing at the right-hand end as you look at it? Would this perhaps have been either a push-across/sliding section, or maybe a hinged gate of some sort? I think it justifies your adding something there, which would seem to be logical? Love the fence so far - keep it rough!! I think we all have the inclination to perfectionise (!) everything, but the more I look at old photographs, the scruffier everything seems to be. Whatever you do, it's all wonderful. Anthony

I have had a Robin in the garden for some while - it has the rather disconcerting but charming habit of plonking itself down about 1'6'' away from me without warning, thus surprising me and consequently him, but we seem to have got used to each other over the Winter and have extended conversations - just waiting for the world that we have put to rights to realise it! During the Winter, he started bringing his fiancée into the garden, who behaved similarly. They have clearly got married in the interim, because they introduced me to their baby yesterday as I was weeding - he/she appears to have all his/her parents bravery, but maybe this was hunger-driven! Anthony London SW16

Like everyone else, I have followed this post with enormous interest, and I have noted that terrible non-PC word 'elitist' has appeared as so often - it has also stuck its head up on the 'Wright Writes' thread. What is wrong with elitism - doesn't everyone strive to do better, hear the best (be it pop or classical music), buy the best they can, admire the best available and so on? Isn't this just a normal human condition? Anyway, back to the subject, and again like everyone else, one choice is impossible, so, in no particular order, and forgive the lack of links, but I have no idea how to go about it:- Tallis - Spem in allium - a 40-part motet, which I sang one to a part - scary! Beethoven - the late piano sonatas and string quartets With all of the above, it is difficult to grasp how anyone can have the intellectual scope to conceive such pieces - particularly Beethoven when deaf Rachmaninov - Vespers - again I sang this, and some of the Russians in the audience were reduced to tears. It is a wonderful, moving piece, best heard sung by Russians Schubert - almost everything, but in particular the late piano sonatas - interesting to think that if Mozart had died at the same age as Schubert, he would not have written most of his greatest music. Trouble is, that's only the beginning, so I had better stop! Anthony

How about a Johnson 1F, which was quite often seen at Huntingdon, and nearby, struggling with the fruit trains? Makes the J15 look massive! Anthony

We bought a garden shredder from Lidl - with a two year guarantee - it broke down after 18 months and they replaced it without a murmur. They could not have been more co-operative, so I reckon they are worth sticking with. Anthony

I confess that it is only when you mention the bookcases that I really notice them, as my attention is always focussed on the quite wonderful subject matter, which gives unending pleasure while being at the same time a source of great inspiration. So this is another vote to help keep your conscience in check when you don't have the time/enthusiasm for photo-shopping! Many thanks for all that you post. Anthony

Tony To show my computer-cack-handedness, I have no idea whether this post is going to appear as I intend!! I always reckon I am brilliant at the 1% of my computer that I understand............. Tony, it is very kind of you to ask me to show some pictures on your site, but my layout is far too amateurish to merit inclusion and certainly at this stage of its development - the tools are the largest feature of the room at present. I confess I started ages ago, but work took over, so progress has been off the pace. I have finally managed to retire, but as I was half way to sitting down, the authorities decided that the kitchen had to be re-decorated... I also have a confession to make - I used to travel to school on the Bournemouth Belle, so could I resist? I will probably de-resist as I become more purist. Another confession - I lived in Buckden, so there are (slightly) divided loyalties! Sadly a few years too young to remember it all properly. Unfortunately, also, I was a solo spotter, so had no guidance as to what to look out for, and therefore ended up collecting numbers and little else. Oh, and another influence - I used to go to Northampton for cricket coaching and so also spotted near there with a distinctly LMS influence! So, photographs one day, but not soon, I fear! Anthony

This is a thread that I have followed with ever-increasing admiration for all concerned. What Wright writes inspires me, as it does many others I am sure, to improve my modelling within and hopefully, as time progresses, beyond my capabilities. Please, please, keep the thread going for all our sakes, as I wish you well in your challenges. I felt emboldened to add my own thoughts on the subject of DCC. Tony Wright describes himself as a Luddite for sticking to DC, and all power to his arm for that - everyone to his own, or we all become clones. From my point of view, it is precisely because I am a Luddite too that I have gone down the route of DCC; this was around 12 years ago or so. I was a long-lapsed modeller when I was finally in a position to build a layout in our garage. I was, of course, grossly over-ambitious, but I was absolutely not knowledgeable enough to have wired my scheme conventionally, indeed had DCC not been available, I would probably have strangled the concept at birth, as I did not have time to learn the finer details of electrical wiring as it relates to model railways. It truly was the arrival of DCC that made it all possible. Now, I know that the 'two wires' myth has been well and truly discredited, but I have found that all matters DCC have been remarkably easy to manage and that the information supplied by manufacturers has been comprehensive and, broadly speaking, easy to understand, along with enormous help from suppliers at shows. Of course, nothing is utter perfection, but I have had no challenges I couldn't meet and I have certainly seen at least as many problems on DC-run layouts art shows as I have at home. This is absolutely not to decry or praise either system in particular, but to point out that Luddites can benefit from DCC too! So I have to thank DCC for making whatever I have achieved possible. I do have some kit-built locomotives on the layout (far too few!), but have had no problems - yet. Perhaps I should also point out that I am not computer-orientated geek - 66 and counting! Oh, and yes, my layout is BR (E) inspired, but certainly not up for public viewing! Anthony

Alex What a great looking layout! I do hope you will not mind if I steer you a little concerning Diddington, as I lived for a large chunk of my life in Buckden, which is about a mile away. Diddington is very much alive and well, if very small (smallest parish in Cambridgeshire). You can see its very attractive brick church tower from the A1. Grafham Water was actualy one of the less destructive reservoirs, as it only submerged one or two farmhouses and a road (and the valley, of course). Massive protests at the time, naturally, but the wildlife it has attracted has more than made up for any loss. None of this, need I say, detracts in any way from a very fine piece of modelling - can't wait to see more photographs! Anthony

Hmmm - teenchy signs of an undercooked lordosis, perhaps? May I also say what a continuing source of inspiration and enjoyment this thread is. Between you and Tony Wright, you must be driving so many of us to strive for higher and higher standards. Anthony

Gilbert It's all very well, all this chat about cassettes and the like, but if your back is messed up, all bets are off!! Have you read 'Treat Your Own Back' by Robin McKenzie (I got mine on Amazon)? It is a completely different approach to the standard, accepted methods of back treatment, and it worked incredibly well for me, until I got over-confident and lazy, so I am now being a good boy again, and am gradually on the re-mend. Although there are practitioners of the method, the book seems pretty comprehensive to me - one can only assume the practitioners are for those who can't/won't read! I am sure I am not the last person to build a layout assuming that I would always be as fit as when I started! Once you have read it, you will see how apt the method is for your particular application - it relies on the 'lean back' principle, or perhaps streaky? Anthony

David Good grief! What an absolutely wonderful selection of photographs that I have only just caught up with. Locos of course wonderful, but so much prototypical railway scenery and so on - and then all the selection of passenger stock - perhaps Coachman should give us chapter and verse on every one! Plus there is the almost total absence of steel good wagons. All marvellous and what a great memorial tribute to your father. Thank you so much. Anthony

Gilbert - what a testament that is to the inspiration that you are to all of us. I am sure that there many like me that post rarely, if ever, but your influence spreads far and wide! Thank you so much Anthony

If only I could model Offord - when I got hold of a 16' x 9' garage, I thought I was in clover - what luck! - but it is only when you start planning that you realise just what a restrictive space it is, so I have ended up with a rather generic ECML layout, which is a dreaded continuous run, as I have totally failed in all my strenuous attempts to acquire your allergy to work, therefore I have built it so that I can have trains running while I am working on it in the odd moments I have. Indeed, kids today have suffered so badly from all the wonderful 'improvements' in life. Sorry to go off topic, as this is really all about your inspirational work, which has persuaded me to be tougher with myself, but I am afraid I am a poor student - by which I mean a bad older follower, rather than an impecunious youth! Anthony

Good Grief! There is hope for me, and perhaps all of us, after all! Gilbert (if I may), I have been a long-time lurker, liker and admirer of your outstanding realisation of Peterborough, but I know that my efforts will always pale into the shade, mainly because I have been running the occasional non-prototypical trains or locomotives (well, I have to have the Bournemouth Belle, don't I, as I used to go to school on it!). Now that I see a chink your armour with the D11, I can at last feel a little less guilty. Incidentally, I used to 'spot at Offord from 1958 or so, a little further up the line from you, therefore so much of what you do resonates with me. If only I had known to keep better records! Ah, those were the days, when you could safely bicycle a couple of miles and spend the day on your own, aged 10-ish. Keep inspiring us, please! Anthony

Thought I would just butt in here, as my stepdaughter was diagnosed with epilepsy some fifteen years ago and has been on various medications with varying degrees of success, but now seems to have settled on a successful combination of Topiramate and Clonazepam. My wife has become more than a little expert in the subject as she has fought to get the best treatment for her daughter and perhaps I could point those of you affected towards the website of the Epilepsy Society - www.epilepsysociety.org.uk, which has a wealth of information as well as a telephone helpline - all of this is so vital, since the expertise on epilepsy in the general medical profession can be very thinly spread. You probably know about this, but I thought it might be worth posting just in case. I do wish you all the best, as I know at first hand how devasting a condition this can be for all concerned. Anthony

Here on the corner of Tooting Bec Common in London SW, I have been noticing the odd Goldfinch, so put up a Niger seed feeder. Although not overwhelmed by them, the word does seem to have got around, and there is a pleasing display of them - so pretty, and makes it feel even more like the countryside! Occasional visitors have been a Blackcap and a Goldcrest, as well as a Yaffle (Green Woodpecker). More frequent are bl***y Parakeets and Feral Pigeons. The latter trample all over my flowerbeds - grrr!! Anthony

Thanks to one and all, particularly Les for taking time to talk about his miraculous creation when he was busy decoding instructions!! Infinitely better in the flesh than even the wonderful photographs here. Good luck tomorrow! Anthony

Another example of the outstanding modelling that gets shown on this site, so making it view-able for all of us mere bodgers. This is up there with the best and is a must-see at Ally Pally - can't wait! Many congratulations to all concerned and good luck for the week-end. Anthony

Slightly different - quite marvellous piano recital by Angela Hewitt - just reached the Brahms Handel Variations - wonderful! Anthony

Good to see these again, John - many thanks - have already made use of many from the old forum! Anthony