Owd Bob

Wigan SP. Cheap camera pics' late '70's early '80's.

Westbury early 2000's.

Late 1970's cheap hand me down plastic camera 110 prints From Springs Branch. Wigan. Inc' 08 130, 40 082, 40 022. 40 019. 40 016 passing. Note piles of coal used for the old steam crane heaped up against the new shed.

Bristol T.M. 33 022. 33015. Summer 1980

Simon, a good friend of mine is in the Warrington club and helps out at the Wigan show, he's always telling me to go visit it, i really do hope to be there all being well! I take my hat off to you and all 'N' gauge modellers, you must have eyes like 'Outhouse Rats' and fingers you could platt fog with.

Great modelling that's bringing back memories for me of my Sunday morning visits to Bank Quay Station. Hope you don't mind the pic'

Thanks Keith, they have also (Just several weeks ago) filled in my local childhood fishing ponds on the fields here not far from me, where we would catch the tadpoles and sticklebacks and put them in jam jars......and where we also played 'Army' with chair legs for guns, dig trenches and light camp fires, all soon to be gone for more housing on land you would never ever expect to be built on. At least they had the wildlife folks set up nets and traps,and also they went out with buckets daily for about three months and caught most of the Newts and Frogs etc. Weird to think i'm nearing 60 and i'm still stuck in the same £$&%* place. Thank God for being able to escape into the modelling now and again. Stay Safe folks.

Thanks for the kind words. Just a few more pics' i had left over from yesterdays outdoor painting session, i'm just showing the general size and the layout. It's a very lightweight layout made from inch square batten framework, 4mm thick ply, cornflake packet cardboard, it's mostly made up of the skip found piece of dense foam wall insulation which i used to form all the slate/rocks which weighs nothing at all. There's not a lot left to do now, and as you can see with both my layouts on RMweb progress is slow but steady....Hebrews chapter 6 verse 19. It's unbelievable what you remember from childhood

When was the date of the refurbs please? I have this pic' of a 31 going north through Crewe but no date.

Last lot i promise!

A few more from todays doings.

With a lovely day beckoning i thought it would be the ideal time whilst the warmth lasted to at last get the 009 layout back outside in the natural light to finish off a few jobs i'd started several months ago, the main things were to air brush out the smudged shaky hand painted rusted rail effects, and also finish off the slate faces around the exposed old workings which needed highlighting by dry brushing with white tester pot matt emulsion. A milky Slate grey mix was made up using Humbrol Matt grey paints No;s 106 & 79 in a 50/50 mix of each which was wafted on lightly over the rusty track sides, i also sprayed over most of the roofs on the buildings, water tank and 'V' skip wagons. With plenty of grey paint left still in the gun, it was used up by wafting over the two planked wagons and the two loco's. Here' some before and after pics'

Thanks for posting these lovely pics' ideal for those like me who are'nt allowed out, i've got hay fever just watching them..

11-3-20. York. God knows how many i watched taking pics' of this loco'on the web cam in the week before i got there using my cheap TPE sale tickets, i was just praying all week that there would be something still parked up when i got there. All of Richards fine pics' above reminded me i'd not posted these yet.

if it helps i have these two pics' taken on Bank Quay station. Keep up the great work.

Thanks Mike, glad to say that my copy of the very same new guide book came on Tues' and i was surprised to see a pic' of mine in it, but really happy ...it's another 15 mins' of fame... It's a loco' I built special for someone, then three others of the same type came along later. i've none of those pics' anymore i lost them when the last lap-top conked out, but i have a few of the blue loco' on disc' which went to the same person that the Yellow loco' did.

A few more old ones, most taken at a Butterley meet up several years back.

Take me I'm Yours. Squeeze

Heart Of Glass. Blondie.

My spotting mate Geoff' 'The Milky Bar Kid' Yates in the mid '70's at SP, looks like he's just conquered Everest, but to be fair we had just ridden our racing bikes about 12 miles on what must have been by the looks of it a very cold day.

A few more 31's from the early '80's. Bristol T.M.

A few more 31's from the '80's.

I might have posted these elsewhere on this site, all were taken around Springs Branch in the early '80's

Some quick poses of 08 925.

A bit of each M, it's my own dirty black/brown paint mix went on first with the brush then it had an all over waft with matt black, i've done a bit more to it over the last few evenings and it's as good as finished. I've given this one a more black finish as i'm modelling it on the one in these pics' when it was stabled and used at Bickershaw Colliery for a month or so back in the early 1980's, there was'nt a lot of paint fade on it to be honest, or i just could'nt see it for the black muck on it. How's your 08 coming along CME? Any more progress or additions to it? Here is 08 925 with No;7 saddle tank behind shunting at the exchange sidings at Bolton House Rd. Jan' 1983. I believe it was given a white roof and red buffer beams later on, but it must have been done after my Springs branch spotting days had finished due to my new found interest in Beer and sex and chips and gravy.