Cowley 47521

That USA tank looks brilliant, but again the scene with 76017 just captures the era perfectly. It was always my favourite loco on the line and I had a very memorable footplate ride on it sometime around 1992/93. I remember seeing a photo of it where it had been involved in a derailment in BR days somewhere in Hampshire (possibly near Winchester?) and when it was first restored from Barry condition at Ropley I believe the frames were still found to be slightly out of true. It’s very difficult capturing the atmosphere of a preserved railway properly. It really isn’t a case of using it as an excuse to use things straight out of the box. Even preserved stuff has subtle weathering in certain areas and little details that need adding (as you’ve showed above). The Taunton show is great by the way. I’ll definitely come along and say hello if we’re free that weekend.

I feel your pain with the tree making. They’ve definitely made a difference to how it looks though Chris. I don’t often buy magazines these days but I saw that your layout was in RM and that clinched it for me. An excellent and well written article I must say and the photos are a good selection of what (in my humble opinion) makes your layout the best representation of a preserved railway out there. I know I’m a bit biased because of my connection with the line, but some of those scenes are so well observed. That shot from the bridge looking towards Medstead with the two James’s and 27007 quietly rotting away is a wonderful thing! Great work sir.

Oh that doesn’t sound too good. 😄 In other news, I’m currently building a new cabin for Mrs C to move her pottery shenanigans into, thus releasing the 14 foot by 6 foot shed (that she’s currently using) for my future railway projects. The ideas so far being: 1) A section of the Waterloo - Exeter route in N gauge set in the 1980s, possibly featuring a disused Seaton Junction type arrangement. I’ve got most of the stock for this and a lot of ideas in my head. 2) An 0 gauge Scottish West Highland style garden layout with a terminus also in the shed (on a higher level than the N gauge) in conjunction with my friend Paul (who owns Moors View). We’ve already acquired our first loco and a couple of wagons for this project: There’s a fairly substantial amount of groundwork’s that need doing first, but the plans are starting to come together bit by bit and we’ve got a decent area of garden to work with, along with the use of a digger. 😉

Thanks for that. 👍 Yes it’s now set up in its new home. I must say that it’s quite a stressful experience moving a layout that was never really designed to be moved. However it did actually go very smoothly all things considered and once we’d got everything levelled* and all the wiring connected the only thing that wouldn’t play was one of the station lamps on Eggesford. *The room at my house that the railway was in had quite a slope to the floor being an old house and all that. So when we set it up in their industrial unit I couldn’t work out why despite taking that into account and getting the whole thing level one of the wheels was off the ground. Turns out that their flop had even more of a slope than mine did!

That’s a real old meets (not so) new photo there. Excellent. 👍

Well we have achieved a sale (for an undisclosed amount that hopefully we’re all happy with) to a group from Okehampton called the Exeter Junction model railway club: Exeter junction model railway club 07703 310436 A couple of the guys came out last week and are really looking forward to taking it on. I’m obviously really pleased as they’re local to me and they’re planning on taking it out on the circuit at some point which was exactly what I was hoping to achieve. It also means that I can still see it now and again hopefully so it’s all worked out really well. I made a little video earlier explaining things:

Morning everyone. I’ve made what might be a final little video here:

Well folks. I have fired the starting gun this week and I’ve tentatively put Lapford on the market (the layout that is, not the actual village). We need the spare room emptying and finally the large shed in the garden that I had built about eight years ago is about to become available. Being 6 foot wide though means that there’s no way I could get the layout in there and still be able to walk down both sides which I’d need to be able to do. In actual fact, I’ve been wanting to start a couple of new railway projects for a while though now so I’m more than happy to see this go to a good home and me make a fresh start (I will obviously be keeping all of my rolling stock, vehicles etc). Hopefully I’ll be getting together with the lads on Monday for an operating session so I’ll post some photos. We’ve had to cancel me going to the Exeter show in June though unfortunately as we’ve made the mother of all cock-ups and ended up double booking myself to go to Ireland that weekend. Most embarrassing! Nick

God, trees. I think I made about 250 of them for my railway and also my friends. I’m nearly over it now though… Looking very good Chris.

was that Kate’s second attempt at using Photoshop..?

Certainly adds something to the running options on my layout Rich. 😉

Good stuff. 👍 I did wonder if it might have been 37175 as it was sent up the line one summer Saturday to rescue a failed 31/4 on a Barnstaple - Exeter run when my stepbrother and I were camped out at St David’s one day in 1987. Please excuse the poor quality photos but this is them arriving back at St David’s.

It is a 37. I’d love to know which one and what the year was though? They were fairly frequent visitors in the early 1990s but not so much in the Skipper era. I must admit that it’s quite unusual to find photos of two trains at Lapford at the same time in that era. I’m not sure if I’ve seen any actually.

My stepbrother and I were hanging out at New Street one summer Saturday around then on our way to Nottingham, 45104 rolled in looking exactly like the photo above but we turned down catching it to Derby as we wanted to stay a bit longer where we were. We ended up getting 45145 a couple of hours later so that was good for us. Tinsley went all in with livening their various fleets up in that era. I think all of the Peaks left at the end had unofficial painted on names? What made 45104 different of course was that they used its original name and they actually made some replica(ish) nameplates for it (out of wood I assume?).

Well I went 10 years earlier than it actually was so you got me Keefer. Excellent photo and exactly the sort of thing that makes this thread interesting!

I did actually wire up quite a few of my telegraph poles, but mainly ones that were next to the roads. It was fiddly but I like the results. You can see some here (and a few of the fence posts too).

You’re very patient doing that with your fencing. I must admit that I just put posts in and let my imagination do the rest!

Yes I see what you mean and reading it again that could well be what happened. I wonder what sort of speed the loco took the curve before Leekbrook Junction? I can imagine that part of the train picking up a hell of a speed running away down that bank even with some of the brakes partially working!

The caption to this makes for interesting reading: I was trying to picture the course of events and I couldn’t work out how the train separated and two parts ran away including (by my reading of it) one part derailing but the other part including the loco not coming into conflict with it. Could anyone shed any light on this possibly?

At least they’ve weathered the one in the foreground though. Nice photo Iskra.

Mine does that too! I also left the train room door open the other day and not for the first time one of the cats completely ignored the “Keep Out!” sign on the old baling machine…

Fascinating project. I’ll be following your progress.

Yes I think I prefer the wire as well.