Cowley 47521

A minor but very useful change Bob.

Yes I think so. Plus Beatles fans are always walking along the long and winding road where they’ll quite often pass Talking Heads fans on the road to nowhere…

Oh and this:

This made me smile.

That’s a great texture Duncan. It’s got a proper splodgey (if that’s a word) cement appearance which you wouldn’t get from spraying it. Another great train for the layout.

One thing that made me think it was later than say the early 1980s was the orange cant rail stripe. I’m not sure when they received them though?

This is getting madder by the day. We’ve gone full scale Lego Swindon products now.

It always surprised me that it was allowed out with such a small yellow warning panel.

A friend of mine - who’s relationship wasn’t going too well, came home a few years ago to find the house empty but his metal bin smouldering away in the back garden. When he got the lid off and looked inside all he could see was a load of paperwork, ash and embers glowing inside. This turned out to be all of his locomotive spotting and haulage records from the 1980s and early 1990s…

It’s the mundane day to day stuff that you miss once it’s gone…

Yep fair comment. When I first looked at it I thought the rest of the train was out of view due to it crossing from the down line.

Yes and it’s got me wondering what headcode was generally shown on local services now. Maybe it was just the twin white rectangles normally? I used to try and do the 17:25 Exeter to Paignton every evening after school as it was a solid 33 turn and it was a good way of ticking them off.

That’s a ridiculous amount of money for the condition of the property. I’m only slightly tempted…

Wow. Both are good but that bottom one is fantastic Rich.

Is there a ballpark figure on what 7027 is costing the 4709 Group available anywhere?

“Poop poop, oh dear little train, you seem to have attempted to join ‘The Big Railway’…”

Nothing wrong with that. I’ve named myself after it. 😉

It looks like at least one driver was so distracted by trying to read all the signs that they’ve ended up crashing into a bollard.

Some really familiar scenes coming together now Bob. Exeter PSB and the little hut by Cowley Bridge Junction are unmistakable.

I’ve always taken it to be a case of trying to capture something that looks as realistic as possible. So for me I’ll take a photo, look at it and see what stands out as giving it away as a model and then maybe have another go until I’m happy enough to share it on here. I’ve posted photos of my layout on here with no railway bits in shot before but only if I think it captures something interesting. But also if people want to show off how clever they are then that’s fine by me because they are clever and there’s nothing wrong with showing it off really. Otherwise we might never see it. I find a lot of the photos on here inspiring and they’ve given me ideas that I hadn’t thought of before. If you haven’t got the time to read every layout blog on rmweb then it’s a good way to get an overview of some of the really good stuff…

It’s a shame there’s no date on it. 33s did work Exeter to Paignton services up to 1988 which fits in with the signal box being in operation.

What’s the 47 in the slightly strange livery?

Oh. It’s cold shower for me time… I had 20058 and 20087 out to Skegness in 1991 and I’ve got a version of the train behind 50008 on my layout. Wonderful stuff thanks for posting it!

I’ve been really busy recently so I’m just catching up with the last few weeks of this thread. There’s been some fantastic stuff posted that’s properly inspiring though. Here’s a couple more from me (I’ve gone black and white today). A dimpsy evening sees 33008 at Eggesford heading towards Barnstaple: A passing 31 picks up some VGAs from Lapford and prepares to head north also to Barnstaple:

A Devon scene from 1991: And a moment of worry as the track starts to creak…