Cowley 47521

Not from the 1970s but when D200 came to Exeter on a railtour in 1987 my stepbrother and I were able to cab it just after it arrived on platform 3 at St David’s. Then a few years ago I made friends with a chap from Stockport who was on said tour and he’s given me a photo of us teenage lads standing by the loco waiting to look in the cab.

A couple of festive moments on Paul’s Moors View from me: The snow patrol keeps things running: Followed by an MOD train heading to Ernesettle to pick up some spent nuclear sprouts:

Yes I’d like to add my thanks too, I really love the forum and there’s always something interesting to look at if you’ve got some time spare. Happy Christmas everyone.

Yes gutted to hear he’d passed away yesterday. Although I’ve always been a bit of rocker at heart I did go through a bit of a dance phase in the late 90s and seeing Faithless at Glastonbury sometime around 1999 was one of the highlights of that time. Just so good! Thanks for the music Maxi. Love to his family and friends.

That’s really starting to take shape now. I really like the view through the tunnel mouth. Hope you feel better soon and have a great Christmas for you and your family Duncan. I hear brandy is quite good for flu… Nick

This in the supermarket carpark earlier: And this:

It looks a bit like they’ve made a 12” to the foot version of the Peco model, not realising that there are lights that are meant to do something...

Is that D0226 on the Worth Valley railway maybe?

That’s a very interesting train. I don’t recall ever seeing that kind of formation before.

Always quite a distinctive loco with its little sealed beam rubber surrounded headlight.

Well I suppose it’s better than Gary Gritter…

Please tell me you’ve got a farm Keith..?

Well I never. Thanks Moxy.

Would the lack of yellow ends mean that it was just used in a larger consist - ie never driven? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that before.

There was some absolutely top quality stuff there. I didn’t get a chance to look around at the last show we did but I got a couple of proper goes around this weekend and took some photos too. Sherton Abbas was one of my favourites as well.

Blimey, just before midnight and finally got back to Exeter. We really enjoyed the show and it’s lovely looking through the photos and comments above. Thanks also to Phil and everyone who organised it, who made us feel so welcome, it was really good meeting people in a completely different area to our normal stamping ground and Moors View seemed to go down well which was great. I’ll make sure Paul sees this tomorrow. Now I’m going to bed!

Morning everyone Yes it was good to see it so busy yesterday and being from Devon there were lots of top quality layouts that I hadn’t seen before. I’m helping Paul operate Moors View today so feel free to introduce yourself if you come and see us. Nick (the one with hair out of the three of us)

Yes I remember it. They looked pretty impressive paired together I must say.

Not sure what we got up to but I’ll add 50060 Legless to the list. I made it years ago for my kids (honest). It was motorised too! The double arrows still make my eyes go funny…

When I volunteered at the Mid Hants in the 1990s I thought that the perfect loco for the line was the little Standard 4 76017. It had enough power to take a five coach train up and down the hills reasonably efficiently, it was fairly easy to maintain, it was reliable and it was also a local engine (in fact it was involved in a derailment somewhere nearby in BR days). Each line is different and has differing requirements obviously but those locos with their decent visibility in each direction and their 80xxx tank equivalents seem like excellent all rounders to me.

Oh yes. What a fantastic shot!

Thanks for doing that. It wasn’t the warmest of days! The sunlight on the Hall looks great.