Chris Nevard

Of course you could build your own, but then you'd have to faff about finding this bits. The same could be said about several aspects of modelling I guess. The £25 price is pitched well against other static grass tools for those that would rather spend their time model making. Is it as good? Yes for small areas, but if you're doing a large layout then a proper Grasmaster will make life easier - it will be a minor cost with such a project though. Quality? Just as good. The small one has the advantage in that you can mix colours easily by just adding a pinch at a time.

I don't think it's a Deltic, Bulleidesque defo!

111109_polbrock_IMG_1809_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. Hopefully a little scene a tad like that from the excellent Railway Bylines? Here we picture an EWS class 08 trundling through Polbrock with coal for the nearby china clay works. Passenger trains haven't stopped here since 1967, and despite lack of use the ex-GWR corrugated iron 'Pagoda' looks in fine form considering its age. It would also appear to be in Southern Region colours, a result of frequent regional boundary changes. Enough twaddle; it is of course the latest micro-project, today seeing a flurry of static grass activity whilst trying out a new budget static grass tool. The layout could still do with a good vacuum to remove the excess fibres but I think the result speaks for itself which is a bargain at £25 plus a little extra for postage. You now have no excuse to use dyed sawdust anymore - well for grass anyway. There's quite a bit more to do on the little layout, for starters I need to fabricate two buildings to go in the far distance to act as a scenic barrier to the fiddle yard by the level crossing 'Helland Bridge style' (that sounds sort of Chinese take-away). The building in shot is my Cornish engine house which is temporarily standing in for this snap. Things like telegraph poles need to be added along with an open to the elements ground frame (do any of you fine folk know of a suitable supplier?). The photo here was shot in the garden against a big blue board for the sky, there will be a built in curved photo-back scene eventually depicting a hazy Cornish landscape. Whilst I won't have the layout finished, I will be able to take it along to The Warley Show at the NEC to use as a OO gauge photo prop on the Model Rail stand. See you there. A bigger version of the above photo here. Find the budget grass tool here.

You're committed, no way are Messers Fry & Muz going to let you default on that date, now LESS than 2 years from now!

I know Phil well, so I guess it rubs off. Beer is better though!

I keep this page updated with outings: http://www.facebook....93461?sk=events If you see a load of angry farmers and sheep from the Outer Hebrides you'll know that you've found the right show.

I did - St Simon has the proof, it was a tad hot and people kept running away when I did Wagbo impersonations leaping up from behind the layout. True

Correct! All back to normal now ;-)

Operator's cake, this hospitality rapidly becoming the trademark of Wycrail, with the cakes becoming more luxurious year on year!  Wycrail is always a shining jewel in the toy chuff chuff calendar, it being a wray of virtual sunshine the weekend after the clocks change plunging us into dismal, miserable darkness for 5 months. I gather it's to do with farmers in the very north of the British Isles, though why they cannot just set their clocks an hour later than everybody else for the winter months I have no idea, especially seeing most of them are being subsidised by the UK tax payer. In the UK we've always been rather too obsessed with the minority and underdog at the expense of everybody else, well almost, the almost pointless Channel 5 stills needs to be replaced with 'Channel Rail' for us nutters with minority hobbies. Best stop, I'll get in to trouble and have my trainset trampled all over by a flock of irate sheep, hardy men in kilts and Channel 5 employees!  Ian Mellors' 91000 'R. A. Riddles' powers through Catcott Burtle with a secret test train on a sunny late-summer morning.  With my morning grump over; Wycrail was great fun with a good crowd around Catcott Burtle for most of the day, even during those silly moments put on especially to wind up enthusiasts from Tonbridge Wells featuring Ian Mellors' facinating 'could have been' creation of a Riddles 91XXX 2-8-2 (that's it above by the way). His stunning loco had on-board sound which even works with DC. Clever chap that Ian, and you can find out more about all of his smart stuff here. Rumour had it 'R.A. Riddles' will be appearing in the popular press soon as well - top man! I'm waiting now for some person who lives in a bungalow or who shares a bed with mother to tell me that such big locos would never have run along the former S&DJR - I wonder if they've ever heard the sound of a raspberry?  Cheers 'anonymous benefactor'! Beer? Yup, correct! Halfway through the morning a really top chap (who wishes to remain anonymous) took me to one side and handed by a couple of bottles of ale from the Loose Cannon Brewery in Abingdon. They're a thank you for all my silly BLOG postings apparently, silly fool, there's far better stuff to read on the interweb I'm sure. Still, thank you kind sir - I will enjoy these very much!!! It's also great to know that the smell of boiling hops and malt now floats over Abingdon again now that Old Speckled Hen has become an ex-pat living in Suffolk after running off with somebody called Greene King. A visitor in the form of Ian McKechnie's ex-GWR Collett 0-6-0 No 3218 is captured plodding through Catcott Burtle with an afternoon empty return milk trains destined for the dairy at Bason Bridge.   Finally I must thank Ian Mellors and Ian McKechnie who kindly gave up their Saturdays to play trains on my trainset. And before I go, I must point you in the direction of Ian McKechnie's website featuring his photography of the real SDJR in the mid-1960's, without it, Catcott Burtle would not be the layout it is - www.3218.co.uk/

People are like moths at shows (scruffy smelly ones mostly) so lots of even light is best to attract. It also controls how the layout looks rather than how the designers of public buildings (who for some reason like high pressure sodium lighting like at Warley or Woking) want your layout to look. I personally hate spotlights because they don't illuminate evenly creating pools of light and multiple shadows (and why do people frequently light from the rear? It puts the viewers view into shadow), they always look like an after thought clamped on here and there. Flu is the way (think County Gate and such), though what sort/colour of bulb is always a bit of a lottery but understand your limitations. Maybe get a strip of the LEDs try try out, they could always find use in the fiddle yard if no good for the main layout? I've seen your workmanship with second best never being an option, so will be looking forward to seeing what you decide on! <<edited to take note of extra post appearing whilst typing this one>>

nevard_090820_elford_4z05_66546_DSC_5501_web, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. Damaged cross members on the 4Z05 empty Drax - Daw Mill coal train captured at Elford Loop on Thursday 20 August 2009. Right, now I have your attention; that cat hasn't had a rampage by the way, however here's something I've never seen modelled, probably because it would be quite tricky trying to get the effect with moulded plastic - more of that in a minute. I'm no expert on coal hoppers and loading, but this looks like damage that could have happened during the loading? Most of the wagons in the train had this damage so presumably it's quite normal. If one wanted to model this interesting feature, it might be possible to remove the centres of the partitions and replace with some suitably distressed aluminium take-away container maybe?

Yesterday was just overdue revenge on the numpties I have to put up with most days - a bit like kicking a tramp I know. Actually, I quite fancy making up a contractors train, this being a start. All I need is a load of used rail for the bolster and a couple of wagons with old sleepers and chair keys etc. The little Planet certainly looks the part.

In time Andy - I have one on order and already have the milk tanks. In that parallel universe the line remained open to Glastonbury to serve the Clarks shoe factory and the ran special trains to the festival http://nevardmedia.b...to-wycrail.html

I'm guessing for the most of us simply a number change will be enough for the BR era? 216 it will be I guess....

I get fed up simply ignoring them, so thought let's get one back for once! The web is great, but the problem is even the most unworthy have a voice (which is good and bad).

nevard_110101_catcott_IMG_1739_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. Catcott Crossing, September 1966. It's just 6 months after closure and the demolition contractors have already started to dismantle the railway. Most of the railway buildings on 'The Branch' survived the demolition men, with many of then ending up in private hands, unlike the Bath to Bournemouth line which ended up losing well over half its stations to the swinging iron ball. It's interesting now as to whether the same thing happened again whether such woeful vandalism would be tolerated - for starters there are few people who would turn down the chance of owning an old railway station these days, certainly there would be far more money in such than a pile of stone rubble. But of course in the 1960's everybody hated anything old, we wanted new and modern, after all it was the space age! Now 40-50 years on we see old buildings that avoided the developers' mallets outliving some of the appalling tat the defined much of 1960's and 1970's Britain. I was only looking through a book of immediate post-war photographs of my home town the other day, and noticed just how much vandalism took place in the late 1960's, certainly down by the river and the main railway station. The book displayed some beautiful medieval architecture, the sort of architecture, which had it survived to the present day would easily place my town alongside the beautiful cities of York and Bath. Sadly now, due to likely backhanders at local government level a generation and a half ago my town will never achieve such status, but I'm sure it ensured a comfortable retirement for the already fat cats who passed the schemes. One can however take joy in the fact that many of these semi-legal abominations are now being demolished, it's just a shame that the individuals who instigated these urban re-developments are have mostly passed way and cannot see their demise.

I will pack the wig - actually when I used it Saturday night down the local I could clear a path to the bar just like that - fabulous! I'll avoid hair on the palms of the hands though, that might get in the way of the 3 link coupling hook.

Looking forward to seeing progress after your weekend, you can never go wrong with a water feature!

Hopefully the weekend won't harbour too many loons - you'll note from my avatar my scary new look. I'll make sure I pack the scary wig as below to keep the adenoidal horrors at bay! Actually the only reason for this blog is because I've had a rather busy week and not had time to do any model making at all - hence Mr Pedant becoming my bog subject for today for want of a better subject.

nevard_110101_catcott_IMG_1728_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. It's Wycrail this weekend, so Catcott Burtle has been set up for the last week or two sufficiently high off the ground to hopefully avoid the various scenic details being chomped on again by the cat who has a taste for white metal, brass and plastic card. The happy snappy above is of Catcott, the ficticious (maybe more 'faction') scenario depicting a mixed train off the Bridgwater Branch which regularly featured such trains. It's unlikely that an ex-GWR wheeled coach would have been used in this service, but I hope you'll agree it looks the part. The Morris 8 Series E, suitably grottied up adds a little depth to the shot. I'm guessing it's the photographer's car. Another dose of the pedants; the other day I received 'one of those armchair' emails that pops through from time to time with some chap taking great delight in telling me that I've got it all wrong because Catcott never had a halt and sidings. He'd even been on Google Earth to point other bits out that are different to the actual location. Well I know that of course, and because my parallel universe version is so different it's pretty obvious that this is a bit of fiction! This hobby is full of people with little imagination sadly, who only see things as black or white. I do wish they'd spend their time more contructively and actually do some model making rather than stating the obvious and wasting internet bandwidth. I consol myself in that he's probably a traffic warden with aspirations of being a lion tamer - he'll almost certainly have a squeeky voice and definately share a bed with 'mother' despite being 64 years of age. If you're the pedant, because I'm sure you read this blog and because I'm not known to suffer fools too well, here's what Catcott Burtle is all about (again): 'Catcott Burtle, a could have been scenario which is heavily influenced by the BBC TV film Branchline Railway, and having been taken in by the wild open feel of the area much dominated by willow, water and big skies. Many roads in the area crossed the railway via manned level crossings rather than bridges, with each crossing having its own crossing keeper and railway cottage. Several of the cottages had no running water or electricity right up to closure in 1966, the water being delivered by rail in milk churns! Catcott, one of the many crossings on the line never was a halt or had sidings. In the parallel universe world here, imagine if to serve the local peat deposits things had been very different?' Find out more about Wycrail here