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From the grumpiest....... To the happiest...! ..from a calendar sent to me from my aunt in Oz.

Same applies to us Jol with our OVV and Balcombe layout. It's all stored at home in the garage and garden workshop. It was last exhibited in 2019 at Scaleforum, but for obvious reasons has been 'in store' since. As Rod has said, it's a major effort to set it all up but a lot of fun to play with! Our next shows are at Fareham in 2024 and Bristol in 2025. Five metre sections can be set up in the garden workshop for finishing section by section. Indeed it can! The current exhibition layouts, Marsh Sidings and Fochriw (under construction) have been built to fit the workshop so test/play sessions can be undertaken! First full set-up in the early stages of building

5762 runs past Netherhope Halt and into Tiddenham Tunnel.

The first inspirational layout for me was P.D. Hancock's famous 'Craig and Mertonford', a great uplift from the HD trainset! Then came Ken Payne's 'Castle Coombe with Tyling' which really did it! It started for me with two-railing an HD three rail Bristol Castle and then building track using 'Chairway' bullhead (somewhat overscale!) set in a fibre base from Alan Brett Cannon and I've never looked back since! Images from RM Apr 68

Pallas's Cat from Mongolia. Reputed to be the grumpiest feline species on the planet!

I totally agree with Robin that the WWS spray (and the Peco one come to that) is excellent and that I can highly recommended both. For years I've been using the usual strong hold supermarket hairsprays to good initial effect but after time they lose their 'hold' as I discovered to my horror on our large Balcombe layout that a large amount of the static grass (2mm basing) after a couple of years storage had failed and fallen off after the second layer was applied with cheapo stuff. To lesser degree using hairspray for fixing the ground foam/leaves on the trees (I use the larger specimens on different layouts) upon getting the stock out of store there was some depletion of applied foliage having used hairspray as a fixative. For any new tree making the WWS stuff will be the order of the day! It will pay dividends in the long run to use the 'proper stuff' albeit more expensive. That comes from a self-avowed cheapskate! With regards to to basing glue I've used ordinary PVA for years thinking "why pay the extra for 'proper' glue?" until I bought some WWS basing glue and this gave much more successful results. I don't know why but it is a different composition to ordinary PVA, more akin to 'school glue' Because there's a vast amount of grass to do on Balcombe my 35kv RTS 'Greenkeeper' machine has served me particularly well. For smaller amounts a conventional 15kv machine from various makers would suffice.

Netherhope Halt on the Severn and Wye Railway.

The first 'grand project' was to be something similar to 'Coombe Junction and the Tyling Branch' (Ken Payne?) a lovely large mainline oval where I could watch an ever increasing collection of 30s GWR stuff rush by! An ambition in later life was to build 'Henstridge', not grandiose in its size, but with bridge 171 over the River Stour it was going to be a nice big roundy-roundy. I managed to build the girder bridge and the four flood arches and I still have those! ..............the problem is that I'm still doing it now in my sunset years!

Indeed it did!

Indeed it is. Colin had a gift working with Plasticard. I was very fortunate to acquire it from his estate and also it's a nice memento. Although I never met him, we conversed frequently on all things Southern EMUs.

I swear by the 'ballast spreader' method as we had a vast amount of plain line to be ballasted for Balcombe. It takes a while to get it right so practice is required. Judging the speed of movement of the box delivering the ballast is key. Requiring the spreader for 18.83mm P4 it's an easy task to carefully widen the rail slots to fit. Once down I then used a 'Dougal' ballast brush assembly for final neatening up. https://www.buffersmodelrailways.com/dougal-ballast-smoother-ooho All in all I'm very pleased with the results using these pieces of equipment.

Fascination collection there! When were the tracks last in use?

Apologies for the duplicate post. Can't get rid of it! I got some strange message saying not to post for another 57 minutes or so.

Ist: My favourite organ piece is 'Widor Toccata in F'. It was my late Dad's favourite piece to play. He was always pleased when he managed it all without a mistake! 2nd: In my view probably their best song. 3rd: Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. I particularly the many live versions. These three will play at my funeral!

You'll be missed Chris. You were a lovely, knowledgeable and brave chap. Always a joy to meet him at exhibitions and chat about GW coaches with his great knowledge on the subject

Though not a dog, a lovely story...... https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/rescuer-who-nursed-injured-dirty-brown-fox-back-to-health-shocked-to-find-his-fur-was-white/ar-AA159xnh?ocid=BingHPC

Thanks Steve. That's very helpful.

For your delectation Philip! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glD1LKq9nug

It's good to see movement on this. We can only hope that somebody will take on the Mallard/Blacksmith etchings range.

Happy Christmas!😺😺

Does anybody know what's happening at Eileen's Emporium? I've checked with their thread on S4 web but no news there. This has been on screen for some time now.