George Woodcock

Hello I obviously should have had an even longer holiday Paul. Oddly enough that was the gist of a message I received in The Virgin Islands, 'don't hurry back, in fact don't come back we can manage without you' . Good to be back though, off to Stowmarket on Sunday with Georgemas Jct and the A Team. Perhaps John could put the picture on the right thread. Oh almost forgot many thanks to you Paul and Adrian for doing such a great job at Trainwest. Cheers George

Hello Unless you count the Condemned/scrap wagons now on the did-used line at the back that used to be the SMJ line to Woodford Halse. These were weathered and detailed for us by our esteemed colleague Mr Richard Coleman. Cheers George

Hello The new improved, and lengthened version of Towcester will be at the Nottingham exhibition this coming weekend for your delight and delectation. Cheers George

Hello Answers to two questions. Coal is not delivered to the grain store but fuel oil for to power the dryers is occasionally delivered in 35T tanks. Sadly Ian the layout will not be in the NW till 2020 at Preston. It will be at the NEC this year as well as shows over the Midlands, South and of course East Anglia over the next few years. To Lee in Bedford it will be at Peterborough in October. Thanks as ever for the interest and kind words. Cheers George

Hello Tell me where you live roughly and I will tell you when it is going to be near to you. Thanks for the kind comments, also thanks to every-one else as well for their kind words. Makes it all worthwhile. Cheers George

Hello It is an EFE model. Price didn't matter as I got it for free. just realized when I looked at it that I weathered it a little and also put a zig-zag marker board on the back. Cheers George

Hello The truck is a Bedford TK which was originally in Tennants Brewery livery with a load of beer kegs. Can't remember who produced it, probably Oxford or Corgibut it was a while ago as I was given it a couple of years ago. I removed all the Tennants decals, repainted the bed of the body, fitted some wing mirrors and rear mudflaps. Ideal vehicle that would be used in the 1960s for delivering fertilizer and feedstuffs to local farms. Yes we do have a Cravens unit on Fenchurch as well as a Metro Cam and two Derby Lightweights, one in green and one in blue, which we split sometimes to have a green and blue version just as they were on the Wisbech branch at this time. Cheers George

Hello Nice pictures John, thank-you for your care and devotion to me over the weekend. Cheers George

Hello Fenchurch St Peter is now safely back from it's trip to Glasgow. Thank-you to Ian Portious and the crew of AMRSS for inviting us. The layout behaved itself well and was very well received with a lot of kind comments from visitors. It makes it all worthwhile and that the hard work was not in vain. Time for a long rest now. Cheers George

Hello Now, now.......... See you Thursday afternoon my little Cherry Pie. Cheers George

Hello Simple answer Mick is yes, and not just two. Mind you this was the DC bit of the layout. Cheers George

Hello The mail train was a daily working though not always routed via Wisbech, seemed to depend on the signalman. After last minute fine tuning by Kevin Dickerson of Coastal DCC Fenchurch is now all ready for it's long journey to Glasgow on Thursday. Fingers crossed it will be OK there. Cheers George

Hello There is just the one mail train featured on Fenchurch which is a Kings Lynn to Peterborough working. This is shown on the TVP video that the layout is so heavily based on. The train has two bogie full brakes one of which is a Thompson one. Between them is a CCT type van which is not very clear. Originally it was going to be a SR van but I changed my mind and built a Parkside ex LNER CCT in a dirty blue livery. Dirt seemed to be the standard livery on much parcels stock at that time and indeed for many years afterwards. Cheers George

Hello There are some ex LNER and LMS vans on the layout but they weren't built until after the RM photo shoot. After Glasgow the layout is due to appear at Shenfield (Essex) in September, Peterborough in October, High Wycombe and the Warley NEC in November this year. Next year it will be at Stafford in February, Bury St Edmunds in September, and Spalding in November next year and on into the future. Thanks for your interest. Cheers George

Hello Glad you like it. Towcester also has fertilizer delivered in 12T vans. A line from a favourite old song is coming back to haunt me, 'you're in a rut, you gotta get out of , out of it, out of it' Cheers George

Hello It went fine yesterday, huge amount of interest in the layout. This has to be one of the busiest one day shows in the country. My pleasure was marred slightly by spraining my ankle quite badly while we wew unloading in the morning but Simon and Richard worked like Trojans to help the useless old man out in his hour of pain. It is a lot better this morning. The new board makes the layout much more believable, a greater sense of space. Everything seemed to work well except for a couple of minor glitches which were soon sorted. The layout has obviously been compressed to a certain extent with most of the sidings not being there but we explain that away as a process of rationalization, after all the layout is set in 1977 and the real Towcester closed in 1966. However we like to think that we have made a fairly accurate job of re-creating this long gone railway centre. If you want to see it later this year it will be back in Milton Keynes in August at the other show held there. It will also be at a show in Lutterworth in May. Both of these are near to you. Hope to see you sometime. Cheers George

Hello The layout is featured as Railway of the Month in the new Railway Modeller due out tomorrow. Cheers George

Hello Today I finished wiring up the fiddle yards after laying the track work. Due to the DMU's not having rear lights and being fitted with an oil lamp at one end we have to turn them each time so I am resurrecting my small cassettes to make this task easier; this means that one of the tracks in each fiddle yard is just a short stub. Should get the wiring on the rest of the layout completed this weekend and then it will be time to put it all together and make sure it works. After all only three weeks to Glasgow! Cheers George

Hello My solicitors will be in touch Mick......... Cheers George

Hello When I play the game of 'what if' Derek I think it is sufficient to only alter one thread of history otherwise life gets so complicated. therefore as Towcester is set in 1977 then we are well into the realm of BR Banger Blue which though not to every-one's liking has a large following and also encompasses a lot of different locomotive and DMU classes. That is the problem with time travel if you change one small to effect a minor change in history them all else changes as well. A bit like the butterfly in the forest really. My life is so full of chaos that I prefer to leave most of it alone. There now, an end to philosophical ramblings and time for a lie down in a dark room. Cheers George

Hello Sadly the class 24 in the picture will not feature at exhibitions; it is part of the stock of our new layout 'Fenchurch St Peter'. Towcester is set in 1977 and they were mostly gone by then, certainly in the Midland region. It was just making a guest appearance for testing purposes though we did run a Cravens unit and a Cl25 as well. Not for long as we had to take it all down so my wife could have her sitting room back. Cheers George

Hello You are all so kind, thank-you, thank-you on behalf of John. Richard and I. Cheers George

Hello A big thank-you to Richard for his help his afternoon. Layout is now all complete with new board safely installed, the lights all changed and re-positioned, and the extended curtain fitted in place. Also a couple o minor wiring repairs done and a faulty Dapol semaphore re-placed. Looking forward to Milton Keynes and hope to see some of you there. Next show after that is Nottingham in March. Cheers George

Hello I have now finished ballasting the track and used static grass along the dis-used track at the back to make it compatible with the original adjacent board. I have also painted the clouds to match the excellent ones done previously by the 'cloud lady'. They are not quite as good as hers but they will hopefully suffice till she can come over in the summer to finish them off. Today is trees, bushes and flowers day then I will build a small corrugated barn to go in the field to help break up the foreground a bit. Also apply a bit of rust to the river bridge. I hope John is enjoying his holiday in Portugal. Next weekend we will set up the whole layout, fit the extended curtain, fix the modified lighting rig and then watch a couple of trains travel over the length of the layout. Can't wait. Cheers George

Hello In the absence of Nobby John, (in Portugal), Today I finished the last carpentry bits on the two fiddle yards, I will start to varnish them tomorrow. Hopefully I should get the track laid in them before His Holiness returns from his travels. Cheers George