George Woodcock

Hello Towcester, (or Toaster), is due to appear at Derby exhibition the weekend after next. This is it's only appearance this year so grab it while you can. The co-owner will not be there as he will be in Munch doing something or other so it will be me and the stat, mystery guest operator, Mr Paul Wade who will be keeping it going. Look forward to seeing you there. Cheers George

Hello Not just that one Tom, they are all fine layouts. Cheers George

Hello Fried Egg Bridge wasn't at Burton last year but it is there this year. Clive is the doorman par excellence at Wrec-rail. Or at least that's what he tells us. Cheers George

Hello Clive May I make an unlikely and improbable suggestion but how about the owner having a go. Sorry too, too silly by far. Cheers George

Hello Sadly Norton wood by Kelvin Barnes will not be able to attend but we have a worthy replacement in Sandiacre Balfour Beatty by Bob Bateman which is a OO 4mm layout of a present day On-track Plant Depot set in the West Midlands. This is something a bit out of the ordinary. Cheers George

Hello Don't bother, it's not yellow enough for you. Cheers George

Hello Just over eight weeks to go, final preparation are now underway. Hopefully a good time will be had by all. Cheers George

Hello The last three layouts I have built, or have part built, Georgemas Jct, Towcester and Fenchurch St Peter have all been real places or at least based on real places so I have only been ablt to model what was/is there. They are fairly flat, though Towcester has runs on an embankment for some of the time and Fenchurch has a drainage channel. The track is fairly straight but that is how it is/was. Two of them are 'what if' layouts which have used a reasonable amount of modellers licence. I am not very good at back-scenes, perspective is not one of my strong points, (what is), but two of the layouts had rather nice clouds painted by the Cloud Lady who, sadly. I doubt I will ever see again. Like artists modellers often modellers model what they want to see not what was actually there. Though I am a D&E modeller I am now 70 so perhaps I'm in the wrong timescale. As for soul it is what I try to achieve, to get a sense of time and atmosphere though only the viewer can say if I achieve that. I'm sorry that a few people here don't like my good friend Phil Eames layout Calcutta Sidings but I rather like it. I suppose if you don't like Burton on Trent then you won't like the layout but Phil lives nearby and likes it so much that this is the second time he has built the layout, one in EM and then in P4. Cheers George

Hello Towcester is by John Norton as well as George Woodcock, I'm just the labourer. Good line-up, looking forward to it. Cheers George

Hello And finally-- the last instalment; LAYOUTS Friday Bridge, EM Gauge, 1960s ER, Dave Tailby Portwey, OO Gauge, Early 2000s Wessex Trains, Stu Davies Cripple Sidings, OO Gauge, 1980s/90s, BR, Richard Coleman The Wrecking Crew look forward to seeing you in June. I hope it's warmer by then. Cheers George

Hello Thanks to all at St Neots MRC for putting on an excellent show and looking after us so well. Shame the venue is to close but I'm sure something will turn up. Also thanks to all the people who said nice things about Fenchurch St Peter, we are glad you enjoyed it. Cheers George

Hello An small but important piece of information are the opening times. These are 1000 to 1600ish Cheers George

Hello An interesting thread which I have found enlightening. As my name was mentioned I thought I would throw in my two pennorth. I have been building exhibition layouts now for about twenty years; I don't play trains at home. My first layout Falwoth was 18ft long and based on Lapford on the North Devon line in the 1980s. The next was Pensbridge, a four foot shunting layout with a DMU service based on two locations in the West Midlands followed by my only truly fictional layout Llwydd Town which started out as a six foot half station and was then extended to twelve feet with all the station; this was set in the North Wales border area in 1991 with traffic based on the area at that time. Next came Brixworth Station, a might have been layout based on a station close to where I was born which closed many years ago. I dragged it kicking and screaming into the twentieth century. The layout had no points, was four feet long and featured DMU services and through freight services some of which were longer than the layout; there was also timber traffic to the old yard. All these services could have run if the line had stayed open. Next came Georgemas Junction which is as you all know a real place set in the period 1997 to 2004 which features freight workings and a DMU service which I am sure some of you saw at Glasgow recently. That was my last solo layout; the next three, Towcester, Fenchurch St Peter and our latest project Framplington are joint efforts with my good friends John Norton and Richard Coleman. All of them are real places though two have had name changes due to alterations. Towcester is another might have been layout while the other two are set in locations just prior to closure. The reason for this tedious list is to show that all things are possible and that there are lots of locations in this country that can be modelled in the D&E era and still be interesting to build and operate and interest viewers. Though I am now 70 and remember steam trains very clearly have travelled on them many times when young, I never had any interest in them and was never a train spotter. When I developed an interest in railway in my thirties and then moved onto modelling diesels were what I saw then and remembered. I had travelled all over the country in my teens and twenties as a way of exploring it and had no interest in the trains I travelled on though I did take a few pictures which came in handy later. Over the years I have had a couple of rules regarding layouts; keep it simple and never build a layout set in the same area twice. The latter I have now broken as Fenchurch St Peter and Framplington are both set in East Anglia though a long way apart. All of these layouts have appeared in magazines, some as many as three times. I have never had to send an unsolicited article to any-one, they have always asked me. I have also written a fair few articles on rolling stock, building construction and layout ideas over the years. I don't know whether they are any good but people seem to like them. The term modern image has had it's time in my opinion; as has been noted in earlier posts D&E has been around for an awful long time and changes constantly so D&E seems a much more accurate title. Modelling magazine can only print what they receive from readers though a couple of the titles use in-house modellers as well. So for those who want more D&E content build the layouts and write the articles. Also if you are into D&E join DEMU as my old mate Clive Mortimore has already said and come to Show-case in Burton on June 2/3rd. Sorry for the tedious ramble; I will stop now.

Hello Probably be a few more after this years show. Cheers George

Hello Phew! At least I won't be alone. Make sure you have your passport Richard. See you both on Saturday. Cheers George

Hello Fenchurch will be at the East Anglian exhibition at Huntingdon next weekend. Cheers George

Hello Looking fine Steve. One of these days we will have to hope Farmers Drove and Fenchurch St Peter can be at the same show. Cheers George

Hello And ours as well so get over it. Cheers George

Hello Thank-you Mick, see you soon. Cheers George

Hello Finally got a copy at Doncaster over the weekend. Well worth the wait though; an excellent book both as a reference source and as a trip down memory lane,. Well done Booklaw. cheers George

Hello It's probably me being thick Mick but where do we get the vehicle pass from? Answers on a post card please. Cheers George

Hello Thanks to every-one organised the show and looked after us so well. First show with Georgemas Jct for nearly 2 years so we had a few minor glitches but mostly was OK; may have been the humidity on the Saturday afternoon. Also thanks to our friends the New Bryford crew for looking after their senior neighbours. Good show with lots of nice layouts, what's not too like. sorry about the snow Mick, I was back home and unloaded by 1930. Cheers George

Hello I fitted a loader from the Airfix JCB kit to an Oxford yellow MF 135. It resides on our Towcester layout set in 1977. Took about an hour to do including making the loader mountings and painting. I also used one of the Airfix JCBs in the coal yard on my old Bedlam Heath layout minus the back-actor. Set in 1980 so it was probably affordable by then. Cheers George

Hello Looks like a front axle to me. Don't remember any tranverse spring on Fordson Majors either. Regarding the shiny Oxford axles just paint them orange on the wheel ends and blue underneath the axle casting. You also need to add the air intake on the bonnet and a three point linkage. Cheers George

Hello Another month, another press release; LAYOUTS Redhill Yard, OO Gauge, 80s SR, Paul Wade The Lane, N Gauge Depot and Yard, Pete Johnson Farmer's Drove, N Gauge, 1970s Fenland, Steve Farmer MORE DEMOERS Phil Sutton All you need to know about Class 24s Kev Dickerson Everything you ever need to know about DCC Phil Eames Everything you ever need to know about soldering More to come as time goes by. Hope to see lots of happy faces in June Cheers George