Welcome I've been into photography, railways and modelling them in miniature for over 45 years. I also write about model making and undertake photographic commissions for the UK based Model Rail Magazine manufacturers and retailers.
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There’s plenty of activity at Whimsy Pit this morning with Harry and his Hunslet 0-6-0 steamer pushing some old iron ore hoppers about from here to there and there to here, and occasionally a mix of the two. Quite what they’re doing in the colliery sidings I’ve no idea, but in The Land of the Inch most things make little sense as regular followers of this miniature drivel will know. Brake shoe…
Here we are at Catcott again, where national treasure Uncle Bob, accompanied by the decidedly non-identical twins Fifi & Fiona, are about to board their train to Glastonbury. It’s a regular weekend pilgrimage. They enjoy a spot of crystal appreciation, a hearty sniff of hemp, local cider and then a leisurely stagger up Glastonbury Tor, where they spend the afternoon detecting ley lines, cosmic…
Friday 10 July was a bit of a hot one at 33c, nevertheless I popped down to the Watercress Line for day one of their annual diesel gala. These were all taken at Ropley, for the thought of travelling a hot sweaty non-air conditioned train didn’t appeal. It wasn’t that busy, though I put that down to most heritage diesel fans being still in the workforce, this being a Friday, unlike the steam lovers…
It’s a lovely summer morning at Catcott level crossing and halt as the 9.05am Evercreech Junction to Highbridge service rumbles past Swanky Syd is on gate duty today, covering for crossing keeper Dafne Dando, who’s off to Highbridge market to buy a few bits and bobs she absolutely doesn’t need but will insist were a bargain. National treasure Uncle Bob has climbed out of his car to watch the…
Outside The Miners Arms they’re digging up the street again for ‘essential public works’. Last week they were installing piping for moonshine on tap, the month before cable radio so people could listen to the BBC Light Programme in areas with poor signal. Then they dug it all up again in to install cable TV, though that new fangled television has to to get to this forgotten part of The Forest of…
Here we are again at Catcott, reputedly named after Bob Geeza Cat, though that might be wishful thinking on behalf of Bob, because he does have narcissistic tendencies - like most cats. The hot weather has finally broken with a sudden gust as the heavens open with a deluge of water from above, and sideways. The other Bob, Uncle Bob surrounded by non-identical twins Fifi & Fiona certainly aren’t…
Yesterday’s post featured a Hymek diesel hydraulic loco. It’s a pretty ancient Triang Hornby model I picked up on eBay a good 25 or so years ago way before the far newer incarnation from Heljan. But at the time it was all that was available, with this one probably dating from the 1970s or even before. Originally in moulded blue plastic, amongst other detail upgrades I replaced the moulded hand…
Not many photos exist of Catcott after the line closed on 6 March 1966 with the rest of the former S&DJR apart from a couple of stubs. But here we are at the end of June 1967 as a demolition train waits patiently at the crossing for the gates to be opened. Sadly, there’s no longer a crossing keeper employed to perform that little luxury. Instead, Waving Wally has taken charge. Progress may be…
Polbrook Gurney Colliery skulks deep within an uncharted corner of the North Somerset Coalfield, in a mysterious region known locally as Titfield Thunderbolt Country—a place so elusive even the pigeons refuse to deliver mail there. You won’t find it on any map, railway atlas, or even scribbled on the back of a suspiciously sticky beer mat. However, it did make a cameo in an Ealing Comedy film…
Here we are at Brew Street, sometime in the late 1980s. What few people realise is that Deliberation Dave is a time traveller. Sadly, he has absolutely no control over when it happens, where he ends up, or indeed whether it’s remotely convenient. When he staggered home from the Kettle Inn last night after the weekly Ladies’ Wasp Chewing Evening, it was definitely 1958. However morning he woke up…
