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Railways of Telford

At Christmas I received the quite excellent book 'Railways of Telford' from my future in-laws. It was a book I'd looked at several times and, having moved Telford way, is an area of the railways I've become very interested in, meaning it was a very much well-received present. Included within it's pages is a chapter on the Lilleshall Company. This is of huge interest to me, as it is very much the area that I'm looking at basing my layout on.

The back cover of the book states that the author, David Clarke, is building a model of Trench Sidings and then, by chance, I discovered a thread on the Lilleshall Company and Mr Clarke's own blog to do with his layout build on RMweb.

After some initial conversations we swapped email addresses and since then Mr Clarke has - very kindly - sent me lots of pictures of the Lilleshall system and it's locos alongside more information about it.

One picture - included below - has solved a problem I was facing. Having weather the Cory Brothers wagon, I was wondering how on earth I could include a South Wales wagon on a Shropshire-based layout. Well, look at the wagon poking out from behind Lilleshall No. 4 (on the left).

Inspiration truly is everywhere!

Things to do in 2017

I'm not massive on New Years Resolutions, however I thought this year I'd have a few aims. So, here they are:

1) Build a model railway layout and get out of this modellers block! However, a future blog post might shed some light on the inspiration I've gained recently.

2) Finally get my music publishing service up and running. I've been meaning to do it for a while and am looking in to the hosting side of things currently.

3) Get back into a bit of brass playing. It's probably been too long since I last played seriously. Perhaps a brass quartet or something?

4) Complete the Everton jigsaw I bought 18 months ago. I've not been able to face it yet as the thought of putting all that grass together has been putting me off.

Perhaps there is nothing too ground breaking there, however I'd like to get cracking with them all.

Oh! I almost forget...

5) Get married. ;-) 11th August can't come soon enough!

Wow. Just... wow.

Cory Band perform 'The Triumph of Time' by Peter Graham at the 2016 British Open Championships last year.

Wow.

Enjoy.

A Simple Project?

Today I took delivery of this little beauty. A Hornby J94 Austerity that I picked up via Rails of Sheffield's eBay store. A low price that I made an even lower offer on and, quick as a flash, I've got another item of traction for my new layout to go alongside the Sentinel.

The loco was listed as repainted and the number 68012 and BR symbol you can see were added on via sticky labels. A splash of water and a gentle rubbing and I now have the following:

I've got a set of name and number plates for it already - Alexandra, 1877 - from a previous Sentinel project. All that needs doing on top of this is a repaint into blue, some weathering and the addition of a crew. Reasonably simple and hopefully a quick little project.

  

All Change at Crewe!

No, I don't mean the railways. Today brought in the end of an era as Crewe Alexandra announced that they had 'parted company' with First Team Manager Steve Davis after five years in charge.

The general response on Twitter and Facebook was 'good,' as 'SD' seemed as though he was unable to halt a slide that had seen the team drop out of League 1 last season and slip down to 18th in League 2 this term. The irony of the decision that the board announced today being that when Davis took over he took over a team in 18th place in League 2.

I'll be honest. For the good of the club I think that the right decision was made today. League status is paramount to a club of Crewe's size. If we went down we might never come back; look at Macclesfield, Wrexham, Kidderminster. Yet on a personal level I felt very sad. SD seemed a decent, honest man. When manager at Nantwich Town he used to come in to a school I worked in to coach football as part of Nantwich's community programme. He was great with the kids and, indeed, the school. Ultimately, today boils down to the fact that someone lost a job, no matter how good he was or wasn't. 

However, one man's loss is another's gain. Hot on the heels of the departure of SD came the announcement that David Artell - formerly a promotion-winning captain of the club and Academy Director - was appointed as his successor. It's his first job in management and everyone will wish him well. Passionate, whole-hearted, courageous and intelligent, (probably the first football league manager with a degree in forensic science!) Artell is already a popular, if somewhat left-field, choice.

But back to Davis. There is no skirting around the act that the last two or three years at Crewe have been poor. A small budget, player sales and youngsters not making the required grade all added up. Today it reached it's head. But this troubled times, particularly the last 18 months, should not subtract from Davis' achievements at Crewe Alex; A record-breaking unbeaten run that ended in Play-Off glory at Wembley and winning the Johnstones Paint Trophy in 2013 - another glorious Wembley triumph - that meant he was the first Crewe Alexandra manager to EVER win a competition outright. That's how SD should be remembered by Crewe Alex fans, and that's why my last comment on it isn't a comment; it's a picture. And it says a thousand words.

Thanks for the memories Steve. It's been a pleasure and I wish you all the best in the future.

'Oh no! I've ruined it!'

That's what I thought several times whilst carrying out the work below. In an effort to do some actual modelling last night, I turned off the laptop, put Doctor Who (series 9) on the box and set to work with the MSC DH16 Hornby Sentinel. The goal was to remove the lettering and basically make her one dirty girl, ready to receive new nameplates.

Rather than post a blow by blow transcript of what I did (acrylics, cotton wool buds and the odd drop of water) here is a photographic account transformation. I'm very happy with it, but can't help but wonder if I've possibly over done it? I'm yet to varnish it as I might remove a little bit more first. All thoughts and comments welcome.