Hornby R3124
42xx after modifications

‘Most people don’t understand how to change and readily accept the formats that are given to them.’
Author Mr Johnny Rotten

Well if that one sentence doesn’t sum up the overriding conservative, sometimes moribund attitude of railway modellers to the hobby and its future, I don’t know what does. Well, apart from the industry insider commentary in May 2015’s BRM on the matter of review samples for magazines. I wouldn’t want to suggest it was written by a half wit, only for the fear that I may appear to be being seen as over generous.

Twenty Years Of easyJet

So what’s easyJet got to do with toy trains? Well I see parallels in Hornbys recent actions with the low cost model development that has taken place within the airline industry that I was part of. Twenty years ago at the beginning of the information age, the likes of easyJet and Ryanair started on their journey. I’ll use easyJet as the example of change. This means that automatically I’ll reduce the numbers of people trying to out whinge each other about how bad Ryanair is. Any Ozmates or Kiwis that think us Poms can whinge really haven’t heard anything until you read a Ryanair story. Once read, Pavlov’s dog style, you have to up the ante by adding your own horror travel story, (it’s the law or something), embellished to be worse than the one you’ve just read. It doesn’t matter if you’re one of those slobs that throws your rubbish on the floor of the aircraft for some galleycat to clean up after you, delaying a turnround, you’ve paid for your ticket so you’re now entitled to run the airline, tell everyone on the internet how it should be done, and crucially, treat its employees like dirt. Apparently.

Hornby to my eyes are going for a ‘Lo-Co’ business model, low cost, not so much to us customers, though there have been and will be deals to be had, but in their operation, and commercial outlook. Low cost however is easily mistaken by idiots for low quality, see ticket collector sorry, purchaser, above. If you’ve worked in a highly competitive low cost environment the changes that Hornby have made make sense. If you’re still living in a world where the removal of the privilege of having free review samples amounts to an ‘epitome of sublime ignorance and arrogance at work’, then you have been sleep walking for the last twenty years or so. It was exactly those sorts of attitudes that allowed easyJet to capture their market so efficiently and relatively easily, and why so many of the competitors, putting it bluntly, died, or were swallowed up. easyJet took on the existing companies by starting with their running costs as low as possible, really simple things like cheap modern premises, no company cars, no discount agreements for other companies, and the clever use of high profile media and media promotions to sell direct to the buying public.

Ryanair
Marketing and PR 101

Now, I’ve no idea about the company cars, but there’s already some familiar elements in what Hornby are doing to how a Lo-Co cost business model works. New premises and modern warehousing, a different pricing structure for dealers, direct sales to the end user, clever use of contemporary media. Clever use, including ‘photobombing’ competitor announcements. This appears to have upset all manner of foamers who don’t can’t think past the regimented, ‘we’ve always done it this way approach’. Its extraordinary to think that there are 14 pages of largely garbage written about the review sample policy, 20 pages of largely garbage on can Hornby afford to sell direct, etc etc on foamers choice. What is really simple is this, that Hornby have staff with significant retail experience on board. They are of the generation that have got their heads around social media and how to use it effectively both in communication and sales. The industry insider clearly has no experience of using the internet to do whatever he does, though he does think the devil is in the detail in this marketing stuff especially that Hornby film ‘The Jumper’.

So a quick Google search finds: www.google.co.uk/search?q=Hornby+the+jumper I don’t think that’s what he meant. Perhaps if he’d paid attention to detail he’d  have mentioned this film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQPjMU0iAsI  If he was so good at this marketing stuff he’d have at least found out what the Hornby J15 video was actually called before he wrote about its ‘faults’.

Its very interesting that since November 2014 we have had three brand new products being shown to customers in their pre production format at Warley, and now they are on the shelves. No pre announcements for the NE hoppers, LMS horse box and LMS suburban coaches.
Hornby is a huge name in the hobby, we play with ‘Hornby’ to the public perception, doesn’t matter if its S7/P4/2FS/OO/TT/N/HO, its all ‘Hornby’. I have few doubts that Hornby will continue to advertise in the analogue media, and produce their catalogue annually for a while to come. This will cover their ‘magazine’ requirements. For those potential customers that don’t use social media, or the interweb, they’ll lose out, get over it. The Lo-Co airlines cut out the travel agencies, you had to book direct, by phone. Within a couple of years or so the call centres blossomed and died, the internet took over for sales and administration of ticket sales. If you want to travel with a Lo-Co today you need the internet, or someone with access to it. The number of lost sales to those who don’t have access to the net is massively outweighed by those who do. There’s very little benefit in giving significant discounts to retailers if you can sell direct to the public via mail order, Amazon anyone? If Smiths Model shop is buying three engines, there’s almost no difference in the logistics to sell those three direct to the end customers, the public, from your own warehouse with a far better profit and yeild for Hornby.

Hornby have clearly realised this, if you want to know about their products, or buy them, never mind the bollocks, type Hornby into Google and get your debit card out. Simples.

greystarpublications.com

It’s with great sadness that this weekend I learnt of the passing of Bob Barlow, editor of Finescale Railway Modelling Review, Narrow Gauge and Industrial Review, and previously editor of Model Railway Journal.

It came as a bit of a shock to realise that Bob and I have crossed paths over the past 25 years or more. I first Met Bob at an Expo EM or Scaleforum just as Wild Swan were dipping their toe into model railway magazine publishing. Bob had written an article in a British Railway Journal on making trees from twisted wire. That belief of wanting to make high quality scenery and modelling achievable to people who wanted to try to better themselves and their talents, immediately grabbed my attention. Here was a magazine edited by someone who could walk the talk of pushing the boundaries and was prepared to have a go himself, and actively encourage others to do so too. Bob was the editor who first published a piece by myself, in MRJ 70, providing huge encouragement to get further into the finescale side of the hobby. When he saw Albion Yard at its last appearance at Warley he made some nice comments, I did mention a good part of the layout was his fault, a substantial element of the effort that went into the layout being directly inspired by the editorial content of MRJ, particularly in its formative years under his guidance. Bob was a talented illustrator too, a good number of the ink sketches in the early MRJ’s were his work giving it a unique appearance and presentation, this presentation talent again recently underlined with the introduction of FRMR with Bob as publisher and editor. Over the years we exchanged emails and the occasional telephone call, often our ‘off the beaten track’ interests being the catalyst, these sometimes led to other friendships developing, as Bob certainly brought people together. He certainly did that as part of the team on Inkerman Street MRJ’s layout, where with typical Bob charm, he blagged me into painting some of the figures that appeared on the layout.

Bob was very perceptive as to what would work in a magazine and how to get the best out of it bringing his professional jouranlistic skills and PR talents to the fore. Getting a brief from Bob you knew pretty much where he wanted you to be going with the article, much the same with a ‘pitch’, if he liked it he could very quickly give an outline of what he wanted from it and how your idea might work on the page. Bob was a modeller too, very rarely you got tantalizing glimpses of his work, this is a narrow gauge locomotive kit built by Bob for his 7mm scale narrow gauge potato railway set up on my OO Wharfedale Road layout, and it’s not what he expected for his model. It was good fun sending him something like this for him to work out how I’d done it. The article written in NG&I 100 on his own Ynys Gwyntog layout, also showed Bobs appreciation of where the hobby has been in the past much as his original BRJ tree piece did too, but showcased Bobs own skills as a modeller and artist. One wonders where perhaps he would have taken his next chapter. I have no doubt he will be recognised as one of the major influences in the UK hobbies development, (not forgetting those whom worked with him), and rightly so.

Bob Barlows’ , Potato railway loco, a Malcom Moore kit.

Early last year I had the opportunity of sitting in the Haycock at Wansford with ‘his people’, (him), talking to my people, (me), over coffee, through some publishing projects and ideas, one of which was FRMR. At the time I said to him that again he was ‘on the money’ in the launch and target market for the magazine, as opposed to the foamers knocking the idea, and I felt he’d need to print more than he initially thought. By day two of Scaleforum 2014 he was needing that re-order! Some of Bobs other projects he had in mind were very interesting, and I hope in time that Greystar will be able to make some of them come to fruition. Other subjects frequently on the agenda were music, Bob was an accomplished singer and competed successfully internationally as I recall in a barber shop quartet, as well as our common problems of running expensive to fix cars, and running even more expensive daughters.

Bob was one of the good guys, sometimes when a few years had gone by and we’d catch up, it was as if the missing years weren’t missing, it was like just catching up with someone you see every week. I’ll miss him as a reader of this blog.

Our loss of Bob Barlow within the hobby, is of course nothing to the loss of his family, close friends and colleagues to whom I extend my sympathy at this difficult time.

Bob Barlow RIP

Hornby R3240 Drummond Black Motor

So far this year Hornby have definitely be hitting the back of the net with their locomotive releases. The K1 and J15 have both been well received and provided much encouragement that Hornby are back in the saddle. The latest release to arrive is the LSWR/Southern/BR Drummond 700 class ‘Black Motor’. The version illustrated is the early British Rail livery R3240. Hornby are currently producing four variants of this model 700
Packaged in the contemporary vacuum formed cradle and carton the locomotive arrived damage free. Included in the box is an accessory package including tender brake pull rods and vacuum pipe and the front tension lock coupling, and an easy to follow instruction leaflet.

R3240 Hornby LSWR 700 ‘Black Motor’

The models initial appearance is on a par with both the J15 and K1 recently reviewed here, but overall isn’t quite as good as the two previous releases. This has to be taken in context however, this model is very good, but not quite as good as the others. The livery and finish of the model is up to the standard we have come to expect from contemporary Hornby releases. The paint finish is blemish free, the printing is opaque and crisp as are borders between colours. The finish is a matt/satin finish with the bias towards the matt end of the spectrum. The locomotive chosen, 30693, wore this plain black livery up to 1961 at least, and at the end of this era it had also received overhead warning electrification flashes. The overhead warnings omission should not be considered an error in this instance, the livery being correct for British Rail use throughout the 1950’s. Detail components are neatly fitted with no evidence of paint or glue blemishes.

Hornby R3240

The prototype locomotives were extensively reworked during their life with the Southern Railway and this model reproduces this later version with a taller cab and higher, longer boiler brought about by a desire to improve the performance of the class as a whole, which included the fitting of a superheater. Primarily the class was used for goods traffic and performed well on these tasks. They were also known to be used for passenger services on occasion, photographic evidence being available for workings in the 1960’s around Guildford, and in the Meon Valley in Hampshire in the 1940’s. The model is assembled in a logical way and is easy to take apart for maintenance or to fit a DCC chip. The engine superstructure and cabsides are metal, mounted on a plastic running plate. The smokebox on the prototype exhibits a number of different patterns of rivet positions and this model captures the prototype appearance of one of those patterns. (No, I didn’t count the rivets). Handrails are pre blackened and like the J15 are fitted in handrail knobs parallel to the locomotive footplate. They should be parallel to the boiler and whilst incorrect this isn’t particularly noticeable. There are some minor tooling slide marks around the top rear of the smokebox where it joins the boiler. This does show up under the harsh lighting of the photography but under normal lighting its not apparent.

R3240 LSWR 700 Class Cab Details

There’s a mix of moulded and separate cab fittings which with the open cab are visible and well detailed. Cab glazing shows some edge refraction and the cab sides and roof are nicely thin, (especially considering the cabsides are metal), rather than the Mr Magoo specs and virtual armour plating seen on other contemporary steam locomotive models. The metal fall plate between locomotive and tender is positioned at an angle of approximately 30 degrees and does not foul any movement on second radius curves. Lamp irons are in the correct locations on both locomotive and tender, and the split between the engine superstructure and chassis pipework is very effective and discreet.

R3240, R3238,
R3239, R3304
Hornby Class 700 Chassis

The chassis is an interesting comparison with the J15 model. There are some similarities with them and some differences which makes me think this design is perhaps older, with a bit of ‘design clever’ left in it, than the J15, despite the release sequence. Like the J15 the wiring loom is channelled tidily through the rear of the chassis and to the tender in a semi permanent connection. The motor is a sealed unit in the 700 class, and sits in the bottom of the cast boiler rather like the J15. Unlike the J15 there is no fly wheel with the 700’s however there is space for at least one at the leading end of the motor. The chassis of the 700 runs well and quietly, but isn’t as smooth as the J15 at the lower speeds, the flywheels definitely working to the J15’s advantage in this respect.

R3240 Chassis

Transmission on the 700 is through a worm gear driving through a further gear wheel to the rear axle. The motor wiring is in part taped to the outside of the motor, rather like the early ‘design clever’ 42xx. However the design of the J15 chassis mechanism looks more modern and far better engineered with a double flywheel, tidier wiring to the loom and a better tower system to the final drive. Electrical pick up is through phosphor bronze wipers bearing on the rear of the wheel tyres on both engine and tender.

R3240 Chassis

A nice cosmetic touch is the moulded section of internal valve gear on the top of the chassis block, with the high boiler and plenty of visible room underneath the boiler, this simple addition looks really good, and hopefully we’ll see this in more widespread on other models in the future. The wheels have the correct balance weight positions and theres external brake pull rods on the chassis. There are however no pull rods supplied across the chassis which seems a bit of an odd omission, when other similar models in the range have them supplied.

R3240 Class 700 Tender

The Tender for this model is well detailed and accurate for this chosen locomotive. The tender is almost identical to the T9 model of a few years back. Additional pickups run along two ridges within the tender chassis, to an 8-Pin DCC socket. The engine to tender drawbar has a close coupling locator on it, but without a bit of effort the close coupling cannot be used. On the J15 the drawbar is adjustable by slackening the mounting screw. On the 700 series there is no screw, the fixing is a pin with a tight interference fit. It does require some considerable effort to move the pin sufficiently to use the close coupling setting, so take care if doing this modification. The more often this is done the looser the pin will become, and the close coupling setting precludes it fitting back into the packaging until its re-set to normal distance. With the close setting I have had no problems with any fouling on Peco Streamline medium radius curves. The images on this page illustrate the ‘as supplied’ coupling distance.

See here for an iphone snap of the revised setting albionyard.700.jpg

R3240 Tender Chassis

Fitting DCC sound to this model will be a bit of a challenge. Unlike the J15 and K1 tender there is no pre engineered facility to fit a speaker. The underneath of the tender water tank has metal weights held in position by screws, these will need to be removed to fit a speaker and an aperture/s made to allow sound to escape. A sugar cube speaker looks the most likely solution with a locomotive chip within the water space of the tender. Brake pull rods are supplied for the tender, and brake shoes are in line with the wheelsets (as they are on the engine). One tender wheelset was stiff and skidded on occasion which turned out to be a poorly adjusted pick up.

R3240 Hornby Drummond 700 Class

So there you have it, another very good quality locomotive release from Hornby. It’s another ‘plain Jane’ locomotive, and had we not had the K1 and J15 releases immediately preceding it, I feel it would have been considered a significant step forward. It has no significant shortcomings, but compared against the K1/J15 from the same stable its clear to see its not at the top of the league, but is still very much in the top half of the table.
albionyard J15 review
albionyard K1 review

That Hornby is producing these journeyman locomotives to such high standards is very encouraging. I’d very much like to see a similar take on their next D&E release, and with the Class 71 already following this pattern, its going to be a good year for Hornby.

Hornby R3240 Drummond 700 Class DCC Ready
www.hornby.service sheet435
Product ref CHL01-P91044
R3240-18-078

Firstly to all my American readers, have a good Independence Day. I find it genuinely warming to see the way the US, and other countries for that matter, embraces and celebrates its history and culture. But what might independence day mean to a blogger? even of toy trains. Well one thing it gives is a platform to talk about subjects that are of interest to me on my terms. So what? Exactly, so what? Well it’s a very small corner of the interweb that’s for sure, but what is satisfying is that whatever I, and my fellow bloggers, (visit the blogroll on the rhs) write, clearly gives interest to other readers. We know that because you can see what we’ve written often quoted, or commented on elsewhere.

One of the recent gems I’ve read alludes to a friends blog, and boldly states that there’ve been no comments since April 2015. Except of course, there has. It is yet another shining example of ‘hive mind’, an inability to used the world wide web, sometimes known as ‘refreshing the page’, and clearly demonstrating a certain level of individual stupidity.
There could be a reason behind it of course, the individual lives in South East Lincolnshire where their definition for interweb is spelt ‘finger’.

So have a good day and don’t forget, ‘Vive la independence!’

Hornby 52xx R3124
Modified to 5201

Hornby 52xx R3124

Double click images for bigguns…

Yesterday the blog had some visitors. From the blog roll on the right hand side you’ll see Define. A great bunch of modellers specialising in Diesel and Electric prototypes. We had Albion Yard up and Wharfedale the i-layout shelfie working too, a sort of mini expo in the garage. Earlier in the day I’d done an interview for a mag, and showing Albion Yard before they looked at Wharfedale showed the development between the two layouts. It also demonstrated how I condensed some of the techniques used on Albion into the smaller shelfie, being asked questions with both layouts on hand made me think a bit more about some of the presentation ideas I have for the peninsula layout section currently underway, and if I’m on the right track with it. I’m not sure I am!

http://definemodellers.wordpress.com

Bachmann 61-635 64xx, after conversion and repaint

You could say that the hobby at the moment is better than its ever been, new companies and new products and techniques than we have seen before. We can pick and choose what we want, because there is so much out there. This is good but, and there’s always a but isn’t there?, there is a downside. I’d suggest that too much choice can lead people onto moving onto another project before completing the last. Sometimes this is fine, a break is as good as a rest, particularly if its a new technique or material, or a complex assembly of a kit. But does this availability mean there are many who just take the easy option and opt out, binning entire projects?

The volume of new products each month is well illustrated in magazines and the interweb, so choice is not an issue, but getting better at any process is more about learning from your mistakes, rather than abandoning a project part built. so binning it is surely restricting your ability to learn and improve? If we were happy with our skillset and didn’t want to develop then perhaps binning a project entirely could be valid, but if not, then not persevering with a problem is actually stopping us improving.

Costs can certainly be a factor, though comparison to other pastimes I feel shows ‘modelling’ as a reasonably affordable hobby. If working to a tight budget then binning it when things start going wrong or getting really challenging certainly isn’t cost effective. Where the project come can in useful is as the learning tool, use it to try the new techniques and processes. Often you hear of people who have had problems with a new technique/process/material where its been tried ‘live’ on a brand new project or model. If you’ve got a part built kit, or layout, old stock, then try the process on that, don’t risk the new ‘thing’! Reading an article or speaking to someone can make many tasks seem easy, particularly if they are proficient at the skillset in question. But they too will have almost certainly had that disaster and sweary, potty mouthed moment along their path too! Albion Yard has given me a few of those moments, but now it works as a layout I can set up and run, and also as a test piece. The two images on this posting show a recent change. The view below shows how it was, the yard was stone sets, they looked ok, but not quite right. The head of page image shows the new yard, its now an earth yard and looks so much better for it, and allowed me to get practise of changing an established piece of scenery for the better.

The old yard surface.

So next time you’re thinking about binning a project or model that you know you’ll never finish, ask maybe what can you learn from it, make use of that shelf queen, that old baseboard, as your starting point for improving your diversity and skillsets.

Whilst the internet can be a useful resource, when I see books like this it really brings home just how much information is out there, both printed, and yet to come. This book from Lightmoor has all the things I want, quality images, quality text, and from respected and knowledgable authors.

The print press is not yet dead!

In the way that odd or interesting numbers sometimes appear on the car dashboard, an interesting one has appeared on the dashboard here on’t blog. That number is two hundred thousand. The number of hits the blog has achieved since I started writing it. The number reminds me of a bit written about us bloggers on a forum ..

“Shame really – if you are going to make the effort to write a blog at all, it makes sense to me to make it available to the widest possible audience. With a personal blog there is little chance of anyone other than a small, dedicated audience ever being aware of it, never mind remembering to read it.”

A quick check of their forum thread indicates they’ve managed to get 1,300 hits and 14 replies over two years, from a membership we’re regularly told of 27,000 members. This chap is clearly someone us bloggers can learn from.

I’m aware that the stats aren’t that straight forward, (see the 27,000 members above, chuckle, chuckle), but two hundred thousand hits is, ‘quite’ pleasing. A friend has his forum thread at close to five hundred thousand hits, so to reach 200k so far means I owe a huge vote of thanks to my ‘small dedicated audience’ of chancers that have passed by.

Thank you very much for taking your time out to read these posts, I genuinely appreciate it.
Paul M-P

Much frothing has taken place over the past few weeks regarding 02’s of the steam engine variety, I’ve not seen one yet, though Warley show beckons and I may catch up with one there. With the Warley show coming up and Manchester the week after I wanted to add something different to Shelfies roster. I’m quite happy using good RTR equipment but as shelfie is pretty much ‘made by me’ it’ll be nice to add a loco in the same vein.

A while ago I wanted to refresh my loco building skills and had got into stock a few etched kits from the easy end of the spectrum. In that bunch of kits was the Craftsman 02 Diesel shunter. It is a basic kit, and accurate. With the march of time, today it’s worth looking at contemporary motors and gearboxes, rather than trying to find Romford gears and an Anchoridge DS10 motor. To this end I’ve gone for a High Level double reduction gear tower, and Mashima motor, on test it runs very smoothly.

The kit due to it’s vintage has a few challenges in it, it’s not a shake the box model and it falls out made up. The bonnet is pre-formed the rest is up to you. In a strangely nerdy way there’s something quite cool seeing the assemblies form a three dimensional shape from flat etches, particularly knowing you’ve fixed and fettled them to get there. The instructions are pretty good, in their day very good compared to some others, that’s why at MRM we often suggested this very kit as a starting point. You knew that if the customer took their time, they’d end up with a nice model, tons of experience, and a huge amount of satisfaction.

One of the things I’m looking forward to is painting the model, again its been a while since I’ve painted brass. I’ll post how I get on later in the build. As you get to know your way round the model you can see where you can make life easier, the instructions assume the model superstructure will be one module, for painting I can envisage the bonnet and cab as one unit separate from the footplate, and I think I’m likely to make a few modifications to do that. That’s the beauty of a kit like this you can make these sorts of changes, which at the end of the day make life easier.

There is sometimes a mystique that etched kits are really difficult, some are, due to complexity, poor design and in some cases both! This however isn’t one of them. What it is, is a really good simple and accurate kit that can teach, or in my case refresh loco building skills at a reasonable cost. Phil Parker has commented that he hopes a ready to run model of this engine doesn’t come out, as it will effectively remove one of the best etched brass starter kits from the market very quickly, and I can see his point of view.

Forest of Dean

Forest of Dean Lines & the Severn Bridge

Price £30.00
ISBN 13: 9781899889 98 3  http://lightmoor.co.uk

This is Volume 2 of British Railway History in Colour from Lightmoor Press. Volume 1 dealt with the Wye Valley lines and north Gloucestershire, volume 3 as I understand it, will cover south of the River Severn. The book is hardback with 328 pages of colour illustrations of the Forest of Dean, both the Severn and Wye lines and the Forest of Dean branch. It also covers Bullo Pill the Severn Bridge and Lydney Docks also get coverage in this volume.

Neil Parkhouse has compiled and written this volume, using various sources for the illustrations. Most haven’t been seen before, very few are of poor quality but that loss of quality is made up for with the interest of the subject matter. The majority of the images are by necessity from the last few years of steam operation, colour film being relatively expensive in the 50’s and 60’s and the pages are well laid out including informative captions and some ephemera shots of tickets. The Forest lines get little coverage in passenger traffic in this volume, this has a historical twist to it in that passenger services finished before colour film was more widely adopted, so normal service shots are rare finds indeed. The passenger images in the FoD section then are primarily the enthusiast specials, but are none the worse for it. There is also coverage of the brake van specials too. These images may seem superfluous to the story of the FoD lines but there are some gems in them too. Not only are there plenty of colour shots of the autotrailers, but the brake van special shows one of the rare, (not ebay rare), LMS short wheel base fitted brake vans. I now know what that unfinished Parkside kit is going to be, it having languished on the ‘to do’ shelf since the excellent Bachmann version was released.
He real benefit of this book is the fact that its colour. Whilst that may be of a statement of the bleedin obvious, does what it says on the tin etc, there were for me some unexpected gems. The Bitumen storage tanks at Whimsey were a red oxide colour, I’d assumed they were black. Tufts Junc. Signal box was built from blue engineers brick, in black and white it has all the appearance of a standard brick build, the colour image shows an interesting variation. Both these locations being considered for the Severn and Dean scheme I want to build. The insides of coal and ballast hopper wagons are visible, as are images around Northern United Colliery, all giving valuable insight into the colour and weathering of vehicles and structures. The same goes for the buildings inside and outside of the railway fenceline.

Coverage of Lydney Docks gives an intriguing look at an area very rarely shown, the fact they are all in colour makes them all the more interesting. It also shows that if you want to consider a port environment for a layout, it doesn’t need to be massive warehouses and huge ships. The Severn Bridge chapter is well illustrated and tells a fascinating and tragic story in its own right, the book closing with the promise of coverage of the Sharpness branch and docks and the coverage of the Midland Lines in Gloucestershire.
For me, and if you like ‘off the beaten track’, subject matter, this book is invaluable for the mass of data and detail it covers. It is pretty much a colour template or palette for the Forest of Dean and Western Region branch line freight operations for the late 50’s through to the late 60’s. As I read it more frequently, I see more information, not ‘nuts and bolts’ technical stuff, but visually, the weathering on a disused signal arm, that sort of thing. If like me your interest covers this era and region it’s an invaluable source of information. It makes me want to build models, inspiration is often overused around the hobby at the moment, but this book for me, genuinely provides it in abundance.

Apart from that, it’s just a really, really nice book. Buy it.