Pastures Formation Signalling Team

Here's one from the pastures archive,,,, the Main Box 1928 formation signalling team.
It's pretty obvious that the trainee has not yet mastered the art of pulling off before assuming the position but it say's on the back of the photo in pencil,, "silver plate runners up 1928. Cecil Gee far right left to become a trainee flower arranger" and I can see why.
Right decision Cec,,, really.

If you sniff the original photo you can still smell the Capstan full strength and that wonderfully aromatic mix of 1 part Camp Coffee 1 part moth balls & 1 part Cherry Blossom,,, oh happy days.

It's surprising what you can find on a quiet Saturday night whilst trawling through the pastures archive and as if to prove the point just look at this little blast from the past.

I am assuming this was taken during the war as all of them have painted their toe caps white so they can be seen at night,,, and a finer set of jaunty caps I have yet to come across.
What is it about railwaymen and small terriers,, I have no idea.
But what a charismatic bunch,,, and I'm sure its fair to assume the chap far right middle row is either wearing his younger brothers trousers or perhaps his braces,, but he is understandably proud of his new watch chain.

I remember going on a trip round the Sheffield Midland south signal box as a teenager,, the atmosphere was something I will never forget,,, warm,, damp,, stale cigarette smoke,,,and a permanent background hum of DC signalling boxes with frequent bursts of bells,,, the bells the bells,,, some things just never leave you.

What is the point of this entry,,, their isn't one really,,, the lunatic lantern is throwing out copious quantities of Saturday night drivel,,, it's too cold to set up camp in't shed and so I thought I'd have a quick blog and perhaps drop in the current rant,,, why is the BBC1 TV turning the early morning news into Blue Peter,, talk about dumming down,,, oh jolly jolly,,, lets sit on the sofa and have an early morning party.

Grow Up,, Wise Up,, Pack Up and just give us the bloomin news.
What really gets me is I have to pay a license fee for this rubbish.
Even if I turn it off I have to pay the fee,,, come the revolution brothers that bunch of know it all's will be the first onto the transport headed east!!!.

Kids these days know nowt.

Things that go CLUNK in the van!!!!!

Ha Ha the joys of exhibiting!!!
So there we were on our journey "sarf of the river"  to Crawley exhibition.
We had made excellent time,,, had somehow missed the notorious Friday afternoon Dartford Crossing mayhem,,, had time to stop for a quick meal at the wonderfully appropriate Clacket Lane services and were cruising the last 20 minutes or so to our final destination when suddenly from the rear of the van that noise that all exhibitors dread,,, CLUNK,,, [muttered breaths,,,,,, oh dear whatever was that!!!]
We pulled into the next layby and opened the rear doors with some trepidation,,,mmmm,,,, not a pretty sight,,,, one of the stacking boxes had decided it was bored sitting on top of it's counterparts and had decided to jump off and go gliding down the layout,,,, and as gravity has no brakes it managed to demolish the:
water tower
3 working yard lamps
1 platelayers hut
2 point levers
on it's 2 second journey down the van.
Now that should not have happened,,, but it did,,, and it's the first time in nearly 10 years of exhibiting.
Picking up the pieces on arrival at Crawley it suddenly dawned on me that the box on top of the stack was the heaviest,,, the other 3 had buildings in them,,,, 5% plasticard and 95% fresh air,,, the top box had the servicing kit,,, and the mains operated minidrill in its sturdy Germanic packing case.

Would Mr Murphy step forward for yet another award.

Not a good idea putting the heaviest box on top SAD,,, but it could have been so much worse,,, now I am also seriously considering we were receiving some assistance from "divine intervention".

 
Meet Neville,,, one of our two new operators,,, he is our very own "Hand of God",,, and a very useful fellow to have around when things go bump in the van,,, stop unexpectedly,,,, come off the rails,,, or simply just go wrong.
We started earlier than normal on the Saturday morning and the first task was to glue the remains of the water tower together,,,,if you look closely at the first pic it is a bit like Ernie's wig,,, you can just see the joint.

Anyway sincere thanks to Alan,, Neville and Roger,, the merry band of emergency gluers,,, rebenders,,, and weatherers who managed to jigsaw it all back into place in time for the arrival of the great unwashed at 10am

As usual I think we enjoyed ourselves as much as the public did and apart from the obvious the pastures ran pretty well all weekend.

Divine intervention????? don't know how but we managed to come away with an award as well!!!
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!!!!

The next one is in July,,,, so watch this space.

As McArthur said,,,, " I will return "

And just to prove the point here he is,,,, but why he is sucking a corkscrew is a bit of a mystery,,, but as my old grandpapee used to say,, there ain't no accounting for taste,,hic.

Thought you might appreciate a quick update on Huntingdon Exhibition and the ongoing domestic arrangements in hand for the Pastures.

Huntingdon was great,,, we were invited at the last minute as Jackie the show manager suddenly found she had a pastures sized hole to fill but as we see any invite as a compliment it was simply great to be there.

The Huntingdon show is a relative newcomer to the scene,, but you wouldn't have guessed.
It was LARGE which is not always a passport to success, but it was packed with both quality layouts and traders. There really were some lovely examples of quality modelling on show and on both days there were occasions where we had people 3 deep trying to watch us make a spectacle plate of ourselves.

The highlight for me was meeting another happy soul who publicly admitted to reading the Pastures Blog, [Stephen watch out you have competition] so as agreed sir here is the first post in far too long,, I have no excuse whatsoever apart from moving house, building a scratch built chassis for my L3 and taking a bit of a break from the exhibition scene in general, but you are quite right blogging has taken a back seat of late.

As my old school report used to say on an annual basis,,, "has the ability but could try harder"

In the unlikely event of exhibition managers reading this can I just mention that at the Huntingdon show all exhibitors get a full english breakfast on the house before the show opens to the public,,, what a great idea,,, particularly if you have been doing what we had been doing the night before,, a full english was just what we needed.

I just hope they made a profit,, they certainly deserved to and it was BUSY,,, &  at times VERY BUSY which always makes things worthwhile.

DOMESTICS.
I have been spending most of my spare time installing or refurbishing various sheds we have acquired at the new abode.
I now have a rather cosy 10' x 8' lined and insulated "modelling emporium" which will be referred to as Crimpsall and this is where all the sliced, soldered, or singed fingers type activity will take place,,, next to it, with the obligatory 4' permanent lawnmower sized gap, is the newly constructed windowless shiplap gaff which we might as well call Gorton which will not only house the Pastures but most of my DIY / decorating / odd/jobbing type paraphenalia,,, as mentioned before Helen was right,,, we really should have downsized a long time ago.

If the weather brightens up tomorrow I may even take a shot of the new works and post it for your perusal.

There you are sir,,,"sorry but I either missed or forgot your name" but here is another long overdue post,,, I do promise to post harder and hopefully get back to the regular snippets of life down here on the Pastures.

Oh it is with great personal disappointment that I have to advise that the Cleethorpes show in May has been cancelled,,,, a real shame,,, I have wanted to do that show for some time as there are lots of Great Central Society members live in that area but it just was not to be,,,, but don't get too downhearted you can come and watch us at Crawley in a couple of weeks time,,,or Basildon in July,,, or start Xmas early by visiting Manchester exhibition in December.

Many thanks to all our 2 readers,,, your support is much appreciated and will be worn on a regular basis.

Well Well,,,this looks very nice!!!

We are very pleased to announce that the worst of the domestic trauma of moving the:
Mehmsaab
Pastures
Cat
Dog
Approx 40 spurious large cardboard boxes,, [most of which haven't been opened since we last move 10 years ago] is actually OVER.

We are also pleased to announce we are chasing down suppliers for something along the lines of the above.

In our opinion windows and models do not go together,,  I don't enjoy modelling windows and some things really are crystal clear,, and windows where you house a railway do little but fade paint on most of your previous efforts and for me that is a real headache,, as repainting is even more frustrating than original painting,, so NO Windies,, there will be lots of lighting in the shed but no natural light.

We decided to move so we could "downsize" and it has proved to be very successful,, now we have downsized I seem to be spending most of my time either constructing or coordinating the construction of facilities to enable us to house all the stuff we have have had to store in containers since we downsized.

Not wanting to appear to be doing a Basil Fawlty impression but "you really do know best dear",, "whatever you say dear",,"quite right dear" if downsizing means I get access to a 20'x10' shed then I, [sorry dear,, we],, should have done it years ago.

As a quick reminder for the next show which is the recently received invite to the Huntingdon / East Anglian show on March 12th & 13th. We will be departing from our temporary home and hopefully returning to the new home which will have appeared in the back garden.

At this point I have to once again officially offer my sincere thanks to Dave & Pat of Potter Heigham fame,, being invited to a show with only 6 weeks notice dosen't really give you a lot of time to prepare for it and this is even more problematic when your railway is stored in a container without any electricity.

Problem,, what Problem,, "stick it in the garage and we can prepare it from there",,, thankyou once again you 2,,, much appreciated.

If you fancy coming along and joining in the fun then please be our guest, we would love to see you,, even if you don't like railways we can discuss modelling,, football,, rugby,, politics,, religion,, whatever takes your fancy,,, all you have to do is pay your money and we can guarantee you will  have a really entertaining day,, and it looks as though it is going to be one hell of an exhibition,,, large is not a guaranteed passport to success but we think quality is,,, once again we just can't wait!!!

East Anglian Model Railway Exhibition.

Well life is full of surprises,,, we moved house on Monday and I'm already fed up with unpacking cardboard boxes so to get an invite to the Huntingdon Show came as very a welcome relief.

Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th March at the Wood Green Animal Centre Godmanchester Huntingdon.

I know it's short notice but a gangs gotta do what a gangs gotta do.

Come along and join in the fun,,, you never know you might bump into Cromwells Ghost,,, or that other shady politician that lives in the area!!!! him that wrote the thrillers when he had lots of time on his hands,,, what was his name,,, one of Maggies high flyers,,, yo ho ho,,, it's banana skin time,,,enjoy,,,,

The Property Market!!!!! [Don't get me started on another legal fiasco]

I've not forgotten any of you,,, I'm not ignoring you either,,, we are moving!!!!
Oh Joy of Joy's!!!!
To be honest I'd rather be boring you rigid with the usual twaddle about the pastures but,,, mmm,,, let's just call it priorities.
If I see another cardboard box in the next couple of months it will suffer.
Normal service will be exhumed as soon as possible.
Oh Happy Xmas and a prosperous New Year as well.

I never realised "we" had so much JUNK,,, where do's it all come from.
Believe me I'd rather be modelling than playing 3 dimensional chess with all the crap that has been hidden away in the shed for many a year.

As McArthur said as he paddled down some beach near Manilla,,,,, "I will return"

The Great British Back to Back Gauging!!!

Oh no,,, here we go again,,, as if the great bake off wasn't enough we now have to suffer the great british pot throwers contest,,,,

"And the winner is,,,, " just nip out and make a cup of tea,,, your not going to miss anything of any significance  Percy Thrower" 
Wrong hobby I know but you know what I mean.

Anyway as a vehicle for the hobby of our choice to fight back I think we ought to have our own contests,,
so hows about:

The Great British Back to Back Gauging
The Great British Point Filing
The Great British Check Rail setting
The Great British Lead Weight Adding
The Great British Chassis Oiling
The Great British Real Coaling
The Great British coupling height setting

Somebody has obviously told our friends at the media that if you accidentally hit on a successful formula then the best thing you can do is flog the life out of it for the next 5 years.

Strictly Dancing,, Ice Skating,, Britains got talent [really,,, not from what I've seen] The X Factor,, they don't want to actually achieve anything they just want to be a celebrity,,,,imho,,, lets be politically correct.

I give in,, honest,, but I do have one suggestion which could be really good fun,,, you fill a studio with a complete cross section of modellers and some Jeremy Kyle type obnoxious git and start any one of the following conversations:

What is the real point of a 4 coupled sprung chassis,
Is P4 really Scalefour but on the cheap
Why can't we all revert to the old Hornby coupling
Is it really a valid railway if it's been built by 25 experts through some form of 4mm/1ft backscratching excercise.
Is Zepp Blatter actually a member of BRMSB,,, [I'm perhaps showing my age with that one,,, British Railway Modelling Standards Bureau,,,, what an august body that was,,, you didn't stand a chance of becoming a member if you didn't have a 6" engineers rule, & 3 x 3H Staedtler Pencils in your top pocket and leather patches on your sports jacket elbows]
Should kit manufacturers be deported if their instructions are not clear to a 6 year old with at least 4 clinically identified isms.
Was Iain Rice related to John the Baptist

You get the idea,,, the good news is we don't need a studio we can all do it on the web,,,, or even throught these pages,,, now what an august body this is!!!

I really feel much better now and the impending house move is progressing apace!!

SAD