Sorry for your loss, Roy.

It always amuses me to remember that when I was growing up in my teens, you would hear Elton John or ABBA being played in my youngest sister's bedroom, Barry Manilow from my other sister's bedroom and Hawkwind et al from my bedroom (normally the loudest)!

Tim

To my mind, Hawkwind live and at their best with............(check out Lemmy's bass playing)

I always liked this guy's voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUHEHibJLZQ

The Tale of the Lost Railway (Part – 3)

It was early in September 1961. I found myself daydreaming as I returned, weary, from a long and somewhat exhausting trip to London where I had been investigating a mysterious death on a Metropolitan Line train at Baker Street station.

Of course, I had to avoid  the inevitable clever remarks relating to a certain Mr Holmes but that was no problem. After all, it might make a good newspaper headline .

My train home from Paddington was the 17-55 to Plymouth. As  I had around fifteen minutes to departure I walked up to see what locomotive would be attached. I arrived at the end of the platform just in time to witness Castle Class number 7037 Swindon, the last of the class, backing down onto the carriages.

I walked briskly back along platform three to find, hopefully, an empty compartment. I soon found one and very quickly the train was away with the smooth, sure footed elegance to be expected from a Castle.

The rhythmical clickety clack of the carriage wheels on the rail joints was almost lulling me to sleep when my thoughts suddenly, and inexplicably, turned to a week's holiday spent with a Great Aunt and Uncle on their smallholding on the edge of Dartmoor several years ago. I must have been aged eight making the year 1943. The Second World War was in full swing and I vaguely remember hearing on the wireless that the Allies had invaded Sicily. Quite what that meant in the grand scheme of things I knew not at the time but it seemed to be an important development.

My memories of the holiday are  quite vague but I do remember the small farmhouse, with a few straggling out houses, being very remote. I also clearly  remember the two donkeys, I think their names were Rosy and Thomas, who seemed to enjoy the extra attention afforded them by a small boy.

Delving further back in my mind I recall that I must have travelled to Moretonhampstead station via  the branch line from Newton Abbot. I dimly remember being taken to Newton station by my parents who put me in a compartment, on my own, to make the short trip to Moretonhampstead where my Aunt and Uncle met me with their horse and cart.

Moretonhampstead  station was at the terminus of the line but tracks did continue beyond the platform towards some cattle pens before ending abruptly at a gated tunnel mouth. My Uncle took me up to the end of the platform to see the locomotive which, likely, would have been a small prairie tank but it was that gated tunnel mouth around a hundred yards away which really caught my attention. I do not recall why that tunnel intrigued me or, for that matter, why I remember it so vividly. Perhaps it  just looked unusual and perhaps exciting to  me as a small lad.


That gated tunnel mouth intrigues me even more today than when I was a small lad

The trip up to the farmhouse was mostly  along a rather rutted and uneven farm track  which became bumpier the further we travelled. I can remember my excitement as we approached a tiny hamlet bearing the name Baskerville.   I had heard of the  book  The Hound of the Baskervilles although I was too young  to have read it. I was , however, going to be staying in a famous village and that was going to be fun.

I must have enjoyed my stay but the thing that I recall most clearly is being told on several occasions not to venture up that bank, don't go beyond that fence or don't open that gate. There seemed to be a great many places that I wasn't  allowed to explore which didn't really bother me then but thinking back today it was rather strange.

My mind wandered off in different directions as my journey home to Teignmouth continued although I did keep returning to that boyhood holiday. The more I remembered the stranger it became in my mind.

Now in my mid twenties there seem to be so many unanswered questions from that week away  with the most curious being the faintest memory of a railway station at Baskerville.  Come to think of it, I'm almost certain that as I was falling to sleep one warm  evening, with my bedroom window wide open,  I heard a steam train in the far distance.

By the time my train neared Exeter St Davids I had made up my mind to visit the area again in the next week or so in order to satisfy my curiosity.

Who knows what I might find?

If nothing else, my curiosity will be satisfied.............


To be continued

Sadly we too lost one of our furry friends last week. Our tortie matriarch Mollie had to be put to sleep on Friday evening. Fifteen years old and with us from a tiny kitten, she had been poorly for a while, but last week things got too much for her and quality of life was suffering, so we made the difficult but kindest decision for her.

Boss of the household, our three other cats are still looking for her nearly a week later..

Roy

Not the world's biggest footie fan, but we both watched last night's game. DR Congo were, on the whole, excellent, their keeper was incredible. As for England, I think we lacked a little something, and took far too long to get going. Kane did his usual trick of appearing to do nothing for the entire match, until he did, well, something. His second goal was immaculate, I thought.
Am I getting up early for the Mexico game? Nope.

Thanks all for your kind words, they are all appreciated. We're gradually getting used to an 'empty' house, and also not having to get up quite so early.

I rebuilt one that I obtained on ebay before they were re released as kits and decided to use an N-drive chassis similar to that which I had fitted to 1363. I had to change the motor as the one supplied was too big - even after that I had  to carve a significant amount of metal to make the chassis fit

Regards,

Alex

Just wanted to say Hi and wish my fellow Canucks, and friends around the world a happy Canada day from the left hand coast of the True North Strong and Free!

I feel very privileged to call Canada my home, even though I do wish there were more trains here on Vancouver Island! (I've seen them both lol!)

Graham