New Acquisition

 Further to the previous post, I have gone further down the rabbit hole and acquired a second-hand Signal Box (or Cabin) for my toy railway. It was at a reasonable price from an online shop based in England, however once tracked mail, customs duty and administration charges were added, the price tripled!?! I have decided that any further building works for the railway will have to be home made... 

Anyway, there follows some gratuitous pictures of the purchase. There are a couple of chips in the paint but nothing to trouble the passengers. 

Out of interest I did a bit of digging on the internet and came across the Pre-WW2 versions of Hornby's Railway buildings which were made of wood but were still rather stylish. They have given me a bit of inspiration for future railway related projects! 

Dis-track-tion

 It seems that quite a lot of Wargamers also enjoy the delights of toy trains, including your humble author, though I didn't get an electric train set until I was in my forties and have never indulged in building a layout. Every so often I get them out and send them round an oval circuit on the dining room table, or possibly include some of the bits and pieces in a wargame.

Recently I considered buying a station (so that the trains actually had a destination) but thought I might make something first as the space issue for OO scale is quite inhibitive (as indeed is the cost). I am not a talented model-maker, so I based my little station on the Hornby Dublo range (c.1950) that were definitely toys, rather than more recent versions which are models. It's not too bad for a first attempt and has given me ideas on how to make a better version! There are a great number of wonderful videos on YouTube regarding making simple train layouts, so I may yet disappear down that particular rabbit hole...

Hornby Dublo catalogue (Brighton Toy Museum site)

Bit rough and functional but you get the idea

GWR No. 1466 on the through track

The Man behind the Green Door waves at the 4.15 from Paddington