The Stamford van.....  there it is look!  An entertaining tail including expresses to Kings Cross.

 Colwich, the history of the 1961 box - worth recording here?  Not really a branch line though, a very very main line :-) 

Back to New Mills Tunnel End... This little location fascinated me back in the late 70's when it had been closed for a few years - now this wonderful colour pic has appeared on Flickr - from the fine photographer John Spencer Gilks.

Something of a sedentary existence, however it had an hourly service up until abolition of the branch in January 1970......

Astrop Sidings....

I wonder if anyone ever chances upon my musings, not written anything for a few years so worth a try.

Astrop Sidings, an enigmatic little location south of Banbury, just beyond the iron curtain where east meets west, or at least LMR meets WR at Heyford.

Just a single turn box by the time of this Train Register, one regular man, busy little box though....  No running water, this was delivered by either a light engine (which did similar at Aynho) or DMU.

As with anything like this, it was too good to last and succumbed to closure in 1979.

Bearley time to do anything...

Where does the time go?  How many times have I heard people say that over the years...  Two little girls now, Kate (3) and Livvy (1) occupy most of my time, here relaxing after all the grass has been cut.

So what of the branch line, still no sign of anything happening, I'm quite occupied at the moment with the recent history of the North Warwickshire line and onwards to Lansdown Junction - in the photo I'm attempting to educate my daughters on the finer points of Absolute Block acceptances at Bearley Junction from this 1976 Train Register and elucidate why 8V85 had to wait fourteen miles away as there was no Outer Home for acceptance purposes...  Ah well, it helps me sleep at night :-)

Will 2014 herald a start..... ?

And so after a lightning 2013 we're hurtling headlong into 2014.  Where did the last year go?  Becoming a first time dad has admittedly taken up rather a lot of time.

What of progress with my branch line I hear you ask?  Well to be frank there hasn't actually been any material activity yet, plenty of plotting on bits of paper and coming up with ideas whilst on vacation in deepest Shropshire.  Also a certain amount of drooling over early images of the Graham Farish 25 that should make an appearance this year and will be a very important member of my fleet.

I'm still evaluating the best arrangement in the room available but all being well there will be more to tell very soon.

in the meantime it just remains for me to wish both of my readers a very Happy New Year.  Compliments of the season Panda and Mr Ball :-)

Good old Hayfield.

Probably my favourite branch line, inspired by an article in Model Railway Constructor in 1978 - Signalling for the Modeller - Hayfield.

A very sad closure that lasted right up until 1970, it carried an hourly passenger service to Piccadilly throughout the day and right up until 2300 - better than a lot of places these days!  Nevertheless, the LMR still managed to close it.

Proper signalling remained until the end, two boxes, Hayfield Station and the very diminutive New Mills Tunnel End - just lovely (unless you had a 12 hour day shift in there I should imagine!)

Just to complete the picture, I stumbled upon this lovely little film on Tubeyou earlier this week - after watching this I've just got  to get my N gauge DMU earning a living....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiu1_-QQGM8