Unfortunately I couldn’t resist Strathwood’s lockdown offer – buy five books get the cheapest free.  So a large parcel arrived with some great reading – all Southern Railway orientated you will note.  I’m sorely tempted by the volumes on the SR 4-6-0’s and 2-6-0’s as well, with the Q1’s thrown in as a bonus.  The book of the M7 shows what a complicated class they were, with all sorts of differences between locomotives.  None of them resemble the Dapol M7, in ‘N’, though, that is closer to an LSWR T1 class.

Pick of the bunch, that I would have bought anyway, is this follow up to their two excellent volumes of Southern Electric in black-and-white.  But this time they’re in colour.  Some inspirational shots here, showing that EMU’s are far from boring.

But here’s a puzzle for you – why is the wagon in the middle sitting on the wrong rails?  Or is it???  This is an Isle of Wight shot from the piers there.

Look closely and you’ll see that the third line from the left stops just before the van.  It was, together with the rail to the right of the wagons, the tracks for a gantry crane.  But you need a close look to work it out, rather than suspect a secret monorail…..