Author Archives: snitchthebudgie

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About snitchthebudgie

Secretary of the East Surrey N Gauge railway club

Ideas matter

This is from another thought provoking post by Mike Cougill on the OST blog… Our craft suffers from a scarcity of ideas. Ideas that change our image of what the hobby could be. When Frank Ellison suggested that a model … Continue reading

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Forgotten Dreams – Jon’s old trains #2

Most modellers have what is generally known as a ‘gloat’ box – but mine must be worst than most.  I’ve been excavating some more, and have come up with all sorts of things.  A lot of them I’d forgotten completely. … Continue reading

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Living in the past – Jon’s old trains #1

Not much progress on the modules since coming back from Hong Kong, but I decided it was time for a real turnout of my storage boxes of trains, dating back nearly 50 years.  It’s time to keep a few things, and … Continue reading

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Planning the exhibition

Putting a model railway exhibition together is a bit like a jigsaw.  You have the rooms, the traders needing tables, and most importantly the layouts themselves.  Some of these layouts will need a fixed size; others may be modular, so … Continue reading

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Dear Mr Railway Man

Following our theme of late trains, the Telegraph posted this heart-breaking letter from a 6-year old girl to rail bosses.  The article states…. A six-year-old girl has written a “heartbreaking” letter to rail chiefs begging them to get her father … Continue reading

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ESNG meeting – 21 January 2015

Well I wasn’t at last night’s meeting, as I was being wined and dined by the company for my 38 year’s service.  What a difference six months makes.  Last year it was proposed redundancy; this year it’s too much overtime … Continue reading

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Toy trains from the past 200 years

From the BBC News site this week, describing a new exhibition, “Playing Trains”, at the National Railway Museum in York: What is it about toy trains that has continued to entertain children, admittedly mostly boys, for nearly two centuries? A major new … Continue reading

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Hong Kong – Pig train memories

Browsing around the internet I found a picture that brought back not entirely pleasant memories.  It’s 1984, and you are standing on the subterranean platform at Mong Kok, first station up the line from the Hung Hom, Kowloon, terminus of … Continue reading

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The train that was late for a whole year

From the BBC News site this week, quoting the Metro: Metro, a free newspaper largely targeted at commuters, is never short of horror stories from those using Britain’s public transport network. But in the story of the 07:29 from Brighton … Continue reading

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ESNG PlayDay – 11 January 2015 #2

Here are four video clips from the PlayDay.  The first three show a few of the trains running this afternoon, including my Deltic Pullman rake. The last shows the start of Paul’s 102 wagon goods train.  It extends through three … Continue reading

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