Chris Nevard Model Railways & Photography Blog

Hubert the conversational Latin speaking horse is being given some treats based on some old recipes which apparently the Romans gave their horses of fighting age recently discovered in Nasal Nigel’s secret dungeon at the end of his garden when the police…

Some newly built stuff from popular kits for a personal OO9 narrow gauge weekend project I’m working on.

Fancy Friday Who’d have thought that The Pedant & Armchair would go all la-di-dah and ‘gastro’ with outside seating.

There’s plenty of activity at Whimsy Pit this morning with Harry and his Hunslet 0-6-0 steamer pushing some old iron ore hoppers about from here to there and there to here, and occasionally a mix of the two.

Here we are at Catcott again, where national treasure Uncle Bob, accompanied by the decidedly non-identical twins Fifi & Fiona, are about to board their train to Glastonbury.

Friday 10 July was a bit of a hot one at 33c, nevertheless I popped down to the Watercress Line for day one of their annual diesel gala.

It’s a lovely summer morning at Catcott level crossing and halt as the 9.05am Evercreech Junction to Highbridge service rumbles past Swanky Syd is on gate duty today, covering for crossing keeper Dafne Dando, who’s off to Highbridge market to buy a few bi…

Outside The Miners Arms they’re digging up the street again for ‘essential public works’.

Here we are again at Catcott, reputedly named after Bob Geeza Cat, though that might be wishful thinking on behalf of Bob, because he does have narcissistic tendencies - like most cats.

Yesterday’s post featured a Hymek diesel hydraulic loco.

Not many photos exist of Catcott after the line closed on 6 March 1966 with the rest of the former S&DJR apart from a couple of stubs.

Polbrook Gurney Colliery skulks deep within an uncharted corner of the North Somerset Coalfield, in a mysterious region known locally as Titfield Thunderbolt Country—a place so elusive even the pigeons refuse to deliver mail there.

Here we are at Brew Street, sometime in the late 1980s.

Saturday morning by one of the many water towers in the Land of the Inch High.

Fireless locomotives run on highly compressed superheated air and need topping up from time to time from a suitable reservoir.

With much wheezing, rattling and entirely unnecessary enthusiasm, Driver Andrew-Barclay powers his trainload of freshly liberated coal away from Whimsy Pit and Wharf.

Here we are at Combwich on the hottest afternoon of the summer of 1959, and the little tank engine unofficially borrowed from Shrewsbury shed refuses to move another inch until someone finds the station cat, which is just one of Bob Geeza Cat’s many roles.

Here we are back in the olden days on a hazy summer Sunday deep in the Somerset Levels at Catcott railway crossing.

Old Bernard Manning-Wardle the engine driver was having a terrible day.

Here we are at Catcott Burtle again, a remote halt with a single siding in the middle of a bog on the Highbridge line.

Terry Tuttle Thomas Smythe hosts the very first ‘Collieries Have Talent’ competition, that’s our favourite smarmy chap stood on the engine announcing the next act.

Saturday morning and Barry Bullhead from the Ministry of Mayhem has come to inspect the new level crossings barriers that have been installed at this former open crossing.

National Treasure Uncle Bob, continues to do research for his forthcoming railway orientated television series aimed at schoolboys with no friends and equally lonely late Middle Aged men who still live at home with ‘mother’ who is propped up in an old roc…

Monochrome Monday on a Monday ‘cos it isn’t always on a Monday National treasure Uncle Bob standing next to a race of mine tubs, watches Harry and his Hunslet locomotive generate a good blast of clag whilst pottering around the sidings at Whimsy Pit.

A few of you missed Bob Geeza Cat in yesterday’s post, so here he is chatting to Andrew and his Barclay locomotive at Polbrook Gurney Colliery.