Sometimes I think that I'm trying to re-create my childhood, piece by piece. Toys, books, old copies of the Radio Times, drooling over Humber Super Snipes. "A comfort blanket to hold up against the tyrannies of the new century" someone once said. Actually, it was me. The thing is, all those years ago I didn't have a Hornby 0 Gauge level crossing for my 1950's clockwork train. So very recently I couldn't resist this, in its bright red box that told me it was of 1953 vintage. I just love it. Opening and shutting the gates, trying to not let them scratch the printed tinplate as its first (probably) owner had done. I wanted to share it with you, but thought it was a bit plain on its own. Not having a clockwork train and carriages yet I reached out for my cheese biscuits tin and sourced these two Britain's farm models. And I didn't have those either as a child.
Halifax, West Yorkshire
3 days ago
12 comments:
i do so hate to be predictable ... but you'll know that I'm rather taken with bolt-drag scratches on the road surface, lend a ceratin authenticity to the scene.
Absolutely superb! Hope the farmer manages to get the cow off the line by the time you have sourced the perfect train to go with this... :)
Diplo: I agree, a few scratches telling of previous play are always welcome.
Murgatroyd: If all else fails with cow removal, I'm thinking of investing in the equally colourful water tower with its rubber hose.
It does look like a scene from the Rev Awdry's works...
"get along there, can't you see there's a clockwork train coming round the bend" - and I'm back in the 50s - a wet Sunday afternoon and me and a few chums have got the train set out. Like you these accessories were but a dream, but I don't think we would have been beyond contriving a major steam/livestock accident if we'd had 'em. "Don't overwind it" shouts dad from the dining room.
Blimey, you bring it all back Jon.
We even took our Hornby train set on holiday with us to Anderby Creek on the Lincolnshire coast, where it was set up in the attic of the bungalow for our wet afternoons.
That is a thing of great beauty. Somewhere I have an '00' level crossing which I stole from a girl at Prep school had the most beautiful train set in the world and had no interest in it.
I confess to being guilty of exactly the same vice of re-gathering lost childhood toys. Problem is, I don't have anywhere to put them. Neither do you for that matter.
Of course, if this were Unmitigated America, you'd have a locomotive with a cow-catcher (invented by Charles Babbage, the 19th-century computer pioneer, as it happens).
Dear Readers, you will all be relieved to know, I'm sure, that the aforesaid cow has now been removed (without any of those new-fangled catchers Phil) by Farmer Lead and is now snuggled-up in the Roka Cheese Tin with his standing-up mates, six sheep, eight lambs and a Britain's country signpost.
Peter, It looks real. I thought it was one of your leaning over the parapit shots.
Sometimes Toby I think it all is real.
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