On the Monday before Statfold I went to meet up with Richard and Beryl and Richard and Richard and
I visited the Famous Trains Model Railway, housed in Markeaton Park, Derby.
The layout is based on Chinley station and other interesting cameos from around the area. However as the name suggests the the focus is running trains from across all the ages. On the day we visited rather boring DMU’s were running so I nicked a couple of more relevant to us photos from the web. 🤭
Some of the detailing is very impressive and from my very distant youth I have very clear early seventies memories of walking over that footbridge very early every Monday morning, and then returning on a Friday evening to get to/from my International Dry Cleaning and Laundry Technology course at the Derby Technical College. 😊
Hanging from the ceiling were models of the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and looking back Just as we were leaving I managed to get what I think is quite an atmospheric shot of them flying away from my position.
Following a pleasant afternoon we returned to Richards and there, on behalf of the club I presented him with the OOLS limited edition salt van number one.
We then decamped to the shed for some photos of where it all began.
The shed has seen better days but it is still standing, albeit occupied by a family of mice and numerous insects, most of which I have no idea what that are.
All in all it was a great afternoon and Richard was genuinely touched by the gesture and pleased that we have not forgotten him.
Although he is no longer up to overnight stays he did seem more positive about the possibility of making it to some of the shows not to far from him next year. We also talked about the possibility of maybe providing transport for him to visit fir the day, something we can look into.
Chris
Super to see them both well Chris and great you managed a trip out. Add me to the taxi rota to fetch and return Ruchard to a Roadshow.