Trade Titfield Thunderbolt News

[Simon]

New Shop

Floor laid, wall sorted out and cunning cupboardy thing built around gas meter

Just bought a sofa off ebay for the princely sum of £10.00 - let's hope the reality lives up to the photograph, I hope to pick it up in the next couple of days........

In other news Shepton Mallet went well, book of the show was Second World War secret bunkers by Nick McCamely, closely followed by The Welshpool and Llanfair from Wild Swan. I also had the pleasure of meeting Graham Powell  who I am pleased to see has found his way back here (tinsnips) and I also managed to sample at least two varieties of the cake that was on offer 8)

All in all a top weekend!

 

[lancer1027]

New Shop

Hi Simon, hope things are going well . Any more news on the forum book list . Would be an ideal first place to look for all WT if they need a book ;D.

Rob :wave:

 

[Tinsnips]

New Shop

Hi Simon, Nice to meet you on Saturday. Can you pass on my best wishes to Peter Barnfield and mrs.
Not seem them in ages.
rgds
Graham Powell

 

[iploffy]

New Shop

Come on Simon where's the book list mate it's me birfday tomorroz and the misses want to buy me a book.

Ian

 

[28ten]

New Shop

Come on Simon where's the book list mate it's me birfday tomorroz and the misses want to buy me a book.

Ian

'Heyday of the Hydraulics' would be a good place to start your education 

 

[Phill Dyson]

New Shop

'Heyday of the Hydraulics' would be a good place to start your education 

Or 'Diesel Hydraulics in the West Country ' 
Phill  :wave:

 

[lancer1027]

New Shop

Or "Looking Back at the Westerns"

Rob :wave:

 

[28ten]

New Shop

I made a visit to the shop today and whilst there I purchased a copy of this book  [attachimg=1] lots of lovely photos of blue, green and maroon locos in a good large format. quite expensive at £30 bur IMHO its worth it.
MRJ 204 was also purchased but the less said  the better - disappointing would be a fair summary, and im rapidly approaching the point where I stop buying 
On a more positive note the settee works very well  and the biscuits are fine!

 

[Steph Dale]

New Shop

The tea was good too...  ;D

Steph

 

[Simon]

New Shop

Hi.

Thanks to all visitors so far, "retail progress" is steady and the shop now has a lot more stock than at the beginning of the year.

Update if I may:

Books. Several new dieselly titles, Strathwood "Looking back at 50s" (somebody's got to I suppose), "Hydraulics in the West" as previously mentioned, best pictures of Class 22s in one book I've ever seen I think, "First Generation DMUs", pretty good, "Hydraulic versus Electric", results foregone conclusion I suspect, imminent from Strathwood are second version of big landscape colour diesel book "Sixties Diesels and Electrics Remembered II" and "Looking back at 37s", which I think may be quite distracting, even for us hydraulicos.

Non diesel new book highlight has got to be the "Shropshire & Montgomery Under Military Control" from Lightmoor at £22.50, utterly stupendous pictures of amazing set up, brilliant book.

Magazine wise new edition of Roy Link's NG&I Review imminent and new BRJ (number 76) now in stock.

On the modelling front I now have lots of Woodlands Scenics stuff, (I intend to major on this range) Mek Pak, pretty much complete range of all Peco OO trackwork including "individulay" bits, Bachmann highlights, LNE vans in BR livery, Pannier & its train set and a few 7Fs etc, Ratio, Slaters, Metcalfe, Parkside (including some O gauge wagon kits). Peco O gauge track (bullhead) and from this morning a complete range of the Slaters G1 1/32 components, including all three 1/32 wagon kits, wheels, couplings, buffers.

I also have what I think is the last unmade John Dale Manning Wardle kit in stock, (I'm not sure John is going to do another batch) and the 48DS. Slaters have done the wheels for this which I also have.

Website will be updated soon, honest guv!

Got to go, more mail order packing up to do - help!

Simon

 

[28ten]

New Shop

I could be sorely tempted by the Manning Wardle  :scratch: but what would I do with it?  :scratch:
I got the first volume of Sixties diesels and electrics last time i was in and its a cracking book so i'll be looking forward to vol II

 

[Simon]

New Shop

Latest shop news...


Shop is today manned by Gerry Beale of MRJ editorship and book authorship fame.

(sorry Gerry)

Also, I was given a box of "old model railway bits" last week which included something rather lovely sitting at the bottom of it:

[attachimg=1]

Bassett Lowke no less, 3 rail electric and in prety sound condition bar a bit of rust. In conversation it emerged that it belonged to a friend of a friend, who would have played with it in his youth.

I intend to restore it and display it in the shop [attachimg=2]

 

[Ressaldar]

New Shop

Latest shop news...

I intend to restore it and display it in the shop [attachimg=2]

as a suitable S&D loco no doubt?

cheers

Mike

 

[Simon]

New Shop

Shop update

Latest hot selling title is "The Brendon Hills Iron Mines and the West Somerset Railway", a catchy little title for a slip of a book that weighs a mere 1.9kg.

Priced at 24.99 it is a bargain (production has been subsidised by the national park or the lottery or somesuch), cheapest postage is £7.62 for standard parcel - lots in stock.

No hydraulics in it, but packed full of information and beautifully produced.

I will update my website soon, despite appearances I am now stocking pretty much all new railway books as they come out, including well dieselly stuff and even those ghastly ultra modern image titles.

Other current favourites are the new all colour Brighton Belle book from Capital and "Rails Across The Plain" (Noodle) at £14.95 and £19.95 respectively.

RCL's lovely new De Winton book is now out (£58.00, not subsidised) and issue 87 of Roy Link's excellent NG&IR magazine is due in next week.

Oh, and I nearly forgot:

STOP PRESS

A brand new all colour book on modelling trees by Gordon Gravett and produced by Wild Swan is about to appear. Priced at £19.95 and covering broad leafed trees it looks to be an absolute corker. It should be out in about 2 weeks time.

Gordon has very kindly offered to lend the shop one of his beautiful model trees and I am trying to sort out an author signing/meet Gordon day in the shop.

Further details shortly.

This may well not have been announced anywhere else, so you heard this first on "Western Thunder"!!

George is in the shop today as I am stuck in the library.

Simon

 

[Tinsnips]

New Shop

Just noticed the Lowke engine. Restored several of those over the years . The only one of those I had in the workshop had a motor fault which took some finding. One of the windings have become detached from one of the segments on the commutator. Quick touch with the soldering iron and it was back working again.
rgds
Graham Powell

 

[Simon]

Wow!

Thank you very much Cynric....

After Gordon's signing, the next event at the Larkhall shop is a book launch of "The Bristol Scroll" by Martin Curtis on Friday 7th October.

The book is being signed by its author, from 12.00 and guests will include Mike Walker and his Bristol KSW highbridge double decker (this will be parked OUTSIDE the shop) and Sir George and Lady White. Sir George is the great Grandson of the incredibly accomplished Sir George White who set up the Bristol Aeroplane company, Bristol Tramways and much else.

The book celebrates the Bristol Scroll and all the things it was used on, mainly buses and aeroplanes but also cars and pre-fabs(!)

It costs an afforable £10.00, is well illustrated, interesting and has a bright yellow cover.

Drinks will be served, all welcome. 

Simon

(I'll post some better bibliographic details shortly)

 

[Simon]

In my never ending quest to provide the highest quality retail experience (yeeuccch - it'll be retail "white space" next - agh) to my customers, I yesterday decided to tackle the door frame

As was, a distinct lack of something to attach new chocolate brown paint to at ground level:

[attachimg=1]

Out with the chisels and an hour or so's sweat later it all looks much improved

[attachimg=2]

I got the left hand side new piece of major timber in yesterday but returned this morning to finish cutting in new pieces, fixing, filling and a first coat of primer. Three hours later and I'm feeling happier about the entrance to the shop ;D:

[attachimg=3]

I'll get back to the books soon, one snippet of information is that Kevin Derrick is going to re-visit the "rats" with a new book next year....

 

[Simon]

It's not a book, it's not a train, but by God it's lovely - especially sitting just outside the shop in Larkhall. Overall a fantastic and powerful blast of nostalgia for me and many others too.

The signing was a great success, here are a few bus-ey snaps from last Saturday:

What a beautiful sight as it hove into view down into Larkhall Square. Big personal nostalgia as I used to go to school on such things and the top window that you can see in the terrace immediately to the right of the bus is my old bedroom window.

[attachimg=1]

Here Peter Davey (top bloke!) expertly turns into "my" street. Peter is the very jolly author of lots of books on trams and in addition is an unflappable calm and very capable driver of huge old buses.

[attachimg=2]

Momentarily outside the shop, we reversed it over the main road to be in the main square to help "traffic flow".

[attachimg=3]

What a beauty!

[attachimg=4]

Back to the books shortly....

Simon

 

[Simon]

Brief update as there are some WR dieselly things on the horizon.

Out and due in the shop by Wednedsay next week is Strathwood's "Looking back at Warships". Based upon his most recent books this should be good.

In stock now is Irwell Press's "Warships in colour" by John Jennison.

Photographic quality is a bit disappointing to be honest, mostly too washed out and grainy for my taste with some better exceptions but several absolute mingers too.

Looking on the brighter side the subjects chosen are interesting, I think, covering all liveries and a good variety of locations and workings.

Nice big detailed 3/4 close shot of "Vanquisher" ex works blue at Old Oak open day 1967, Blue "Jupiter" in desperate state one month before 1971 repaint, nice Mensing shot of green "Foxhound" near Solihull in 1962, lovely shot of ex works green syp with red buffer beams Zenith at Swindon in 1962. Good general coverage of green liveried locos and three shots of original series at beginning of book.

64 pages, £11.95, so not overpriced

Verdict: Could have done better, you don't expect the ultimate at this price but the same publisher's "Industrial Railways in Colour South" is much better, same price, same size, same printer.

Perhaps not really "Western Thunder" fare, us all being seasoned and mature etc, but I think the new "Railway Modeller Annual 2012" (now in stock, £6.99) is a corker. Very well printed, some superb model photography and work by "new boy" Graig Tiley and much more. I particularly liked the article on Peco and the history of making track by Michael Pritchard, and there are pieces on Ratio and Wills written by Roger Webster and Iain Rice respectively. Peco and the hobby are both on top form this year.

"Pannier Papers No 3" covers the 57XX, 67XX and 77XX variants. Ian Sixsmith for Irwell Press, £11.95. A super collection of pannier pictures including some really good full page shots, all reproduced to a uniformly high standard. Gerry Beale tried to explain it all to me this morning, but I still don't understand the differences between each of the different number series!

Simon

"in da shop"

 

[Simon]

Still awaiting the new Strathwood titles, will hopefully arrive tomorrow.

It was quiet in the shop this morning which was useful as it meant I could work on tweaking the "static" web pages that were required to fit in with George's "all singing all dancing" suite of pages. These now cover all of the book stock held in the shop.

They are generated from the same database that we use to record stock inputs and sales outputs, which means that it is really up to date.

Please go and take a look and give the place a damn good hammering - I've tried to break it and haven't succeeded yet

Simon