Great Western Coffee Shop

Moderator Note: This post, and the continuation has been hived off from another thread (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11005.msg114335#msg114335) as the conversation drifted off topic and was getting decidedly light hearted....

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Apologies. Off topic....

Okay, it's only OO gauge, but here's a working HST in NSE livery:

(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h287/tank_fv101/125.jpg)

TFRB is the wrong way round though. Can't have OO scale proles walking through 1st Class to get to the buffet.

 ;) :P ;D

@bnm - is that your set?! I have often wondered how many forum members "enjoyed" model railways.

I do, but only because I don't want my son to get lonely when he is "playing" :)

Not my set. I don't have any OO stuff these days. Sold all my Hornby/Lima/Peco stuff when I discovered girls and alcohol!  ;D

Google was my friend.

... for discovering what, the girls or the alcohol!? :D

I did wonder but thought I was missing the obvious!

Sorry, should have said, "Google was my friend" first.

Google gave me the pic of the NSE liveried OO gauge HST.

When I was discovering girls and alcohol (circa 1989) Google wasn't around. I actually had to get out of the house....

You mean you've actually stopped discovering girls and alcohol ?
I thought both were lifelong incurable conditions ! :o

I've not stopped any of those pursuits. Although the sabbatical from model railways has been the longest. All I've got at the moment is a Hornby OO gauge Class 52 'Western Courier'.

My dad sold my Hornby layout while I was at boarding school.... so I found girls and alcohol by way of solace.... ;D

I actually won a model railway train set for coming a runner up in a design a poster competition for the railway, to warn of the dangers of trespass, if I recall.

I was given the day off school and went up to London on an InterCity 125, taken into the cab and shown around, and then a tour of some model place in London (forget the details), then met Tony Hart for tea while he presented the awards :) Still have the photos somewhere!

I sort of have a model railway.

When I was a little boy, I dearly wanted a train set. My parents weren't well off, but one birthday they managed to find a HUGE boxed set in the sales. It was my pride and joy! Little did we realise at the time that the reason it was cheap was that it was being discontinued, so I wasn't easily able to add to it afterwards.

Those of you of a certain age will already have guessed that this was the mid-1960s and my parents had bought me a Triang TT set. After a year or two I joined the 3mm Society (member number 926) and was able to buy a few more bits and pieces, but then I too discovered sex and beer and rock 'n' roll and the lot was packed away for the next 40 years....

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. A neighbour's brother in law had died and he was disposing of the estate, which happened to include an "attic full of model railway stuff, his lifelong passion - trouble is I don't know how to sell it because it's this really weird scale, somewhere between OO and N"

I immediately recognised that he must be talking TT and offered him a *cough* sensible price for the whole lot :)

It took me 40+ years but finally, I had added to my train set. 30 coaches, at least 12 locos, truckloads of trucks, plastic buildings, unmade kits, 80 sets of points, yards and yards of track. Even a Triang turntable. Most of it boxed.

I confess I haven't had time to do a lot with it - it's been added to the long list I have of "retirement projects" - but I wouldn't part with it now for the world.

So, the question is: is it possible to have model railways, girls and alcohol?

I was kindly given this birthday card last month by two female friends who had recently discovered that I spend a fair amount of my time travelling by train for the purpose of travelling by train...
(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/2654/20120716195459.jpg)

It might look like a Deltic, but it's no Thomas the Tank Engine, I can tell you that.

It's just occured to me that the topic title I chose for this thread may not be all inclusive and could be seen as a little un-PC. To that end I've now amended it to include both genders.

I'm sure there are some girls who like model railways. I know plenty who like alcohol.....

 :P ;) ;D

I don't but I did find a sign at betwys y coed mini railway place sexist!

I took a photo buts in on the home computer

Was something about the addiction of railways but it was definitely describing MEN as did not allo w for women

Will find when next home - or get him indoor to dig it out