Wylde Green duo

Due to reasons i had to start (and end) my railway adventure at Wylde Green instead of Chester Road last weekend, but it did give me the chance to video a pair of 730s.

Collingham

I felt like going somewhere new this week so on Saturday i headed to Nottinghamshire and to Collingham near Newark (the other side of the East Coast Main Line in fact). A nice little village with the usual medieval church and some interesting buildings, plus the station of course. The original station building is out of use and a bit derelict nowadays but looked fascinating. You can see my photos here.

Waterways reaches 3000

My waterways photo blog is my oldest blog, the first posts being way back in 2009! Today we reached a milestone with the 3000th blog post! Actually earlier in the year i was thinking of ending the blog on post 3000 but later i changed my mind, it is going to continue. We begin the road to 4000 tomorrow...

Typewriters (13) : Boots PT400

Boots the Chemist also sold office equipment back in the day (and music too, the first LP i ever bought was from the local Boots!) I have three Boots branded typewriters in the collection of which the PT400 is the latest to arrive. This is a very similar machine to the likes of the Silver-Reed SR10 and is in very good working order.

Interestingly, the machine came with it's manual which included details of when it was first purchased! That was in Cambridge in 1988. In the intervening thirty-six years the typewriter has been well cared for and still types as new.

Model Week : P1127

The last model project has now come to an end. The Hawker P1127 has turned out quite well, though painting was fairly simple being mostly one colour! That makes two completed projects for the year now after a long pause in the first. The aim is to do two more before the end of the year.

Churches (240) : St Mary Abbots, Kensington

The parish church of St Mary Abbots in Kensington, West London was built in 1872 on the site of early churches. The church is said to have the tallest church spire in London. The first church on the site was built in 1280 and was replaced in 1370 and the end of the 17th century before the current church was built as the existing one was proving too small as London urbanised.

The church has been built in a mixture of neo-Gothic and early English styles. The church has an aisled nave, lower chancel and an east tower. The entrance cloister is vaulted. The church is built from rubblestone with an ashlar dressing.

Rugby Evero

A new Evero train arrives at Rugby.

Reading and Didcot

The weekend was mixed. I returned to Reading for a couple of nights, and also finally got to go to the GWR Railway Centre at Didcot. Unfortunately, i also had the flu! However, the illness only slowed me down a little and i was still able to enjoy the visit to Didcot, though i needed a lie down afterwards! You can see my Didcot photos here.

Typewriters (12) : Litton Imperial 201

The Litton Imperial 201 was the thirteenth typewriter to join my collection and is a basically fine machine with some good looking black keys. The only snag with the machine when i got it was that the ribbon was completely worn out, the typewriter has now been fitted with a new one.

It types pretty well, though not as loud as some of the others in the collection. The Imperial Typewriter Company was a venerable old British company but was taken over by the Americans in the 1960s. By the time this machine was built, typewriter manufacturing has finally stopped at Imperial's factory in Leicester and this 201 was manufactured in Japan.

Churches (239) : St. James the Less, Longton

The parish church of St James the Less in Longton, Staffordshire is a Commissoners' Church built in 1833. The church has Perpendicular and Decorated style elements. The church has a six bay nave with clerestory, a chancel with an apse and a three stage west tower.

The church is made from ashlar faced sandstone.

Passing through Tackley

This service ain't stopping here!

British waterways

The final piece in my new website jigsaw (at least for now) has been fitted, so to speak. The British Waterways section of the site is a companion to my waterways blog and will go more into depth* on the subject of Britain's canals with maps and historical information as well as photos. Go check it out and do some gongoozling! 

* No pun intended!

Typewriters (11) : Silver-Reed Seventy

This typewriter is similar to a few others in the collection, including the Silver-Reed Silverette. The Seventy is a nice compact little portable typewriter that is in remarkably good condition. When i first received it i thought it was brand new! It was only after a closer inspection that i could see there was a little wear and tear on it here and there, though not much. The typewriter looks like it has not been hardly used, if it has it has been, it has been very well cared for.

The Seventy types pretty well, a couple of keys on the fringes are a bit awkward but that might just require a little correction, usage or lubricant to loosen them. The Seventy only types in one colour (black).

The Seventy is one of the favourite typewriters in my collection. Indeed, a while ago on my old blog i listed the three typewriters i would take with me to a desert island and the Seventy was my third pick!

Market Harborough

Yesterday, i returned to the east Midlands but this time went to Market Harborough in Leicestershire. I have been to the town once before but didn't visit the Grand Union Canal that time. My main aim on this trip was to rectify that omission and you can see my canal photos here. Other photographs of this pretty town can be seen here.

Churches (238) : Christ Church, Alsager

Christ Church in Alsager, Cheshire was built in 1789 as a chapel of ease for St Bertoline's church in Barthomley. It became a parish church in it's own right in 1946. The church has a six bay nave and a three bay chancel with apse. There is a tower to the west. The church is in the Georgian style with features such as Tuscan demi-columns on the exterior.

The church is built from yellow ashlar Keuper sandstone.

A new calculator

A new calculator has joined the collection this week, this rather lovely Decimo Vatman. This Japanese made machine was released in about 1974 not long after Value Added Tax was introduced into Britain. This calculator was named and released with it's VAT key (aka the percentage key) to take advantage of the ruckus caused by the change in the tax system. 

Unfortunately, the calculator no longer seems in working order.

Rutland County Museum

One of the places i visited in Rutland on Saturday was the county museum. Now i love a regional museum and really should visit more of them. The Rutland museum in Oakham has a nice little local collection of historical items and curios. It also has a rather nice fossil fish, and a couple of old tractors! What more could you want? You can see my museum photos (and other Oakham photos) here.

Cheshire Places (5) : Goostrey

Goostrey is a village to the east of the centre of the county. There have been traces of settlement found in the area dating back to before the Iron Age. The village appears in the Domesday Book as Gostrel which may mean Godhere's tree. A timber-framed church dedicated to St Luke was built in the village in the early 13th century though this was replaced by the current church in the 1790s.

Goostrey's economy has remained primarily agricultural in nature, with farms continuing to exist around the village to this day. Although the railway began passing through Goostrey in 1842, it had to wait until 1891 to get a station! Postwar, new housing developments increased the size of the village notably.

Visible from the village is the Lovell radio telescope at the famous Jodrell Bank Observatory which is a short distance away from the village.

Manton

I enjoyed my little bus trip into Rutland a few weeks ago, so headed back by train to Oakham yesterday and took the bus to the nice little village of Manton which is about half way between Oakham and Uppingham. There isn't a whole lot there apart from some pretty houses and a nice church but that is fine. Afterwards i headed back to Oakham but we'll cover that in a later blog post. My photographs from Manton can be seen here.

Churches (237) : St Michael, Boldmere

St Michael's church in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield was built in 1857. The church consists of a twin aisle nave, west transepts, chancel and a south west tower with spire. The church is built from sandstone with an ashlar dressing.

Most of the church was destroyed in a fire in 1964. The rebuilt church was designed in the Early Decorated Style to match the surviving tower and south aisle.

Rugby freight

A freight heads through Rugby.

Model Week : One for the year

Finally, after nine months (though the vast majority of that time with nothing happening) Project #108 an Auster Antarctic is completed (bar a bit of varnish). Hopefully i can speed up a bit through the last quarter of the year and get a couple more done before the end of the year.