How it all started

I often get asked, how did you get involved with the railway.......
I guess it goes right back to my parents and my 4th Christmas....

Its the Tri-ang goods set, which came complete with the Nellie locomotive and an oval of Super 4 track. To be honest, there was no looking back after that and I progressed through Hornby products to the usual layout on a sheet of chipboard in my childhood bedroom. I am sorry that poor old Nellie had an awful lot of abuse, was disassembled, repainted, reassembled and messed about with multiple time. But here we are 50 years later and I still have her on the shelf as a reminder. I went to Sexey's school in Bruton which sat right by the main line and so my trainspotting time spread to encompass school lunchtimes etc. At that time there was a small level crossing with a warning bell right by the school and the start of the bell was a sign that a train was due - mostly to be met with the cry "Oh no, not another Western, they are so boring". How I yearn now to be able to see that again! I became fascinated with history and at that time the Westbury MAS scheme was sweeping away the local signalboxes so I started to photograph them all and and I became hooked on signalling. An old friend of mine then said "if you want to become a signalman, then join the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway"...I signed up and was booked in for some training turns before I looked at the map and realised that Welshpool was a long way from Somerset and that Minehead was much closer. That was 1983 and so means that I have now spent 35 years as a volunteer.....a mere dogwatch compared to some, but a lot for me. Thanks Mum and Dad for Nellie, look where it led!