This is effectively the home page for, well, modelling the EWJR in S. As such, it has the facility to use the blog functionality of WordPress for discussion via comments at the end, and in between, various links (not all active as yet – give me time, and your patience and don’t hold your breath, either) to specific topics, some of which may appear first as blog posts (otherwise, the site doesn’t appear in any search engines!)
It has to be admitted that if you want to model something as obscure as the East and West Junction Railway in 1893 (or any period) then you may as well do it in a little-practised scale. Conversely, if you want to model in S, you may as well chose an obscure prototype!
You can ask why EWJR, and you can ask why S: the short answer is, “‘Cos I like ’em.”
Why S?
Why the EWJR?
I like small locos, I like minor railways. Like many people, I like the “underdog”.
I grew up in Northampton (“born in the Barratt”!) and the SMJR was the local small and interesting railway. My father even travelled on the last public trip from Blisworth to Stratford, and I know that my paternal grandfather travelled on the line, on Northampton-Bristol excursions, which left Northampton St. John’s Station and travelled on the former Midland Railway branch as far as Olney, where the train reversed and connected with a portion from Bedford. This would have then gone through Stoke Bruerne, Towcester, Stratford and Broom Junction before reversing again to get to Bristol. Oh for a time machine – and several hours to waste! So, a liking for the offbeat, the late-Victorian era, and the local all combine into the ideal subject!
The Erratic and Wandering Journey 