Hi Al, Welcome to living in D'Mains! Thanks for your appreciation of my efforts. I still feel the magic of achieving the perfect transition. I now have a colour photo of the title page oil painting and have established that the artist had died before the credited 1882 date so I reckon that the date is close to 1862. I give local talks on the the history of Davidson's Mains and decided to use my transitions to make this video. The catchment are of Davidson's Mains Primary school has a population of 4,550 and the number of views is approaching that number. I was not really interested in History at school but researching the local history and sharing with others is virtually a hobby. I was recently given a photo of the BP petrol station that stood on Quality Street but I have not yet photographed a now photo. A sawmill originally stood on the site and became Lock's Garages who from c.1922 started to charge radio batteries and repair radios. One of his sons died in the WW2.

Thanks for your words of appreciation. I had thought of the ending before I started producing the last of the eras. Getting the music to stop suddenly with all the trains and vehicles parked up, no one standing on the station platforms and the birds twittering was fun to get it right. The last photo of the two vehicles with Covid messages on the back doors is of real vehicles. I am well on the way to selling 2/3s of my Hornby collection so I have no Great Western, Southern or GNER trains, no electric trains with pantographs but I still have to figure out what has to go from the British Rail Eras.

Thanks for your appreciation and hopefully you will watch the longer versions of Hornby Through the Eras.

Thanks for your words of appreciation!

Thanks for your interest and comments. Was there any evidence of the old school foundations when you started at the new DMPS? I have been unable to get a photo of St Cuthbert's store but the building is still owned by the Co-op. A photo with staff outside would be a brilliant find. I had emailed someone who's neighbour's husband had worked there but I did not get a response. Thanks for giving me the early 1970s as a closing date. Much better than 19XX. I have met lots of interesting people whilst taking photographs.

@@neil0131 there was no evidence of the old school foundations/buildings when I was there. It’s a shame there weren’t any photos of the school in its previous incarnations on the walls either. Local history lessons tended to focus on Cramond rather than Davidson’s Mains too. Another reason why I’m pleased to see all your photos of yesteryear.

@@gillianashton I offered to the school a week ago to give my talk to staff and PTA, possibly as an end of term event. My grandchildren went to Cramond and yes, the local history was about the Romans. I have chatted to many locals standing at the well and many of them did not know that it was the old village well. You can tie in a lot of history on the way of life with just a few local links to make it real.

I am always amazed by the number of schools built by Edinburgh Council in the two decades after the Scottish Education Act of 1872 passed the responsibility for Education from the Church to the state. Now the Council does not have the money to maintain the schools, the roads and clean out the gulleys blaming Global Warming for our streets flooding. When I was a boy, following the syver lorry as it vacuumed out all the drains in our street was monthly entertainment. When last did you see a syver lorry clean your street drains?

Hi Sandra, Fascinating to read your recollections. The wee shop half way up Main Street is now Battison Dental Care had been a grocery shop run by the Harley family since 1946. Previously run by George Bell, Miss Christina Brown 1915 - 1925, Mrs Euphemia Wallace 1884 - 1896. with the cottage on the left, and the shop on right. From Robert Brown's Book "Muttonhole - Life in North West Edinburgh 1900 - 2000", he said that the golf caddies would be served soup there. I remember going out with my mum to Ian Ferguson's butcher van aged 3 and 4 before I started school. I was amazed to find that here was a hospital in the Back Lane in 1891. It has never been mentioned in any of the publications about the village. I have given talks with even more photos, maps and stats tracing the village back to 1669. One of the photos is of a number 11 double decker bus on route to "Barnton" in 1952 taken a few days after the railway bridge was demolished which carried the railway line from Craigleith to Davidson's Mains and Barnton. You may well remember the coal merchants and the railway goods yard that closed in 1960. Where did you live in the 50s and 60s? I have a c.1925 photo of a single decker bus turning left from Cramond Road South onto Main Street but I cannot see a route number. Can you remember if the bus you took to school was a single or double decker. The 21 bus which travelled the length of Ferry Road, Main Street, Queensferry Road then Clermiston Road was a single decker when I went to school as it had to pass under the double bridges just before Crewe Toll. They were replaced with a girder bridge allowing the use of double decker buses. For the past 3 decades or more, the 41 bus leaves Queensferry Road to travel along Corbiehill Road, Main Street, Quality Street then turns right onto Queensferry Road, out to Barnton then to Cramond. About 6 months ago with 700 new homes being built on the green belt at Cammo, the 41 now turns right down Cramond Road South to Cramond, then Whitehouse Road to Barnton terminating at the new housed in Cammo being marketed as Cammo Meadows. Margaret died 2017 leaving £7.9m to charity. Hardly sweetie money! Thanks for taking time to write. I may hear from you again? Neil

@@neil0131 Thanks for your reply. I lived in Barnton Park in the early 50s, in a house my parents had had built after the war, with some difficulty apparently as building materials were in short supply. We moved to a new house in Hillpark Avenue about 1954/5 and then to Lauriston Farm Road in the early 60s. My grandparents had lived in Lauriston Farm Road since I think the late 40s. They lived at what was more or less the bottom of the street, opposite the end of Lauriston Castle grounds, when there were just fields all around. My Grandpa used to regularly walk or take the bus up to the pub in Main St. for a pint with his cronies. I know it’s called Ye Olde Inn, but I’ve no recollection of it ever being actually called that! I used to get the 39 or 41 double decker bus to school from the top of Lauriston Farm Road or Barnton Gardens. I’d forgotten that the No 1, a single decker, was the 21. My Dad used to get it to work in Leith from Main Street. Yes, I clearly remember the coal yards where Safeway was built, and the Church Hall which was demolished for offices. I used to go to Brownies there. I don’t remember the station or railway bridge, but apparently my Mum used to push me in my pram on to the train which I think went into Caley Station at the West End. Yes, Mrs Harley’s shop in Main Street! It was very small and she seemed very old (probably my age now!) and seemed to live behind the shop. I don’t know anything about the hospital in Back Lane, just the farm and consequent smell! . There were also shops in Quality Street, a fish shop and Keenan’s the fruit and veg shop. More or less opposite the coal yard was Notman’s Nursery, which had a small building used as a shop for plants etc. Graeme Notman was a talented tennis player and played at junior Wimbledon. Thanks for bringing back memories!

@@sandracharles2727 Hi Sandra, Your Grandpa may have called the inn Malone's like all the regulars. Watney-Mann bought the inn in 1967 and appointed Jimmy Malone as the manager. The manageress told me that the Inn was built around 1895 but I had always puzzled when it became known as Ye Olde Inn. In my research I established from a 1910 photo that it was called "The Old Inn". But I then concerned myself that if it was built in 1895, did it become old within 15 years! Mrs Mary Wishart had held the licence for an Ale House for many years at the end of the 1800s in “the Back Lane” behind The Corner Café and is recorded as age 59 in the 1891 census living there in the Public House with her daughters Mary and Agnes. The 1891 census recorded 5 families living in the Old Inn and the heads of household all did manual work locally. Possibly it had previously been an inn and became known as the Old Inn when the function changed more to rented rooms. One account is that Mary Wishart bought the two old houses on Main Street which would have been the “Old Inn”, then in front of them, built the building we see today in the style of an old English Coaching Inn. She then transferred the licence and opened The Old Inn as a public house around 1895. In 1938, the right hand house was converted into the lounge bar. This is quite feasible because the Davidsons of Muirhouse disapproved of "tipple houses" and could prevent a new licenced premis, but could not object to a licence being transferred from one premis to another. Yes, the train went to the Caley (Caledonian) Station at the west end of Princes Street. I could not find any photos of Mrs Harley's shop. Do you have one? Do you recall when St Cuthbert's closed and do you have a photo? You will have attended the earlier Davidson's Mains School which was demolished in 1967 after the new school opened in 1966. The shops in Quality Street were built and rented out by The Corner Cafe owners. The term farm has been used a lot but they were just small piggeries or kept hens, nothing on the scale of Silverknowes, Muirhouse, Lauriston, Pilton, Drylaw, Corbie Hill, House o' Hill and Marchfield Farms.

@@neil0131 Yes, Malone’s! I’d forgotten that was what people called it. Re the ‘farm’ behind Main Street and Quality Street, I thought I could remember cows in an old byre or similar and a bit of a yard, but it’s a long time ago and I may be mistaken. I’m afraid that I don’t have any photos of the area. My parents may have had a camera but didn’t take many photos, probably only on holiday. Keep up the good work!

@@sandracharles2727 Hi Sandra, yes, there were cows! You are not mistaken. It was Hay's Dairy. I have a photo of cows on Quality Street returning to Hillpark after being milked at the dairy. There were 5 dairies in the village at one time but I am not aware of any photos. I think that some of the cows were kept in the large plots of land behind the buildings and on the rugby park. The 1794 "State of the Parish of Cramond" report said that the villagers seldom tasted meat, fish, milk or cheese and there was no mention of cattle or sheep being produced on the big farms, only crops. But by 1891 there were lots of small dairies employing 31 people! All replaced by a large dairy beside the parish church, Logan & Forrest Dairy, established after the war when milk production became more automated putting the small dairies out of business. The days of taking your own containers to the dairy to collect milk were over! Two road tankers delivered milk twice a week to the dairy from presumably West Lothian. The dairy produced cream, butter and delivered milk in glass bottles to over 3000 houses on the west side of Edinburgh. Semi-skimmed milk was not marketed until c.1980. Full skimmed milk only appeared on supermarket shelves in the 1990s. In the 1960s, skimmed milk was a by-product and a tanker load was taken away every week to feed pigs.

The north side of Main Street at the Corbiehill Road junction was virtually demolished and the old photos would not mean much as none the old cottages survived. From maps I was able to work out exactly where they were and take the current photo. The Corbie and turkeys at The Green are two of the best transitions as the buildings have not changed. I had to take 200 photos of some scenes to get a perfect alignment. The earliest mention of Muttonhole I found was 1669 and on the 1682 map. I have spoken to several people in the village passing the well who did not know that the stone structure was the old village well.

We share the same taste in music! You may appreciate Era 8 and 9 where the music stops dead to accentuate Covid lockdown queues outside Tesco. Only the sound of birds can be heard.

@@neil0131 sounds great. I'll definitely be watching them.

Hi D5701. Thanks for your thoughts. Looks to be a rare model from eBay prices. Merry Christmas.

Hi D5701, I had to look up class 28 so I now know a little more about our engineering heritage. Only 20 produced yet Hornby made a model.

Hi JIm, Thanks for your comments. All the video was taken on an Apple phone with the lens at scale eye level. Along the front of my layout there is a road so that our grandchildren can drive cars. I made a 125mm long by 100mm plywood dolly with a guide bar to hang down the straight front edge of the layout board. I then taped on low friction plastic sheet to the bottom side of the dolly. The phone was fixed to a plywood stand with a flat base to keep it vertical and allowed me to pan at the beginning or ends of shots. There are lots of other similar shots on my other videos. The idea was to capture the view seen from a coach driving along the road. I originally all my shots rolling before the train entered the view to after the train left the view. To keep the video exciting I cropped the shots so that there was always movement and no waiting for trains to approach. On reflection, I should have cut the shot you refer to before the dolly stopped to make the shot more convincing. I had set up OO track along the road with a phone on a wagon but the images were unstable. Neil

Thanks for your comment. I also like the 80s but I do not have many locos from that era. The freightliner wagons for example, I only have 3, but with a bit of editing I created a very long train!

Hi, Thanks your words of appreciation. I started off with a 4 x 7 foot MDF board from my boy's 1980ish layout which I wanted to keep then extended it several times by screwing bits on. I now cannot remove the layout from the attic. Lessons learned. I should have spent more time in the planning stage. Don't use MDF. Use plywood with support frames and make the layout in sections so that you can move it or finally sell without having to destroy all your work. There are lots of videos on construction showing alignment dowels, toggle clamps and how each section should be wired with mating connectors to the next section. The rails at the joins don't need fishplates but must be wired through the connectors. Decide if you are going to go with the old analogue DC system or go with the digital systems where several trains can be run at the same time. I have 4 loops so the trains can run continuously and appreciated. I don't have enough sidings and they are not long enough. You need at least 4 coaches and a loco to make a reasonable lengthed train. I decided correctly not to have a fiddle yard. Why have lots of your rolling stock out of sight when it could be incorporated in your layout as a huge goods yard or passenger depot. But then some people like to have just a long main line with trains vanishing into bridges with fiddle yards behind. Fully automating the points with a PC and automatically sending different trains up and down the lines would be relaxing to watch. Modern express trains look ok in either direction but turning steam trains round for the return journey would be a pain. You need to be able to reach all areas for maintenance as trains will derail. Long tunnels should appear dark inside.

Hornby keep tempting me with new coaches. I really liked the 6 wheel coaches which were modeled on real coaches whereas the 4 wheeled coaches I have are just a licence for Hornby to sell cheap toys. Even aged 7, I thought that the 4 wheeled O gauge coaches were unrealistic and I now have their OO equivalents. It will be a while before the 6 wheeled coaches appear on eBay second hand and more affordable. Senario - The Italian Job where the Minis drive onto a moving car transporter rather than drive into a bus? Impractical?

Thanks for your comment. My favourite era was 3 because of the glamour of travel and the contrasting company livery. The Virgin HST train has remained my favourite model purchased to tell my era story. Era 8 certainly was refreshing. The 0-4-0s from era 2 I initially considered as toys but when I bought them and all the private wagons I changed my mind as they are excellent models.

I am planning to reduce my collection before the attic ladder becomes a physical challenge but I cannot decide what to keep and what should go. Focusing on one era, vehicles and buildings would be the obvious decision and sell the rest. But which era? Not British Rail! Or I could keep a late era and my favourites steam trains as special excursions and vintage cars for a rally.

@@neil0131 I like that idea, and even though I’m not into modelling I think you should keep your first engine, and maybe keep the later eras but keep all your classic cars, and keep a few steam engines, but perhaps have an outdoor musem

Thanks for your comments. I love the music too and can enjoy listening with the overdubbed real locomotive recordings even if I am not watching the videos.

Thanks for the visit and your words of appreciation.

I have watched trains in the USA pass with 100 trucks! In my other videos I have looped the Freightliner, tanker wagons and the Great Western passenger train to make them appear as longer trains.

I was not quite sure if the redevelopment worked so thanks for your positive comment. I modeled the flats on Fair-a-Far in Edinburgh but reduced the foot print from 3 wings radiating from the lift shaft to 2 to fit the space. Clearing the canal and the canal boats appearing from the tunnel worked slightly better. espc.com/property/2u-fair-a-far-cramond-edinburgh-eh4-6qd/36032911

@@neil0131 well it looked very effective to me. I need to watch your steam ones I did see the covid one with socially distance people again very clever.

Thank you for your comment. My first loco was a plastic bodied 0-6-0 Jinty in BR Green in about 1960. I have to agree that the detail is nowhere near the more recent Evening Star with correctly modeled metal handrails rather than a raised ridge on the plastic molding. I can remember the Hornby Dublo printed tin coaches and even as an 8 year old, I was not impressed. The plastic coach was a tremendous step forward. However, I don't have the budget to glue passengers into the coaches or the patience to paint them. I never got into weathering as I prefer the preserved locomotive look.

Hi Paul, Thanks for your note of appreciation. I can't stop myself viewing it again as I respond to comments! I was a rush to finish it as I liked the idea of stopping the music at the beginning of lockdown and use stills and birds tweeting to emphasise the quietness of the lockdown. No one would have realised that we would still be experiencing lockdown a year later.

Hi Dude, I had to watch the video again. Is it the Land Rover Defender at 7 min 42 sec? I had to check. It looks like an A reg 1983 plate which is the year Defender was launched and towards the end of the time line. Were alloy wheels after this date? Or is the body style a later model? Yes, it does look like the 2013 model!

@@neil0131 Hi Neil, thanks for the response. Yes it is. My eyes are getting old and weary but I thought the reg plate says 'AJ13', possibly??? I'm sure a quick glance at your model will tell (using a magnifying glass in my case). Anyway, just nit-picking, really like your layout and I have fond memories of a lot of the stock, particularly the Hornby EE type 3, my first diesel in about 1978! Also great to see a layout with such a large and varied variety of road vehicles, something many modellers neglect as they're concentrating on the trains themselves. Many thanks again for posting and all the best to you in your modelling. Cheers.

@@MisterCreamyDude Hi, You are spot on! With my specks on looking at the model, the reg is AJ13 BXS. So yes, a time traveller.

Glad you enjoyed it. I had a 2 1/2 year old great nephew visit last week so he plans to be a regular visitor with his Grandpa!

I'm please to hear that you enjoyed my efforts. I can just listen to the music and the real train sounds without watching the video.

I also do the same with the diecast vehicles and have a range to meet each era. I see some of yours have number plates. I re-numbered most of the vehicles to fit in with Lancashire and in particular Bolton - that was fun since plates come in different shapes depending on vehicle. I have ordered a Hornby 4 wheel and 2 Hatton 6 wheel but this is for an engineering rake in the 60's-70's so not in the same vein. You should look into the Cricut Maker - this could aid your building of flats/warehouses/houses. Look up everard junction there is one session that shows how the tool can be used to construct a block of flats - some serious stuff.

@@johnlongbottom2539 Hi John, I watched the video you suggested of Cricut Maker and the guy who built the block of flats. Serious stuff! I should have used model card but used cereal packets. I pasted on the brick sheets and this distorted the walls when they dried. I chose a window style that did not require individual windows to be cut out to save work. I really like the new release of 4 and 6 wheeled coaches by Hornby and Hatton but cannot justify the new price premium. Possibly if they had been on the market for a few years and started appearing on ebay second hand.

Hi John, I had not appreciated that you are living in France but your railway take you back to Bolton anytime for a quick coffee. If you had joined a model railway club you may have ended up modelling someone else's childhood memories whereas you are living your own dream!

Hi Daniel, Thanks for your appreciation and comment. I understood that the OO model railway manufacturers had collectively agreed the eras and dates so I copied and pasted a table into the Word document that I produced to collate the information about all my models. I then used that as my story board to ensure that the locos and rolling stock appeared in the correct date order in my videos. Era 9 was Post Privatisation on. I was putting the finishing touches to my videos when I became aware that Era 10 and Era 11 had been added so I knew that the Blue Rapier was now not era 9. As I did not have other models from 10 and 11, I just ran with it. Having checked today in response to your comment, I now see that Bachmann's eras listed on Hatton's website are more like the dates I have used and the Hornby website eras are different with some dates overlapping. www.hornby.com/uk-en/era-system It may well have been an earlier Hornby website that I copied my names and dates from and they still state "Hornby, in conjunction with partners in the publishing and retail trades, have decided to adjust the era system we use, so that it clearly reflects the time periods covered, especially when taking into account the 'grey' areas that have arisen as one period blurs into the next." I believe that Hornby have changed the dates since I copied them and the Bachmann dates and descriptions are closer to what I have used. I did not like my table where the same end year is used as the start date for the next era recognising that the change happened mid year. Bachmann (on Hatton's website) appear to have kept the older Hornby definitions but made the eras change at year ends which appears neater. So yes, I am not using the current Hornby Eras. Thanks for comments.

Hi Pat, Surprisingly, I know to the penny! The board, track, scenery cost £522, things not glued down eg buildings (all new Metcalf kits but Tesco, flats and platforms built from scratch), figures, animals, controllers cost £585, vehicles £568, locos and rolling stock to cover all the eras £1,657 so £3,330 in total all second hand mainly through eBay. I plan to sell all the movable stuff before I go into a home which should pay the fees for a month! All the fun and interest I have had building it up, will hopefully delay my exit to a home by more than a month so my Hornby will have paid for itself and I will enjoy it for a further 20 years before I finally hit the buffers.

Neil McIntosh Thanks for the reply. I have to say that not many people have any idea what the value of the stuff is. As regards to your other concern, I'm sorry for any troubles you may have and I wish you well. 👍

@@pathegarty4757 I don't have any troubles! I am enjoying the ride and acknowledging tongue in cheek that we will all hit the buffers one day.

Hi, I appreciate your comments. I was a keen many years ago. These were my first efforts at a video and an opportunity to learn a new skill. My 11 year old granddaughter was editing her videos, adding text and music so I thought that I would have a go and I had not long finished building the layout. Thanks!

Hi Robert, The videos were my lockdown project. I never tire of just listening to the music and live steam sounds. I have recently read that Hornby have now added Era 10 and 11. My Hitachi Blue Rapier should be in Era 11. Sad that what was a nationalised industry has not bought their trains from UK industry to help secure the manufacturing jobs we still have.

Hi Robert, Thanks for your message of appreciation. I listened to lots of music suggestions and wanted to use as many British musicians as possible so I had to leave out Elvis and Bill Haley from the Era 4 and 5 video. In Era 8 and 9, Ed Sheeran "Castle on the Hill" inspired a lot of the shots of my castle (or keep). At one point it is more like a music video than a model train video!

I really appreciate your comment. I am thinking about doing a "now and then" of street scenes in our area by retaking photos that were taken in 1900s. Almost a project for our local primary school. It was going to be railway stations in 1900, closed in 1962, and what is there now but that is possibly of less interest.

Hi, I have had no problems with reliability. It had been stored for 30 years and only needed a little push to get it started. I then gave the motor commutator and brushes a good clean. The couplings are more realistic than Hornby couplings.

Thanks for your comment and I am glad you liked it. I hope that you go on to watch all the eras as the music is particularly good. Era 8 and 9 ends with a rather poignant Covid-19 message.

Hi Allan, Google "OO Backscene Photo" They are 10 feet long x 15 inches high and can be bought in pairs to make a continuous 20 foot photo. I had to glue mine on which distorted the backboard but they are now available as self adhesive. Also on eBay 44 listed. All the best to S.

Really pleased that you enjoyed the videos. I even enjoy listening to the live sounds and music. I had to replace the Beatles Day Tripper and Bill Haley Rock Around the Clock because of copy right rules.

Hi Lawrence, Thanks for your appreciative comments. I wanted to do something different from the norm. Capture a bit of excitement. I also like the live train sounds and music when I am doing my ironing!

The Covid-19 ending to the video had been in my mind for weeks but it just takes so long to put something like this together. I am so pleased to hear that you enjoyed coming aboard. Neil

Thank you for your interest. They are D.G. Models White Metal 00 kits and can also be bought complete and painted from www.autocraft.plus.com/ I bought them on eBay second hand. I think that Oxford only have one car from that era. You will get a better view of all these models in my Era 8 and 9 movie as they feature in a vintage vehicle show in 2010.

My main regret with my layout is that it grew organically and now cannot be removed from the attic! You appear to be going down the same route but it is not too late for you to build it in sections like the portable layouts employed by clubs where sections are doweled together with multi pin plug connections between sections. You could still incorporate the sections going through your brick walls!

@@neil0131 thank you Subscribing. I know what you mean. The station area can come apart. It's not meant to come apart. I am helping my son building an n gauge layout for showing. I know what you are saying and thank you for the advice. Hope you are keeping safe and well through this tough times.