Fran,
Well, I used to live in Dolphinholme Bottom End (or Lower Dolphinholme, to speak posh) just up the road from here. Now that IS the land of The Hillies & The Billies! There WAS always a funny lookin' lad sat on the step, although he played a gob-organ rather than a banjo. There were internicine feuds of a violent kind. The wimminfolk did go wild on Satyrday nights at The Fleece Inn. Fellows dressed in dungarees and little else in summertime. Cockerham is quite modern & civilised, in comparison.
Gallowsgate is also modern. We have a canal, you know, albeit the new railway did for its trade in 1820summick. We used to have a railway station here too but that Beeching bloke did away with it before I arrived. Now the ugly Virgin pendulums (or whatever they call them) go trolling through Galgate, full of business persons going to London from Scotland (or vice versa) for no discernible reason. No one else can afford a ticket - not that you'd want to travel on such a boring train unless you had to, especially when full of businessmen.
These days the older railway lines hereabouts have all turned into cycle paths. Still, one can thrust along such trails upon the two wheeled-steed, pretending to be a Duchess. I have been seeking a portable whistle to replace the bell for some time now.
Ken,
Ye be a tyke, eh? Of course, as an ex-Geordie I must therefore regard you as a soft southerner.
There are too many Trainz temptations scattered around the electronic aether, are there not? That Paulz Trainz site has all sorts of pretty thangs in it. I did a small virtual shop of the many, many railway gew-gaws and fripperies I would ideally like to play with. The Very Large Sum at the bottom of the page shocked me back into my normal muckle-counting mode. The trick is probably to buy just one or two items now and then, so one never sees this Awful Sum Total.
Being a Tyke you will understand only too well the tension between the pleasure of owning things and the fact that one must open the wallet to acquire them.
Anyway, it makes ten quid for an extra TS2010 license seem like nuffin.
Lataxe, still looking for old-fashioned British electric trains to go with Class 76 & MSJARs.