Steam locomotive Oliver Cromwell makes landmark journey

Steam locomotive Oliver Cromwell makes landmark journey

We've had the King George II returning to Didcot and Tornado besting Shap Fell and Beattock Bank on its way from Crewe to Glasgow, now the Oliver Cromwell has made its début on the Swanage line in Dorset (in Dorset?  I'd recommend it to anyone!  Boom-boom! >groans<).  The march of steam continues!



The National Rail Museum is doing sterling work in ensuring its exhibits continue to run on the railway lines of today and can be enjoyed by a new generation; like all historic machines it is far better to have them still running than sitting behind glass in a museum building - they need to be out there doing what they were designed to do.  It's great to see more and more steam trains still breaking records, still achieving firsts while running new excursions all over the country, and bodes well for all these fantastic locomotives.

Dorset man creates 1,600 matchstick models in 62 years

MATCHSTICK MODELS

Dorset man creates 1,600 matchstick models in 62 years

Here's a man who has spent an entire lifetime engrossed in the delightful hobby of matchstick model-making, with the result of many hundreds of examples of ship and aircraft design from down the years.

I love the painstaking details that chaps like Mr Warren, and the fellow in the above clip, take to ensure that the models are accurate scale copies of the real thing - and all with the use of everyday items that are matches and matchboxes!

I myself tried my hand at a matchstick model once, having cut my teeth on Airfix models before. However as I found to my cost the two are completely disparate and I soon realised how out of my depth I was (I had bitten off more than I could chew in picking a rather large model of a tram car - in hindsight I perhaps should have started with something smaller). Needless to say it soon left me in much the same state as it arrived and I resolved myself to stick to my little plastic kits in the future! My brief experience with matchstick models makes me appreciate all the more the great skill with which these modellers create these miniature masterpieces and how much of a passion it must be for them to create something so small and yet so detailed with nothing more than a tiny stick of wood. I hope Mr Warren continues to enjoy his fascinating pastime for many more years to come.

Dorset man claims to be world's oldest paperboy

Dorset man claims to be world's oldest paperboy

On now to a delightful article about one chap's life-long enjoyment of a simple profession. Indeed it could be said to have long ago ceased to be a profession and instead taken on all the hallmarks of a beloved hobby. Here is a man who has been delivering newspapers to probably generations of people in his village. He is an institution in the very best sense of the word. It is always nice see someone take so much pleasure in something that they continue to do it for almost their entire life. One wonders how much such relishing of a past-time goes in keeping the person healthy and active well into their old age. Good luck to the gentleman, say I, and I hope he fulfils his wish of delivering 'papers for years to come.