alancaster149

An abiding interest in history has always been with me. At one time I was more interested in modern, 20th Century history but was drawn gradually back in time... Richard III, MacBeth, the Vikings, all maligned by Shakespeare... MacBeth led me to Malcolm Canmore, to Eadward the Confessor and on to Harold.

Early life and education was spent in the North Riding of Yorkshire - aye, Middlesbrough  and Teesside are included in that, up to 1968. Eston and Grangetown, my area, now comes under Redcar and East Cleveland, which in many respects is seen as part of North Yorkshire. .. From 1962 on to Scarborough, the Queen of the Yorkshire Coast - and there were a few in Scarborough - to do commercial art. Zip along via Vienna and Nottingham to London by the early 70's, one failed marriage and a trail of jobs and flats to where I am now, in Forest Gate. The house we live in - these days mostly it's just Kath and me, the population at 149 swells on high days and holidays - is a Victorian three bedroomed mid-terrace that backs onto a railway viaduct (with a car workshop below in the arches) that carries the Barking to Gospel Oak branch line... Lots of freight, and passenger trains crossing at nearby Wanstead Park about every half hour or so. It's a bit like the house we lived in at Eston that backed onto the station (closed in 1929 after 27 years as a passenger station but stayed open until 1966 as a Co-op Coal Depot). When I lived at Grangetown at 22 Vickers Street in the shadow of Dorman Long Steel Works (at first) it was with my parents, grandparents, uncle and aunt in a four bedroomed house (so crowds have never really bothered me - I can do without them, though! This used to be a four-bed house but one bedroom was converted to a bathroom before we moved into it in 1984). Back then most times house-wives had to do the laundry twice on Mondays if there was blasting going on on the furnaces - Bessemer Converters - and there were lots of little steam shunters pushing and pulling wagons, knocking out clouds of soot! All that part of Grangetown's long gone now and things have changed a lot at Eston, including the house I lived in with Mam and Dad. So it's only understandable the influence railways have had on me, especially as I spent some time at Scarborough Central sketching vehicles in the darkest corners of the station, and where I was 'in digs' I was never far from Londesborough Road and the loco shed - what was left of it - near Seamer Road. 

I had been getting back to Yorkshire falrly regularly these days, visiting kith and kin and friends until my old 'Landie' was stolen at the end of January. I've managed to find another 4X4 for about £1.5K, a 1995 Series One Discovery. I had a few things in my old vehicle that'll prove useful for the 'Tea-Leaves' (thieves), like a trolley jack, steel wheel brace, radio cassette player and a whole set of Ordnance Survey maps for northern England. I shall get back up north in June, see old friends and make some new ones. In common with all Yorkshiremen I like a good pint and presentable nosh (That's food to anyone across the pond)! I'm expecting a PPI repayment on my mortgage and a loan from First National, so I might be able to get something better next year).

On this sub-domain there are a number of Hub-pages to promote railway modelling, as well as the Double O Gauge Association (DOGA) and North Eastern Railway Association (NERA) by way of current work on a layout based on North Yorkshire - where else - called Thoraldby (There's that Norse connection again). There are twenty pages connected with railway modelling interests titled: 'Rites of Passage...' etc. If I think of any further links the number may yet go up. There is also a Gallery and Blog on RMweb (the railway modeller's website recently bought out by Warners, publishers of British Railway Modelling) under: alancaster149  When I get around to buying a digital camera I'll take some pictures of it and post them. The period set is early 50's, up to Coronation year, with black steam engines - some named - and at the moment one early diesel Class 03 with plans to add another, perhaps a Class 08 dock tank, and paint it in early livery black... more on that another time (shafes of Henry Ford there). There are teak, crimson and crimson & cream coaches and a plethora of revenue-earning freight stock in late LNER and early British Railways livery. Any interest out there? See the hub RITES OF PASSAGE FOR A MODEL RAILWAY- 1: Research your Area (On track for the North Eastern in Yorkshire).

I have a talented wife, Kath, a true Cockney,and three offspring, Joanne, Robert and Suzanne. For those of you across the pond following these pages, Suzy is currently at Buffalo University as an exchange student doing maths and physics through Sheffield University. She'll be finishing in May (2012) and off on a round-tour of the States before coming back in mid-June to resume her studies at Sheffield. 

Joanne did her degree at the LSE in international relations, then her Masters at UCL, and funnily enough Robert's done something similar at Canterbury. Joanne works at Lord's Cricket Ground in NW8 in the Tours Office and does the odd tour too! (The greatest numbers in nationality who turn up at Lord's for the tours are Australians and Indians). Robert works at a Hauptschule (secondary school) and lives with his multi-talented German girlfriend Carla in central Berlin - not far from the old 'Checkpoint Charlie' - as a teaching assistant, like his mum here in Forest Gate at Woodgrange Infants'. He's passed an exam to test his knowledge of German, to be able to teach modern languages ay secondary level, so we'll hear 'erelong' about where that leads to. 

Out of working time,Kath does talks on London to groups around this side of London and West Essex, a fair demand for her talents there!

Me? I've had two seasons working part-time as a Museum Steward at Lord's during the cricket season - what with Suzy working on the catering side there as well up to July it was virtually a family business! - and I've got five Test Match and a few county match dates for 2012. Anyone interested in cricket? 2010 season we had a Baseball & Cricket exhibition at the museum, for the 2011 season the exhibits were moved around according to themes, and there was a bumper year, enough for me to earn a 'tidy' bonus in time for the festive season! The new season coming up sees the West Indians and South Africans coming over, so plenty of new faces coming through the gates for the Tests in May and August!

The Northworld site is more or less complete, with a few updates being added about my RAVENFEAST saga series books thar are ticking over. Editing is finished on OVERTHROWN, and is to be published soon, probably in May 2012, by New Generation Publishing at London Wall buildings in London EC2. I'm about two-thirds of the way through OUTCAST now, on the second run-through in the editing stage as far as I reached before re-working RAVENFEAST (available on ISBN 978-1-4567-8961-9 in paperback, 978-1-4567-8926-6 in e-book format through Authorhouse, also available on Amazon Kindle, but without the historical notes and map). You can also buy the book through Barnes & Noble as well as Waterstones'. When I get back to where I left off I''ve got to be creative again. See the RAVENFEAST Hub-page for details. There are a few Videojug and Google blog pages that I should get back to working on at some time, or 'jack them in' and concentrate on the Hubs.

Phew! That's enough from me for the time being. Back to the current Hub/starting off a new Hub (delete as appropriate). Oh, by the way, this new image of me was taken by my elder daughter Joanne at the Duke of Wellington PH on Wellington Hill near High Beach/Beech (Epping Forest, just off the Epping-Woodford road). Worth a look in from time to time, with visits from a local Morris Dancing troupe at high days and holidays.