All I know about this model (I may have mislaid Ian Holmes’s explanatory email as it was sent in way back last year) is that it was originally a Hornby “Bill” from the Thomas The Tank range.

As a result of some conversations with Mike Decker on the Minimum Gauge and Estate Railways forum I ended up with some photographs and a dimensioned sketch of the Riverside and Great Northern Railway works loco.

Early in April 2002 a harmless looking email arrived from Carl Arendt, containing a pre-production photo of Steve Bennett’s latest O9 Avalon Railcar kit. “Look at this” he wrote. “Don’t you think this would make a great model in Gn15?” I had to agree. The Apple Valley would need a passenger vehicle at some time. Carl closed his email with the comment “Wanna race?” …

Ian Holmes’s Apple Valley Light Railway plan was devised for the first layout design competition on the small layout design forum on Yahoo! for a layout in 3′ x 1′.

Alongside Ian’s “Bill” conversion (see the separate entry for this), Ian sent in this picture of his recreated Heywood train.

The weather had been b—- awful. Rain, rain rain. 2½” on Friday alone. So I thought “I’ll build myself a micro.”