First of all, my thanks (yet again) to Steve Dennison for his advice regarding a railway scene in the opening

chapter of the next book (published early next year)

Railway Connections in Timberdick Mysteries

"Mention those first five years of peace and I think of long train journeys at night." says Ned in The Case of the Dirty Verger   "I remember hours in dirty compartments with heaters that discharged more fumes than heat, lights that grew dimmer with every mile and dust from itchy upholstery that got up my nose and stopped me nodding off."

Ned's journey from Waterloo gave me an opportunity to recreate some train rides of my childhood.

In those days, a London terminus had a magic of its own, not only the grace and majesty of the steam locomotives but also the constant movement of people. Often, people in uniform. Then there was the station furniture -- the bookstalls and tearooms. Although common sense told me otherwise, I could never convince myself that these structures weren't copies of my Hornby and Airfix models, rather than the other way round.

I sent Ned down the old Meon Valley branch line. For me, such a journey needs to be at night when the countryside is no more than a rough outline of blue and grey and the traveller is not sure where he is. (It was on another Hampshire branch line, alone in a carriage at night, that I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd -- my first Christie for Christmas!) The Meon Valley closed years ago, although much of the route can still be seen. However, enthusiasts with their cameras made sure that plenty of photographs fill the railway annuals and nostalgia books.  Probably the most evocative are those of the old viaduct crossing the East Meon road. When I visited the villages along the line, I was surprised by the number of local people who still have a yarn to tell about the railway, fifty years after it closed.

In  A Mystery of Cross Women, we learn that Ned was a passenger on the first non-stop journey between London and Edinburgh, and asked the crew to sign his copy of the day’s newspaper. Forty years later (The Clue of the Curate’s Cushion), he was invited to talk to a local railway group about the experience

“Non Stop” was a good source of reference when writing about Ned’s trip north. I couldn’t resist the picture of Waterloo Station on Meccano’s cover .... Ned had to spend some time there!  This copy of Model Railways News is featured in The Clue of the Curate’s Cushion ... Ned had recently bought it from a junk shop on Goodladies Road

The Clue of the Curate’s Cushion sees Ned enjoying another trip down a Hampshire branch line. He hopes to study some platform furniture at a wayside station, but he is distracted by the Vicar’s story of a locked room mystery.  But Liking Good Jazz is the book with a railway murder (and a railway crash) set in the scene of a railway station at night.

In The Case of the Naughty Wife, Ned’s model railway occupies much of his attention.  The model extends for half of the second floor of the Police Training School and Ned is determined to get a new set of signals for Christmas.

The Case of Naughty Wife, made it clear that Ned’s model railway was going to be a regular feature.

I wanted the details to be consistant, so I made a sketch of the layout and pinned it above my wp.  At first, I based it on this interpretation of Alverstoke Station, near Portsmouth (Model Railway Constructor 1981) but had to extend it to include the line by the old Portchester race-course.

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