Around the corner ...

from my sister's new granny flat in the Sydney suburb of Annandale are lots of interesting places. Down the lane and right is Revolver, a cafe in a former corner store (photos from my sister's landlord's blog Me fail? I fly!):



Up the lane, right, and up the hill, are the Witches' Houses (including The Abbey, Oybin, Greba, Hockindon, Kenilworth and others):




And then, up the lane, right, and down the hill, is Trains Planes and Automobiles' Sydney store. Very luckily, I was in Sydney on the two days a week that it's open, so I was able to go in and browse. This is a lovely little shop, full of old wooden glass-fronted cases which display the said trains, cars and planes.

In one of the cases I found this lovely wooden station:



- a model representing Manchester station, which has a label identifying the maker as 'Scale HUGAR Model Buildings, HUGAR MODELS LTD. Epsom, Surrey.'

I hadn't heard of Hugar before, but found some information on the web: Hugar models were made by Hugh Gardner (apparently in his garden shed); Hugar was also known for his Britain’s farm and military items. The authors of the website which mentioned the Hugar farms planned a booklet on Hugar Models, and had found links between Hugar and other model railway makers including Basset Lowke.

(I have some Basset Lowke scale model posters - I intended to use some as pictures in the kids' bedroom of the Triang 52, but my attempt to frame them wasn't successful. I'll try again.)



I love the art deco style of this Hugar station. I also love how all the signs advertising tobacco have the possessive apostrophe s after Wills - they all read Wills's, with a small, superscript 's. I'm not sure yet how I will use it, as it's in the model railway scale OO (1:76). The platform is 2 feet long, and the entrance way onto the station is 2 1/8" high. Perhaps I will give it to some dolls house children to play with as a toy, or not worry too much about the scale and use it as a station with small dolls - or somehow put it in the distance so it looks the right scale!