Hilton and Mears: The story so far...

Chris and I have penned plenty of work now across both my blog and Prince Street. What started as a shared interest and approach to model railways has become a much deeper friendship across the North Atlantic and whilst we've never met in person I'd call him a good friend. 

I have really enjoyed all that we've written together last year, both the process and the act of re-reading and cogitating older posts. Consider this post a marker of work to date and a promise of more to come. Grab a good drink and a quiet corner, sit back with your tablet/phone/laptop and dive in, and I hope that wherever you are you can perhaps find headspace from the seasons activities. If the content makes you think and you want to engage, by all means comment on these older posts and join in the conversation (I will need to approve the comments, but trust me I will be checking the email daily).

Hilton and Mears ‘blog-casts’ are a series of discussions on various more emotional elements of our hobby. Written as if a conversation you can hear our voices in the different fonts. One day we may even graduate to pod-casts but for now these practice our art of the written word.

1. Feels like Driven not Pushed
2. Complete or Finished
3. Function instead of Form
4. Capturing a moment
5. The art of model railways

Chris and I have also co-created a number of layout design schemes with a real variety of prototype (although if there is a ribbon through them all you are likely to find light weight track and a down at heel feel to them all).

• Where the sun never sets (Bay Colony - Millis branch)
• Hilton and Mears in North Devon
• New York Rome'ance (New York state shortlines)
• A game of two halves (The Calais branch in Maine)
• Prototype parallels (Ballard Terminal and the Wantage Tramway)
• Hilton and Mears do the San Luis Central
• Split down the middle (Logging railroads on Vancouver Island)
• Fancy a beer (Matt FX brewing, Utica)
• West Lebanon and a Conversation (West Lebanon Claremont and Concord)

There are also a few more 'creative' posts where a photo from me generates some wonderful prose, or creative writing from Chris.

• Last Mile
• Aslan is on the move
• Dying embers of the Combe Norton branch
• The Ballard and Wantage on DVD
• Last man standing
• Better brakes and a bit more push

For those with a Canadian interest, one of our older but still important joint projects was the TerraTransport alternate history that still sits behind the concept for Beaverbrook and has managed to spread wider than our own blogs with wonderful models created by other talented modellers inspired by our writing. There are still two chapters that need writing - the Prince Edward Island piece, and the Southern New Brunswick - we will get to those one day...

• TerraTransport 1996
• A post-CN HSWR
• The new Dominion Atlantic
• TerraTransport RS18 Rebuild Program
• The elephant in the room: TerraTransport and the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia

Finally, 'labels' are a great way to naviaged the blog and there is other material here that I've not specifically called out. Chris has helped author a number of posts here, labelled 'hiltonandmears'. He has also contributed to a number of my rambles, labelled 'chris Mears'. Until next time though, more soon...

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