Hello Chris The children of today miss a lot of simple pleasures don't they.I lived at Ventnor so we also used the trains,also named after the Islands towns.Pity the the line was cut off at Shanklin,to go through the tunnel and arrive at Ventnor which was such an unusual scene with the caves which were used by coal lorries,etc. In the booking office was a large glass case with a wonderful ark inside,a collection box attached to the front in the shape of a lifeboat,collecting for the RNLI, where is it now ? Kind regards Valerie

Hi Val Probably gone to the same place as the model of WALLS funfair which was in the entrance to Blackgang Chine! This was made by my uncle Albert Hayles and my father was going to buy it for me in the 1950s! But 50GBP was a lot of money in those days, and when my uncle died this is where it ended up. I loved the old steam trains and the uncle I mention above lived at St Johns in Ryde and his back garden backed onto the railway line and I used to love watching them all go along the line. After St Johns was Ashey where the track divided and also I remember well the Wroxall tunnel before entering Ventnor. The smell of the steam trains equalled the smell of the paddle steamers!! If anybody on the list knows what happened to the model of Walls funfair I would love to know as I was allowed to get it all out and play with it when on holiday. All the electrics were generated by miniature steam engines which he made from scratch. Chris and Caroline SOUTHERN LIFE(UK) The History of the villages of Hampshire and its surrounding counties http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~villages -----Original Message----- From: VALERIEAVRIL@aol.com [mailto:VALERIEAVRIL@aol.com] Sent: 21 June 2004 22:20 To: ISLE-OF-WIGHT-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [IoW] Paddle Steamers Hello Chris The children of today miss a lot of simple pleasures don't they.I lived at Ventnor so we also used the trains,also named after the Islands towns.Pity the the line was cut off at Shanklin,to go through the tunnel and arrive at Ventnor which was such an unusual scene with the caves which were used by coal lorries,etc. In the booking office was a large glass case with a wonderful ark inside,a collection box attached to the front in the shape of a lifeboat,collecting for the RNLI, where is it now ? Kind regards Valerie --- All of our outgoing mail is checked and certified Virus Free by regularl updates Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.707 / Virus Database: 463 - Release Date: 15/06/2004