I remember Tennent’s original shop, often tied in with a visit to Warley at The Harry Mitchell Centre, smell of meths and noise of live steam as you walked in. As the child of emigres from the far south west and a black sheep of the family for going to school in Birmingham, I remember the trips to Beatties in the Bull Ring, Bob’s models I think on the Coventry or Stratford Road, and a small shop that didn’t stock much on vicarage road in King’s Heath. Though the one I remember most clearly was Ballard Brothers’ small shop in School Road, Kings Heath. A real mixture of all sorts, including American, British, n, 00. When they closed down my father bought a complex double slip crossing they had built for somebody who never collected it, which we still have and may be up for sale. All the shops had a certain unique smell. (For smells Vale onslow’s showroom on the Stratford Road is another story). Andy