More of Trevor Mitchell's illustrative artwork

Today's picture, 31st August 2023, shows a 1000-piece puzzle from the Gibsons' company titled Treats at the Station. The artist is Trevor Mitchell and again he has delivered an extremely colourful and 'busy' composition. You don't have to search diligently to find 23 figures - adults and children - some in summer attire; a station; a bus (Bedford OB?); a motorcycle rider and sidecar; several goods wagons and a steam locomotive. Among the figures are an ice cream seller who appears to be quite happy as the weather looks ideal for his trade. The backscene includes a village street, a clock tower, market stalls and a small fun-fair.

The locomotive is an ex Furness Railway class 'D5' 0-6-0 tender locomotive, No.12509 (1920), which progressed through to the London Midland and Scottish Railways, then to British Railways, where it was re-numbered, 52509 (post 1948), as in the jigsaw picture. (If anyone knows better, please email me and I will amend the post). Trevor has also added trees, birds in flight, red brick and stone buildings and hoardings advertising holiday destinations. I don't think there is any available space for more 'extras'. Possibly a dog?

'Full Steam Ahead' for House of Puzzles

Today's post, 12 November 2023, describes a 1000piece jigsaw from House of Puzzles (HoP), based in Invergordon. For regular viewers of the blog you are probably aware of my admiration for the superbly designed jigsaws from this Scottish company.

HoP's huge output of puzzles is split into 40 "collections" and many include a steam train or two. Today's puzzle is titled Full Steam Ahead and the artist Robert Barry has produced a highly colouful, suburban scene with main attractions - three children, a woman, a dog and 'The Flying Scotsman' train, headed by No.4472 Flying Scotsman. A small town and a farm fill the background and a large tree, a small double signal gantry, various wild flowers, several birds and a man on horseback complete a busy composition. 'The Flying Scotsman' train and engine of the same name, have been described in the previous post of 28 June 2011 - look it up in the blog archive above. At present, the HoP 40 'collections' are split into 15 groups of 1000-piece puzzles, 3 groups of 500-piece puzzles, 13 groups of 500, large-piece puzzles and 9 groups of 250, large-piece puzzles. Examples of "collection" group' titles include Appleton, Castleford and Saltburn in the 1000 piece puzzles; Lynvale and Avon in the 500-piece puzzles; Cranley, Roseisle and Pencraig in the 500-large piece puzzles and Aspen, Laurel and Rowan in the 250-large piece puzzles. For bird lovers, the examples are song thrush, tree sparrow, chaffinch, wood pigeons, pheasants, bullfinches, goldfinch and a small white goose (?). A holly blue (?) butterfly is also included. For information, the jigsaw Full Steam Ahead is part of the Appleton Collection.