David L O Smith

Dr David L O Smith CEng MIAgrE

Dr David L O Smith, CEng, MIAgrE

Welcome to my personal website where I outline my activities in words and captioned pictures

August, 2021
It is with extreme sadness that I'm writing to say that my beloved husband, David Smith, died on 19th April. Liz

7mm Scale Railway Models Workshop Machine Tools Horse  Riding Adventures Classic Tractors Brief History Of My Career
7mm Scale Railway Models Workshop Machine Tools Horses And Riding Adventures Classic Tractors and Other Vehicles Brief History Of My Career
Model Parts For Others  Clock Parts For A Dealer Early Tinplate Experience  Into 0 Gauge Fine Standards My Horses and
Horse Riding Adventures
 Model parts made for others Antique Clock Parts

0 gauge Tinplate

GWR 6-wheel PLV 0 gauge Fine Standard My horses 

 

View David L O Smith's profile on LinkedIn

 

Send me an email

A few additions and updates:
Kerr Stuart 'Victory' Class with LH&JR (Lambton) cab
Updated with images of the painted model
 
An Anglo-American freelance fantasy 4-6-0
 
GWR Signal Gantry
 
LMS 4-6-0 British Legion
 

 
Model Parts Made For Others  
Final Drive Gear Wheel With A Crank Web
 
Milling Switch Rails  
Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0DM  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

About me in brief:

Please do send me an email with any comments, or just to say 'Hello!'.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a little about my horses, classic tractors and other vehicles, 7mm scale railway models and workshop machine tools:

  My Horses

Fern - David L O Smith's 15.3 Arab X mare
My mare, Fern

15.1hh Arab x Hunter mare - even when she was old she didn't seem to know it.

Fern - She was a sort of 'classic sports car' - not new but she still had a powerful motor!  Sadly, she died towards the end of 2007, by which time she was about 31 years old.  Read My Fond Memory of Fern

David L O Smith and Claude, his 17.1 Clydesdale X Thoroughbred
Claude

17.1hh Clydesdale x Thoroughbred gelding.

Claude - A gentle giant with a very kind nature.  From a local, former riding school, he was an instructor's horse - he's happy to lead, or follow, or to go out alone.  He doesn't do anything special so he was ideal for me as all I wish to do was hack out on the local Bedfordshire bridleways and, in due course, pull chain harrows in the field.  We learned natural horsemanship together (well, it was me who was learning, Claude already knew), particularly with Charles Wilson, and we became firm friends!  Sadly he began to ail during the winter and he did not pick up during the spring, and died over night in late May, 2015; he had just turned 22 years old.

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  My Early Riding Adventures

Horse Riding Holidays - Unicorn Trails
Unicorn Trails

I am most fortunate that, as a director of Unicorn Trails, I travel around the world as a horse guide, or escort, and I also look into new horse riding holidays.  Below are links to a few of my early adventures of seeing the world from horseback but there are more write-ups in captioned pictures of my horse riding adventures.

David L O Smith and Berber/Arab stallion in High Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Nassim

Nassim - In May 2004, I had an adventure in Morocco with Nassim, a Berber Arab stallion.  The horse riding holiday was a trial run of the High Atlas Crossing, arranged specially for Unicorn Trails.  It started in the desert at a kasbah in a palm plantation in Skoura, traversed the High Atlas Mountains (pass of Tizi-n-Tichka at 8000ft, 2400 metres) and finished at the Plains of Marrakech.  The trip was 230 miles (370km) and involved ten and a half days of riding.  See some captioned pictures of my adventure in Morocco


Champs

Champs - In 2005, I joined two others from Unicorn Trails as a horse guide on a corporate riding holiday for 150 people from an international management consultancy that involved riding the first few days of the High Atlas Crossing.  I was disappointed that Nassim was not amongst the troupe that we used; I'd liked to have seen him again and would certainly have asked for him if it'd been possible.  A job for a rainy day is to collate the photographs and write up properly this remarkable desert experience!

Hasni and David L O Smith in Spain
Hasni

Hasni - I rode on the Aragon Trail, Spain, in mid October, when the weather would normally have been very pleasant but, especially for me, it was rather wet!  Hasni was a very willing horse who needed but the slightest suggestion to do what I wanted.  Bertrand, our guide, has trained all his horses very naturally and, although we had bitless bridles for insurance purposes, they could all be ridden by near beginners in a rope halter, if necessary. See some captioned pictures of the Aragon Trail.

Nassim and David L O Smith in Morocco
Nassim again

I rode Nassim again in 2006.  I was an escort for Unicorn Trails to a party of riders who raised nearly 100,000 Euro for the Irish Heart Foundation on the Moroccan Horse Trek Challenge.  This was a special version of the Skoura to Tarbahlt Desert Trail which ended with a gallop (see the desert gallop video) to our final camp, nestled in the crescent of a desert sand dune.  See some captioned pictures of this special desert ride.

Rodi and David L O Smith in Iceland
Rodi

I rode Icelandic horses on the Glacier Trail through Kj�lur in the central highlands of Iceland -160 miles in five and a half days.  Before Unicorn Trails offers a riding holiday destination, a senior person in the company has to check it out.  I know, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it!  We had 73 Icelandic horses for 20 riders and we each changed horses once or twice every day; the unridden horses ran free with us.  See some captioned pictures of the ride in Iceland.

Bull and David L O Smith in Sweden
Bull

I went on another exploratory ride for Unicorn Trails: the Forest and Lakes Trail in Sweden, riding with Natural Horsemanship as the heart of the experience.  The North Swedish Horses (cold bloods) are powerful but biddable animals, real �diesels� in their performance (bit slow to warm up but they go and go and go!)  See some captioned pictures of this ride in Sweden.
See captioned pictures and write-ups of my more recent horse riding adventures ...

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  Classic Tractors and Other Vehicles

MF35 and disc harrows
MF35X

MF35X with disc harrows used to restore grass and meadow plants to the former bramble and blackthorn-infested areas of Rushymeade, the village wildlife amenity land in Pulloxhill, Bedfordshire.  As well as the relatively diverse flora and fauna, Rushymeade preserves areas of medieval ridge and furrow (long, low mounds and shallow hollows, created by farmers ploughing their fields to improve drainage, particularly in heavy clay soils, in the 13th and early 14th century).  Nenagh and Claude had their stables in our two acre field at our back gate that has a fenceless boundary with this area.  We moved to Mid Wales in 2015.

Ferguson TED20 and David L O Smith
TED20

I used to have a 'Little Grey Fergie' TED20 which is designed to be started on petrol and then switched over to paraffin / kerosene  (actually TVO, Tractor Vapourising Oil) when the engine is sufficiently hot.  TVO is no longer available as a fuel but, if you have a license, it may be mixed up from domestic kerosene and petrol, along the lines suggested by Shell and others at The Friends of Ferguson Heritage Ltd.

Series 3 Land Rover
Land Rover

Our Series 3 Land Rover is just a 'toy' - we cannot justify it, but then you don't need to justify a toy.  We do use it to collect wood that we have sawn up for our wood-burning stove if it's too long a haul or too small a job for the MF35 and 30 cwt Wheatley trailer.  A friend has borrowed it to haul her horse trailer and we do use it when one of our cars has been in for servicing/MoT but mostly we just drove it when we feel like a smile.  We sold it to a keen young man some time ago and he has lovingly worked on it.

Bedford TK 860 Horsebox
TK Horsebox

We had a Bedford TK 860 horsebox, that was originally registered in 1974 but had only 45,000 miles on the odometer; we believe this is genuine because the chassis appears to have been owned by a utility (Post Office Telephones?) before the horsebox body was added.  Its six-cylinder diesel engine does not develop much power by today's standards although the fuel consumption is moderate.
Sadly, we did not really use it enough so we sold it a some years ago.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

click on the images below for larger views and more details 7mm Scale (O Gauge, 43.5 : 1) Railway Engineering Models
These are just three examples, but please view more of my railway engineering models and some of my workshop machine tools.
7mm scale (O Gauge) GWR Saint David 2920
GWR Saint David

Saint David, an early member of the Great Western Railway saint class of locomotives, built in 1907 and broken up as the last survivor in October, 1953.
Awarded a Silver Medal at International Model Engineering Exhibition (London), 1990

7mm scale model (O Gauge) of GWR Dean Goods
'Dean Goods'
Great Western Railway No. 2415, a member of the ubiquitous and numerous 'Dean Goods' class that was originally built in 1891-2 but is modelled in its mid 1920s rebuilt condition.
7mm scale model (O Gauge) of LMS 0-4-0DM Fowler
LMS Fowler Diesel Mechanical

LMS No. 2, a diesel mechanical 0-4-0 with jackshaft drive built by John Fowler of Leeds in 1935 for shunting at the LMS Beeston Sleeper Works in Nottinghamshire, England.

These are just three examples, but please view more of my railway engineering models and some of my workshop machine tools.
I can recommend RailOnline as a good source of inexpensive railway photographs for downloading
and cice miniatures for superbly painted model figures

Contact David L O Smith