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If you wish to communicate with me about steam train jigsaws and/or related railway art, or to respond to requests for answers to my queries, please email David, at : platt.precology@gmail.com

Wednesday 24 November 2010

House of Puzzles

In this post (24th November 2010) I am concentrating on two jigsaw puzzles currently in production. Both jigsaws are of a similar style, not surprising as they replicate original paintings by the same artist, Ray Cresswell. The manufacturer is House of Puzzles, of Invergordon, and both puzzles are part of my steam train jigsaw collection of nearly 400 examples.

House of Puzzles produced a 250-piece jigsaw in 2008 as part of its Meadow Collection. It is titled Train Spotting and incorporates pieces larger than normal. The puzzle is aimed at older children, but because of the larger pieces, also at young and old with tactile or visual impairments. LNER class 'A1' (later 'A3') 4-6-2 locomotive, No.4472 Flying Scotsman, is featured heading the famous express of the same name. The picture also includes a boy admiring the passing express from a vantage point, high up, on a stone bridge. His dog is pictured running along a narrow station platform below, barking at the train. The location is very rural.


The second pic shows a puzzle of 1000 pieces from the Dalmore Collection, titled Train Now Standing. Nigel Gresley's famous locomotive No.4472, heading a train of the same name, is again to the fore, waiting at a station platform. What might be a LNER class 'O4' 2-8-0, of John Robinson, is passing on an adjacent line. There are lots of other interesting parts in a very busy picture including a post van and postman, guard, signal box, footbridge, and a boy taking a photograph of the steam loco's. The jigsaw was marketed in 2009.