Hi Al, what a beauty! The frosted windows look very realistic, any chance you can see what they are made from?

I'll be very interested to see you build a mate for it. Can I ask where you ordered it as I had the impression the Blacksmith site was defunct, but maybe I've misunderstood.

Hi Mikkel - as far as I can judge, the windows are made of a piece of thin plastic sheet which has been dimpled, probably by the end of a compass or something. It looks as if it was done by hand. I think this is the method Stephen Williams suggests in his books on carriage construction.

I managed to find an old Mallard kit on ebay. I was looking up clerestory kits to identity the model, and found one for sale on the Rails of Sheffield ebay site. I think there was another available when I looked. I also looked at the Blacksmith site and as you say, it doesn't look as if much is going on there.

Thanks Al, I will start saving. After a long time with no major purchases the modelling budget has been under pressure recently!

Nice one Al.Any chance of doing a blog on the build of the brake you ordered please.

I'll certainly blog it when the kit arrives and moves to the front of the queue, but realistically there are a few projects I need to get fully off the workbench before I open another box. Currently finishing off a revamped B-set.

I don't know anything about these specific clerestories but I'd imagine they were cascaded to secondary service during the 30s, but still in service before the war.