Just in case any of you were wondering if I had called it a day at my landmark 100,000 views, I hate to disapoint you but I am still here. The reason for no posts? No progress! I wonder if all these people getting married and wanting me to photograph them know how inconsiderate they are being! And as for schools going on holiday and leaving us with children to entertain.......

So brief round up;

Joffre is completely stalled after valve gear and gear box exploded on first powerd run despite all being well on being pushed along. This has actually lead to a new philosophy which is '###### the valve gra and all the pretty bits - get it full working first and worry about the wiggly bits later!'

This is going to be adopted for the Alco project which is nearly at the point of the frames being cut by Trevor. I am really looking forward to getting stuck into the body work on this one. It is going to be a complete scratch build. I was going to try and convert a Wrightlines Baldwin but soon realised that so much would need changing that it was probably easier to to start from scratch especially with help on board from such a brilliant modeller for the chassis. This is a fairly long term project but would be good to see it making an appearance at Apedale for TTTT2 next May.

Problems with the Dick Kerr and Westinghouse that materialised at Burton in June have been rectified with majot thanks again to Trevor. These should both be fully fit for the layouts next outing at Welshpool on 24th october.

Another two projects I would like to get ready for then is another couple of Simplexes. I now have two more Black Beetle motor bogies which have prooved themselves to be very reliable so one will go into a new build of a Wrightlines protected and the other into a rebuild of a protected that I dropped at the start of TTT1 almost a year ago and has remained in a suprising number of pieces since. This one I am going to convert into an armoured version just to ring the changes. I have drawings ready so should be fairly straight forward I hope.

I still have a hankering for a McEwan Pratt / Bagauley and as another trip to North Wales is on the horizon I might get to visit a real one at the WHR Heritage this time which I hope will be inspiring.

So, although I have just been to damned busy to actually create anything you can see that the machinery is still churning away and some more projects will appear shortly.

p.s. I am never too busy too busy to turn down any last minute bookings if you know anyone.....................