Firstly, I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Unfortunately my much anticipated 'home alone' stint turned out to be rather shorter that was planned so the massive strides forward in the Alco build have not exactly happened. There has been some progress though but will update on this soon. Right now, I am going to talk about a couple of rather nice and well chosed Christmas presents which may be of interest.

Firstly there is a rather natty little etched kit of a Wright Flyer, convieniently at 4mm to the foot, from a company called Metal Earth. Although principally a desk top model the construction is of note. It all comes on one laser cut etch in a very bright but magnetic material so some sort of steel. All the parts lock together with a tab which is twisted through 90 degrees and holds everything in place. The thing of note though is the cleaness and accuracy of the parts - everything fitted perfectly in it's slot with no opening out necessary and no cusp to file back. The delicacy of the parts also seems far better than our normal etches. So, why aren't we seeming this used in our kits?

The second little pressie really was a break through in model railway construction - had assembled in moments, it ran all afternoon without stopping or uncoupling and is extreemly portable. Everything in fact that my layout isn't - should I take this to Narrow Gauge North instead?