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Whilst waiting for some parts to finish the slag ladle I knocked this together. Its an old Ratio pre-printed kit from, I think, the early eighties, found recently on e-bay (thanks to New Puritan for bidding for me whilst I was away). The livery is completely fictional but the van itself is Ratio's rather fine GWR 12T vent van. A couple of pics; Ratio's plastic can be a bit brittle, the tie-bars between the w-irons were broken so I replaced them with .020" x .030" plastic section. I thought this might be to heavy but once painted looks fine. I would have rather used brass strip but coudn't find anything fine enough, the smallest I have being .040". I have seen some etched ones somewhere but can't remember where. Apart from the tie-bars the only other change to the chassis was carving off the brake gaurd straps and replacing them with etched ones from a Mainly Trains etch. A pic of the chassis; The pre-printed sides were sprayed with gloss varnish to protect the finish before being built onto the chassis which was sprayed beforehand with Precision Dirty Black. The body was well braced inside and fitted with MJT buffers. Transfers for number, tare and tonnage were from an old sheet that I found in a box, the Ratio ones having very thick carrier film. Finished off with matt varnish I reckon it looks pretty good. But why? Well, I like Badger Beer (Fursty Ferret and Poachers being very fine indeed) and it is nice once in a while just to build something without worrying about authenticity! Now if I can find an unbuilt Huntsmans Ales van...

It's been a long haul but I think it's just about there.

LCC no 1 is perhaps my favourite tram, it ended up in Leeds because 2 Felthams were damaged, having looked closely over it at Crich it is a fantastic piece of history, the interior is basically as withdrawn in the late 50s and reeks of the period (not literally but you get my drift.!). Weeks and months of hacking at bits of plastic had resulted in a part way there model intended as a master. The one next to it is a borrowed model that despite a few flaws captures no 1 and I needed it to get my head round a few things, all was going ok and then the Shapeways thing happened, so after the Middleton Bogie trial it was time for No 1, first renders below, several faults but a nice beginning, more to follow when corrected. I have also done some real modelling when I've had time, on the extension, I'll up date that sometime soon..........! Since the initial entry I've been given permision to use these images of LCC1/Leeds301 on here, all are from the superb David Bradley Online http://www.trolleybus.net/ and all are from the Hugh Taylor collection and are credited as such, I find these pictures really evocotive of the era, hope you like them too.

Thanks Mikkel. I'd been wanting to build one for a while and now that i have, it's kept me amused for hours. Dare I say it, but it's the best layout that i have built that has felt "right"! The loft insulation foam is great stuff. It comes in a pinky orange colour. Really light in weight and indeed very easy to cut. I used a saw to cut it to the required width - i kept the length as it was. I have heard a comment that you should wear a mask as the dust it gives off is a bit nasty. I did the cutting outside anyway and used common sense! As for mess, it was just like cutting wood really and not bad at all. Certainly nowhere near as bad as polystyrene!! The surface of it did need a light sanding in places to get it smooth but on areas covered with ground cover/ballast etc that wouldn't really matter. I laid track directly onto it and used pva to hold the track in place and then ballasted in the usual way with no problem at all. Cheers Roger

First test bolt up to try out assembly procedure. Still several things to check before the final assembly method is approved. This is the first time that we've got a 'feeling' for the project. When we add some ballustrading and refuges it really will seem like we're on our way!

So the forestry commission moved in last night to deploy the first wave of trees. More and a few bushes are needed, plus a bit of paint for some of the slightly more luminous and cheap trees. As there will be about forty trees in the end its all from the cheap end of the market or special offers! The class 20's are an It's N Gauge respray, one of which is going to end up as the sound system shortly.

Hello Simon, A certain Rev. Peter Denny did a similar conversion many years ago, when the GWR clerestories first appeared. They were the only RTR vehicles he produced for Buckingham (as far as I know). They still look good today. Details appeared in a Railway Modeller many years ago but I can help out with some photos if it would assist!