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Evening all No modelling updates for a while, as I've been on me holidays. Starting to get things ready for Manchester in just over a month's time, which will see Wheal Elizabeth exhibited in end to end guise for the first time. Almost all of the modifications are now complete, just the fiddle yard crate to make up. I have been trying out the various passenger stock and took the opportunity of taking a few photos. All well, though I'll try and get a little more lead in the O2 to improve traction. We also will have a blue/grey Class 108. The Class 122 Bubble Car (craftsman conversion on a lima 117 motor trailer) at the new platform Bubble car runs past the dry Class O2 30200 with P set at the platform Class O2 running through

Greetings. This afternoon was first opportunity to get on with this board in some time. I have been doing a bit of this and that, mainly tinkering with my Single trying to improve the pickup and running, and taking the usual 2 steps backwards and 1 forward in the process! I have also been waiting to add some flock powder to the landscape of my latest shunting board, to cover some of that brown paint which resembles rock too much... I decided to take a couple of photos to show how this has been going. On the Glenfield layout front, I can't remember if I mentioned that I have decided to part company with it, and send it to a good home, if I can find one. The significance of this project was never the change over to finescale, nor the modelling methodology involved, but the fact that it has become a 3D historical research reconstruction. I am discovering that it isthe building of things which tends to interest me more, rather than the operating - at least this far anyway. I decided to contact Leicester County Hall, which of course is at Glenfield, and see if they might like a static model to display somewhere for visitors. Then months passed... but a couple of weeks ago I got an email reply from someone at County Hall to say that they had passed my email onto someone at Leicester Museum Services. Said chap rang me last Thursday, we had a chat about size etc, that they would need really to supply a case, etc, and I directed him to this: http://glenfieldstation.weebly.com/ and he has gone off to measure up a space, and consider whether they would want to purchase some of my MR rolling stock. This to me seems a fitting end for this little layout, if it comes off - and also creates space for my current venture. However, I noticed the other day that the cat has been using it as a launch pad to the open window above it, and I am going to have to do some repair work to the pine trees which are looking quite forlorn now!

A second installment of the D604 build... In the previous episode the body was just starting to go together but was still short of quite a few important external panels. Next step was to fit the nose ends. Unlike the class 22, these are far from flat so they had to be bent to the correct curve. This was tricky for a couple of reasons. Firstly there is no good reference to use to find the 'correct' curve, so I had to judge this by studying photos. The NBL factory photos showed that that there was a shallow curve where the gangway doors are and I thought that this became more pronounced on either side. The second thing that's tricky is forming the curve. The presence of the etched lines for the gangway doors means that the end just wants to fold along those lines so it needed some careful work with pliers to form the curve by creating small bends in the plain parts of the etch and trying to avoid creating a fold at the door edges. There was also quite a lot of straightening things out again where I'd gone too far. Soldering the end on is also tricky because there is nothing that can easily be used for alignment, nor is it even entirely clear what the vertical alignment should be. I knew that the top of the nose had to curve downwards so I worked from this. In doing so I decided that the bottom edge of the nose etch was actually too low, so aligning this edge with the bottom edge of the valence was a non-starter. In the end I used the top corners and aligned these slightly below the top corners on the side etches. This gives a reasonable 'drop' between the windscreen surround and the nose. I was a bit wary of the fold lines at the ends of the sides but in the end decided that I just needed to have faith, make the folds and see how things worked out. After tack soldering the ends to the sides, I got out the set square and some nice flat surfaces and spent a lot of time peering at the model to see whether the nose was truly vertical and in alignment with the central pillar of the windscreens. Naturally my first attempt wasn't quite right, so adjust and try again... After the experience with the class 22 I was expecting the cab roofs to be straigtforward. The class 41 kit contains similarly shaped etches which are even labelled as cab roofs, so what could go wrong? I rolled one of these around my solder sucker and tried it in place. It dropped straight through the cab. It seems that these etches are too small in both directions which is pretty strange. I was going to need to make new ones. After a pause for thought I had an idea about how to make this easier. I dug out the used etch from the class 22 and some 10 thou sheet (brass because I had no nickel silver). I then used the hole in the class 22 etch as a template to scribe the shape of the roof. Cut it out with scissors, clean up with a file and I found that I had a pretty good fit at the first attempt. With hindsight it should have been a little longer because I had some tricky filling on the outer corners where it meets the windscreens. As per the class 22, I used thick fuse wire and plenty of solder to fill the gap between the roof and the windscreen surround. For the top of the nose I thought that filler was going to be the only practical answer but I needed something to apply the filler to. I cut some strips from the edge of the body side etch and curved this to the shape of the windscreen bottom. A second shorter piece was added to meet the middle of the nose end and the whole lot soldered between the sides to leave a decent gap below the windscreen surround. I also added a short piece of 20 by 40 thou nickel silver so that I could anchor the bottom edge of the windscreen surround to give it some strength. The photo below shows the kit at this stage. I did my best to fill the nose corners using solder, but there is only so much that can be done here because there are some sizeable gaps near the top. I also had my first attempt at forming the various curves on the corners, filing off the excess etch and solder where needed, but I knew that the real work of forming the nose shape was yet to come. Now it was filler time, so I attacked the nose with copious amounts of Milliput and also added some to the cab roofs because these were not in perfect aligment with the main roof. At this stage I also had second thoughts about the curvature of the nose, so I added more Milliput so that I could have a gentler curve all the way to the edge. Here is the result. Looking good eh? Now I'd reached the make or break part - shaping the nose. To begin with I decided that I had to get a consistent shape with some reference points, even if it was a long way from the final shape. To do this I tidied up each face so that it was either flat (the sides) or had a simple single curve (the nose and top). I deliberately left the corners as sharp angles so that I could check for symetry and get both ends consistent. The next four photos show things at this stage. I'd also checked the photos again and decided that my initial thoughts about the nose curvature were correct, so the extra Milliput was filed off again. Finally it was time to shape the corners. The top of the nose is fairly level for about half of its length and then it curves downwards to meet the front panel. The joint between the two is still quite a sharp angle though. The body corners are the really tricky ones because no two photos show them in quite the same way. In the end I decided that there was a comparatively large radius near to the bottom but that the curve was a sort of conical shape because at the top the radius reduces to almost nothing. Finally the corner between the nose top and sides was rounded off - this one was fairly simple - and the top corners blended in. After finishing both ends I was much happier with the shape of the second one, so the top of the other nose had to be re-filled and shaped again. I haven't attempted any detailed photos to show the final shape because the combination of white Milliput, shiny solder and shiny nickel silver makes it very difficult to see with the Mark 1 eyeball, so I reckon that the camera will have no chance. Running my finger over it seems to be the best way to check the shape, but I don't think you can do that yet on RMWeb So here's a photo of the loco with the nose shape fully formed. I've also started to add the nose detail, but more on that next time.

Good morning, As promised, another update on the development of the cassettes and rolling stock to grace it. Firstly, the cassettes... For the first incarnation of Kyle, the cassettes were fashioned from easitrac and card and used sleaved brass rods beneath as a way of power and connection. In that respect they performed fine at the one day exhibition but I was looking to try something different this time from before...pic below... Kyle Mark I cassettes... Following Chris Miner's suggestion in my last post, I have decided to build cassettes using brass strips. These will then clip together using brass sleeves as before, but this time they will be on the top surface than beneath. I also wanted to try and have a small 'feeder' section as sometimes (IMO) its a shame to see a piece of ballasted track adjacent to a huge piece of aluminum etc and the scenic break at PWIAB is pretty minimal. This feeder piece will be about 100mm in length and most likely will be a permanent fitting of the fiddleyards, on both sides. The cassettes themselves will be 2 x 250mm brass sections (clipped together) with one end of half of them having a 100mm extension piece permanently attached (stay with me on this) giving an overall cassette length of 600mm, enabling some decent length trains. To better explain, a did a mock up of them in card and boy was it fun pushing some rolling stock up and down them Here is the two number 250mm brass sections with the 'feeder' 100mm section in orange to highlight it... Joined together gives this...overall is a 600mm cassette with 100mm attachment and this will attach to the 100mm feeder strip... For the sidings area at the front a special double cassette will need to be fabricated as its impossible to squeeze two cassettes adjacent and when a train is abridging the joins it needs two lines to enable run-a-round...a snag found on Kyle when using the Fiddleyards as part of the run-a-round process unless tracks are well spaced. I have ordered 10mm strips from Eileen's and also some 5mm strips for the insides. The double cassette and uses 5mm brass strips for the inner rails... And now the rolling stock. First, a big thanks again to Chris (Eastwestdivide) for supplying yet more photos and also describing typical train formations from the time. Random searches on the web are providing the odd pic of trains from the era too...and I do enjoy the research process. I have been gradually building up a selection of rolling stock over the year and with impending releases from Farish and Dapol I hope to add to that prior to next May and the exhibition...251 days away... Here are a selection of typical trains that will be seen on the layout and some notes to accompany them... Beginning with the star of the show...well, the whole reason for building the layout...the Bachfar 4 CEP...in blue grey... A 33 will be converted to a 33/1 using the TPM replacement ends I now have...this will run on MK I's... A 47 will run on the ARC PGA's...and hopefully a Dapol class 56 in blue once it is released... A 73 on the vans...New BG's will be purchased from Bachfar and hopefully the new CCT's will be available... A class 33/0 on VDA's...I have TPM kits of these awaiting to build so these are just a placeholder at present... An 09 will be resident shunter for the yard (my new Bachfar 08 is with Bob Russell at present...after I swapped the wheels for 2FS ones, I couldn't reassemble it)... A 33 on oil tanks - These are 25 years old (excuse the weathering) so will be replaced with Bachfar TTA's and 100T tankers... That's all for now...any more purchases will be added as and when including a rake of Sealion/Seacows... EDIT: I knew I shouldn't have hurried the upload whilst my wife was telling me we were late for a lunch appointment...I forgot to upload this...which I think makes an interesting train... Large logo 73 on VSOE pullmans...well, as good as you can do with the Bachfar ones...

5,4,3,2,1-Thunderbirds are go!!!! Gerry Anderson eat your heart out! Thanks Pete. Trip to Wickes this morn to buy lighting and build/install removable gantry so hopefully lighting will be addressed. I'm planning on getting the fiddle yard finished as well today. The plan is to use cassettes. From an operating point of view I'm going to stand or sit at the the front of the layout using a Gaugemaster HH working from the left handside. Wiring up shouldn't take too long and point motors will be Peco. Cheers, Mark By the way Pete-You missed the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G10 next to the Thunderbirds towerblock!!!! ;-o

Hi Mark, This looks interesting and good progress too on the baseboard/display. Would be good to get the lighting installed early on and then use that when you apply your scenics (a tip learnt from 2FS Jerry) Nice simple track plan too so it looks like something that can come together fairly quickly and somewhere to run all that nice stock you have been accumulating/weathering. Look forward to see the next shots without the hi-fi in the background...which looks like a tower block from Thunderbirds in some of the above pics Pete