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Here I am back in Belem. With lots to sort out, but still things required, I just did not get enough time to sort or buy everything I wanted. Plus there would of been complaints from the suitcase packing authorities. Mind you we may be back in the UK in September so I can restock more then too. I would like to get my lathe here. But that I may have problems with because of the weight. Maybe the wife can sort it into the case without any trouble. But I did bring back back more than enough to keep me out of mischief for a while. It was packed better for the journey but just to get it from the apartment to the house it was piled in a case. There are three kits two of which are new and the third has been started. I have wheels for two and a half locos the others I will order in the near future. There are about ten wagons for me and the castings for my 700, and 0395 class locos. Which will mean I can get more of my personal stuff done, which will be on my workshop thread. I also managed to get some of my books back here about 45kg of them. Flying from Brasil we get two 32kg cases each. My sisters in law who spent 15 days in Europe with us brought one 32kg box back. I brought more with our allowance. I am looking forward to getting back to the workshop as I have not seen it since the beginning of December. I will have to start model making soon or I may forget how to do it. Hopefully I will be able to make a post within the next week or two showing some actual progress not hopes of it.

As alluded to in my last comment Up the Line will be out and about again this Saturday - well half of it will be! For reasons that will become apparent very shortly, scheduled maintenance work has over run (sound familiar?) and as it is a slightly more informal gathering than a full blown exhibition, just a couple of boards are going. That will be nice and easy I thought - am sure you can guess where this is going! Details for the show can be found here http://www.ngtrains.com/Pages/Admin/Shows/TVG3/tvg3.htm Completely underestimated the number of adjustments (and bodges!), that would be necessary to give a decent presentation. Among the highlights - a new temporary fiddle yard; which of course meant a new place to hang the handset and a wonderfully bodged back scene support; Really not sure why I showed you that one as not proud of it! Will keep one of the end boards for packing attached to the end as a buffer stop but have had to fit a packing piece to make it stand proud a bit so that the back scene will fit between it and the board end and then double back on itself to be clipped in place actually making a rather nice curve; I run out of pictures here but have had to make a new half sized lighting strip as the proper one spans the two boards and a new fascia panel in one really awkward piece of 8x4 black Corex that will be great fun to fit in the car! Quite a lot of rewiring involved as well and to make everything even more pleasant it is bloody cold in the glorified shed where it all lives! One of the reasons that it is not all going is that I have carried out my threat to revamp the fiddle yards but am only half way through so the one end looks like this at the moment and I have yet to decide exactly what will go at the other end; The other threat I have carried out is to make a better job of the track alignment between the baseboards. Yes, I know that I really should have done it properly in the first place but that is a lesson learned and as various things regarding legs and board connections were made up as I went along my oversight is almost justifiable! These pics should explain what has been going on; This should make setting up the boards far easier as will not be messing about with fish plates and hopefully the running over them should be much better. Coupled to all of this I have been rather belatedly trying to sort out the various loco failures that occurred at the last outing - not my favorite task! Am getting there but will cover the various problems in a separate post when I have a moment somewhere between wielding a soldering iron, cursing pick ups and shivering!

Hi all, Well where has the time gone, its been a busy start to the year already Any way a few bits that have been crossing the bench.... HST barrier coaches, just need rebuilding and will be dropped off to their owner whilst on a train trip towards the end of Feb. This southern region 'Dance hall' Brake van is progressing along quite nicely, only a few bits left to add. A Lamprey for a Scottish customer which will be delivered towards the end of Feb along with a couple of other wagons, just starting work on the floor. Cheers Simon

Whilst sorting through a file of railway related documents and drawings, I found a folded piece of A3 paper, which turned out to be a plan of the site. In about 1999 I had access to large scale OS maps of Corby which must, looking at this small extract, have dated from the 1970s. Sadly I didn't have the foresight to copy the whole lot, but I did copy the section covering Pen Green workshops. I had completely forgotten that I had done this, so it came as a pleasant surprise. There is no connection with the exchange sidings to the south, though I suspect that it would have been connected at some point. There is a line running around the east side of the site as I have envisaged for my layout, so other than the extra couple of sidings at the works (which, looking at the site on the ground, may have existed before the map was made) it should be fairly true to the prototype - almost by accident as I was not previously aware of the east line. So, I now have drawings and pictures of the buildings and a site plan. Now to get something on paper.

My last session featured some of my older models of BR (LMR) steam 4-6-0s. On that occasion I had started to strengthen some of my rakes of coaches and had added additional second class BR Mk1s. Six Up The Hornby ‘Staniers’ are relatively light weight. The Bachmann ‘Portholes’, despite some criticism of the bogie design, I think are free running. Adding an extra Bachmann Mk1 to the ‘Staniers’ and the ‘Portholes’ did not cause any haulage problems on my gradients. My Bachmann Mk1s appear to be heavy and rather sluggish coaches. A rake of six Mk1s was maybe a ‘coach too far’ for some of my 4-6-0s. With a good run the train would manage the gradient but the performance was rather frantic. I would clean the coach wheels and check the bearing cups with my reaming tool. The old split chassis type Bachmann Jubilees weigh in around 308 gm. Mine have quite a good haulage capacity. The new Bachmann Jubilees have a space inside the boiler for the DC chip and their weight reduces to around 280gm. If you are like me and are not fitting a DC chip then it is relatively straightforward to add some lead and bring the weight up to a little over 310 gm. This weekend I have been playing with a Bachmann Baby Scot or as otherwise known, an unrebuilt Patriot. From my old train spotting books the unrebuilt engines were disappearing fast in 1961. Looking at the numbers I must have seen Upperby based engines during visits to Carlisle. Visits to Warrington and Chester must have provided opportunities to see Edgehill (Liverpool) and Longsight (Manchester) shedded engines. The unrebuilt engines were classified ‘6P5F’, the same as the majority of the Jubilees. I am guessing that they would have been used on semi-fast passenger turns and fitted freights. Bachmann Baby Scot The prototype engine has a huge firebox. Some time ago I took a look inside the model and yes there appears to be plenty of space around the motor for extra ballast. Filling the fire box I made a paper pattern and used this to shape some pieces of lead for the firebox sides (nominally 21 x 44 mm). Reverse (top) showing indents for handrail fixings and channel to accommodate seam in plastic moulding The fixings for the handrail knobs protruded inside the firebox on my model. I carved a couple of indents in the lead to clear the handrail fixings and also the join in the plastic boiler moulding. Lead sides to firebox Adding lead to the firebox sides increased the weight of the Bachmann Patriot to around 315 gm. Sadly my model was still struggling with six Bachmann Mk1s. I would need to add some more lead. Kit of parts – mark II This time I added a piece of lead to the front of the firebox (nominally 15 x 25 mm) and another piece to the top (nominally 20 x 25 mm). The works Despite the cavernous size of the old ‘Fowler’ fire box it would appear that a lot of the height is utilised by the Bachmann motor so the top piece of lead needed some shaping with a file to keep it clear of the motor and wiring. Lead lined fire box My model now turned the scales at 330 gm. Performance was enhanced – perhaps only modestly – but sufficient for my needs. I have posted , part of which shows the train climbing my 36 inch radius, 1 in 56 curved reversing loop. http://youtu.be/qtH4WaLqO2o I have not touched the space in the smoke box reserved for the DC chip. Neither have I tampered with the front bogie spring which from experience with other Bachmann models could well be lifting the front pair of driving wheels. For the moment it works for me. Some more pictures of Bachmann coaches: Bachmann Mk1s and Portholes Finally an attempt at a panoramic shot showing two six coach semi fast trains. Panarama?

Evening all, Another heavy week at work lead me to want to get some modelling done this weekend. This followed a lightning 90 minute visit last weekend to the St Albans show to keep the mojo topped up. Progress has been in the form of fixing the 4 roads to the fiddleyard in place, which has once again put my basic soldering skills to the limit. To aid this process, I have used both Solder paint and red flux from C+L so was feeling a bit light headed after breathing in fumes the last two afternoons I also managed to modify the base beneath the sliding deck as it became apparent it was a tad higher once the feeder roads had been set. Much scraping of foamboard and mess gave me a new deck to work from which was built up in card layers to the desired height - a coat of grey paint on top has reinstated the base before I attach the perspex fiddleyard. Whilst the perspex is quite fun in its appearance, I am not sure that it works so well with hand built trackwork...especially my soldering, which I will go back and clean up when I come to check gaps/test run etc. Fibre glass sticks, flux, solder paints and solder all seem to leave a residue so the overall deck is not as clean as I would have liked...but at least it seems strong and stable. Next step after cleaning up and checking is to sort the alignment and power issues and finalise the lighting to the scenic boards. Lesson learnt from today was that, even after making a workbench with compartments to prevent liquids being knocked over, is to not remove them from their designated place closer to the work in hand Right at the last minute I managed to completely knock over my red flux on the workbench over the cutting mat and surrounding areas...thankfully not to much damage done just a strange red glow to a part of it A few pics of progress...the deadline has been adjusted to 10:00am in line with Andy's sharp observation google earth shot... arrival and departure roads... from outside...soldered joints will be refined a litte now the lines are in place... grubby first signs of evidence of work being undertaken... clocks ticking... As always, comments welcome. Pete