Kempenfelt

Fantastic work once again Tim! Obi Wan Harrap has taught you well!!

Looking good Robin! Does seem a shame to cover all that lovely brasswork!

Oldddudders, its not so much that they were 3rd class but that the brake's were known as BTK's (or Brake Third Corridor's for the expanded acronym). Yes 3rd class was changed to 2nd class, however the acronym BTK was continued to be used and is probably where the confusion arises. With regards to the Hornby 3 coach packs they are indeed very nice and I myself pre-ordered a pack and will probably have another one or 2 sets in the future, however they are not without fault. Unfortunately Hornby have produced these packs and sold them as the 390-399 sets, however these sets only had 1 rain strip on the roof as appose to 2. They can however be renumbered to the 445-448 series as these did indeed have 2 rain strips although I have only seen 2 or possibly 3 photo's of set 446 published. The colour pic of this set hauled by a 2p at Broadstone referred to earlier in this in this thread can be found in Somerset & Dorset Steam Finale by Michael S Welch, or in Southern Coaches in Colour by the same author. For the Bristol local's on Barrow Road one of the other members is indeed planning the latter mod, renumbering his set to 446. I on the other hand have decided to adopt the surgery option and alter the rain strips as I want at least one of the 390-399 sets. Maybe i'm being a bit too pedantic, however now I know i've got to do something about it! As well as those coaching sets mentioned above, detailed notes about the Bristol - Bath - Bournemouth sets can be found in one of the Xpress publishing timetable books. These sets were the Maunsell 3 coach sets, latterly the 3 coach Bulleid sets, WR 3 coach non-corridor sets (Collet?), LMS 3 coach non-corridor Stanier sets and the LMS 4 coach corridor Stanier sets. There was also the LSWR 3 coach sets which predated the Maunsell sets up 1955? Latterly DMU's and WR twin banana cars W35 and W36 were also used on these turns. On the main line the Bath - Binnegar local was a 2 coacl LMS (period 2?) non corridor paneled set. I've also seen LMS 3 coach portholed sets, and GW Hawkesworth 4 coach sets. The Pines was one of the early coaching sets to be upgraded to Mk1's. Again plenty of LMS Stanier corridor coaching stock on the trains from the north. With trains from the likes of Newcastle, Nottingham and Bradford it was quite common to see LNER stock such as Gresley's and Thompson's. There's a few pics of articulated twin sets. GW B sets tended to be used on the branches from Evercreech to Glastonbury and Highbridge etc. This is only based on my limited research so feel free to add more detail! I've heard that there are lists of the coaching stock used on the S&D around, I haven't however managed to get hold of any such lists just yet. Kind Regards Paul

They look absolutely superb John!!! The variation in bauxite really adds to the look! Best Wishes Paul

Good work Mark as usual!! :-) It looks like I may just make it to Brent's together with a car full of wagons!! :-D Cheers Paul

Well that didn't take long!!!! :-p Good effort Pix!

Sounds like significant progress to me Dave and those coaches look superb. Looking forward to the next update!! Best Wishes Paul

Excellent work as always John! The sunlight on the stock looks superb, it already reminds me of those stunning images captured in Lightmoor's 'BR Steam In Dean'. Yes next year should be a year of a few first's! The first show that i'll be taking full responsibility for the exhibiting of Clinkerford (Manchester despite being the handover was just as much your show as it was mine John IMHO! :-) ), the first time of operating Clinkerford in a BR guise as well as a GWR guise, and maybe even the first year I finish an item of rolling stock!! :-p For those interested Clinkerford is also due to make an appearance at the 2013 Cardiff show in October, along with the Scalefour society stand. Clinkerford really deserves a thread/blog of its own, if only to show off your stunning handiwork John. Maybe it's something that I can work on over the festive period and provide a bit more news, updates and photo's leading up to the outings next year. For any prospective exhibition organiser's out there, please feel free to pm me if you're interested in booking Clinkerford in either GW and/or BR guises. I am almost certainly looking from 2014 onwards now, however all offers will be considered. :-) Best Wishes Paul

Really starting to look the part now Tim! To my eye's this is starting to ooze the same sort of atmosphere that Geoff Kent manages to create from his layouts, excellent work!!

Looking good Dave, some excellent progress being made since visiting earlier in the year!! :-D

Excellent work there Tim!!! She's going to be a beauty! As for the the finished articles Mike, they're absolutely stunning!!! I'd quite like one in P4, best started finishing some of my other projects before I even consider that though!!! With regards to the tender Tim you could do a BM hybrid! The tender body is different but I think the chassis is the same, just a thought if you can get hold of a chassis etch!? Actually I've just started a BM Fowler tender kit with the intention of fitting a Dave Franks chassis to it, there may be a few pic's finding there way to my WB if I find some time and pull my finger out!! ;-) Cheers for now Paul

Thanks Mark, and get well soon!! I was I'll last week and know what you mean about not being able to revise when ill!! Unfortunately I'm going to miss the AGM too!! :-s I didn't realise it's the same weekend as the Radio1 Hackney festival which I've been lucky enough to get tickets for! Unfortunately it looks like I'll have exams in August too, but we'll see if I can make an exception!! :-D Good to see you too Jonny! Oh, as well as the awesome Western, any chance of some pics (or video) of this rumoured coal drop and hoppers??? ;-) Also any pics of the 16t and 21t's together would be good! Ta!!!!! :-D

Thanks for showing what I missed Mark, all these practice exam papers are getting rather boring now!!! :-) Hopefully I'll be able to make it for August, I can't miss both rally's in the year, otherwise it'll be the first time since my first visit in1999 that I haven't been able to make one or t'other!! All the best for the exams, can't wait till mine are over, then I can relax at RailEX!!! :-D Cheers Paul

P.S. quickest tender I've ever lined that!!! ;-P

Nice pic's Mark, many thanks for posting and what I missed on the 2nd day too! The mallet I believe is the one that was built by Gordon Dando. I admired this loco when i was a little nipper growing up at the club. Sadly Gordon died recently and his loco's and workshop were offered to club members, good to see the mallet hasn't gone too far! :-) Have a great time ooop north!! Please pass on my apologies to everyone (especially the tea ladies) as i'm gonna have to keep my head buried in the books this time! Exams next week so i'll be let out again for RailEx! All the best with your studies too, unless that is all over and done with now, in which case enjoy your newly regained freedom!!! :-D Cheers for now! Paul

Hi Missy, Looking good, I do like the Irish stuff! With regards to the discussion of scale, don't forget that the LLSR had a much larger loading gauge and was running on 3ft track, as appose to the FR running on 1ft 11 1/2 with a fairly restrictive loading gauge. IMHO the difference between the 3 is as I would expect. A good comparison for Prince would be any photo's of it it 'The Engine House' at Highly where it was posed alongside some of the bigger stuff. Keep up the good work! Paul

Thanks Robin, nice article that!

Excellent work Robin! Out of interest, does anyone know of any published drawings for rail built buffer stops? Paul

John, Maybe satisfying was the wrong word, but it wasn't as tedious as I was expecting! The first 3 coaches are now complete. I may crack on with the Hornby S&D set now whilst i'm in the mood for plastic surgery, which they frustratingly moulded the wrong roof strips on! Looking forward to the pics once you've finished painting. Paul

I hope after getting mixed up in all those numbers John you haven't forgot to cut those ribs off the roof!! :-p After talking to Tony on Tuesday night and as part of an Easter project, I've decided to embark on the de-ribbing process, 2 roof's done so far and i've found it surprisingly satisfying! Only the 3 coaches that i'm working on at the moment, but I did dig out the box of coaches earlier today to scare myself with the potential workload!! Keep up the good work! Paul

Crikey Bryn, where did you find that spurt of enthusiasm!! :-p Looking good though, makes the layout look tiny!!

Missy, Thank you for the chance to come and have a play, it was a pleasure to be part of the team for Highclere's first official show and I'm pleased that performance more than lived up to expectation! I think this was just Pixie's evil plan to make operation that much more difficult! I must admit the challenge of replicating a 40 wagon goods train, top and tailed to hide the fact that most of the wagons had no couplings was strangely enjoyable! Apologies for those watching for the use of the hand of god, this was not testament to the build quality of Highclere, more to the fact that propelling 20-30 wagons of varying weights on finescale flanges was never going to be a good combination! Hmmm, 'Full English' now that sounds like a plan!! Enjoy the the relief Missy of passing this major milestone and I look forward to seeing efforts return to the scenic and motive power departments! Paul

The photo on the website has been up for quite some time now (before the coaches even left the drawing board) and is most definitely a kit. Yes Jamie I very much suspect it has Comet origins!! I believe these coaches are at the tooling stage, I suspect they're keeping any pre-production updates quiet until the 2012 announcement. Here's hoping they're up to the standard of the latest Hornby offerings!! Paul

Many thanks for showing us your efforts Nick, I may just be able to undertake this one myself! Just need to find a bit of time and some courage! Paul