CKPR

Or more generally. I was just recalling with an old mate, sorry marra, that my West Cumbrian vocabulary didn't survive my first year at university in the face of blank incomprehension. Mind you, I was one of the few Northerners at Durham...

Thus spoke the great authority on all matters of Great Western philosophy, the almighty Trianghornby.

Thanks - If you go back through this forum, you'll find a thread on the building of this horsebox with some discussion about the provenance of the prototype (another instance of the M&CR havin deek aboot Carlisle for some inspiration, this time from the Caley ?)

Services have returned to Mealsgate with No.26 drawing the branch train out of the carriage siding ready for a run to 'Spatry [Aspatria] , No.18 shunting two horseboxes and No.7 running light over the Bolton Loop from Aikbank Junction via High Blaithwaite, Mealsgate & Baggra' [Baggrow].

More proof of progress - the Bren Gun Carrier Mk1 pictured at...ermm,Tywyn Wharf ?!

Are these still available ?

I've come to use a combination of Revell Contacta Professional for big joints such as solebars to floors [don't forget to sand the top of Parkside solebars level as there's usually a pronounced moulding seam on them] and the various Mr Cement liquid cements beloved of aircraft and military modellers. With the latter, I would suggest cutting the brush off the cap and using a small paintbrush for precise application. If you do this, then it's a good idea to anchor the bottle down (e.g. using blu-tak) as it's very easy to knock it over, even with a small brush.

Looks good and I very much like the concept looking into a moving diorama. You mentioned forced perspective and one possibility might be to model the NER and G&SWR stock in 3.5mm/ HO. If you did this, you could keep the lines into their respective bays separate from the through lines and the M&CR bay and use PECO's new finescale OO track in it's 'correct' role as HO track.

Work in progress - I still need to trim down Mealsgate but half the new storage units are assembled and in place. In between all of this work, I've restarted work on the buildings with a small hut (PW gang and/or possibly the oil and lamp store ?), which I'm hacking out of the trusty Ratio weighbridge office. By coincidence or because there's only so many ways to build a stone hut, this kit is pretty close to the M&CR's "house style" for lineside and yard huts (or should that be "hut style" ?!). Right, back to the flatpack assembling.

Selling off unwanted stuff has raised the paltry sum required to purchase this rare beastie off the Bay of E. If I ever exhibit Mealsgate again, this will be my revenge for all those DCC sound chip equipped diesel depots ! Human operated analogue synthesized pre-grouping sound effects - the future sound of yesterday today.

More good news from the rebuilding of Mealsgate. The white card is the maximum length and average width of the station building and by abandoning the old "cassette yard", it will go in it's correct position vis-a-vis the track plan.

I got all the point motors working last night and identified a small fault in the 12v DC supply to them, which was easily rectified with two pieces of wire. The link between the external 16v AC supply to the on-board DC rectifier was missing, which sounds grand but was taken from the cheapest S/H Hornby controller I could find. Today's focus is on making the Christmas cakes, the usual bakers being in San Jose. Once the cakes are in the oven, I'll re-lay the sidings and 'main line' and then take the saw to High Blaithwaite before making some custom TOUs.

Hmmm, power re-connected to Mealsgate and to fair, some of it works...Right, I just need to be systematic and after tea, I'll work through the circuits starting from the inputs. Good job all the rather untidy wiring goes via screw connectors and isn't neatly soldered up solid. I've also got spare NOS Fulgarex point motors if the worst comes to the worst.

Progress as per this morning - the new pointwork for the carriage siding and the truncated goods shed siding has been laid and needs to be, well, fettled. I'm using the same crude-but-effective methods and materials as in the original build and the previous standard of running was pretty good, so I'm not worrying too much about appearance as that can be sorted out later. I've cropped the photo to illustrate the intended narrowing of the baseboard, which I'm hoping will emphasis the gap between the line to High Blaithwaite [ and onto Aikbank Jct.] and the run round loop and line to Allhallows colliery. Probably at a low point in model railway enthusiasm now, so off out for the day on me tod (Mrs CKPR- to-be and her not-wayward-daughter are travelling near the Caribbean - Jamaica ? No, she's gone to Costa Rica of her own accord).

When I was building US 'craftsman' kits, the advice was always to use white spirit or isopropyl alcohol as the thinner / medium for paint, not water, so as to avoid swelling of the wood and raising of the grain. Although PVA dries hard (and shiny !), I found that if used in diluted form, it does exactly this.

Not giving too much way but I'll be attempting some finescale 4mm modelling on High Blaithwaite...using a 30 year old Black & Decker power saw. The station building and ground frame were cantilevered out and seemingly on stilts at the rear, so that rather solid piece of ply is going have to be cut back and the embankment reformed. I also need to remove some of the framing in order to accomodate the point motor / TOUs, all without affecting the track and scenery. Luckily, it was built using various offcuts and is of the battleship school of carpentry.

The heavy gang have already taken possession of both Mealsgate and High Blaithwaite. On the former, the sidings to the goods shed and carriage shed have been carefully removed for relaying and the old ballast sanded back to the cork. The latter effect was so pleasing, I carried on between the tracks on both stations. Definitely better than the initial black paint and a good basis for some later scenic work (never my strong point). The R/H point into the sidings is going to be directly replaced by a L/H one, thus retaining the original TOU and wiring below the baseboard.

More arrivals in the soon to be model railway room - here are Mealsgate and High Blaithwaite, which I brought down from Cumbria after going to Solrail. I'll be rebuilding High Blaithwaite to update the electrics and take account of the third photograph that has come to light and then it will be mounted on the back wall. Mealsgate is going to be modified as per previous posts and will sit atop some Ikea Kallax units. In the meantime, our Fred is keeping an eye on things.

Having obtained that lovely Caley 4-4-0T, I obviously needed a Caley goods engine... "metal working skills required " is putting it mildly. This proper no nonsense old-fashioned manly Jamieson kit was waiting for me on my return and to be honest, the fit of the sheet metal and cast parts is rather impressive. Not sure about the Alan Gibson chassis sideframes that came with it though, as they are for an LNER J72 ! Now, is it feasible to convert a CR Lambie 0-6-0 into a CR ex-Solway Junction Rly. 0-6-0 ?

I think it's in Model Railway News sometime between 1967 -1968 [currently in a motorway service station on the M6 otherwise I'd could be more precise].

@SteamAle's Spattry with everyone's favourite M&C engine No.26 0-4-4T on a goods train heading west to Maryport. Ever the inverterate borrowers, the M&CR have somehow obtained a G&SWR brake van for this train, probably from the adjacent Sou' Western yard at Currock in Carlisle !

Went yesterday and it's a really excellent show with everything that you want from a model railway show, including live steam and model engineering through to kids layouts, a finescale section, impressive O gauge through to achievable micro layouts and some inspirational & friendly demos. A big thanks and well done to @SteamAle and everyone involved with Solrail.

Somewhat ironically for a company with a supposedly retro take on model trains, that looks like some sort of AI-generated abomination.

A lovely meeting with @Citadel at Solrail and a chance to see those marvellous M&CR coaches he's been working on - I think my rake [Trevor Charlton bodies with DIY underframes and a ropey Halfords'n'Humbrol paint job] might be going into the shops for refurbishment as a result !

At Solrail and suggested to @SteamAlethat as we have similar M&CR stock, we could combine his 7mm Aspatria with my 4mm Mealsgate using perspective and some deft timing of the trains on the Bolton Loop...here's the fiddle yard on Aspatria.