Billy Flathead

The coach came with some white metal V hangers and vacuum cylinders so these have been reattached along with plastuct trussing. I don't know if angle iron trussing is right for this coach or not. I've fitted brass lamp irons and vac pipes, and Lanarkshire models buffers to the ends. The bogies have been made up with the only spare wheels I had, Gibsons in one Jacksons in the other, the ride height needs to come down though. David

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A bit of progress with the Kirk composite. The paint has been stripped, the windows have been tidied and the ends reshaped. The corners of the roof have been repaired and the body glued back together. I chopped the buffer beams off the ends and attached them to the underframe. The compartment partitions where only half height so new plastic ones have been fitted. I can't paint it yet but I have bought some abs bogies but they will have to wait until next year. Happy new year David

I've done a bit more on the 50p Kirk coach. The roof had shattered, being made of resin, so I glued it as best I could with cyno. The corners are all broke off so I will have to build it up with plastic. I've been picking up a few tips from Mike Trice's topic on Kirk coach kits, so I have started opening out the windows by filing away the beveled edge. David.

I keep buying new projects, starting them, then moving on to the next. The latest are these Kirk Gresley suburbans, 50p each from the Elsecar toy fair. The composite came apart easily, except for the roof which is resin and shattered into about a dozen pieces. I'll dunk the sides and ends in some Dettol to strip the paint off. If I post it on here I might see it through to the end. David

I can't seem to concentrate on one thing at the moment, flitting between half a dozen different things. So it was nice to finish these gates to the goods yard. I made them from plastic strip and brass for the hinges

Budget modeling? I picked these up for 50p each at the local toy fair this week in one of those under the table boxes. The composite has come apart ready for the paint stripper, but the resin roof shattered into a dozen pieces David

The platform fencing is back together, I found a short unused piece amongst all my junk, just enough to finish it. In places the local yobs have kicked the odd piece in. I've also made a boundary fence from mounting board and matches, it's stapled to the front of the lift out terrace houses. Luckily it hides the road which I've painted really badly and the blood stains where I stapled my finger. David

With a hot flathead and some scary cross plies it'd be bob on.

I've started repairing some of the damage, the plastic fence posts have been replaced with square section brass and some fret waste soldered between them. I thought I had saved all the broken bits but can't find them now, I'll have to buy some new. Hardly any of the chairs on this turnout and the track beyond are attached to the sleepers so I have started to glue them back down. David

Rare Brush type 2 A1A BO

Rare Brush type 2 AlA BO

Less money spent on shelves means more to waste on toy trains! It's been so long since I did anything I just don't know where to start, maybe if I repair the damage and sort out the drawers full of stuff I will be in a better frame of mind. David

No need for any skip diving in the end. We inherited two pine wardrobes with the house which Mrs F. wanted to replace with something shiny white and Swedish. Once l had built these up, the pine wardrobes were cut up with a neighbours circular saw to make some sturdy shelves. I've also made a new work bench from an old fire door, it will never be this tidy again.

Over the twenty years I have had the layout in a shed the only lighting has been a single 100w bulb near the work bench, but I now have a set of three spots with GU10s liberated from the kitchen. The rails from the baseboard joint to the platforms were all lifted, they are glued back down and peco bullhead rail joiners slid across the join, all the platform fencing has broken off, but the buffers were saved by screwing a piece of ply across the embankments. I need some drawers and shelves so a tour of the local skips is in order. David

I've not been on here for a while because we moved house for the fourth time in December. After a year of DIY I have a shed again, back down to 8x6, but it's a space of my own. I've put the layout up and had one loco running on one siding, but there is a lot of damage to the track, the backscene has lumps out of it, a crack and foot prints on it. There's no electric fitted but there is a weather proof socket nearby. Mrs F wants the kitchen doing next, but I might get in the shed when she's not looking. David

Sorry to see the end of such an inspiring thread Adam, hopefully you will be back soon with something new to give me a standard to aim for. Your articles are the sort I like to see in MRJ, about actually making things, something that doesn't seem to feature as much as it used to. David

I was sent out in one once, it took me twenty minutes to back onto a bay in an empty yard. Never again,

We have had a few strays and rescues over the years including Billy in my picture left, who we let in on bonfire night and never left. I had to use his name on here because Mrs F disapproved of rmweb so much. Our current pair are Bertie and Tilly. We moved house at the begining of December and the second day Bert escaped. Our new neighbors were fantastic, putting his picture on local groups and pages we had never heard of. Nearly three weeks later the same neighbors alerted us when he ran in front of their car. After a chase through gardens and bramble covered land we finally caught him. David

Hi Richard, I bought the other Bradwell WD from the same collection so I am very interested to see how you get along. Unfortunately due to circumstances I can't do any modeling for forseeable future so it will have to stay in the drawer. I have read through the instructions and shaping the boiler and firebox is worrying me. When I do get back to modeling I have a half finished Jidenco Crab, the half etched boiler has been binned, so I will try out Dave's method to make a new one. David

It is the Tesco publicity machine which is fueling panic buying and they are doing it to pressure the government to give them access to foreign drivers, to end a crisis that they and the Eddie Stobarts of this world have helped to create. I occasionally delivered to Tesco distribution centres in the nineties and they treated drivers like they were a piece of sh!t. I have never shopped there and never will. If there is a driver shortage it is down to low wages, long hours, poor conditions and being treated like dirt.

Ais Gill early 80s, trespassing by the look of it. Sorry its another photo of a print.

Barnsley station yard 1983/84ish

Growing up in Birdwell, Rockley bottom was a regular haunt, with my parents picking blackberries on the edge of the woods behind Rockley Abbey Farm, where they grew on what looked like old mining spoil and with friends climbing trees or pushing our bikes up stampers hill. My dad told me about the wagon way and once took us to see an old tunnel in some woods. That was nearly fifty years ago so I'm not sure just where it was, looking at Google earth I'd guess at the woods just above the caravan site. David

I've fitted guard irons, cosmetic springs and a clip on working steel spring to the front truck and tried it on the chassis. Some of the other parts fitted. Something's wrong because the coupling rods are hitting the slidebar bracket and the ride height needs to come down a bit yet. A drawbar has been roughly cut out, I will take it to work to finish it off, it's too cold to do any more outside today. David