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Is there any news on when the website will be ready for ingle/pairs purchases please? Still seems to only have the packs of 5.

Hi Guy, Thank you for your comments. The ARC are the handywork of Paul so i dont want to take the credit for that. He has seen your post and passed me the following text. There are in fact 10 different design codes modelled, namely 3A 4A 5B 6A 6B 13A 13B 13D 13E and 16B plus the Tarmac 16A design. This last one and the identical ARC 16B is the prototype for the Hornby model. The conversion of the Lima model into a longer wheelbase 7B version was I decided too much, though someone has done it. At the extreme left of the first picture is part of 13E. This is followed by 6A which differs from 6B in having no stone shield to protect the brake equipment, and on the single pipe side there is no pipe! Presumably there is but it must be out of sight somewhere below the chassis. The second picture shows 6B (stone shield) at extreme left and another 13B at the extreme right ( body end shape and BSC suspension). 13A is identical to 13B except that body sides are not raised. ARC had about 260 PGAs compered to our 26 models. The proportion of design types has been kept the same where possible. The quantities range from 5 No. 13E (1 model) to 55 No. 13D (5 models). Design types quantities and much else are from Metro's 1989 PO Wagons. I would add that the end ladders from the Hornby have been reused. the ladder is cut from the walkway, and turned around to show what was the inside. despite their normal curve they can be rebent easily. the handwheels on the Hornby are in some cases also the originals but with the front filed back to improve them. I have also swapped the tension locks for a fixed distance close coupling type i have made since the above photos. these are on the roster for the Erith exhibition should you or anyone else reading wish to see them in action. i have been aware of your Watley layout for some time and enjoyed seeing, either here or on DEMU forum, the various awesome wagons you have modelled for that. Thanks Andy & Paul

Hi Andy, there will be class 37s! and, if there is time before the exhibition to have tested and weathered, a 4CEP.

The Erith show will have a couple of new faces on the rolling stock roster.

Hello, Its been 2 years since our last exhibition but we are now in preparation for the next show. This will be for Erith Model Railways Society at Longfield on the 27th and 28th of January 2024.

Hello, Just a heads up that our next exhibition outing is a month away. we will be a the Woolwich Model Railway Show on Sunday 10th December. Please see detail below, we hope to meet you there.

Hot off the heels of Astolat we had another exhibition showing this time for Erith at their Longfield show. We thank them for the invite and a well run show. we also thank Alex and Andrew from Beckenham for their help in running the layout giving us the chance to take in more of the show!

Hello, Here is another video of the layout, here running 80's blue era stock.

I was particularly happy with this shot of a Hornby class 56 and particularly happy with how the weathering turned out. This second image has had 10 times more views on Flickr than most of our other photos and we believe is being referenced by someone elsewhere which seems to be praise of the work. This is a British Gypsum PGA hopper cut and shut from a Hornby HAA by Paul.

We had a good day out with the layout at the Astolat MRC exhibition last Sunday. After an early start we were set set and running with time to spare. We ran in DC mode with stock from Peter and Dave We would like to thank ASTOLAT MRC for the invite and for the smooth running of the show. Next weekend we will be at Erith MRS show. Come and see the layout in action.

Hi, Last night at the club we had the first full running test of the layout with its new extension! Andy had prepared a running sequence which we used for the test and all went pretty well. We had 1 short circuit that was quickly resolved and a dead section of track at the back of a siding (which we will investigate next club night), other than that we came away happy. The new scenic board looks good with a train running over the bridge although the river has yet to be poured. we did leave off many building, scenic items and the back scene so please excuse this in the following photos. The layout is also here backed against another club layout giving our little branch line and metropolis feel! We are looking forward to the layouts first appearance in this format at Beckenham and West Wickham on Saturday 15th October 2022.

Hi All, At the club we have been discussing how to detail the milk dock unloading siding and we are looking for photos for inspiration. We have the below sketch idea. The layout is set between retaining walls as Robs casting post above shows so with the milk siding being at the front of the layout it is partly obscured from the public view so we were thinking to have steel framework with the wagon loading connections that pipe the milk upwards towards road level. If anyone has photos for inspiration they could post that would be great.

Hi, We have had a couple of running sessions over the summer and made some films of the action. Here is 7 mins of early EWS era stock.

Hi, So I use washes of enamel paints thinned with enamel thinners and brush these on. I have used his process many times (sometimes with different colour combinations for different affect) so have gained just enough confidence to start on a rake of expensive wagons. The colours used were humbrol 64 "light grey", railmatch "frame dirt" and humbrol 121 "stone". These were applied in that order with 2 or 3 thin washes of each colour, only 1 wash per day to allow good drying between coats. The under frame was eventually given more of a semi dry rub of the frame dirt and stone colours as the washes were giving only very slow progress. Brush strokes on the body were lengthways to get a full coverage of the colour but finished with downwards strokes. The wagons were placed upright for drying so the washes gather strongest at the bottom of the body, placing them in a box on a sheet of bubble wrap to stop them rolling about. consider doing the frame and body in alternate stages so that you have somewhere to hold the model. i mostly lift these with a finger under each ends walkway, this being part of the metal mould. take care when brushing the various hand rails as these can be dislodged if not careful but were possible to refit and secure with a drip of superglue on a small screwdriver. the famous springs in the couplings were also easy to knock of with a paint brush and i found myself checking these were both in place before leaving a wagon to dry. have a go as it is very satisfying, good luck!

I think these wagons are a fantastic model and really look the part. The free running of the wheels is very nice and the weight of the wagons has therefore not caused me any issues. The couplings however, as nice as they look, seem prone to uncoupling under compression leaving a portion of the train behind when putting them back into tension. I will replace these with another coupling method once I find a suitable product or manufacture a bespoke solution. However they do look great and have been enjoyable to weather, here are some photos of my results.