brian daniels

47593+47853 on a return Paignton to Wolves on 30-06-21 at Oxford

70004 heading a Lawley St to Southampton liner at Radley on 24-05-21

70811 heading north through a rainy Oxford 18-05-21

70811 putting a bit of smoke on as it takes power to go into Hinksey at Kennington on 05-05-21

70017 heading north through Oxford on 10-05-21

What Britain is famous for, Bluebells. Local woods near Oxford

A couple more.

Added some scrap from Goodwood Scenics. It's on a removeable false floor so they can run empty if needed.

I weathered the IHA as well recently.

Here is the Palbrick I did a while back with a bit of weathering on it.

Been a bit quiet recently but just finished a couple of Paul Rolly Sheerness Steel JNA.

Your talking about these BIG Palvans.

Thanks Gary, looks better in the flesh.

Done a bit of weathering on this Heljan 37 today. I also found out recently that at some point the snow plough on the secondmans side No1 end was changed for a drivers side one. So I decided to cut up a couple of Heljan plastic ploughs to make it. It also had a number scrawled on it from the doner 37! Also changed the bogie steps for PH Designs ones. The little corner steps and headcode plates are his as well.

Thanks Martin, the model is very nice but you know me, can't leave nothing alone! That ALD ones a bit basic, no front end detail for a start and it costs more!

I finished the 07 bar the painting but it's too cold for that. Another thing I did on the kit was to file the front of the roof back so the valance there followed the roof better rather stuck out. The axle mounted lubricator is a nice feature.

As supplied the hood was a bit crinkly so I covered it in filler and then stood outside for half hour rubbing it down. Had to do it about 3 times but got there in the end.

No only 4 or 5 had airbrakes. It's not cheap but think of the hours of fun you get making it!

Well you didn't expect me to build it as it comes did you. I'm adding the high level and bufferbeam airpipes and having to modify the righthand side to make the compressor box and will have to make another box to go the other side up against the cab. Oh and some pipes on the ends. One thing to think of when doing things like this is painting/decaling the wasp stripes. So I think I will leave all the end details off and paint and glue them on later. The rest of the handrails will have to wait as well so I can mask the yellow ends later.

Found a couple of issues with the 07. On the airtanks a lug that goes over the valance was not cast on one end. So I removed the other one and made the strap with some brass strip. A slightly bigger issue is that the short hood is the same width as the main hood but it should be narrower. So out with the saw and remove 4mm in the middle and then glue and fill it back together, looks much better now. Bufferbeam detail added as well now.

Yes 7mm, It's the Tower Collection https://www.towercollections.com/

I have had a word with Ian Atkinson at Tower and he said he did not have many of these left so if you want one! They are designed basically as a starter kit which I would agree with although I have built a few so I am finding it very straight forward to build. As supplied the foldup gearbox is quite large and it will only go on the lead axle as the Slaters pickups get in the way on the centre axle. I have ended up using a smaller gearbox which has allowed it to just about go on the centre axle and lean at an angle so a flywheel can be used. The Mashima supplied will have the extra shaft cut off so if you want a flywheel ask for a kit minus the motor. As you can see the gearbox is rather close to the centre pickups and the rear of the motor is nearly resting on the front pickups but a bit of card is stopping it shorting. The kit instructions say to screw the bufferbeams to the chassis and the running plate to the chassis. This means when you take the body complete with running plate off the bufferbeams will remain on the chassis. I don't like this so just soldered the bufferbeams to the running plate and it seems ok like this. Everything is fitting very well but there is quite a large cusp to file off from the nickle silver etches. The kit comes with solid milled rods and a set of hinged etched ones to solder up. I opted for the solid ones as I could not see any advantage with the etched ones unless you are compensating it. The false hinge is left as a hole as I need to made a D shaped cover rather than a 10BA bolt as recommended in the instructions.

Yes I will Mike, I have a running chassis already! As usual I will do a few changes on it. Quick pic off the phone here.

Took delivery of a Tower Collection Class 07 kit Tuesday. This is what's in the box

And I have also done this Heljan 37 as one of two that had snowploughs and skirts, 37039 and 37040. Added PH Designs headcode covers and blended them in with Railmatch Faded Yellow. I changed the buffers for cast ones, ovals at one end and Oleo's at the other. Still got to do some etched bogie steps and weather it.