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An email tonight from Chris Nevard with some of the photos taken a week ago. For obvious reasons I can’t show any, but they are stunning, especially the B&W ones.

The chassis for the ferry van was detached from its body and I thought, that’s useful…..the roof is screwed on and I can use that for the Italian one. So I undid the screws to find the roof is also glued on. Why both? I need to get the correct sized microstrip from work, so there won’t be any progress on the these for a few days.

Bus progress Some cream cleaner and cotton buds took off the four part doors printed on the glazing. The first of the Metrobus bodies has now been primered, dry overnight for the red coat tomorrow.

They will work on any DCC System, we use Gaugemaster / MRC in the shop.

Runs OK sounds OK if it’s a TXS version. Ridiculously light, find some lead weights and it will run better and pull more. Remember it’s the Lima Body and chassis with a newer motor.

A day at the NGS Yorkshire meeting, didn’t get as much done as I wanted as I’d left one important thing behind and brought the wrong sized microstrip with me. Latest little project is to build a couple of Italian ferry vans using the NGS BR ferry van chassis……forgot to bring the chassis so I marked up the sides leaving plenty of trimming room at the ends. Doors and top runner added was all I could do. The two MCW Metrobuses conversions had some more progress, including front windscreen cut to fit.

My class 37 failed at the York show, dismantling it the motor worked fine which left the chip and PCB as suspects. The loco wouldn’t work on DC with a blanking plate and the chip worked OK elsewhere so a new PCB was ordered from Bachmann on Friday. This arrived Monday, so far so good……however when fitting it firstly one motor contact fell off quickly followed by the other. Not good. I found a bit of fine NS wire and made up some new contacts with these. The loco is now all up and running…at least on DC.

I had a double take originally, thinking it was 4mm scale. Excellent work. Are the retaining rods for the vents just plasticard too?

As Paul said they were from the Ultima / Etched Pixels detailing kit for the Mill Lane sidings ferry van kit. The Etched Pixels etchings have gone to the 2mm Association and they have them listed on the website. The ventilators are not mentioned.

Yes it was.

Is that a 3D printed model? Looks great.

That’s an idea……the resin not the Belgians!

Aren’t I a tinker………..Model Rail.

Yes it was……..

Busy day yesterday as the layout was set up in the kitchen for a photo shoot with permission from Mrs G. The new PCB for the class 37 arrived from Bachmann, only ordered Friday. I also found three sheets of etched ferry van ventilators, I didn’t know I had. These will be used for three more 4w ferry vans, not sure from which country yet.

We wondered what the massive crash was…..

Those boiler bands are in the wrong place and they’ve forgotten the wheels…….ill get my coat!

The only casualty over the weekend was my class 37 which died. I’ve dismantled it this morning and the motor is dead. Spares available.

Biscuits make the world go round.

Some photos……. Me and Chris Jones (Corkscrew Lines) Sandy Clark NGS and Chris Chris Jones Me and John Dixon NGS.

I’m knackered…….a three day show was hard work. The layout largely behaved itself the loss of a route was just a wire out as I thought and was traced in a matter of seconds. More of an issue was the fact that the layout had gone from a cold garage to a warm indoors and we had trouble with baseboard joints. G clamps to the rescue. Otherwise apart from a couple of intermittent issues with one point it ran well. A big thank you to my operators Chris, Sandy, John, Mike and Alan……and also my colleagues from Monk Bar Modelshop for getting it home. Nice that a few Rmwebbers made themselves known and a lot of customers from the shop too. i didn’t miss the irony that we were next to a layout based on the Izal factory!

We were set up by 1730 last night after two trips across a very busy York in the hire van. Couple of faults which shouldn’t take too long to find. One route in the fiddle yard won’t set, probably a wire off somewhere and a not quite dead section also in the fiddle yard which looks like a section of track without a feed. Just need to get the rolling stock, road vehicles and curtains on.

Everything is boxed up and ready for Friday. York Racecourse here we come. Stand 75 on the first floor.

A nice relaxing week away in Amble, Northumberland. The railway has been long gone and there’s little sign of in the town although it had high level coal staithes on the dockside. This is the site of the station now. The newer buildings have been built across the formation, although you can easily follow the route out of town. Tomorrow I should be able to get Olympia boxed up prior to pick up on Friday for the Racecourse.

These are also available as undecorated or chassis only. The chassis only option is useful as it is the same WB as many European ferry vans that visited the UK.