Matthew Cousins

Many thanks!

After months of foul weather a little bit of late afternoon sun in the summerhouse prompted a bit of loco posing. The P2 had managed not to disgrace itself at the Tonbridge MRC show (always a nice show!) and had performed almost without fault, doing as much time as Thomas on the Drive-it-yourself layout. Also posed the old Sunset A4 - this still bugs me as to whether this is the right colour - looks too grey to me and not silver enough, so I weathered it. Anyone know what the exact colour should be and who makes it? Now to wait for the next sunny afternoon!

There were two types of lining to Red Duchesses, this is the earlier style that emulated the lining on green locos.

I agree Jerry, but that's the drawback of a one-man stand, I was almost asleep after the lunch!

Had a bit of a busy weekend. Off on Saturday early to set up my art stand at the excellent St Albans Show. and took 2001 to visit and thanks to Terry Yeend for allowing it to pose on Lough Engine shed - duly envious of this layout! As often seems to happen with me, I got double booked with a late wedding announcement and couldn't miss an old friends daughter getting Wed in the Roman Baths at Bath! Very enjoyable evening ! then back on the road before dawn to get back to St Albans Show! Sunrise as I joined the M4... Very glad to finally make it home to Sussex after 400 miles and a great weekend - particularly the CMRA Sunday Lunch!

Agreed that this show has a great atmosphere and I had a good time there too, plus that great Sunday lunch!

Having had the pleasure of receiving 3 locos newly painted (two new-build and one re-paint) in LNER green, I have been surprised by the range of colour between Doncaster and Darlington green and also the effect of gloss finish to locos making them appear even brighter. I have been exceptionally pleased with the workmanship shown by Peter Relf, James King and Colin Tyler in the building and re-painting of these locos. Colin is a professional with really exceptional standards (the V2) and the other two have been amazing all-round construction and paint jobs, with much detail work not readily evident and with the P2 Peter practically scratch built the front end and James did a really good compensation system on top of the great build of a good kit. Thanks to them all, I just need to keep painting to pay for the next ones!

Hi, Yes, Peter has fortunately kept a sense of humour, but will never touch a P2 again I think, so I compensated with buying a top class kit (David Andrews Peppercorn A1) for him to build next, which he says goes together just fine. Mind you, I have also given him the parts of a P1 that I got so far with, then felt it deserved a better builder than me! - I'm too busy painting anyway!

Glad that you like it, can't wait for him to tackle the Peppercorn A1 in BR blue! I'm doing the reverse of the Tornado boys I got the P2 built first!

Friend Peter has at last finished the P2 after 5 years of struggle! We decided, after his suggestion that my purchase of a kit to make 2002 in it's original form, would be best transformed into the streamlined form that it spent most of its life as a 2-8-2 in. Having made that decision, I then felt that 2001 had a better name! The front end is mostly scratch built having decided that some A4 parts weren't right the kit manufacturer offered some parts of the streamlined kit that he was developing, but the chimney was not adequate and so on..... The chassis is a JPL models one with decoration details from the Ace kit. Much fettling and modification has had to be done and Peter handed me the result on Saturday muttering words like ..never again.... The result is just great, although running in and some fault finding with the very long wheelbase still is to be done, but the loco is just stunning looking - thanks Peter!

Don't forget the window grills Josh - some are now missing from my full size GBL, but I can get you a pic of what they should be like. Oops just noticed what the Roxey mouldings link was!

Hi Rob, It may be worthwhile getting one of Mikes kits while he still has a stock of 0 gauge kits, I'm sure that he would help if you really wanted one.

I agree entirely, but Mike will build them for you, I understand.

I should like to say that I had managed to make this, but I'm too busy making a mess of other models and painting pictures! As there has been some adverse comment in the 0 Guild Gazette on DMR kits I thought that I would post this picture to say that if you get a competent modeller these kits make for a lovely resulting loco! The chap who made this had not done LNER lined green livery before, so purists will note that there are a few bits of lining missing, but that would be very picky! He has made his own compensation system and the loco runs perfectly, well worth the 2 year wait! I hope to post more on the Peppercorn A2 rebuild soon.

Well I've started and it is not a pretty sight - as can be seen from the following the pickups have been removed from the brake gear fortunately the glue gave before the brakes did. Then there is the chassis it has box sections which make driving anything other than the centre axle a bit difficult. A general view of the side of the chassis.I have re-soldered the thin section slide bars, but feel that these may have to go as well - where do you stop? Next to make a decision on compensation/springing of axles......

Nice piece of work! Is that a compensation beam on the inside of the chassis?

Thanks for the advice, I had thought of replacing the whole chassis, but will show what I do when I get some bits. I wasn't sure why the builder had used flangeless centre drivers either??

And for me I admire the ability of N gauge modellers - as my eyesight and thick fingers deter me from the smaller gauges!

Having decided that all the locos on the layout have got to have some form of springing or compensation (or even just movable horn blocks) I started to look at my A2. This was probably built from a DJH or similar kit, and whilst some bits aren't too bad the pick-ups and flangeless drivers and rigid chassis make this a woeful performer on my admittedly slightly uneven outdoor track. It has an ABC gearbox and so was made at some expense, but apart from looking good at a safe distance it just has to come apart! The main consideration is how to compensate or spring the chassis, which has centre axle drive and doesn't seem to be conducive to altering the driven axle, so I'm pondering that one. I've had help from Dusty the cat - seen here supervising the work!

I would advise getting lots of insulation in with a plasterboard ceiling - we used some foil based insulation (which is far thinner) in the summerhouse and that stays warm in the winter with minimal background heating.

Thanks, Don, in the main I've had very few problems with the sub base and now I've gone for a plastic base under the ballast there should be no rot but there is the odd bit of movement, but not bad after nearly 4 years! My main problem has been the uneven expansion of the resin holding the ballast and it acting adversely if curing in hot weather. Matthew

By the way the N2 and B1 were both built by Mike Russell of DMR models, who did a fantastic job of them and I'm looking forward to receiving my DMR B17 soon. It is a pity that because of some bad comments from one individual, Mikes B1 is not available for others to build, as it is a lovely loco!

I tend to agree that the protesters would go home if the media left, they just like being on TV! You will have to make some time for a visit, as the line is just about workable, in fact I set Tracery + Pullmans on 50 and just left it going round without incident, which is progress! The main problem that I'm left with is that in some places the resin has expanded more that I expected and therefore the track has some fair amount of undulations, which are now difficult to resolve. Every track fixing method seems to have its drawbacks and whilst this is proving very weatherproof, getting the levels right will take quite a bit of effort. It has also shown the shortcomings with rigid chassis locos - I reckon that all those will have to be rebuilt - 9 locos!! - unless I try and get away with the four coupled locos and re-spring the Chinese and Korean locos with far softer springs.

Having gone fine scale 7mm with 2 rail track feed electric supply, I'm beginning to wonder if a coarser or larger scale might have been easier outdoors. Not that I'm unhappy with my layout, far from it, but it is a lot of work to get finescale track right outdoors (+ all locos need compensation unless the track is perfectly level) and perhaps radio control might have been better too. Good luck with your venture! Matthew

By the way, the reference to Fracking is about Balcombe (where the protest over drilling is going on) being only a few miles from here