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Back home now from Wales. Stopped off at Aberystwyth on way home and could almost use a pic of the scene of destruction on the seafront for my layout! New shed for the VoR looks impressive and there was a little diesel shunter working in the yard but couldn't stop to investigate. Anyway, having got bored of what I was meant to be doing I made a start on the Nigel Lawton 20hp Simplex that arrived the other day. This is a very well packaged and presented kit with some really interesting design features that I will highlight as I get to them. I have made one of these before so am hoping I can remember some of the tricks as it was a couple of years ago now. The chassis went together very nicely and is now finished and working except for the pick ups which is a part I always hate doing on models. To make maters worse this kit came with all wheels insulated so either have to do two pick ups or fit a jumper wire to one side which I am very tempted to do. One thing that I did remember from the other kit was the difficulty with fitting the couplings so I milled out a hefty chunk of the threaded cross members before fitting them. Another thing is that I am not going to fit the second motor to make the fan work as had real trouble with this last time and the extra space inside will make room for an ice cube speaker for the DCC sound. These locos are pretty small remember , about 55mm long and 35 wide so need all the space I can find. The body is coming along nicely and greatly aided by the thoughtful design. Much use is made of sacrificial tabs to hold things in place and the whole thing is held solid by the great big bit of brass across the middle which is only removed at the very end once the frame itself has been made up and is holding everything together. The instructions do say to glue the body sections together but I have soldered all but the very smallest of detail parts. Am really pleased with how this is coming along and hope I can find some time to play with it tomorrow.

Currently on my work bench is a wagon I have been after for some time, a Ratio kit for a GW Open C. I think I am right in saying this is a 30 year old kit, but the crispness in some of the mouldings is still rather good, all be it slightly let down in some of the finer components. The solebars come moulded as part of the sides, I think this has the net result of making them significantly over width (while the body looks like it matches the drawings in Ackins et al). I have chosen to model the example photographed within Ackins (which is also repeated on the Ratio packaging). When finished it will be painted in the post war GW livery and loaded with some large diameter pipes for delivery to the reservoir at Cheddar. Construction started with the 2 piece floor, I removed the necessary ribs from the underside to provide clearance for Bill Bedford springing units, before gluing the two halves together. An inch length of Brass U channel was superglued in the centre across the joint to add further strength. Next the body was constructed, ensuring all was square, before carefully cutting off the corners of the headstock to get the required angles. Buffers were replaced with some castings of the later type (again working from the Ackins photo) Moving onto the chassis, it suffers from an unusual problem. The solebars are too wide apart (by approx. half a mm each side) which makes the etched W irons look a bit strange recessed so far in. To solve this I took the plastic W irons Ratio supply, removed a channel for the bearing to move in, and glued in place overlaying the etching. (God knows how you get this kit to work in OO!) Finally break gear was cobbled together with the Ratio shoes, V hangers and leavers along with various scratch built brackets and rods, working from photos. Not 100% accurate, but good enough for the layout.

Currently on my workbench is… well… my workbench. The workbench I have used for the past few years is a cheapo laminated chipboard job from Argos. The former office desk was forced into the role of being my modelling desk when we moved to Newbury in 2008. It has now taken a fair amount of abuse from my modelling torture kit, so it is only right that it continues in its role in my new house (until I accidentally cut in half or something or other). In my new house the desk will be up against a radiator and I already suffer frequent losses of small items to the carpet monster (that darn carpet monster!!!). I was also quite concerned that I will now loose small items down into the inside of the radiator. I decided that I would install a backing to my desk that will hopefully prevent small items from ‘pinging’ away. I purchased x3 framed cork note boards from Staples and went about screwing them onto the back of the desk. Being lazy, I decided to screw them onto brackets and let the boards hang off the desk (as oppose to cutting the boards and mounting them on the top of the desk). There was still an annoying gap between the cork boards and the desk when they were screwed down so I tacked down some white ‘L’ shaped plastic to cover up the gap. Now I will hopefully see a significant reduction in my time spent crawling under my desk looking for small brass bearings. The added bonus is that I can now use the cork to pin up instructions and notes, which will be very helpful.

After the diversion caused by the arrival of my CB09 blade holder, which works very well, I have returned to exploring how to construct a laminated coach side. After preparing the drawings for the framing, described previously, it proved to be relatively simple to create the other layers - merely a matter of deleting unwanted elements from the original drawing. The outer layer is, of course, the framing, then the main body side that only has the window cut-outs and, finally, the inner layer with cut-outs for the drop-lights. I show these three layers, together with a montage of all three, on the AutoSketch screen-shot below After cutting these out on a single sheet of card, I could not resist painting the layers and assembling them as a 'proof of principle'. I coloured the layers individually, which was very easy to do - no need to work carefully around the edges, as on a moulded kit! The photo below shows the laminated side, mounted against a side of my Low Siphon, to show how a finished model might look. The opposite side is, largely, just a mirror-image of this one, which is a simple command in the AutoSketch software, but there is a trap for the unwary! The doors are still 'hung' the same way round so, after flipping the entire drawing, I selected each door individually and 'flipped' it back to the original orientation. Some coach designs will, of course, not be symmetrical, so separate drawings would be needed for each side. Having sorted out the basics and learned how to 'drive' the software and the cutting machine, it's now time to get on with some proper modelling. I intend to use 10 thou plastic card and will try the scheme suggested by uax6, in his thread at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79446-coach-bodging/?p=1272768 , to achieve the 'tumble-home' in the sides. For the chassis, I will use a simple brass sheet, folded at the edges, while the undergear will use a 'Brassmasters' Cleminson assembly. Mike Next Post p.s. as a target to aim for. see MikeTrice's 6-wheel coach construction at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1278380 I shall be pleased if I get anywhere close

So here we go new year and another new project. I have been wanting to crack on with my 009 version of Bilton coal drops for a while after building the RT Models Harrogate Gas Works Pecket & Drewerey so whilst im patiently waiting for RT's release of the Barber kit i got tempted at Wakefield show to visit LAngley and purchase one of their war office hunslet kits to bash around, thanks in no small part after chatting to the owner of the excellent Purbeck layout and chatting to him about his version of spencer and how he built his. Anyway, a little back ground, the Harrogate Gas Works line was a 2ft guage line running from the Leeds Northern main line (Harrogate -Ripon) where there were coal drops at Bilton junction, the line then ran through open countryside round the north side of Harrogate to the corporations gas works at New Park. The line was known locally as the Barber LIne, so named after the 1st loco Barber, named after the managing director of the gas works. It opened in 1908 and was quite successful, so much so that another loco was needed by 1920. After the ww1 there was a surplus of narrow guage engines that never made it to the front. WD 1340 was purchased from store and was rebuilt by its makers Hunslet in leeds to 2ft guage and also had its cab and boiler fitting cut down to fit in the very restricted loading guage to fit through the tunnel into the gas works, on arrival it was named spencer after one of the gas works directors. From the outset Spencer wasnt very successful, it wasnt as powerful as Barber resulting in a deviation of the line to lessen a gradient just so it could haul a train without slipping. Spencer eventually became a little more successful after it was found it would steam best on briquette coal, as came about when normal supplies of steam coal were scarce due to the general strike. Spencer settled down to a faily steady life as Barber's stand by and worked on the line until 1943 when the peckett arrived and was finally cut up in 1946 so ive read, heres a link to the only known phot of spencer in steam: http://www.warofficehunslet.org.uk/ukphots/WD1340Harrogate.jpg As you can seen the cab is heavily cut down from standard and also the chimney is smaller than standard as well. There is a good picture in a book about the line of an advert from Hunslet in the Railway Magazine in 1920, showing Spencer fresh from conversion looking very handsome to go to Harrogate. Obvioulsy they were trying to drum up some business to get rid of a few more suplus locos! So thats the history lesson over, now heres where the knives & saws appear........ First of all i needed a minitrix 2-6-2 chassis said the instruction, now i wasnt paying what they were going for on that well known auction site just to chop it up so i took a gamble and went against the instruction and got a 2-6-0 for just under 30 quid which i thought wasnt too bad, so before i started the kit i stripped the chassis down gave it a good clean and made sure it was ok before i started messing with it. The main difference with the chassis is that the valve gear needs to be moved from driving the centre wheel sets to the front wheels, no mean feat for me who has very little in the way experience bashing steam engines about...... So it began with it stripped down and the useful bits stored, it was time to start hacking the chassis block. I was quiet surprised as to just how much metal needed to be removed according to the instructions. Most of the front of the chassis needed removing to as to get the front frame extensions to fit, now the instructions on the langley kit are ok as a guidline but i found myself getting a bit lost as to how the motion plate & fornt extention peices fited on. It took a bit of head scratching and a couple of nights work to get my head round it all and the castings tidied up a little but tonight i managed to get some bits glued together. The first bit to secure was the new motion bracket as you have to split the original motion into two separate sides. After that the front extention was glued and squared up, although im not convinced just yet...... Now here is the fiddly bit and the bit i have been dreading, rebuilding the valve gear. I followed the instructions and the very useful diagram of walschearts valve and managed to get it through through in my head. First job was to slip down the new cast cylinder mounts on the chassis extension, i took off quiet a lot of material, perhaps more than i should of but managed to get one side lined up, next stage was to secure it to the new motion bracket. This was very fiddley and one of them jobs you could do with having 3 hands! Next was getting the crankpin in the hole and making sure the gear ran smoothly easier said than done..... after a lot of trail and error i got one side of valve gera on and running very smoothly so chucked a bit more super glue about to lock the monting point up and then it was onto the other side, same process as before but i couldnt get smooth at all. 3 hours it took tonight of stripping down and rebuilding but i have finally got the gear on on running smooth. I found that bending the con rod out slightly heped as the cylinders are further out than they were for an N guage 2-6-0. Also what i found through a lot of trial and error is to make sure the fly crank & fly crank rod are set as close to the centre of the wheels as possible, alos i found that there is quiet a lot of play n the minitrix rods that making sure there is enough room around the motion bracket for the bits to move around, if not it gets tight very quickly and will undo any glued joints youv just done! After much cursing, cigs & tea i have finally got a rolling chassis of sorts together tonight. Heres a couple of pics shoing the vavle gear in place and the front extension glued in as well. The front bogie was added to check clearances and all seems to be well. Only problem now is ill have to take out the crankpins again when i put the idler gears, wheels and coupling rods in/on...........so ill be pretty much back to square 1 getting it all running freely again, but i suppose ill know what im doing this time, famous last words! I think thats it for tonight, apologies for any spelling mistakes and if its a bit of a ramble but its late and this valve gear has driven me round the bend. Hopefully by the weekend ill have a fully working chassis again and then i can crack on hacking the body about to get that distinctive cust down cab. Any comments critisims always welcomed, and if any one else has built one of these langley kits please let me in on any tips! Thanks for looking James

After a post Christmas trip to the NRM at Shildon end of year toy fair with my 3 year old son, I came away, with among other things, two boxes of the triple Railroad MGR wagons. Even though these are Railroad versions, I was impressed with the level of detail, ok they are missing the fine level detail some wagons now have and the chassis lacks and painted details, but I think with a bit of a paint touch up and some weathering they will be great addition to my railway (once built). The key bit that was missing though was a good realistic coal load. While I was at the show, the in-house Shildon Model Club layout “Shildon” was being operated with some modern stock. Whilst we watched one of the Ops got out a box of coal loads and began dropping them in to a rake of HAA MGR wagons. He showed me that they were home-made from shaped pipe lagging covered in grit blast grit. With the wagons also being weathered they added a great finishing touch. So, I cannot take the credit for the idea, but I thought I would share how I made the coal loads and what they look like when finished. I have to say that I am really pleased with the outcome and the way they have enhanced the wagon. Plus this was the first railway modelling session I have had with my son. He painted on the glue and helped to sprinkle the coal dust… our model railway hath started!!! So here’s how I did it: 1) Starting point, 10mm dia. Microbore foam pipe lagging (15mm dia pipe lagging would also work) 2) Cut it in half long ways and angle the ends so it fit snuggly in the hopper, no need for a lift out loop as pushing down on one end pops the load up out of the wagon for removal. 3) Cut, scrape and pick off the foam to required coal load shape, thus creating a unique load shape every time. 4) Sprinkle on black grit to represent the coal over PVA wood glue. Make sure that the surface of the foam to be coated with glue is fully roughened to create a good key – remove all shiny surface. 5) Leave to dry; the load will become quite stiff and robust. I found that I could create each load in about 10mins, with small hands help! I researched photos on the web of MGR wagons to get an idea of the way coal loads looked in real life. What I found was that there were a number of key visual points to bear in mind. Auto load, which creates a uniform section, sloping sides and a flat top. Manual chute, typically three/four mounds. Track side bucket loader, creating various mounds and levels of loading from flush to high peaks. In some cases the bucket of the loader was used to flatten the coal load down to maintain loading gauge and reduce loss due to air flow. The final visual point to note is that MGR wagons carried power station coal and this is typically transported in a pre-crushed state and looks very fine, no large lump coal! Hence, track ballast is too coarse in my view. I crushed a lump of ‘real’ anthracite coal using a hammer to a fine grit/dust. Which when stuck to the foam, I think looks perfect as it has a lovely black sparkle effect like the real thing. Useful links to photos of real wagons Shows the fineness of the MGR coal load - http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brhaatopskip/h119292E1#h119292e1 Auto loaded coal load - http://www.flickr.com/photos/55879910@N02/6277683605/in/photolist-ayJLCe-gyFia4-dUTfzq-bsFEwK Large heaped coal loads - http://www.flickr.com/photos/55879910@N02/9558916762/in/photolist-fyFWVG-dnewHu-gJqVHV-g8GVdB-dvPq5E-e45QLz-e49q2D-akoVz5-b9DEm4-iu7kDD-dcepw2-9sMB4m-e5GUBg-dUKfeY-cWGf97-dNmSYp-d1Tqrs-fq9nxU-foCt9R-foSK4Y High peaked load - http://www.petertandy.co.uk/58023_mgr_hat_3785.jpg Load flatten with loader bucket - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Penmanshiel_Tunnel_(coal_train_on_new_alignment)..jpg Railfreight wagon with coarse coal load - http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brhba/h3c33f975#h3c33f975 Side view of coal load - http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brhda/h1cb3829#h1cb3829 I hope this article is of use and inspiration to people Views of my efforts (click images to view larger versions): Pipe lagging cut to shape Checking it fits in the wagon Before and after gluing on the coal grit/dust Finished view, before weathering wagon Finished view, before weathering wagon

This is a follow up to my last Post which was devoted to Hornby’s release of Special Edition Duke of Gloucester. Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester left versus Hornby R2717 Apollo right What do I still think of the model? I am not so sure about value for money. Hornby R2717 Apollo left versus Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester right Hornby R2717 Apollo came with a wealth of added detail parts fitted at manufacture – almost too many to list. HornbyR2717 Apollo - a closer view Apollo came with individual lamp irons and detailed smokebox handles. There were holes for the lifting eyes in the front frames and the inside supports for the smoke deflectors were modelled. Hornby R2717 Apollo – the cab area What seems to me like a majority of the boiler pipes and fitting on Apollo are modelled with separate plastic mouldings. Inside the cab a number of the handles and instruments are again separate mouldings, the handles often picked out with paint. The cab roof itself comes with a sliding ventilator. What about my own Special Edition Duke of Gloucester? Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester – the cab area I have made a start on personalising my own model. I have picked out some of the operating handles in red and I have changed the overhead warning stickers to the 1960’s variety using Pressfix Transfers from the HMRS range. HornbyR3191 Duke of Gloucester - a closer view with straightened hand rail My previous post drew attention to improving the mechanical performance of the Duke of Gloucester model. However as noted by a number of you the visual appearance of the boiler handrail was not good – I would do something about it. No going back I should have slid out the handrail first - but but I didn't! For whatever reason the handrail knob by the whistle was fixed in at a jaunty angle about 0.5mm too high. I tried pushing from inside the body and then twisting to break the bond between the metal handle and plastic body. All I succeeded in doing was pulling the head off the knob, and bending the handrail wire (which is why it would have been better to slide it out of the way to start with). There was nothing left for it but to take the pliers and pull out the offending knob – no I have never wanted to be a dentist. The tools - and replacement knob I had one spare hand rail knob left over from a Mainline locomotive. Whilst not an exact match I thought that it could be made to fit the enlarged hole left by the misaligned Hornby knob. Oh dear I used a 0.5mm drill bit to clean up and realign the hole for the shaft of the hand rail knob. I then used a 1/16 inch drill as a countersink to hide the base of the Mainline knob. The plastic of the body is very soft and you can do plenty of damage just by rotating the drill bits by hand – so no need to even think of using a power drill. Phew – back together A touch of matt black paint around the hand rail knob and no one would ever know! There is I believe a significant difference in price between the Railroad Duke of Gloucester and the Special Edition. Yes – one comes with two etched name plates. Hornby also I think refer to extra painted detail. Perhaps they mean the silver paint to the hand rail wires? Well the layer of paint has its benefits because any damage caused by handling can easily be covered up. Nearly very good? Another view of my Own Special Edition. This is the same view that I used to start my previous Post but now showing the repositioned handrail knob. Hopefully the handrail is an improvement. As to the model – is it fair to compare Hornby Apollo with Duke of Gloucester? I guess it depends on what you think the Hornby advertising is trying to say. I would say that the Duke of Gloucester Special Edition is not in the same league as Apollo – much more Railroad standard. I guess Hornby might say a more detailed model would have to cost more - but how much more? Maybe another clever approach would be to offer the engine with a bigger bag of bits for the serious modeller to fit - a bit like the old Rosebud / Kitmaster models but updated of course?

Over the christmas holidays I've been keeping myself busy building various kits to form my new cement works. It's not yet finished, but I'm yet to build up some perimeter walls as I'm too fed up with card kits for the moment! I also need to add some pipe work, as well as a cobbled road surface. All the kits are Metcalfe, with the main bulk being the brewery kit, with a water tower, sandhouse and a modified red brick station waiting shelter to act as a deliveries office. The hopper is from Hornby and will eventually have pipework coming off it, leading to the main works off scene. As mentioned above, most of the buildings are built as intended, but the shelter/office has been modified somewhat. For a start, the inside rear wall has been bought forward so that there's a connection between the two end buildings, and a new door and window have been added. The window involved me trying to create a window frame out of paper to match the supplied windows. It came out abit thick but I don't think it looks to bad. The glazing is just clear plastic. The door was also one supplied and the space where it was meant to be on the kit is represented as bricked up, along with one of the windows which I lost the glazing for. And some pics of the finished (for now) site: My long waited for fish train also started to come together over christmas, as I recieved 4 of Hornbys new fish vans as presents. These, a pair of Bachmann insulated vans and some other miscallaneous vans, along with a K3 currently gorm the train. The non-insulated vans will be phased out as I purchase more Hornby (and Bachmann when they're released) fish vans. But for now, here are some pics of the current train:

Step forward some ex Dorset Kits On3 East Broad Top coal hoppers - first up a "clean" view,: and now - after applying some watered down black ink and adding black powder once the ink i sdried The ends are interesting as getting in to weather them (despite being lot bigger than my HO ones) is not easy.. and a close up of part of the doors and sides and a quick look inside the hopper no good colour photos for the internals so I hope they look like UK hopper wagon internals...so if anyone has any please can I see them??

There was a time when men were men and horses weren't lasagna. I’m currently building some horse-drawn vehicles for the little yard behind my goods depot. I began with Langley’s whitemetal kit for a GWR 5 ton wagon. This represents one of the standard designs often seen in photos from pre-grouping days, especially in the London division. It should be said at once that it isn't a finescale kit - indeed it's a bit rough in places. But with a little work I thought it would be OK for a position in the middle-ground of this little layout. The kit as supplied. At 20£ this is no cheap kit, though I imagine the three horses and carter are part of the reason. There is little flash, but most parts do need a bit of filing and tweaking to make a good fit. The instructions are reasonable, although some details of the assembly are left to the imagination. To improve appearances, I filed thick bits down to a leaner shape. I added rails between the side boards, and used wire in drilled holes to secure items (as per photo above). I compromised on the stanchions that support the "raves": These are moulded as solid triangles, but replacing them is not really practical, I think. In primer. The seating arrangement follows the elevated “Paddington” pattern (as opposed to the much more basic “Birmingham” style). The parts provided for this looked overscale to me, so I basically rebuilt the whole seating arrangement. The fore carriage was fitted in a way that allowed it to actually pivot. There are shire horses and then there are shire horses! The one on the left came with the kit along with two others. The one on the right is from Dart castings. I opted for two of the latter. I replaced the supplied chain with something finer. To fit the chains to the horses, I sunk bits of wire into the beasts, fitted the chain and then bent the wire to form a small loop. For the lettering, I needed yellow letters. There are no ready-made transfers available for these vehicles, so I plundered the HMRS GWR goods wagons sheet, building up the wording letter by letter. The spacing to accommodate the framing was also seen on the prototypes, although it is accentuated here due to the thicker castings. The HMRS sheet does have yellow letters, but not enough for my purposes, so as an experiment I used white letters and coloured them afterwards with a yellow marker. I wouldn’t really recommend this – it works OK at first but you have to be very careful with the subsequent varnishing or it will take the colour right off. I’m not entirely happy with the lettering, but life is short. Done. The chain in the middle is a rough indication of the chains and skids used for locking and braking the wheels when parked. I do like the ‘osses. I was going to call them "the Finching Sisters" in honour of the two lovely ladies on Robin's Brent layout. Then I realized they were male. In position in one of the cartage bays. Although one or two details don't stand close inspection on this vehicle, I am reasonably satisfied with the overall outline and feel of it. The wagon seen from inside the depot. Not sure what to add in terms of load. It is tempting to do one of the sky-high loads seen in some photos (eg here), but I think it might become visually over-powering on this vehicle. Maybe on the next one. Off-topic: Looks like a leftover from the new year decorations has found it’s way into the goods depot. Happy New Year everyone! Notes on the prototype For what it’s worth, I’ve added here some of my own notes on these vehicles. Note that they are mainly based on my own observations from photos and drawings. I do have "Great Western Road Vehicles" by P. Kelley, but despite some useful illustrations, this book does not really go into much written detail on the horse-drawn wagons. Perhaps "Great Western Horse Power" by Janet Russell is better, and worth a purchase? Design These wagons were used for standard and heavy goods cartage. There were different types built to this style, some with six “bays”, some with five. Some were built for a single horse, some for two or more. The tare and tonnage varied considerably across the different designs. They had the “Paddington pattern” of seat arrangement, where the seat was elevated above the wagon. Hoops could be fitted to accommodate sheeting. A light version of the same design was used for parcels delivery vans, with hard tops. Distribution The wagons were especially prominent at Paddington, where photos suggest they were the all-dominant type in the 1900s. However they were also used elsewhere on the system (even as far as Cardiff, according to one drawing). In some areas they seem to have been rare though, eg at Birmingham Hockley the dominant goods delivery wagon was of a quite different design. A photo from Slough in the 1920s shows the type I have modelled alongside one of the Birmingham style vehicles, so the different types did appear together at some locations. Livery In Great Western Way (original edition), Slinn states that by the 1900s, station names were applied to larger horse-drawn vehicles whenever there was room for it (as seen on my model above). I have a theory, though, that this practice ended sometime after 1905 or thereabouts: Looking at photos after that date, station names are no longer present, and the “Great Western Railway” and numbering is all on one plank. Slinn also states that numbering was in random positions, but as far as I can see the numbers on these vehicles were always at the front end of the wagon. Perhaps Slinn missed the fact that the relative position of the lettering and numbers was necessarily “handed”, because we read from left to right (ie on the left hand side, it would be written “667 Great Western Railway” and on the right hand side, it would be “Great Western Railway 667”). According to Slinn, the lettering for horse-drawn vehicles in the 1900s was yellow or gold, shaded or not. I doubt gold would have been used for wagons like these, and there is no apparent shading in the photos I have seen. So presumably plain yellow (but the shade of yellow not clear?). I have sometimes wondered whether the lettering was in fact white on some wagons, because it stands out with very high contrast in some photos. However, looking at photos of parcels vans (which are known to have had white letters on their hard tops) it seems that the letters on wagons were darker than white, so presumably yellow. Later in the 1930s, horse-drawn vehicles adopted a different chocolate and cream livery and a different lettering style.

Well well well, after finding a bit of time to do some modelling for once i have just about got something nearly finished! A long while back, i had a spare lima 50 and deltic and set about hacking them up to create a 'super deltic' as outlined in the the 'deltic locomotives of british rail' book. It started pretty well but as time is always at a premium, playing trains has taken over from building trains. Anyway, for this entry i thought id go back to the start with some pics of how the build went. It all started when i started to look at possibilities with lima deltics, one day i just chopped the roof off a lima deltic with an idea to fit it onto a redundant 50. Looking at the profile it was a half decent match so the cutting discs started to appear to attack the 50 and a very smashed up western for some extra grilles e.t.c Having the line drawing in the book helped to get things roughly in the right area but as its a made up it didnt really matter too much The 50 grilles were cut and rotated 90 degrees to go length ways and a couple of grilles were chopped off a western for some variety so after some frenzied chopping and gluing this was the pile of scrap left. The next and most time consuming stage was the filling and blending in of the mish mash of body parts now glued together, i forget how long it took but it was a while before i was any where near happy with the bodyside, but looking back on it over the past year or so perhaps a bit longer could have been spent to get it that bit more flat but hey ho, sometimes i think lifes a bit too short, especially on a mishmash 'might have been' It was about then that this little project stalled, for reasons i cant remember it sat on the shelf waiting and waiting...... Last summer it was brought down again and given a coat of blue to see how it looked, reasonable enough but still the inspiration wouldnt come. By January it was still there and just by chance i found some DAve Alexander class 37 white metal bogie over lays, Hmm looking at the bogies i thought this could give it the impetus to get things going again with this. The lima sideframes were cut back and the white metal ones firmly glued on in place, the wheelbase is all wrong but you can barely see the wheels so it looks ok to me, also at theis point i chopped off the 50 tanks & boxes on the chassis and added the cut down deltic tanks, it was begging to take shape again. A couple of weeks back i sent off for a few craftsman bit and found the class 50 detailing pack including the bogie steps, once thes arrived the 'Thing' as it has become known has progressed nicely. So, pretty much 2 years in the making, just about ready to number it i realise im dangerously low on transfers so a quick order to Fox for some plates and numbers for another project duly arrived, (excellent service as always from them, couldnt reccomend them enough.) A trip to my dads tonight some me crack out the transfers eager to crack on, then it hit me, what number should it be? After a bit of a think and a read up i took a punt at D700, i thought it would be a bit different to letter it without the D prefix and add in the early data panels just like the 50s. So as of tonight, nearly 3 years in the making im please to unveil the one and probably only super deltic in existance!. It was supposed to have 2 super charged deltic 18 engines creating something like 4600 hp! Apparantly it was very close to being built with BR asking for quotes for 50 & 100 in 67/68 so just imaging what the east coast could have had. Anyway heres some shots of it tonight after putting it back together and giving it a run, next job it to give it some varnish but that will have to wait for better weather, whatever that is these days! Its a great feeling to see something that was in your head for so long come into existense, and i couldnt resist blue tacking a spare kestrel plate i found on the side! Its by now means an accurate representation of a proposed disign but to me it looks the part and i hope it looks ok to who ever will read this and if it encourages any one to have a go at something id love to some other might have beens appear, after all, they are our railways and well build and run what we like! Thanks for looking in, please excuse any spelling/gramar mistakes, its geting late so i spose i best get some sleep. Hopefully some more moddeling time will be comming soon so ill try clear the decks and see whats next on the production line. All the best James

I've already done the main modifications but forgot to post on here, but I've cut down the space to hold the Pantograph for the Serco Test Coach 6 "Prometheus" which was scrapped around 2004/5 I think! Here's what it started like and now looks like! It'll be tired with a 390 pantograph and fuses, with Fox transfers.

Freed from the shackles of getting Clevedon ready for its debut this weekend, I've dug the T9 out of the cupboard and had a play. It's amazing how long it takes to to do anything but hey, it's all progress. Working out which bits go where has been a learning experience. Knocking the box of bits over wasn't a sensible thing to do. Still managed to find everything again eventually!

Here's some of what I've been up to on the layout. I haven't done much to it but enough for a post. Warning, no ground breaking modelling here, just bodging. If you remember above I nocked up an impression with my Vollmer Roundhouse pieces for the shed idea. Since then I've selected the best ones, cleaned them up, cut out small areas in the balsawood with plaster topping (concrete) to bed them in slightly and fixed them in place. I only chose to build it in situ because the board was a bit wonky in places and I thought it would be the best idea...err, well no actually. It was a rather moronic idea really, for the roof doesn't fit perfectly. It's just balancing on top for now until I get it fixed, anyway.... When at Warley I picked up a few bits and bobs and my eye was attracted to the Bachmann Scenecraft Loco Hoist. Being a completely fictional and loose layout, more of a glorified test track blah blah etcetera, I thought it'd look good with the concrete to lift engines and trucks and metal things and scrap and rust and dogs...well, not dogs but you know what I mean. I just like the look of it, never mind logic. As a result of it being an after thought I can only just fit it in position, and I mean only just. Hands up, it's prototypical nonsense, but I care not. Not for this layout anyway. For trains to pass it has to be pushed back as far as it will go. So to fix it I decided the positions and drew around it. Cut around it. Bit of crow bar action, bendy file. Had to cut more out than this for the bases to fit. Thus. See how close it is to the rails? Ridiculous. Plaster smoothy, no ice cream sadly. It had another application after this pic'. And that was about it. Since then I painted it all and blended it in nicely, then decided I liked the darker look to the rail area and concluded that it probably would be more oily so I painted it so. With locomotive oil I oiled it as well. it makes the crane slide better and makes it look.....oily. I look forward to the day it accumulates dust, mites, spider feet, black mud and other monstrosities that like to gum loco mechanisms up, should be fun. I moved on to the shed roof previously mentioned. Nothing clever about it, the word bodging comes to mind again. This is the first time I've tried scratch building a building, or at least part of it so I'm happy enough for now. Today I spent over 2 hours doing something I've always wanted to. I've seen it in model railway magazines a few times and on Right Track 7 with Geoff Taylor and always liked the effect. You just get some 5mm graph paper, cut 1.5 squares in and repeat down the whole line, then cut the strip out and layer it upon another with a stagger. I found out a few layers in that ever two layers you need to clip the end off and transfer it to the other end due to the stagger - not sure if that makes sense. I haven't finished painting the bricks yet but I find it satisfying and easy, at least this technique I've used a few times before. Paint the mortar, rub the paint off the bricks only, then dry brush the bricks. Finished result of one side, I like the broken and slipped slates, but was careful to not over do it. Text in pic describes my best mistake. As a first attempt at this method I'm really happy with the result and looking forward to painting it once the other side is done. I'm unsure if I need roof vents and if so design so that's another consideration. I'll also be adding gable ends. Overall impression. I forgot to add that I also fixed my old Hornby Skaledale platforms in place - absolutely horrid and lumpy like a Jelly Baby but now thankfully not wasted. The chimney is just plonked there for concept effect, also please note the Scenecraft factory on the platform won't be going there, it's just there for impression as I'll be building a loading dock there that goes into the shed along the platform. My idea is that the shed originally accepted 3 lines but the removed one and added a platform and building extension - all an excuse to try something out and create a certain effect and feel. As to how realistic the idea is I'm open, probably not knowing me. Flash version, colours look different. I'm the current world record holder for worlds biggest guitar, 76.2 times bigger you know! :? One more for luck. Ok that's it. That's about all I've done modelling wise. I piddled about with resin yesterday though and think I might piddle about more.

The new printed sides for Victoria Bridge are now in place, painted, glued and merged around the edges with the existing wooden structure. I have painted the whole thing a creamy colour which is right for the thin uprights either side of the bridge, I just need to add a teracotta-ish shade for the main arch and structure beneath the deck. It is starting to look the part: OK, I'll come clean and admit some of this sky was photoshopped in, but it is mostly genuine! Most of my stock (apart from a few wagons) are temporarily boxed up while some house rearrangements are ongoing... a fellow RMWebber kindly loaned a Pannier tank to complete the 1950s scene: Thanks Alistair! The detail on the bridge front is nicely picked out by the paintwork. I'm also quite pleased with some weathering experiments on some old Peco wagons. They look a bit overdone, and almost cartoonish close up, but seem to tell the right story from normal viewing distance, as part of the 'picture' in the frame. The secret to enhancing the detail on the wagons, I discovered, is to paint the whole wagon with matt black enamel paint, then immediately wash it away with hot water from a tap. The hot water of course fails to wash away much of the dark shade, particularly the paint in-grained in the detail and among impressed gaps, leaving the effect you see above. I'll continue the experiments! ---------- Playing with some photographic angles at the Wyre Forest MRC club night, we couldnt resist trying some modern stock, albeit rather mis-matched. It struck me that for the odd half hour at shows, the model of 'Victoria' bridge could double as an 'Edward Albert' (the bridge of the same design a short distance upstream, which for now still carries coal to Ironbridge Power Station). If the Class 70 shown here had some matching coal hoppers, it would be a good approximation... http://www.ironbridgeguide.info/ironbridge_tour/tour_03.shtml (scroll down) http://www.flickr.com/photos/93173492@N00/4034964717/ Maybe I could have a stick-on cooling tower to announce a 'modern image freight' interlude! The real Edward Albert bridge differs from Victoria Bridge in having double track. Victoria Bridge was built with the same wider deck, but only ever had single track, the top deck being narrowed somewhere along the line. (The wide abutments bear witness to this.. replicated in my model). I quite like the look of the mixed load of china clay slurry and steel diverting its way though the Severn Valley. As long as it was explained well enough, it might be fun for odd moments with the micro-layout out on the road! Stock again courtesy of alibuchan of RMWeb fame! More coming soon.. including project 'shed' (I have been busy preparing a large rectangular bit of garden...)

Finally managed to upload my video and pictures from last Sunday. I was hoping to put them up on Monday morning, but just didn't have the time. So to catch up with my Wisbech & Upwell Class 04 conversion: The video below includes modifications to the 04s body to take the new Bachmann Class 03 chassis. On reflection the axle doors on the side skirts are a bit big, but I was modelling at speed at the time and didn’t think to double check. Check out grasslandsModels.wordpress for more projects/videos