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Although the layout's supposedly set in GWR days, I'm not only content to run it in BR steam days, but also to push the clock forward to the blue diesel era - within a very loose timeframe that allows for hydraulics, pullmans, TOPS-coded diesels and Railfreight-era wagons to sit comfortably (or not) together. Even the odd sectorisation or green diesel may squeak in. Here a few snaps from tonight's running session, hopefully providing a change from the usual staples of Castles and Kings! A Bachmann Class 47 on a parcels train. As the parcels service arrives in King's Hintock, a Hornby 08 potters in the yard with some Dapol cement wagons. Before long a Bachmann Class 37 arrives with some Parkside Railfreight wagons in tow. It's a demotion to mineral duties for this once-proud Class 43 Warship. Going out in style, though, as the blue rather suits these locos, I feel. This Bachmann model was a troublesome runner that has been transformed with the addition of new pickups. The local heritage bus operator didn't get the memo to bring out something more in keeping with the period. The truth is, I can tune out the incongruous scenic elements when running the models but the camera is crueller... We close this interlude with the arrival of the Western Pullman service - once the future, soon to be the past! I doubt that that cattle dock would still be there by 1973. Hope this has been of interest, in a light-hearted way, and more will undoubtedly follow.

A while back a built up four Cambrian Kits with a Southern Railway theme. They were given a coat of primer and have been awaiting spraying as well as the internal planking painting on the open wagons. One of the newer Cambrian Kits is the LSWR 10T van kit. I understand the S&DJR had some of these wagons as well. The SR classified them as D1410. The kit itself goes together nicely. I've used Gibson wheels and brass bearings. I've sprayed the underframe in Tamiya Nato black and preshaded the bodywork. The main body colour is Tamiya Hull Red. I think the sole bars should be brown also. Can anyone confirm this? Buffers are from the excellent Lanarkshire Models range. I just need to fit a rain strip on the roof and paint it. I'll finish this wagon in mid-30's-40's livery with smaller lettering from HMRS. Here the van is seen in the company of a SR/LNER 12T Mineral Wagon built between 1945-1946 at Ashford to D1390/D192. Same process again with painting but I've feeling I need to repaint this wagon in unfinished wood effect with painted in iron work. I'll put an order in with Eileen's soon so will order some metal strip to make door bangers. Below are the last of the SR builds for the time being. From left to right are an 8 plank 12T D1379 wagon as well as a 5 plank D1380 wagon. These are built and finished the same as the first two kits. More soon and apologises to Sal Solo for the title of this entry. Cheers, Mark

The beginnings of a little something in recycled tinplate. Well, at least the body will be recycled. Other stuff has been to hand for sometime including the now rather depleted collection of Golden Syrup tinplate. Trouble is that I stopped taking it with my porridge to help keep the weight down.... It gets complicated this purchase, use, reuse/recycle .... did I need the Golden Syrup in the first place? The Golden Syrup tin does not render a plate quite wide enough for the 100mm required for the footplate so it has been made from two pieces of a biscuit tin lid. Both GS and Fox's use 0.3 mm plate, although the GS possible has more paint on it as it is actually 0.31mm. Cutting out for the motor and the battery tray. Same of the printing has been removed to allow the side valance and strengthening plates to be soldered in place. All the electrical stuff will be mounted on the running gear - batteries in the tray, radio chip on the bracket with the aerial up a plastic exhaust pipe and the on/off switch in a hole drilled in front lefthand corner of the Roundhouse frames.

Another quick post to show my backscenes assembled on the layout. There's still some work to do, not to mention the eventual effect that will (hopefully) be created by some view-blocking buildings and scenery. The corners are held together with plastic L-shaped strip glued around the edges. I may use Velcro strips for those I want to keep removable. I've had to cut some panels as I purposely overestimated when purchasing the panels. Luckily they're incredibly easy to cut. I'm pleased with the effect so far and I hope my experiments may inspire other modellers too. All for now, Jonathan

Today I have been mostly jigsawing - with the grateful help from a friend for somewhere to work where noise and mess aren't an issue, the six primary throat boards and the four small ancilliary boards for the fiddleyard have been cut. They need some cleaning up due to splintering and a not entirely accurate cut line, but that shouldn't be too difficult with my electric hand sander here at home. It'll still be noisy but nowhere near as much as using the jigsaw

After many hours in TurboCAD I've finally made some physical progress on the main station building for Clare. There has been much counting of bricks and much studying of an April 1986 copy of Practical Model Railways which features some drawings of Lavenham by Jas Millham. Clare was a 1865 'medium' design but I have been able to incorporate what I've learnt in my building of the platform 2 waiting shelter and, even further ago, my station based on the GERS drawing of Takeley, an 1865 'small' design. I've drawn the parts of the building in a single TurboCAD drawing with the base brick work on one layer and the raised quoins on a separate layer. This makes the drawing show things in context but makes it easy to just copy the base and the quoin overlays into different cutting files for the laser cutter. I managed to get almost all the parts on a single piece of 3mm MDF 500mm x 245mm from the Model Shop in London. As usual the Lasercut software got its estimate of cut time wildly out, estimating 24 minutes for a job which actually took nearer an hour! I think it can't cope with calculating hundreds of 1.1mm cuts. The little tabs and sockets which align the parts are hidden behind the quoins so should be invisible. They do ensure that all the parts fit together straight and square. I got as far as a dry assembly to see how the parts go together, apart from one tab which was 1mm too big which could be cut down easily, it all fitted well. This is the road side, there is a glass canopy over the middle section. The platform face has a brick built shelter in the centre section. The brick section is low and is topped with windows in the same way as the waiting shelter opposite. I tried the building in place and it looks pretty good. I'll let you know how it progresses. David

It's another superb kit from the often overlooked 1/48th Scale Military Miniature Series by Tamiya and being Tamiya it makes for quite a quick build. The Kit is fairly new - this version is from 2018 according to Scalemates. Yep I started it on Saturday too The only niggle with the kit is there are a couple of visible ejector pin marks on the side frames of the lower hull. Fortunately they are raised, so with a few swipes with a sanding stick they disappear The build - blink and you'll miss it, the kit goes together very quickly. Lower Hull Construction.. Adding the drive wheels, sprockets, idlers, etc.. The lower hull goes MIA for a bit at this point - it will be back Upper hull - straight forward, but a lot of small parts that can get eaten by the carpet monster.. Turret goes together beautifully too.. Lower Hull is back from paint, after a few coats of Olive Drab - Vallejo Model Air Medium Olive is a close match to Tamiya's colour call out. I'm painting the road wheels at this point.. Upper hull & turret in undercoat (Nato Black FYI) Tracks fitted - don't rush these. With the upper hull. turret & barrel back from paint - it's time to unite them and start adding the detailing parts.. Adding those last parts before weathering.. Fresh from the spray booth - just weathering powders to add. Nearly ready for her big reveal. Photo's taken under natural light.. And a cameo... Till next time TBG

More pictures. Note Steve Jones's fabulous shot of the station in 1978 with a Class 312 bound for Walsall. I am currently working on a Southern Pride Class 304 - this seems to be the only available WCML EMU kit available at the moment. Work is slow and I am awaiting parts that did not arrive with the kit - such is life, eh? Fabulous shot taken by Steve Jones in 1978. Class 86 'Planet' in early Executive livery pulls an eight coach train - made up of 7 Lima MK3s and 1 Bachmann MK1 full brake. The Class 86/87 pulled these rakes whilst BR awaited the arrival of the Class 90. It was usual to see 9 MK3s with accompanying MK1 Brake, but I figured 8 was a fair compromise for an 00 gauge layout. The brilliant Lima Class 101 - this little DMU must be Lima's finest hour with its flush glazed windows. Great little runner too. Class 86 pulling an early Freightliner train. The Freightliner containers are from Scalescenes and look quite good for a humble card kit. A ViTrains Class 37. Great runner but growls a bit (just like the real thing). No WCML scheme would be complete without a 'Hoover'. This is an upgraded Lima Class 50 - I should have renumbered it, but liked the D400 preTOPS number. A new motor has been installed for more power - now to try and resolve the pick up issue - any advice on this would be most welcome.