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My most recent project is not very ambitious: a coal merchants office for the yard. It is based very closely on the Scalescenes kit, however I modified the window to suit a prototype I found on the far right of a picture of Kings Heath Station, just because I liked it. I realised having completed the build that it is quite similar to a OO gauge kit given away by Metcalfe on the front of the Railway Modeller a couple of years ago. The brick work is just the Scalescenes original however I put the arch in over the window using The Gimp. The roof is home made from a photo, squared up and joined in to a larger sheet also using The Gimp. The chimney pot is a white metal casting from Langley. I can only find the OO gauge ones on their web page but I picked the N gauge ones up at a show. The gutters and down pipes are Ratio. The overgrown ivy is Woodland Scenics. The coal merchant will fill a gap at the back of the yard.

I have been making some more coal wagons for a friend's Irish project. The first attempt were slightly too narrow because some idiot (me) got the dimension wrong on the 3D model. Having fixed that we now have a models of 3 different types of wagon and the beginnings of a coal train. The wagon chassis department is apparently working at peak capacity assembling etched underframes. The 3 wagons are subtly different, one design has two doors in the middle while the other two have a pair of doors on each side. I can fit three wagons on the bed of my Anycubic Photon as the wagons are just less than the width of the bed. I have found that printing them at a 20 degree angle, and adding a tiny hole in the floor seems to give the best results. A close up of the end of the latest batch shows the diagonal layers, but they should be very easy to hide with a touch of paint. I think the tiny 'pressure relief hole' in the floor is helping to avoid layer issues cause by the suction effect of the wagon body on the print bed. You can (hopefully) see the differences in the body work when the three models are put together. Top is the four door variant with one type of door strapping (the top being a T shape on its side). Middle is the four door variant with the other form of door strapping (the top of the strapping being an L shape). Bottom is the two door variant. I'm looking forward to seeing what they look like with a chassis underneath. David

I finished my row of cottages. I used the kit T019 Row of Cottages from Scalescenes. I used the 2 kits: the TX 07 aged brown brick and the TX47 Coursed rubble. The Scalescenes textures are used for the wall, the lintels, the gutter, the downpipe, the roof base and the chimneys. I did not want to use white window frames. The alternative choice were the windows from the small cottage kit from Smart Models. I used the black and blue window frames. For the roof I also used a slate roof texture from Smart Models. Doors, the net curtains and some of the curtains I created myself using pictures from internet. The were made to size and sometimes I altered the colour a little bit. Chimney pot are from Dart Castings and Smart Models. The coursed rubble is scribed using an embossing pen. There is a light weathering on some parts. The roof is more weathered. I toned down the whole roof with a neutral grey pastel from Schminke. And I weathered the roof further with a chromium oxide green (Schminke) and a yellow ochre (Rembrandt). For the weathering of the chimneys I uses a dark neutral grey, looks more brown (Schminke) The cottages will be used in a small diorama based on a short story from Agatha Christie.. I will publish this when finished.

It's 1954 and another cold start to the day at Pensyflog. Mr Pritchard's woodbine smoke hangs in the cold air as he pauses on his morning walk to chat with Mrs Williams. What could they be chatting about I wonder... maybe Richard Burton on the radio narrating the recently deceased Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, or how her garden looks uncommonly colourful for the time of year, or perhaps more likely they are just talking about the weather

Spent Wednesday covering everything with what looked like Cornish china clay, but was far less romantic: Hobbycraft air-drying modelling clay. It gets everywhere. However, I filled the 'four foot' almost to my satisfaction, and must now pluck up courage to attempt not to glue up a point. Thankfully, it takes about a fort-night to dry, and it is freezing cold and snowing outside, so a good reason to find something else to do, or at least start wondering whether the cracks will show under a couple of layers of acrylic paint. Such a shame I had to dismantle everything for this task. It all looks so offensively untidy!

Quite a bit of progress has been made on the chassis. Despite some setbacks, this has now reached the stage where the inside and outside valve gear is all complete and temporarily fitted. The outside cylinder/valve gear assembly still need the rear cylinder relief valves re-fitted (I had to remove them because they were interfering with full forward travel of the combination levers) and drain cocks to be added. Here we see nearly everything reassembled to see how it looks and check for any clashes. Dave.

Be it through the work of Ivo Peters. Norman Lockett, or any of the other renowned photographers of the Somerset & Dorset, it's often commented that the northern section of the line was rather better documented than the southern half. Lacking the drama of the ascent over the Mendips, with generally less dramatic scenery, and fewer goods trains, perhaps it's no surprise that the locations south of the border were not so well captured. Even allowing for this, few stations were as shy of the camera lens as Stourpayne Marshall, despite having all the hallmarks of an attractive prototype (and note please the correct spelling of Stourpayne, a local quirk), with a station building in the Dorset tradition and strikingly similar to that at Shillingstone. All right, that''s enough made-up cod-historical cobblers, what's going on here? Hopefully, both more and less than meets the eye! Back in the dawn of time, when I started this S&D blog, which has been dormant since 2013, my intentions were clear. I was to build a new layout in a 12.x11 foot room which would be a strong nod toward Shillingstone, while incorporating aspects of one or other S&D locations in the same neck of the woods. My affection for the S&D has been nearly life-long and rooted in strong personal connections. My dad was a native of Shillingstone; my great grandfather was a porter at Blandford, and I myself was born in the week that the S&D closed. As a consequence, my significant birthdays all fall happily close to major celebratory galas at the West Somerset Railway. Having made progress on the Spring and Winter modules of my layout, both of which were intended to evoke S&D locations, I started major work on the summer module in 2012. There I made what was either a fatal error, or a lucky masterstroke: in getting a feel for what the eventual scene might look like, I plonked a pre-built model of a GWR station on the platform. Suddenly it hit me: it was going to take years to scratchbuild the S&D structures, but I already had more than enough GWR stuff to complete a reasonable station scene. The plan then took a swerve: while the objective was still to go S&D in the long-run, for the "time being", I'd use GWR fittings and run GWR stock. To aid this, all company-specific fixtures such as platforms, buildings and signals were made removable. When the time came, all I'd need to do was swap a complete new set of platforms, etc, and off I could go with the S&D. But for some reason this has never happened. As time has passed, I've been doing s bit of introspection and asking myself what was the flaw in the original plan. Eventually I realised that there was never going to be a time when I felt like building a completely new set of platforms: just far too much work for any given weekend, when I could be doing something else. So with that in mind, I decided to back off and re-think my parameters. What did I really want to achieve? After a while I decided that while I still liked the idea of running S&D trains, I could afford to be a bit "broad brush" in my interpretation of the scenery. It's not an exhibition layout and it's not being presented as a paragon of finescale modelling, just a setting in which a variety of trains won't look hideously out of place. So could I get away with using the existing platforms, including the fences, painted in GWR light stone? The Southern used a shade of light stone for fencework, and while I'm not sure what painting instruction held sway in pre-nationalisation, perusal of photos of ex-LSWR and S&DJR subjects suggests that faded stone doesn't look out of place, especially if contrasted with lots of green. I also satisfied myself that, while wooden fencing was widely used, iron fencing shows up a lot as well. With that settled, I decided to begin developing a set of replacement parts to enable King's Hintock to be quick;y switched to Stourpayne Marshall. The steps so far are roughly as follows: Above: the layout in GWR mode. Next step: swap running in boards, remove water cranes (replaced with drop-in patches on the platform) and swap the main building for a shelter. This little shelter was cobbled together very quickly using some recycled parts from my old layout Wyvant. Bachmann made a nice model of the Shillingstone shelter, but I wasn't quick enough of the mark with that. The next step sees the removal of the GWR shelter on the other platform. And its replacement with a new length of fencing, plugging in to holes in the platform. I damaged this bit during photography so will need replacing. The GWR pattern footbridge is then removed, and a newer one put in . This Ratio bridge is quite LSWR-like in its design and was in fact the original bridge on King's Hintock, before being repainted into Southern colours. The lighter shade is still GWR stone, which I think sits surprisingly well with the green. However, covered bridges were not typical of the S&D so a concrete example is likely to end up here, which will be more in keeping with the theme. Attention then turns to the goods shed and associated yard. The shed and its foreground area are removed, leaving just the long siding running the length of the platform. What to do about that? Nothing, is the answer. The siding remains, but it now appears to terminate at a loading dock. The rest of it runs hidden under the raised forecourt of the new station. To which Bachmann's Shillingstone model is added (announced long after I started work on the layout), along with Ivo's Bentley and a Hants and Dorset bus! One minor headache is the buffer stop at the end of the long siding, proking out from the edge of this grassy knoll! However,, thanks to a free gift from one of the magazines, a grounded van body comes to the rescue. I cut a notch in the hidden side of the van so that it can drop over the buffer stop and screen any sign of the rails. Much more remains to be done, of course, but hopefully these images give an idea of the plug-and-play philosophy. The signals are still GWR lower quadrant, and for the time being that;s how they'll remain, standing in for LSWR block-post lower quadrants. Luckily both upper and lower quadrant signals featured on the S&D, right up to closure, so they don't snag my eye as being obviously out of place. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to continuing with my S&D adventure ... a mere seven years later than anticipated.

I have been watching listings for the six wheel Stove R on that well known auction site. I have succumbed and ‘won’ one. From its name I imagined that it was perhaps a train heating van that the LMS had designed for use with the LMS twins. Dapol Stove R in company with Bachmann ex LMS BG How wrong can you be! A check with Jenkinson and Essery shows that the Stove R was Sir William Stanier’s first design for a ‘Full Brake’. It was a Period III design and appeared in 1932/33. It was a six wheel vehicle– the precursor to the more familiar 50ft BG. The name ‘Stove R’ is because the vans were later fitted with a central stove to keep the guard warm – we can imagine. The Dapol model dates from 2010/2011. It was commissioned by Ian Allan Publications and marketed in their periodical, the Hornby Magazine. There is a comprehensive thread on RMweb from the time detailing modellers’ expectations and listing various perceived shortcomings in the model – too many door hinges, too wide, wheels too small – the list seems endless. If I had read this thread earlier I might not have been so keen to purchase said van! Dapol Stove R – underside as received In my view the biggest problem with the van is that it doesn’t stay on the track. It is a six wheel van and Dapol provided pivoted axles at both ends with a centre axle that can slop around vertically (my words). There is no self centring mechanism provided. Once the pivoted wheels have turned into a corner they can stay stuck in that position and derail at the first opportunity – usually the next turnout. The outer axles pull off, there is a screw to remove first before removing the centre axle The outer axles can be pulled straight off the underframe. The centre axle has a clip on cover which hides a set screw which has to be undone before this too can be lifted clear. Use of double sided tape A quick fix is to lock the pivoting axles in the ‘straight on’ position by using a couple of strips of double sided tape. The top of the underframe showing the coupling mechanism The second issue that I have with the van is the so called close coupling mechanism. Dapol have provided a pivoting coupling mechanism to prevent buffer locking on tight curves (I am guessing ‘train set curves’). In my opinion the mechanism does not however ‘close the gap’ on straight track. Press here to release the body from the chassis To ‘get at’ the coupling mechanisms the van body needs to be separated from the chassis. Remove a 2mm long section from the front of the coupling pocket To bring the couplings inboard I used a snap off blade knife to remove a 2mm section from the front of the coupling pocket which I then refitted it at the rear of the pocket – holding it in place with the prongs of the coupling. If your knife slips and you do not end up with a 2mm section to clip behind the pocket you will need to revert to Plan B and cut a new section off a spare pocket as supplied by Bachmann with their straight couplings. Couplings moved ‘inboard’ by 2mm So far so good! What about the 12mm wheels? Like other modellers I was not happy with the 12mm diameter wheels as supplied and I would fit 14mm size. This requires quite a lot of cutting and filing and in my opinion shouldn’t be necessary for such an expensive little van. Mark the centre axle carrier before filing / cutting slot deeper I scribed a line on the centre axle support as a guide to providing more ‘travel’ for the centre floating axle. Drill and form a rectangle with a craft knife In order to fit 14mm wheels it is necessary to cut away some of the supporting structure for the axle guards. I started by drilling a hole and then using a craft knife to form the necessary rectangular slot. These pictures show just how little of the original material is left. The finished centre axle guards, I used a ‘truck tuner’ to form recesses for a standard 26mm pinpoint axle As supplied by Dapol the centre 12mm wheel set does not have extended axles and relies entirely for support on the centre pillar. I could see no point in cutting the ends off a standard wheel set and instead formed pockets in the plastic axle guards with a ‘truck tuner’. I used a craft knife to elongate these holes to allow some vertical movement. The centre wheel set – complete with 14mm diameter wheels I used a similar procedure for the outer pivoted axles. Outer axle guards – one side complete, the other drilled and ready to be cut out My plan was to use Hornby 14.1mm wheels – but would these make the ride height too high? Stove R on Hornby 14.1mm wheels with Bachmann Mk1 Suburban In my opinion the Stove R with Hornby 14.1mm wheels was too high. Did I have any other more suitable wheels? Poor man’s callipers I don’t possess any engineering callipers – instead I would use an adjustable wrench and a steel rule to measure across the jaws to check different wheel diameters. Yes, the Hornby wheels were 14.1mm as stated. My Jackson turned brass wheels measured 14mm diameter. Bachmann coach wheels measured somewhere between 13.8 and 13.9mm. My Bachmann wheels on a steel axle did not run very freely – maybe the angle on the point was too steep. Instead I used some old split axle sets which have a very narrow pinpoint bearing. As currently running with Bachmann ‘14mm’ split axles at either end and a Bachmann steel axle at the centre The view above shows the current favoured arrangement with split axles at the outer ends and a steel axle in the centre pillar. A word of warning - the underframe detail is all very delicate! Stove R on Bachmann 14mm Split Axle wheels with Bachmann ex LMS BG I have attached some views of the Stove R fitted with the Bachmann ‘14mm’ split axle wheels coupled to various coaches. Stove R on Bachmann 14mm Split Axle wheels with Hornby Super Detail Stanier The biggest height discrepancy comes when the Stove R is coupled to a rake of Bachmann Mk1 Suburbans – who would know which was correct? Stove R on Bachmann 14mm Split Axle wheels with Bachmann Mk1 Suburbans Revisiting Jenkinson and Essery gives a prototype height, top of rail to top of roof, of 12ft 4 ¾ inches or 49.6mm in 4mm scale. A rough check of my rewheeled model indicates a height of 50.6mm – an increase of 1mm equivalent to three inches on the prototype. Luckily very few Bachmann or Hornby models can be relied on to be exactly the correct height –so the Stove R is in good company and you just need to be selective as to which wagons and coaches it is coupled up to! http://youtu.be/1s7xrASTVPA I am pleased with the final result – well perhaps not final as I still have to sort out the brake shoes. Like so many models from past years the brake shoes are moulded next to the axle guards rather than being placed in line with the wheels. It is a minor discrepancy but one that is proving difficult to correct. Watch this space! Parting shot – Dapol Stove R with Bachmann ex LMS BG Addendum 31 July 2015 Buffer height above top of rail - Bachmann 14mm S/A wheels I have added a picture attempting to show the height of the buffer relative to top of rail. According to the comment below from John Tomlinson it should be a touch under 14mm. I shall let you judge - the camera had to be positioned at a slight angle looking down.