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Recent work includes the completion of four Cambrian 'Herring' ballast hoppers in P4, which will be used on 'Callow Lane' (and in due course, my planned Forest of Dean cameo layout) and also on Re6/6's 'Parkend Marsh Sidings' layout: Here are the four Herring so far completed. All are unsprung and uncompensated, having established (prior to recent lockdowns) that this format runs OK on Re6/6's Marsh Sidings layout. As 'Callow Lane' isn't set up at the moment and as I can't visit Re6/6 to pose them on 'Marsh Sidings' either, here they are precariously balanced on my OO layout 'Bethesda Sidings': The part-loads visible in one of the above photos hide the fact that there is a quantity of liquid lead in the bottom of the hoppers of each wagon. There really isn't anywhere else on these wagons to put sufficient weight, in order to aid road-holding in P4. Without it, they would just be too lightweight and would probably keep derailing. I wouldn't even run such lightweight wagons in OO, to be honest. The two left hand wagons have removable 'full loads' of Whitecliff Quarry ballast and the two on the right will be similarly fitted in due course. Each wagon now averages 45 grams. I've also built a Chivers 'Ling', also in P4 and also not compensated or sprung, but also with a decent amount of weight underneath. Also posed on 'Bethesda Sidings': Also converted to P4 recently is this Hornby 'Toad'. Apart from a small amount of plastic that needs to be removed from the brake gear assemblies on each wheel, it was a pretty straightforward conversion, although I've also done this one rigid. A hole was also cut in the floor of the van area and a decent amount of lead glued inside, to bring the weight up to 50 grams. It's still awaiting weathering at the moment: Since the above photo was taken, the brake van has been re-lettered (using Cambridge Custom Transfers excellent product) to a Lydney van. Whilst I had the transfers and weathering powders out, I also lettered and weathered a couple of OO Grampuses and an old ex-GW 3-plank wagon (all built many, many years ago): Finally, I've recently had four P4 converted diesels back from Tom Foster, who has done an utterly brilliant job weathering them for me. Here they are, again posed precariously on 'Bethesda Sidings': All the diesels will be used on 'Callow Lane' in due course.

Tuesday again. Today’s top tip is a multipurpose tool primarily designed as a holding tool for jewellery makers, a ceramic black with tiny holes throughout, supplied with stainless (and mostly unsolderable) pins. Very useful for holding and securing work, protecting from heat. I got a twin pack, so the second doubles as a handy tool, drill, pin, wire, work and cocktail stick holder. I put it in a tin lid so the stuff doesn’t go straight through when you pick it up, but only after it did, once....

There is a strategy to my building 2 outside frames together. Firstly they both shared the Armstrong Standard Goods S4 boiler. The also had springs above the footplate which is a challenge I want to tackle in one go. And I intend to build 2 outside frame tenders that also share the spring issue. So the Armstrong Goods now has a cab and rear splashers: Smokebox, boiler and roundtop firebox: The Beyer Goods, being bits of old K's kits, is further on but I have now hit a problem common to trying to get old whitemetal kits to work in P4: The width across the outside frames is 29.5 mm Alan Gibson OSF axles are measuring up at 31.75mm. (Ultrascale OSF axles that I have for a Duke and a City measure 32mm) With 2.25mm to spare, this does not leave sufficient clearance to fit the AGW outside cranks which are about 1.5mm thick and then a bit more needs to allowed for sideplay. The solution could be to fit thinner, brass cranks (and I do have some in my stash). But I am not sure about the appearance and also the idea of soldering them to the axles fills me with horror. Eagle-eyed would have noticed that the above shot is the Armstrong chassis not the Beyer one. I have used the AGW axles on the Armstrong as, being brass, the frames are more slender. These wheels are actually Mike Sharman. Mike in his wisdom did not cut down his axles so I have a number of over length axles that I can cut down and use on the Beyer. My worry now is if I make them too wide, they could foul on the platform edges. At 34mm (which might be what's needed here) that's 8'6" which is near to the loading gauge. Watch this space. For some reason I seem to be choosing to build the most challenging of things at the mo. Maybe it's lockdown! I seem to have similar problems with my Metro builds (common feature the springs above footplate) . In the meantime, here's the current status of the two goods engines, the Beyer just needs handrails and then onto those springs. As this was just a few parts on eBay, it did not come with any springs or castings. The Armstrong on the other hand has springs on the etch that need o be laminated up. Next stage, the remaining 4 splashers:

Some photos of the poles planted in their sockets. I managed to get the spacing fairly even at 60 - 65 yards, the preferred Caley distance. The camera is much harsher about verticals than the eye, particularly along the length of the layout. People used to Glasgow might be familiar with the effect, tenements do tend to lean back a bit. The time to panic is when they start leaning forwards. I’m happy with the overall effect, I think the effort to make them Caledonian rather than generic ones was worth the effort.

We left the NBL 21 as a nearly finished bodyshell, here . The sticking point was the need to produce flush glazing for those large curved cab windows by hand. Finishing the loco was my first big lockdown project and turned into a bit of a fight. It wasn't really the glazing - like quite a few frightening jobs that didn't prove as bad as I feared. I had used the Shawplan window etches as a template for the shape, traced onto an old business card. (Before I glued the etches onto the model, obviously). I did this 3 times, to give me spares in case one window went wrong. These templates were cut out and fixed to clear plasticard, then I cut round . (I'm trying to remember whether they were held to the glazing with Pritt-stick or judiciously placed sticky tape. I think I may have done both). They were then filed until they went into the aperture and fixed in place with Rocket Glue and Glaze, which took care of any slight gaps between glazing and frame . Yes, ideally the fit would be good , but it looks perfectly ok at any normal viewing distance and in photos. The front quarterlight was also filed to fit - the rest of the glazing is SE Finecast Next for the chassis. I had sourced a Class 29 chassis frame and two Class 29 trailing bogies from Peter's Spares. I bought a Hornby Class 25 in blue as mint second-hand at Warley last year for about £50, and I robbed the 5 pole motor bogie out of that. (Before you suspect me of terminal cruelty to Rats, I then bought a Bachmann 25 with damaged handrails at Peterborough for £75, and the medium term intention is to combine the Hornby body with the Bachmann body to produce a super-douper blue Rat at a modest price. Ah, the days when we had shows, and could pile up more and more future projects that we never got round to doing...) Hornby Ringfield motor bogies were standard items across the range, so it snapped into one of the Class 29 bogie frames. The other bogie was rewheeled with Hornby disc coach wheels. This means a finer wheel profile with shallower flanges that don't catch and lift on stray bits of ballast on my SMP code 70 bullhead track, and has proved effective in preventing stalling on my Baby Deltic. Since there are traction tyres on the motor bogie the resulting chassis picks up on 6 wheels plus 2 crossed fingers. A spare Hornby weight - surplus from the Pacer I started long ago - was slotted into place. Those, too, were standard items at Margate. I fitted Kadees - long underset , from memory - to the bogies. The Hornby coupling is cut away, a plate of 40 thou plasticard glued underneath to bridge the gap, and then the draft box glued on top of this with solvent, microstrip packing round the sides if possible, and with a Kadee nylon screw inserted from below for added retention. I think I may have added a spot of UHU on the top to stop it working loose. While I was about it, I did the same to my old Hornby 29 which was detailed up years ago it a desperate attempt to find a main line diesel that would run reliably on Ravenser Mk1. This loco needs converting to DCC and my first attempt about 18 months ago failed ignominously, trashing a decoder. A complete rewire is needed: when it was first detailed I fitted Ultrascale wheels and all-wheel pickup, and something is evidently not right somewhere. This loco needs a damaged radiator grill replacing and I will probably have a go at reworking the cab front windows as well. The substantial difference in appearance this makes will be obvious from the photo below, and I have a second Shawplan etch in stock. While D6119 has a 3 pole motor and will never run quite as smoothly, this would at least get it into some kind of use. The "rationale" would be that the loco was appropriated by RTC for test train use after withdrawal in 1971, replacing the Baby Deltic.... A TCS T1 decoder from stock was fitted , programmed much in line with the Baby Deltic and test running began. There were problems. (Entirely prototypically, I might add..) It kept stalling. A prod was required to get it moving. I added more weight , because the thing seemed to be slipping. I played about with settings, but still it kept sticking in places. Sometimes it would run fine . Then it would start to stall and spin. After several days of frustration, tweaks and weight adjustments, the penny suddenly dropped. The wheels on the motor bogie had been eased out to 14.5mm back to back. This adjustment meant that sometimes the final drive gears to one axle would slip out of mesh. Hence the slipping and stalling. Nudge the loco and they meshed again. The back to back was closed up fractionally (it's now about 14.2-14.3mm) and all was well. Previous CV values were reverted to in the matter of start and mid volts. And now it runs as well as can possibly be expected from a 5 pole ringfield with traction tyres on one side. There are pickups to those wheels, but I doubt if electrical pickup is more than erratic. So we have 6 wheel + 2 pick up, rather than proper 8 wheel collection The underframe was then weathered, with washes of Railmatch Frame Dirt and Brake Dust, and some AK Light Dust Deposit on the centre tanks. And I wasn't happy. The problem can be seen by comparing the top and bottom photos - the bogies were just too bright orange. A further wash of AK Shaft and Bearing Grease over the lot knocked it back to something acceptable , though I left the sandboxes as colour photos show these as something of a tonal highlight. The second photo shows D6103 after the extra weathering wash. The loco is seen departing Blacklade with the steam-age engineer's train, my recently completed Toad B leading, and the engineers' ex GW 4 wheeler (Ratio) just behind . Set 4 (Hachette Mk1 + Hornby Gresley BCK) lurks in the background . I need to weather that BCK at some point. D6103 is evidently working test trains so the engineers at Derby (or should that be Toton?) can work out what the heck is wrong with these things. This one fought me all the way, but I now have another small short Type 2 that is pretty well bang in period for the Kettle Period. This final write-up has been part finished and outstanding for an indecently long time (D6103 has been in traffic since August) , but we are done. Sorting out the 29 is still outstanding......