M.I.B

I still don't understand frogs and point reversing polarity etc........ but I worked out by the age of 8 that you can't put in an odd number of diamonds in a Dublo layout. Something goes wrong with the current. There is a set of motor points to be fitted and some light signals. Might get round to that this week. I have put a board over that doorway so the stuff can be left out all week. The pair of motorized points were a good way to change running lines on the far side of the room or under a bed........

I promised to do this, and now that ceilings are up upstairs, and floors are reasonably clear........... This is where NC and I got started on the inevitable hobby: MIB Snr like most lads of his generation has trains, spotted trains, visited sheds, and he continued modelling right up until we brats spoiled and absorbed all of his free time. So it was a certainty that I too would become interested... After a little dabble with a 4th hand and very broken Triang trainset of sorts, the loft was opened and some brown boxes came down.. I got the use of Bristol Castle and Sir Nigel Gresley, the WR coaches and some goods wagons. With the aid of a Triang "converter" horsebox, I also ran modern (late 70s and early 80s) stock. Along the way I managed to convert a coal wagon and a van so that the Triang horsebox didn't have to appear in every train. Time went on, 80s Hornby took over than these items were put away for safe keeping. A couple of years ago I had all three engines sent for "remag" and they all work beautifully. There are quite a few pre War items: the tank engine, some GW goods stock, some oil tanks, and the Sir Nigel Gresley train. All packed in those light blue boxes. Lots of dark blue boxes for post war tinplate, and some cast 16t minerals, and a few red boxed plastic later Dublo/early Wrenn items like the UD 6 wheeler, the SR luggage van. It was great to see it all out and brought back lots of happy memories. The buildings and structures have outlived the Airfix engine shed and SuperQuick structures by a long time. Some of these items are pushing on 70 years old. And they still but a huge smile on my face as I think they would have to MIB Snr. Dublo is a world away from rivet counters - you can't do that with tinplate ironically. It's a land where facing points don't matter - you build as much as you can with whatever track you have, Engines of all eras and company branding run side by side - you can't pick and choose. I hope you are all healthy and happy.

Rich Loving the O13 work. Mine is sat in the box waiting...... Someone does lettering for the O13 in GW branding. I have a set. I have a feeling it is the same people who do the J12 sleeping car etches............ If it comes to me I'll let you know.

Shivering Sands (this one above) was home to the very famous and quite good Radio City - and previously home of Screaming Lord Sutch when he DJ'd, and a famous shoot out involving a retired Major and a disgruntled alleged owner of a transmitter.....this is believed to have been the last straw and the Marine Offenses Act was brought in and pirate radio (by then based on ships) became illegal.

Dealing with a dead dobbin, especially one in a stable or stable block complex is not a pleasant task. Due to the sheer size and rigor-mortis, removal in many cases would only be possible if the animal was made into manageable sized pieces. There would be a larger "market" for raw horse flesh in those days than now. Many more hunts about each with dog packs, zoos would take such meat, as well as police dog kennels, and dubious meat pie makers........

Stunning modelling and writing as usual Mikkel. A few "pointers" and responses to queries: Horses usually repeat their location for dropping manure: whether it be the same place in a stable, field or even a regular route. Seeing/smelling another horse droppings can sometimes cause a horse to produce, but of course only when it's ready - but that explains the postcard of the mews with the long line. Having the horse "produce" in the mews would be preferable to doing it en-route. You are correct on colour caused by input, and it does darken off quite quickly. Horse manure should not be used on gardens when it's fresh - it needs to age for 6 months or go into compost heaps. Manure has no discernible smell for at least a few days, unless it is mixed with urine. It is also quite a dry product, unlike cows'......... Straw is not popular with gardeners in compost because it doesn't break down very quickly: If straw is used as bedding, "skipping out" will only produce manure - the waxy nature of straw means that it doesn't really absorb anything, and a good yard hand will only remove the muck not the bedding. Some horses eat their bedding (which doesn't do them any good) so they would have a bed of wood shavings (in those days) or nowadays chopped flax stems or linseed stems. These beds are very absorbent and skipping out produces some very wet caustic product, that smells and rots everything. As Mikkel has beautifully modelled, a good stables has a drain system for removal of liquids. If left (or absorbed into absorbant bedding), that is what makes stables smell, attracts flies and can be the start point for equine diseases.

Hope you are all well - it's been a while.......... I'm digging wooden fence posts in (20 of them to do this weekend - 6 foot x 4"....) so I need distractions to get a break. There are another 60 posts to do over the next few years..... So I headed off to my "local" modelling shop: John Dutfield in Chelmsford. There is a Hornby re-seller much closer to me, but it is literally a toy shop. It was so good to go into a model shop, have a social interaction with the great staff (Ken and Heather) and as usual walk out with something which wasn't on my list. One impulse buy once saw me leave on my motorbike with a boxed 38XX stuffed down the front of my leathers.... I am as guilty as others of buying from shifters and resellers and sometimes forgetting my "local". The often do have deals better than the interweb prices, and if I don't use them, just like pubs and Woolies, they will be gone. Found a lovely LNER Banana van from Dapol which I couldn't resist. (It needs a heavy weather.) I haven't seen it elsewhere. Plus a couple of open wagons from Hornby. Both will get "replacement planks", and one will get coal. I hope that you are all happy and healthy.

I have no idea how I ever missed this wonderful layout! I am only halfway through the posts and totally in awe of the buildings, weathering and figures. Did you hand make the cleaners' platforms and steps for the shed?

I never planned on living in Essex either John, but it sort of "happened" (: I hope your man sorts it - sadly we can't get to North America at the moment. Stay safe and thanks again for the inspiration. Posts on here and on Robin's ANTB definitely keep the spirits and hope up. Regards,

The little scenarios and vignettes are wonderful John. Is the turntable to be replaced with something from Heljan? Thank you for continuing to inspire. Regards,

For those of you watching in black and white, the grey is behind the black..........

The final black and white photo really has tons of atmosphere. Lovely buildings John. Thank you for inspiring.

Thanks Rich. CCT only cover BR(W) transfers sadly. Good tip on Eileens though - might add a couple of ballast tippers to the PW train....

Following on from my comment about how nice it is to build Cambrian kits, I thought I would see what their latest offerings are....... just about all of their kits are listed as sold out. So keep hold of your crane - even half built there is a market for it!! As well as miscreants stealing dogs, puppies and kittens, there may soon be break-ins with herberts looking for Cambrian kits.

Last post for this evening, and maybe for a few weeks - house work mojo is back. I have a digger and dumper in tomorrow to dig some deep drainage pits in the field: drains the rainwater coming off the stables, hides lots of brick and tile off cuts, and gives me a few tons of topsoil to complete a protective bank. I will barely lift a glass by Sunday night let alone a scalpel..... I have made a start on the "central" part of the weedkilling train.... Three Mainline tenders. Two were definitely from 2251s and one I'm not sure about - the coal rails/fender are a little shorter than the 3500 Gal ones towed by Mainline's 2251s. It' 3+ years since I started buying items for this consist, and they did come in ones, twos and fours! So please excuse the lack of detail from memory. Out of the whole package of bits and pieces purchased I ended up making one working detailed 2251 for sale, another I kept, plus three tenders, and a rather tired broken bodyshell, which donated the cab you see. The sold item paid for all of the above and a set of Modelmaster numbers for the "bonus" Collett. That's the best way to come out of a deal like that. I have some white-metal buffers ready to fit on the engine end of each tender, as per the real thing. The only unknown at the moment is how to replicate the hose and pipe that ran over the top of the tenders. Metal guitar string was suggested by someone, and that's the best idea so far. Probably a low E looking at the thickness...... Tender tops will be plated as per real life, as will the cab windows. I am determined to do this one to completion before anything else. Must drop RailTec an email about the logos........... If you have given something up for Lent, there's not long to go. I gave up beer and biscuits and cakes. I have not lost any weight at all!!!! On what was Burt Munro's birthday (a distant relative) I hope you are all happy and healthy.

As I was putting Project "Shut It" away, I chanced upon an iphone box which I had not noticed in the rummage around the other day. It contained the PW crane made from the Cambrian kit. I made and painted this in Dubai a few years ago, but somehow had missed a few spots during painting. A note in the box listed them, and so this was rectified. This was a very fiddly buy very enjoyable kit to make. And it looks stunning in the flesh. So I didn't need much of an excuse to post these. And like all the Cambrian kits I have built ( sleeper carriers, and ballast hoppers etc) these just run away on the slightest of slope - the wheels and bearings, and "fit" of all the parts makes them roll so beautifully.

I spoke too soon: I thought I had made a start on Project "Shut It" but I hadn't done anything "constructive" other than source components - chip, painted crew, fall plate, and brass plates. So as it wasn't unfinished it has gone back into the crate. 6951 was finished after the successful chipping and soldering. The different blacks used are discernible but subtle. I am yet to see a photo of the 8 wheel tender with 6951, but I am extremely confident on this combination of liveries due to detective work on shop dates, allocations of the 8 wheeler etc. The full and correct history of the unique Collett tender still has a few small gaps and unknowns. But thanks to RM Web it is more correct than it was a few years ago. Tender still needs airbrush weathering...... the box was carved out to accommodate the extra axle, and additional height - the original tender top for the base engine was a 3500gal item. I think one day this tender may get a new top - this one has had a few too many minor repairs and a hard life on the tea tray during a time when my workshop has been busy coping with a house build and supporting the equipment broken or needing serviced during the process. I did say a page or two back that the best way to eat an elephant ...... I achieved it in the end and my modelling confidence has grown as a result. So much so that I have been hunting down my chips today, and looking at which ones need to be soldered to which engines......... A big thank you to John Dew once again.

Thank you all for the "likes" especially on the Departmental FRUIT D. I put on the brave trousers yesterday and fired up my new soldering iron........ the test piece was/were two short wires from each bus under the 8 wheel tender, through a hole in the chassis to the "chip side" (inside the tender). This then allowed the connection of the "red and black wires" . It's not pretty, so no photos, but the test went so well that I decided to also do the "red and black wire" joins as well. Same thing - not pretty but it works. The loco performed on the programming track so I consider this a success. The soldering iron ( a Draper 40W variable with stand) was recommended by someone on here, as was the leaded solder. Whoever you were - thanks - I think both made a big difference. I will finish the repairs to the tender top today and take some photos in the sunshine. The next long term resident in the work pile is "Project "Shut it" (aka Sweeney Hall) in unlined green. Then I really should be putting ceilings up.....

There is an amount of BR logo'd stock in the work pile (!!!!!) including at least two castles, and a Dapol Mogul.............. but nothing so late as............... a blue BR two way arrow 1970s FRUIT D! But it's currently the cheapest way of buying a FRUIT D if you are going to modify it. and then add one of these at each end: Drill a hole in the roof and add Evergreen rod for an exhaust - for an internal combustion engined pump.........and get the grey paint out: The Weedkilling train requires a "long van" but accurate details are scant. From the late 30s these trains featured a tanker of concentrated "nasty" which was pumped by an independent pump (in the long van), and mixed/thinned with water from one of three old tenders. This mixing may have been done at the "control cab" on one of the old tenders. Early weedkilling trains were pre loaded with "premixed" solution. Where, how and when - who knows. 2913 is marked up to form part of the London Division train. I have lost the photo on which the tanker for the concentrate was based on. It's very unlike the GWR, where you would expect to see a properly painted tank, with lettering etc. But this just had it's branding crudely and scruffily painted over in black...... Mojo is back. So much so that I want to do more modelling, and "stuff the ceilings"...... I hope that you are happy and healthy as Eastern Europe is swept by "The Third Wave"......

This was more of a morale job the other night - I really had lost my mojo for working on the house so I got stuck into this and felt a whole lot better afterwards: coupling removed Hook and Instanter fitted (Smiths) Tail lamp (Springside?) New allocation logo - (RailTec) Roof (Halfords) Dull (Testors) Then pop it into the box - and noticed the original pricetag: (!!!!!)

In the meantime a couple of purchases that caught my eye whilst looking for building materials...... The red UD milk was a Buffers limited edition run a while ago, and another 6 wheeler for my collection. The green liveried UD SR 6 wheeler is a current Hornby(!!!!!!) and I couldn't resist. I have over the winter parted company with a couple of the BDMRC Dapol milk tankers whose livery I never liked, despite trying. So I think I have space for these two. the PARTO for the same treatment as the milks - blackened wheels and that will be it. I liked this PARTO because of the "Return to" script. I don't have this version, so this just happen to come up on a longstanding automated EBay search for Bachmann vans.....The TOAD was for a project that has been on the backburner for a little while........

I have finished putting up all of the plasterboard partition walls, and decided that my shoulders needed a break before tackling putting boards up as ceilings........... As promised, (Impney Hall unnamed) with the 8 wheel tender will be finished......... The engine is complete and chipped. Sadly the tender has got a little damaged through living an extended period on the work tea tray. I have sorted out the pickups underneath, and testing on a live test track with a bulb has been a success, despite it not looking super sexy under the chassis.....Next is soldering on the red and black wires to the pick up bus. I re-used the 6 wheel Collett tender pickups and bus , which has worked well. Rather than chop up the existing Hornby wires and plugs and sockets to the DCC board and chip, I will just fold them all up. By cutting them I'm just adding in a number of places for wiring to break at a later date. The standard black wires will run from the loco, under the fall plate and into the slot above the drawbar. (pointed out by the scalpel in the photo) This has been padded out with BluTak to stop any abrasion and make the curves/transition smooth. (BluTak is over-paintable with Humbrol as you can see!) Once those jobs are done = and the top and chassis re-united, I will tackle the repairs to the front handrail and tender brake handle (Again). That then leaves a squirt of Testors and some weathering when it's outdoor airbrushing weather. I will do a completed shot........

An outstanding way to fill a corner!

Great buildings - very inspiring.

Lovely film Keith - thank you for sharing. Not a Hi Viz vest in sight. (: