Tony Teague

Located two further images, these from November 2014; both show visiting rolling stock from my train set, the first being a Southern Railway Bulleid TPO set, hauled by a Hornby King Arthur. I particularly like the drill to the right, which if I recall was Rob Davey installing the fence posts along the top of the embankment on the down side! The TPO was built by Mike Radford and was in his, now moribund, Marc Models range: The second image was probably taken by you, and shows an SR, ex-LSWR Ironclad set, probably hauled by the same King Arthur; these coaches were built by Ian Willetts from Phoenix kits - with the exception of the buffet car which was built by Mike Radford - and exquisitely painted and lined by Larry Goddard. It seems unlikely such stock ever appeared in reality at Little Bytham! Tony

Despite regular visits I have very few images of Little Bytham, probably because we are either too busy playing trains or I am watching you repair some of my errant locos! Anyway these are all from July 2018 when I think you must just have done your 'LNER retrospective': Those first two are 'normal' shots whereas the next two have the dubious distinction of being focus stacked! Finally I have one from May 2010 which must have been taken at my request, by you, with my camera, as I am in the shot; I wouldn't normally 'expose myself' in this way (so I have removed my head!) but it is the only shot I have that clearly shows what progress has been made since that time: Hope these are of interest! Tony

Me too - although my doing it for friends always amused my own late wife.

Great survey Andy, simple & clear. I suspect that the subsequent correspondence on here tells you as much about the mindset of (some) modellers as the survey itself🤪

Thanks Bill I think I'll refrain from getting out the Dremel! Tony

Seeing this immediately brought to mind a Southern passenger van that I have which I believe was constructed from a Mallard kit (left one of the pair): This pair were given to me by the guy who built them and I was told it was a Mallard model - I think it is of an ex-LSWR passenger van of 1923 to d.2104, excepting that I am not sure whether it should also have louvres in the bottom of the doors. Nevertheless it is a nice model that looks the part in a mixed van train or a short passenger rake. The model looks to be of a similar vintage to the one you are building. Tony

Yes, sounds like a simple but significant improvement (I hadn't yet noticed!).

I recall that I was allowed a fridge to put cold drinks in but refused a kettle on the basis that if I could make tea in the railway room I would never go back in the house!

The postman brought me an interesting parcel this morning from those nice people at Kernow Models; this is what it contained: A pleasant surprise because this was only ordered in November. This is what was inside the very nice packaging (no, this is not an 'unboxing' video!): It is SR, ex-LSWR cross-country Set No. 253 and at first sight it looks very good - dare I say it, a lot better than the Kernow / DJ Models Gate Stock of 4 or 5 years ago. The 3-car set comprises two 4-compartment d.124 brake 3rds, plus one 7-compartment composite coach: The set has yet to emerge from the box but I'll post some further pictures once it is on the track. I am sure that someone will review it in the meantime and point out any errors but my impression is that it really looks very good. Receipt of this set brought me to thinking that although I have featured some of the coaching stock that operates on the layout before, it is some years since I have done so, and whilst this includes some 35 'fixed rake' numbered SR sets (plus a few un-numbered rakes such as the 'Golden Arrow' etc), only 9 of them have ever been shown here. So, as a bit of a diversion from progress with scenic work I intend in the next few posts to illustrate some further coaching stock sets of varied quality & pedigree! Tony

Looks a bit plush for a workbench - more like a cocktail bar!

SRG have a range of Ironclads in the Phoenix range, however if you take a look at their website you will see that they are not currently taking any orders, so how useful this information will be, I am not sure: http://srg.org.uk/phoenix/ (I have a couple of Ironclad rakes based on their products from back in the day when they actually delivered stuff.......) Tony

Not that I'm aware. The only ports with 'linkspans' allowing trains to be loaded onto ferries were in SR or LNER territory.

I'll brace myself for a problem!

The most recent pause has not been down to that old mojo, which I am pleased to report is alive and kicking! No, its just that I've been busy and life got in the way of modelling. Over the weekend have now managed to repair all of the 6 pairs of terraced houses that were damaged when being removed to fit the new, low profile, Stowe Magna Manufacturing building as well as completing the site clearance: Aside from the street lights which will need re-seating and their connections checked, a number of the houses had lights in them, mainly grain of wheat bulbs, wired in series pairs, and these were all disconnected during removal; I have taken the opportunity to re-wire them in parallel as they really were too dim to give much light. Four of the pairs also lacked chimney pots and some residents had complained of smoke inhalation, so this too has been fixed. At the end of today the first four pairs were back in place, with the last two ready to follow: There will then be some further detailing to do, paving to re-lay, wiring to re-connect beneath the baseboards etc, plus I have decided to replace the low wall and gate to the right of the new factory building as it now stands out like a sore thumb! In an ideal world I would probably have replaced the houses themselves, but with so much to do I felt it better to put my efforts in elsewhere. Tony

I have, as they say, 'several' Hornby T9's and I have not experienced this problem with them - whereas I have on Schools, West Countries etc.

That must be more or less 'pinhole' size - which would have infinite depth of field. I don't think there is anything like that available for Canon. Tony

What about the Night Ferry in SNCF blue on diversion?

I tend to agree but there aren't too many lenses that will get down to F36 !

I paid a most enjoyable visit to Tony Wright's Little Bytham this week and took along a couple of locos that had recently been delivered: Mike Edge's C14 no.3744 looked superb shunting a couple of vans on LB's goods dock, whilst No.21C134 'Honiton' performed exceptionally well in hauling a heavy rake of Pullmans: Taking these two to LB could be regarded as a high risk strategy since I had not had time to run either of them at home - but I was relived that they both performed faultlessly! I have not previously shown the West Country on here but in fact it is one of a pair delivered only a week ago, being the last two kits that I had with Chris Phillips who has retired; he both built and painted this pair. The PDK kits have been modified with some Albert Goodall / RT Models parts and whilst someone will probably tell me that they are still not accurate, they are certainly a lot better than the rest of my WC / BB fleet which are all based on two Hornby RTR models. Tony

Morning Tony Although it is only 3 days since my visit to LB, some 5 pages have been added to Wright Writes and so one has to look back that far to make any picture comparison - and as I predicted at that time, your images are far superior! (grovels....) Nevertheless here are a couple - my only excuse for background 'fuzziness' is that one setting on my camera seems to have changed itself such that only 8 images were available for 'focus stacking', whereas I would normally have taken between 30 and 90; I have no idea why this happened but it I must have inadvertantly pressed a button - pure incompetence! The second image of No.3744 on the goods dock is a single shot, not stacked. Thanks again for a most enjoyable visit! Tony

I suppose one might consider that I was running a risk in taking two locos to LB that I had not had time to run on my own layout - particularly as TW does sometimes cause things to malfunction simply by walking into the railway room (well mine, anyway)! Nevertheless I was confident of both your work and Chris' - and fortunately, my confidence was justified!

Yes, Mike Edge painted the C14, as well as building it from his own etches - which will shortly end up in the range of Judith Edge kits. The PDK West Country was built and painted by Chris Phillips who has (sadly) just retired from doing this professionally. No guesses as to whose images will be the best! (No time yet to process mine - but yours are to your usual excellent standard!) Thanks to you and to Mo for a most enjoyable day as ever! Tony

I wondered whether it was another gender identity with which I was unfamiliar? (No offence intended to the LGW community).

Will do, although being a male person, 'reading the manual' does not come naturally!

You learn something everyday! Thanks.