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Back to the M-set. Here it is on another occasion, this time heading towards Plymouth behind 5975 Winslow Hall, slowing for its station stop at Stoke Courtenay. Not many takers for Plymouth but quite a few waiting on the other platform for the next up service. John C.

Yes, just the look I've been after since the start. It's as if they had a rule stating," No coach shall ever be marshalled next to a similar one"

Ok, credit where it's due! Thanks for that clarification Martin. I was going by a memory of something you once wrote about your 85a days, narrowing the gauge through crossings - maybe I mis-remembered!

Hi Geoff Sounds like exactly where I was and how I was feeling back in 2012. I've still got one or two items I bought then, opened to examine, took fright and stuck back in a drawer, just as you describe. But many others I eventually got round to making a fist of, as skill and confidence grew. Re your specific questions: 1.Martin Wynne has already answered the one on 00-SF (or 4-sf as he now prefers to call it, for reasons I entirely understand but haven't quite got used to!) Martin is the go-to authority on the subject, as its progenitor and champion. 2. The dense foam underlay covers all the bits of baseboard that have track on them, so you're right, it's not chamfered in line with the cork. (I'd thought the combination of cork and foam, total depth about 5 cm, would give good sound insulation. It doesn't, or not much, but I then found I rather liked the rumbling of the trains anyway.) 3. The backscene does drop just a little bit below track level behind the embankment (see my last post above, second pic of the pannier) but most of the background in that area is covered with trees. Cheers, John.

A short break from coaches - but they'll be back! Here's 8750 class pannier 3603 with Newton Abbot brake van 36560. The Oxford Rail AA3 Toad has had surgery involving new ends to make it look like a ... er, like an AA3 Toad. OR are a very welcome addition to the RTR market but they need to raise their game a bit in the research department. I found a new camera angle for this second shot, on the up platform end ramp just in front of the water crane. Those hooks on the bunker might be crying out for a fire iron or two. John C.

A few more of the revised M-set, including the new E88 and the quite new C16, behind 4908 Broome Hall en route from Plymouth to Newton Abbot. I usually lean over backwards, sometimes literally, to avoid showing anything outside the layout, but that makes it hard to show a complete train in one shot, even one of only four coaches. John C.

Sorry to mislead you Rob. The others are right. It's Appendix Vol. 1. The pic I worked from was Fig. 304 on p121, but other shots taken at Kingsbridge include Figs. 62, 76, 256, 336 and 372. Not that they show any topographical detail of Kingsbridge - just some trees & bushes behind the coaches. Could be OOC, Kingswear, Thingley (wherever that is), Henley or any other of his favoured locations, but it does give some idea of the types of stock that worked as through coaches to Kingsbridge and how they appeared in the late 1940s. Cheers, John.

It's in Appendix Vol 2 Robin (I think Appendix Vol 1 is the special purpose vehicles). I've shut the loft for the night and left the Russell books up there, so I'll check tomorrow, but I seem to remember the pic is on p. 121. But anyway, the whole volume is set out in diagram no. order. Cheers, John.

And here's the E88 compo in service. John C.

Sorry Geoff, forgot to answer this bit. No, there's no super-elevation. I considered it for a fleeting moment only. I had no intention, desire, time or patience (or skill) to install compensated wheels and bogies. Of course a bit of cant can be added while photo editing - especially if your camera angle's taken you the opposite way and it looks like your train is leaning outwards!

If you leaf through the Russell volumes it's surprising so many pics are recorded as taken at Kingsbridge, post-war. He, or Mike Longridge et al, must have spent a bit of time there at that period mooching round the sidings. John.

Here are the 'official' photographs of the latest addition to stock, E88 composite toplight coach 7567. There's a photo of this vehicle in Russell, Appendix Vol. 2 at Kingsbridge in 1950 in GWR livery, riding on 8 foot American bogies. I don't find these easy to build to a satisfactory standard at all, and the final close-up no doubt reveals a lot of flaws, but I do think my results are slowly improving. Anyway, usual disclaimer re 'normal viewing distance' applies! The last photo also shows the Dart Castings/MJT bogie steps, which are very nice little fold-up brass items. I've also added them to the Shapeways 10 foot Dean bogies on my C22 toplight third, and will retro-fit them to siphons etc. with American bogies. I won't bother painting the bright metal buffer heads. Within the coach rake and with close-coupling they can't be seen. John C.

Thanks @Biggles Dog for kind comments. No, it's never too late. And you say you have masses of models and kits, which gives you a flying start. I started the layout with no stock whatsoever and gradually acquired models of suitable prototypes as opportunity allowed. Having completed the layout I'm enjoying myself retrospectively bringing them up to an acceptable standard. (Acceptable to me, that is. Others have higher standards I know!) So go for it and let us know on this forum how you get on. Best wishes. John C.

Extremely inoffensive I must say.

Lovely video. Shows all your work coming together nicely. And nowt wrong with that 14xx now.

Yep, loads of pics in the Russell volumes of toplights in BR red & cream with W prefixes.

Forgot to add these two, showing the gangways within the train. The sprung buffers help on the tighter curves! John C.

Having built a couple of Slater's toplights some time ago I'd learned some lessons, the main one being that they're far too sophisticated for a bodger like me! So first things that had to go were the bogies - I'd never get those put together and working in a million years. So I used some 8 foot American white metal castings I had in the spares box. I didn't find any bogie stretchers, but soon made a pair from layers of Plastikard, which also served as mounting for hook & loop couplings and vac/steam hoses. The buffers too went on the scrapheap in favour of some ready-made GWR sprung coach buffers from MRD. The next things were the gangways. Ingenious things of joy and beauty for a skilled craftsman but I don't want to spend a fortnight making a corridor connection. I was about to deploy a couple of those rubbery PVC-type ones from some old PC kits (a bit fiddly themselves) when a thought occurred, I had a couple of Keen Systems ends for Hornby clerestory coaches! The scissors gangway was sawed off the ends (easy, with the soapy plastic or resin from which they're made) and then attached to the coach with the floating end plates supplied. After a lot of adjustment to hooks and bars I got them to work well in the train with gratifyingly close coupling, and able to negotiate the inside radius of Peco curved points on the way in and out of the fiddle yard. So the aim was achieved - gangway connections with no 'daylight' and a representation of the scissors typical of these earlier coaches. Next - painting and glazing. I always find glazing the hardest part. John C.

Thanks Colin for kind remarks. John.

These two were taken just before I got my teeth stuck into the current toplight build. King Henry V meets Knight of the Grand Cross. John C.

..... that goes up to 11.

On the workbench at the moment in this 'year of the coach' is a Slater's E88 toplight composite. This will replace a Hornby Collett compo in the M set which plies between Exeter/Newton Abbott and Plymouth, adding a bit more variety to that stopping train. There's a little story here. A while ago @A Murphyof this parish let me know he had four of these Slater's kits which had been in store for a long time and were in need of a good home. Having liked my earlier stab at a couple of toplights he thought I might provide it. Mutually satisfactory terms were very quickly agreed, so now I have enough of these kits to fulfill my coach building ambitions, and no further need to spend hours searching and bidding on eBay! I'm grateful to Alastair for giving me first refusal, and hope he will think I've done justice to these lovely kits when he sees the results. John C.

I'll have a pint of whatever he's drinking please.

Many thanks for this kind mention Robin. Much appreciated. Andy Y has done me proud again.

Thanks Robin. Must say I was rather chuffed to learn that it's been chosen to feature among such illustrious company!