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But Castles are nice too - in fact, along with 45xxx tanks, my favourite locos. Here are four pics of Laira's 'Tiverton Castle' on an up express from Plymouth. (First thing I must learn is how to make the camera focus on the loco rather than the gas lamp!) Whoops! - just noticed that the advance up starter is 'on'. Guess 5041 is slowing to a halt due to trouble in't' tunnel. That's my story anyway. John C.

Indeed there is - those classic Maurice Earley pictures never fail to stir the soul. The most iconic non-photo image might be the well known 'Speed to the West' poster, as depicted here on my mug of tea. But have you noticed that the artist portrayed the outside cylinder casings in lined green, rather than lined black? Another favourite of mine is the front cover of Beck & Copsey's 'The Great Western in South Devon', (below) though there's no attribution in the book itself. Was this too a GW poster? The book sits on a coffee table and the image catches my attention every time I walk into the living room. Interestingly, in this one the artist has painted the coach ends brown (unless it was a very early use on his part of Railmatch frame dirt). Still, these minor errors are as nothing to the artistic licence I get away with! John C.

Thanks folks for positive response. So yes, I'll try to keep them coming. Here are some of Broome Hall on a westbound fast fitted freight. When I find the time (and the courage) 4908 will receive some weathering. Like many I'm pretty sure I'll be buying a Heljan 47xx. It strikes me that its introduction will be very good for suppliers of RTR vans and van kits. I certainly haven't enough to make a decent train at present. John C.

Been a while since I posted here so, if anyone's still interested, I thought it was about time to show that Stoke Courtenay continues to amuse me, with moments of deep satisfaction and relaxation alternating with episodes of cursing and frustration as I come up against the limits of skill, patience and time! To start with here's 8709 heading towards Newton Abbot with a goods train, while another pannier shunts Stoke Courtenay yard. And here are a few of King Henry V on a Penzance bound express. Messing about with a new (potentially capable) camera. Still on point & shoot at the mo, but really must try to summon up some enthusiasm for learning about photography. John C.

Seeing a pic of one without BR smokebox no. plate for the first time I have to say that I think I actually like it. It looks the part. But is the steam pipe properly attached to the boiler? And is the cabside plate perhaps a tad small? Might be just my eyesight. John C.

Think that's right. I emailed same suggestion to DJ after 48xx came out, but had no response. I'd be in the market for a dozen or two, having had little success in persuading other makes of screw link into that typical GWR 'stowed' configuration.

Wouldn't it be nice if they were available as spares?

Forgive me if this has been covered before, but I've just noticed that my one Hornby Collett in post-1934 livery (a van third) has 'Third' lettering on all passenger doors, both sides. According to my copy of Slinn this was discontinued after 1932 (though later re-introduced for more modern end-door stock, so the Bachmann Colletts are probably labelled correctly). So has Hornby got this wrong? The few pics in Russell of pre-sunshine coaches in shirtbutton livery would bear out Slinn and suggest so. I ask because I'm considering adapting a number of my 1928-34 liveried Colletts to the 1934 livery and wonder if I should retain the 'Third' lettering or obliterate it. (And any advice from anyone who's done this would be greatly appreciated!) John C.

Had heard the Mike Morant name but not seen the pics. These are great. A few frames along there's another shot of Kingswear shewing what I think is AA3 Toad 35650, which also features in the Beck & Copsey book, where it's shewn being shunted at Brixham. Good source material for those like me who are trying to bash the OR Toad into some semi-acceptable condition. John C.

Nowt wrong with them as such, but in practice rare as hen's toofs.

Spent a pleasant hour on Sunday afternoon catching up with Barkham Green, which I'd somehow missed before. Very nice layout, with beautiful buildings and street scenes etc. You're a prolific miniature architect & builder! I use a similar method to yours to make up GWR post & wire fencing from the Ratio posts, but using 5 amp fuse wire bought on a long roll (enough for miles!). Saves stripping layout wire or whatever. John C.

Just to round off this unwonted flurry of posts from me here's another aspect of Powsides - using the transfers only. Both these wagons form part of my 20 wagon coal train behind 2819. The first (Main) started life as an Oxford Rail 'Leamington Priors Gas Co.' wagon in bright red, which I'd bought just to see how the OR wagons went together. (Same as Bachmann, with solebar integral to the body). It was repainted black and the Powsides transfers applied - with far more ease than I'd expected, especially given all the raised strapping & rivet detail. I was anticipating making a right pig's ear of it, so was pleasantly surprised. The other one is a standard Bachmann 7-plank RCH wagon which was finished in early GWR livery with 18" lettering. I didn't make such a good job of this one, and you'll immediately see that the newly applied 'Ocean' lettering is a bit wonky. Another thing on the long list of stuff to correct 'one day'. On both these I used a weathered or dirty black (possibly Lifecolor?) so in the pics they look a bit more like grey. Would use a different shade in future, then weather down. But it shows that for many wagons one could do worse that applying Powsides transfers to whatever Bachmann or Oxford vehicles one could pick up cheaply. John C.

Thanks for this Rich. But don't you still end up with a 16' 6" wagon with a 10' steel underframe, or are we talking about different things? John.

An eclectic selection eh Robin? I particularly like the GWR drinking water tank wagon! Some seem to be on Dapol chassis, and from their own notes and the appearance of the items some are more authentic than others. Good to see something a bit different. Cheers, John.

A few more Powsides wagons in this train as a 45xx returns from the Earlsbridge branch. All four PO wagons here are from Powsides kits. I fit them with my usual Gibson wheels and modified short Bachmann T/L couplings, and add some weight to the underframe with little rectangles sawn from lead sheet glued anywhere out of sight they will fit underneath. Another thing I like about Powsides is that on the kit packet they advise of the nearest Humbrol colour match to the bodyside so you can match the solebar accordingly when painting. (Though they obviously don't have to do this for black wagons!) The dozen coal wagons used for these branch and trip freights all have removable coal loads made up in the time-honoured way from rectangles of card with coal glued on top with PVA, mounted on small blocks of balsa or expanded poly, so one can press them down at one end then lift them out. I try to remember at the end of a session to remove them from any newly arrived wagons in the yard before shutting down operations. I've found that the thing to be careful of is not to let the snug loads dislodge the hinges on end-door wagons (kit or Bachmann) as these are very flimsy. You lose a few! John C.

Correction!. These are these are the final pics of 8709 and its train as it heads out back onto the main line. In the 3rd pic the newly arrived coal wagons can be seen in the background awaiting unloading. (The pick up goods shunt isn't usually such a complete full sweep, but having added quite a few new wagons recently I've been doing intensive testing of wheel and coupling/uncoupling arrangements. I'm pleased to say that things are now working very well - touch wood! - with enjoyable hands-free shunting. The only thing I have to touch - besides aforementioned wood - is my wireless handheld controller.) John C.

Final pics of 8709 and its train. 1. Propelling outward vans & open wagons to couple up to outward cattle wagons. 2. Then positioning inward traffic in goods shed or by the crane as appropriate. The ex-LSWR van was bought on eBay from a chap trading as Unique Wagons. He'd made a very neat job of construction and painting. All it needed was new, shorter Brian Kirby-style couplings, Alan Gibson wheels on Proto87 brass axles, and a toning down with a brown wash. Saved me the tedious task of building it. (Only kidding - I quite enjoy making wagon kits, but with 16 or more unmade kits to get on with I'm not averse to the occasional short cut, especially when I see something this nice! Life's only so long.) 3. The pannier is now coupling up to the outgoing coal empties prior to attaching them to the onward train, which it will then pull into the yard loop, run round, and back into the short headshunt to re-attach the brake van. (For the first time I tried a filter with this shot while editing. Think it's called 'tropical'. Quite like it and will try some more, having seen others on this forum get some interesting results.) John C.

Behind the station they're about 80cm above track level at the highest point, and about 60cm above the top of the low cutting. Of course, it meant that the 'sky' element of the backscene then wasn't high enough, so it had to go. Hence the very plain sky ('Atlantic Mist' from B & Q IIRC.) The sky's blue right thru' in my parallel model universe, even though it's Britain! Another advantage of trimming off the sky bits along the profile of the horizon is that you can customise said horizon a bit - a bit snipped off here, an overlap there. John C.

Yes, I've still got 3 PO wagons on 10' steel underframes, lurking at the back of my 28xx hauled coal train. I intend to replace them with more authentic items from Powsides (eventually!). The Evans & Bevan wagons are ancient Lima bodies. The Diamond wagon is an older Mainline/Bachmann model. The printing of the elaborate livery is so damned good that it'll be a shame to bin it. My PO wagons are weathered, or at least toned down, with Vallejo washes. (Forgive my ignorance, but what's the "Buffers L/E wagon by Bachmann" you mention?) Cheers, John C.

Thanks sn. Those Gaugemaster backscenes have a very soft focus - the finished print is almost fuzzy. Together with cutting off and binning the bottom 75% of the landscape (to avoid the giant vertical green wall in the sky directly behind the track look) it gives a pleasing illusion of distance and, I think, makes the layout look a bit bigger and more spacious. John C.

And while I enjoy a beer and wait to be called for supper here are some more. Having retrieved the empty coal wagons (nearest the loco) the pannier now propels the incoming loaded ones towards the end of the coal siding, where the coal merchant's employees wait to unload them. Of the 8 coal wagons in view 4 are Bachmann, 4 from Powsides kits. Renwick Wilton no. 57 is Bachmann, 58 Powsides. They're slightly different of course, which might not be prototypical but which I quite like. In the final shot in this post the 57xx picks up outward bound general merchandise wagons from the goods shed siding. (I really must look at loads and tarpaulins for these open wagons. Bought some Smith's tarps at the MMRS show in December, if I can remember where I put them.) A few more PO wagons to come. John C.

Until today I hadn't put any pics on here for a long time. Partly it was due to a busy few months on other duties, so progress on the layout has been slow, but another reason was that I was increasingly aware of the shortcomings of my photography, compared with some of the wonderful stuff on this forum. Something had to be done. So I'm pleased to say that to mark my 70th birthday last autumn family and friends 'crowdfunded' me a wonderful digital SLR, along with tripod. I was going to hold off posting any more images until I'd got my head round it, but that's going to be a steep learning curve for a technophobe. I'll get there eventually. Anyway, in the meantime here are some more wagons. 8709 has parked the Toad in the headshunt, run round its train, and is now propelling it slowly into the goods yard, initially to pick up outward bound cattle wagons which it will place in the siding behind the signal box. The next shot shews one of those outgoing cattle wagons (the recent Hornby Maunsell model, toned down a bit with Vallejo brown wash), and beyond in the coal road four empty PO coal wagons ready to be picked up. The one on the right is from Bachmann, the others all being from Powsides pre-lettered kits - Plymouth Coal Company, W. Aitken & Co of Torquay & Dartmouth, and good ol' Renwick Wilton.. In the third photo 8709 has dumped the incoming loaded coal wagons behind the signal box for now and gone to remove the coal empties. John C.

In recent discussion of Powsides kits over on ANTB I mentioned that I'd recently made a few, and was asked for pictures, so here goes, along with other photos with a goods train theme. The first three pics shew 8709 approaching Stoke Courtenay with a pick up goods, including four PO coal wagons, and setting back into the yard loop after halting at the down advance starting signal. . Of these PO wagons only the last one (Bowden Bros. of Exeter) is from a Powsides pre-lettered kit - the others are Bachmann. I wanted several Renwick Wilton wagons, and had built a couple of Powsides kits before I realised that Bachmann had done them, and that they occasionally appeared on eBay. As is usual with Mr Shortcut here, laziness took over, so I now have a mixture. Subsequent posts will shew the Powsides ones. John C.

Ok, I'll dig the camera out this weekend and see if I can post a few on the Stoke Courtenay thread. Watch that space! John C.

Recently made half a dozen or so, but I obtained them some months ago. I noted on their website the other day that at least one wagon I had as a complete kit with pre-lettered sides was seemingly now only available as a transfer. I did wait a while for my delivery (they do them to order), but it was worth it - and if you order more than one of the same they automatically give you different numbers. Nice. John C.