ScottW

I thought I'd give this blog thing a go with the intention of letting the community see what I am working on. My main modelling interest lies with the North British Railway which I choose to model in S-Scale. Progress is normally slow but I'm glad to say there is progress and to prove it here are couple of items I have actually managed to finish, running on Maurice Hoppers' Country Boards. Scott

Phil, Both myself and Jim Guthrie trawled through past editions of the Gazette to find some history on the models, and their builder Bill Hall. All the information was written up in last February's edition of the Gazette. Scott

Phil, Your touch up has improved the paintwork but unfortunately in reality I think it will take a little more work. What you see in the picture is the locomotives best side, the other side is not quite up to the same standard. If you look closely you can just about make out from the photograph that the side tank is a slightly different shade of green from the rest of the body, I think this was done when the loco was re-numbered. What you also can't see from the photograph is the minor damage to the rear buffer beam which will need sorting out and over the years some of the smaller detailed parts have come away. The paint will have to be removed and some remedial work carried out with the soldering iron. Regarding the chassis, I would prefer to build a whole new chassis with split frames, suspension and finescale wheels. The current wheels look to be Romfords with the centre drilled out to accept plain axles. Yes, it might be possible to re-profile them but I would prefer to try and obtain a new set, with the correct number of spokes. Unfortunately I can't comment on it's running quality as I've not tried to get it moving. Scott

David, Attached is a photograph of an S-Scale class P 0-6-0T. This model was built in 1958/59 by Bill Hall and is now part of my collection. Built for stud contact current collection and wheels courser than todays finescale standards. It's my intention to build a new chassis for the loco, and to give it a fresh coat of paint. I'll be needing some wheels so would be very interested to hear if you go ahead with the project. Scott

Mike Gilgannon's layout is one that I would certainly like to read about, not to mention the lovely models he made. Mike was a true craftsman and certainly one of the unsung hero's of our hobby. Scott

It will be interesting to see how printed plastic wheels last the test of time. I was quite surprised to hear that someone has actually produced a gun, that fires an actual bullet, using the Rapid Prototyping process. Maybe the process is stronger than we think. Scott

And for something North British. An NBR 0-6-0T Class D (LNER J83). (Photographed by Barry Norman) Regards, Scott