Mike

Modelling has taken a backseat after suffering a severe ear infection which caused facial cellulitis and me to collapse , requiring paramedics to attend, then Doctors visit, followed by hospital. I’m now on the mend and after next week will  hopefully be back in the workshop. I have treated myself to a 48XX a bargain from Rails at 40% off. I choose 4814 a loco I had many a footplate ride on back in the day. When as 1414 it shuttled back and forth between Stourbridge town and the junction. Happy days. 

Just a bit more work on the Pulsons factory just placed on a bit of 5mm LitePly  showing rail side and road side elevations. Plus an LMS

Gunpowder van that still needs finishing.

The factory grows, photo shows how the jigsaw fits together. Okay, it's just a lash up and plonked on some spare timber, but at least you can get an idea. Windows will be fitted once detailing and painting is completed. Now for a few days away visiting family and friends.🙂

Just to show it's not all about buildings here is my 0 gauge Agenoria kit built model of Asbestos a Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0 locomotive which is part of my fleet of industrial locos. The actual Locomotive is preserved at the Chasewater Railway.

Work on the factory has started now Hookton isn't going out until Star wars day. photos of the limited progress with buildings just placed together on a layout shelf. As an aside I haven't asked my good lady to paint a backscene as I couldn't afford the commission fee.😁 

Pulsons office building almost but not quite finished still more work required. plus a bonus photo of my Wife's latest watercolour. Sorry about the rotated images resize screwed the up.

Work on the office building continues back not fitted to main carcase yet as more work is needed. parapets still need completing as all the stone and wood paint work . Unfortunately having resized the photos they are all on their side.

Pulsons Office building under construction, embossed Plasticard on order to complete the back and roof. Lots of tidying up required before painting and doors and windows fitted. Point work built and baseboards ready to start track laying. Just need to complete the 7 show bookings starting with this weekend 2/3 with Hookton Riverside and I can get back to 7MM standard gauge

Thanks Jim, we are Okay other than the usual old bones. I have had a health issue with an ear infection which took over two months to sort out and a cancer removed from my the outer part of my right ear (6 weeks of chemo) which now seems to be OK. Having 4 baseboards 3X3ft and 1 4ft plus 5 0 gauge already built and tested points plus track I'm going to forsake the narrow gauge and use the track plan  and concept for an 0 standard gauge  layout. I will stat the build asap after the Redditch show first weekend in March. 

cheers - Mike

Trackplan as promised albeit a day late. Duel gauge track on bottom track only 

A arf bostin ower mate.👍

In order to keep the layout to a 4ft (1200) x 18”  plus traverser I have designed the track plan as narrow gauge with a standard gauge interchange siding. Transfer will be done via a transporter wagon.  I will post the track plan over the weekend. It will allow me to use my 0 gauge standard gauge locos and my narrow gauge, hopefully 🤞 the best of both worlds. I have built 2 of the 4 points already just need to find the time needed to make the other 2 plus the  inlayed track.

A couple of photos of Cruickshanks in Camden Street Birmingham which show Heaton House within which I had my office as Works Manager in the mid to late 1960's. This forms the basic idea for the model of Pulsons.

There is an answer to a question that goes "I think the answer lies in the soil" well I can reveal that the technical people at Pulsons have in fact just done that i.e. A newly invented fuel cell taps into naturally present, and ubiquitous microbes in the soil to generate power.  Now while the Americans have also produced power cells with a similar process, the power generated is very low. Pulsons have perfected a fuel cell that generates high power. Of course this process remains extremely eyes only top secret. 😉

I do have a couple of diesels😱, but kettles will be allowed within the yard fitted with spark arresters. Control will still be analogue with manual turnout operation. Well with me having diesels you can’t expect me to move completely over to the dark side Oh the Fulminator is now the mark 10  👽

PULSONS AMALGATED MUNITIONS

Fulminators – Particle Beam Accelerators - Interocitors

Hemlinford Hundred, Warwickshire, England.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Birmingham is the little-known company of Pulsons. This rather unassuming factory built around what was a once grand Georgian house produces some of the most initiative weapons of the 20th century (an off shoot of Churchills funnies). Served by rail via a discrete branch line from the Great Western Railway using its own small fleet of locomotives (ex-Central Shires) it quietly goes about its business supplying the clandestine needs of nations armed forces with small and potent products.

The factory was formed in 1804 by Elijah Pulson with his with Anabel (nee Spare) and has continued to flourish. The company is now in the capable hands of John and Peter Bragg (I.T specialists) who continue to trade using the original company name Pulsons. It is through these two brothers that the creation of Particle Beam and Interocitors has been possible. Unlike attempts by other companies the Pulson Particle Beam and Interocitors have been   miniaturised to products that would fit into a laptop case. The design and manufacture of these products being on a need-to-know basis.

The name board only displays the Company Name not the product names as shown in the heading.

Okay it’s just another of my flights of fancy for a modified version of my old Reely Grate micro, but with a little more operational interest. It also serves me with an opportunity of creating the back story as I get as much pleasure from that as I do from building the model.

I have had the privilege of exhibiting 13 layouts at Warley from the early days of the Harry Mitchel Centre to the NEC. Knotts Landing and Wantage, Mount Pleasant, Lenches Bridge, Ashwood Basin, Spinners End, Pattingham, Reely Grate, Primrose Hill, The Saltwells Branch, Wellington Street, The Wallows, Wallows Pit and Hookton Riverside. So 3 in 4mm, 1 in 0-16.5 and 9 in 0 scale. Mount Pleasant did 2 shows at the NEC. Why the list, well I saw the same faces doing their incredible work over all that time. Of course, supported by local club members and now they deserve a well-earned rest. They have an absolute incredible work ethic and I for one cannot praise them enough. My thanks to all of the Warley Club and a special thank you for the fantastic Bread Pudding.

I’m going to be busy over the next couple of months. Tidying the ballast, changing the magnets and all the couplings. Finishing the coaches and the bogie wagons. March will be the Redditch exhibition first of the 7 shows now booked for 2024 and I had considered retiring from the show circuit, how silly was that.

A very interesting day working on the fiddle yard rebuild after the Solihull Exhibition. The cassettes proved to be troublesome as the succumbed to the changes in humidity and warped, so instead of being flat they rocked end to end. The new arrangement see fixed track and points, I say points as one failed along with the Bluepoint unit quickly replaced and rewired so all is now well. Just a little scenic touch up and a new Pub sign to make and finish the bogie coach  before Warley. I might even have a day off.😁

I was thinking of retiring from exhibiting after Solihull and Warley but I have already received 4 invites for 2024 including the 7mm Narrow Gauge Associations Burton on Trent AGM show. Ah well! perhaps now turned 82 I think I might just call it a day once I turn 83. Oh! now hang on a minute the last show of the 4 2024 bookings is December and I will already by then be in my 84th year. Might just have to reconsider and start planning for 2025.😁

New cassettes built from modified Intentio kits ready for the Solihull exhibition on the 11/11/23  this Saturday. Shake down for Warley in two weeks time. 4 shows already booked for next year.

Hookton Riverside at the recent (7-10-203) Cradley exhibition. The coach in the photos is only a stand-in and will not feature at future shows.

Update number too many to count. Hookton Riverside in the workshop. One base unit showing the public side and the other showing the removable shelf from the operators side. Lighting in place this locates in two pockets fitted on the back of the backscene, the workshop needs to be tided so that there is nothing to spoil any proper photos. The first 3 pics have the light on with the workshop lights off the last photo is just natural daylight.

Today I have mostly been playing trains and just a bit of modelling or should that be mostly modelling with a bit of playing trains. Ex Vale of R look-a-like locomotive needs a clean and the crew now painted adding but on a commercial chassis runs great.

Just a little more progress, station building needs weathering and fire buckets added. The platform needs benches, lights and populating.