manna

G'Day Gents I like the conversion, I will be doing it one day, But, to make it a bit more realistic, get yourself a large dome (off of an old J50) and fit it to the Stirling, Mr Ivatt started to fit domed boilers to these engines around 1900, so by 1950, she would have had about 15 different boilers by then. manna

G'Day Gents Oh so, North London, and GN to boot, and with your time scale (1958 ?) you can still run the 2 Ex GN loco's, J52 and C12 that were exhibited at Noel Park Goods yard, in spotless condition, and be prototypical. Great layout, keep the pics coming. 10 out of 10. manna

G'Day Gents I think, Ratio did a tender that you could use on a 3F, I know one sat on my 3F for 40 years. manna

G'Day Gents Always look forward to your updates. manna

G'Day Gents A small update on the Railcar, I now have the railcar screwed together, I actually dropped it the other day, by accident and it stayed in one piece, lucky eh ! I've cut out all the cutains out of 5thou plastic card, and not knowing there colour, I painted them light green (Humbrol 80 matt) these once painted I glued behind the window frames (see pics) that's the inside finished, just a bit of filling to do, then painting. manna

G'Day Gents By the time the Baby Deltic's were being withdrawn, they had an 80% availablity, about the best they could manage, but as has been said, being a small class........... I never got to work on a Baby Deltic, the last one I saw working ( the Blue one)was on Christmas Eve 1970, when it came on shed at Kings Cross (Passenger loco) stayed there over Christmas, and left about four days later, back to Finsbury Park, and was withdrawn in March. manna

G'Day Gents And at the other end of the spectrum, here in Booborowie (South Australia) today is going to be + 42c-43c, a day for staying indoors. manna

G'Day Gents Is it true, that you have set up Grantham in the turntable pit, just so you can have a bit of a bank up to Stoke tunnel..........wonderful manna

G'Day Gents A good looking bunch of pictures, it was worth it in the end...............I hear that Tea, is good for weathering paper manna

G'Day Gents Was it going for scrap !!! manna

G'Day Gents I used to work car trains from Dagaham to Finsbury park, most would have been 'Cartecs', but we did get the odd flat car carrier, a lot were made out of old coaches, with the bodies removed, a lot of the cars 'looked' as if they were only held by the own brakes, but if you look carefully, you will see wooden wedges nailed to the floorboards. manna

G'day Gents Been working on the J1, I made another boiler out of a bicycle pump, it's the right size, made a couple of splashers, and I've had to cut the cab down as I had made it 2mm to tall, here's a couple of pics. manna

G'Day Gents Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Still working on the Railcar, but it's getting closer to the end, the coal hopper and new air vents have been fitted to the roof, and old BR Mk1 bogie has been cut down to make a trailing bogie, and when finished will look fairly close to the real thing, I've a packet of press studs to fix the motor. Anyone know what colour the curtains were in the railcars ?? Also renumbered a Bachmann V1\3 to 2911, as she was shedded at Kings Cross for a while in the 30's, and 'may' have worked to Edgware. Here is the first pic of my new build an LNER J1, She has a old Airfix N2 chassis, stripped of almost everything, the body will be plastic card, the tender will be powered, ex Hornby Schools unit. manna

G'Day Gents Another update on Edgware, bit to hot to go outside at the moment (46c forecast) but I did manage to get out to the shed a couple of weeks ago, I did some ballasting in the goods yard and have been plastering the forecourt and roadways, I've started to rub it down, ready for scatter etc. I bufferstopshave been taken out as whist looking at some old pictures I realised that the branch had been shortened in the 1930's by about 75yds and a new concrete retaining wall was built across the track bed and a new building, put up across the old trackbed. Here's a couple of pics. manna

G'Day Gents Money's ready, I'm ready, minds set, SWIMBO don't know.................how long can it last !!! manna Merry Christmas all

G'Day Gents Some great pictures, I agree that the dirty lamps look best, I've only got four lamps .......and there still in the packet. LOL Merry Christmas to everyone. manna

G'Day Gents Great build, enjoying it big time, another way to cut out the valance is to cut them with a pair of 'Pinking shears' or a pair of nail clippers. manna

G'Day Gents When I used to sit up the front of a diesel on a filthy wet and windy night, straining my eyes looking for that tiny tiny little green (hopefully) light 30 feet up in the air at Tempsford, how we wished the new colourlights had taken over from these ancient semaphores, but a couple of months after they had switched the new colour lights on, we begain to miss the old semaphores, they just gave something to the scene, that was the railway, and the sadness of all those empty signalboxes all cold and dark. manna

G'Day Gents A totally plausable explaination, I suppose in real life the headshunt was 300yds long !!! manna

G'Day Gents Looking at your lovely new building and the weathering and the proximity to the double sided buffer stop, I would'nt mind betting that before the bufferstop was put in place, something was derailed and hit the building (probably using the siding as a short cut) the lines of the brickwork suggest that a Wagon derailed, scrapped along the wall until it reached the window, the double sided bufferstop was then put in place to stop it happening again. manna

G'Day Gents Looks just like tarmac. manna

PS, I finally managed to get the pics out of the camera, amazing what you can do with a can opener and sock filled with custard hope there of some help. manna

G'Day Gents Thanks for the replies, Jonathan, I painted the floor, a light brown, a kind of generic lino (Humbrol 110 matt) the seats (Humbrol 70 matt) and under the seats in matt black, I'd give you a colour picture, but at the moment I can't get the pic. out of the camera. manna

G'Day Gents Been playing around with some tenders and with the seats for the railcar, heaps of the little beggers, your mind tends to wander after the first half dozen, but I have finally finished the seats and glued them to the floor, I've started on the end panels for the inside of the railcar, hopefully the inside will be finished by next weekend, here's some pics. manna

G'Day Gents Hi, EN, I made a GN cab in brass once, for my Q1 Long Tom, I still have it, it's about 30 years old now, I will use it one day, on the Long Tom ! I've only done one with the beading round the cab, first I found the thinest plasticsheet I could, then cut strips about .5mm -.75mm, and then glueing the strip to the edge of the cab, it's very fiddley and you may have to do it in pieces, I left mine overnight to dry, I then gently filed it back with a fine nail board, till it's just proud of the surface, remember the thickness of the paint though, I should have left mind a little bit prouder manna