Afroal05

GWR 2+4s are restricted to 100mph. If running as a 2+3 because a coach has had to come out for one reason or another the speed drops to a 75mph limit.

The Avanti press release: https://share.theappbuilder.com/qib7vv1671 The bi-modes should be to replace the Voyagers - although the diagrams will be interesting to see as there are 20 Voyagers with usually 18 or 19 diagrammed and there are only 13 bi-modes being ordered - and the electric only are to supplement the increase in the Liverpool services. I suppose some of those all electric units could free up Pendos to cover some of the diagrams Voyagers currently work on all electrified routes.

In the last couple of years I am aware of the following locos on steam hauled railtours having passed through Ravenglass on the Cumbrian Coast: Jubilee 5690 Leander Jubilee 5569 Galatea Standard Class 7 70000 Britannia Black 5 44871 and 45407 I don't believe Flying Scotsman has been down the coast for many years sadly (I think she was last there in the 1970s) although it's not impossible a tour with her will be scheduled there in the future, I notice 60103 Tornado has a tour planned down the Coast in 2020. I hope this helps/is of some interest!

It wasn't in there yesterday, clearly spoke too soon!

47323 Rover Group Quality Assured - This was a project that came about through a family connection and one that arguably drifts slightly off topic from the title of a 'Modern' Workbench. Through circumstance I temporarily moved in with my Dad and step Mother (what was meant to be 6 weeks and turned into 6 months!) and as all three of us work for the railway there were often plenty of railway conversations! One evening the conversation of named engines and curtain pulling ceremonies came up as I remembered the time I made a mistake and didn't diagram a driver to take a pair of powercars to a naming ceremony (more on that another day as I will actually model the powercar involved) and my step Mother recalled the time she was present at the naming of a locomotive at the Rover plant in Swindon as a representative of BR - she was heavily involved in the automotive flows at the time. On the 23rd February 1994 47323 was named 'Rover Group Quality Assured' at the plant in Swindon and the curtain was pulled by an employee who won a company competition. The plates were not on the loco long however and moved to a sister loco in 1996. A comment was made to the effect of 'Maybe one day you could get a model of 47323' - I don't know how seriously it was intended but the seed was planted! http://www.hondawanderer.com/47323_Swindon_Rover_Works_1994.htm (The original photograph I found that evening when I started my research). After much research I needed a 47 in Railfreight Distribution livery with a navy blue roof. Not long after I found one on an internet auction site at a reasonable price, not 323 but then that meant I had a chance to do some work on it! The original model is a very smart Heljan 47 representing 47245 'The Institure of Export' and this looked like quite a quick project to get done as all she needed was new numbers and nameplates... or so I thought. When researching the real loco I found that she clearly had a couple of amendments a few months after the naming ceremony, this meant I had to be quite specific about when I was going to model her so I have chosen within a few days of the naming - this is potentially at odds with my layout which is post 2010 but lets not go there! One thing I did notice though was that the cabside numbers appeared to be of different widths... As far as I could tell the numbers on the number 2 end appeared to have a wider spacing than those on the number 1 end. Sure enough when I ordered the transfers from Steve at Railtec he asked if I could send any reference photos that I was working from. I was/am very uneasy about the spacing of the numbers because it just seems odd to me for them to be different but as I can only find photos of the opposite sides 2 months apart and they are indeed different then I will have to settle for this! I admit I don't know enough about 47s/RfD in the '90s to have any understanding of whether this was a thing or not, I was even surprised to notice that the headcode box marker lights were different at each end - something I initially panicked about before noticing the model was the same! To remove the numbers and printed names I used a cotton bud dipped in thinners and then dabbed on some kitchen towel, this was something I found on RMweb recently and was a little apprehensive to do. With a little scrubbing the numbers came away easily, with some more scrubbing so did the nameplates. Unfortunately I was a little clumsy when doing the second side of the model and scrubbed a little too hard and took away some of the grey finish! I was very lucky with the chunk on the bodyside as this has naturally been covered by the new etched plate. Having dried off the sides of the body with kitchen towel I then noticed that 47323 in '94 did not have as many OHLE warning flashes as the model. Not only that but the model had the new style warning flashes where as the real thing had the old style back then. For the cab fronts and the bodyside I could cover these with the transfers for the old style flashes and use them to line up nicely but the model had warnings just next to the cab door and the real thing did not! These proved a real challenge to remove and the bulbous end of a cotton bud was not nimble enough to go right up to the cantrail stripe. I have sadly removed a little bit of the grey finish in some of these locations too! The photograph below is cruel and makes it looks a lot worse than it is... The loco data panels I did not touch, I did however inspect them under a magnifying glass and it was very impressive how legible the details of the printed original and the transfer replacement were. Sadly neither one is correct! The one on the loco is for a 47/7 and the transfer pack for a 47/4. I decided that you really had to get it under a magnifying glass to notice so left the original printed ones in place. I have always enjoyed applying transfers and these were no different going on like an absolute dream. Cutting out the name plates from the fret was a little more tricky, desperately trying not to bend anything. These were stuck down like before with a thing painting of gloss varnish on the back and then carefully lined up with tweezers and the tip of a scalpel. Pre transfers with the old markings removed: One end with new number and warning flashes in place: Cabside numbers (next project visible in the background): And finally the whole bodyside with nameplates and etched Tinsley plate: All that is left to do to finish her off is a spray over with matt varnish, a driver in one of the cabs (figures were purchased at Warley!) and a black smudge on the bufferheads as was present on the day she was named. Finally, a photograph of the inspiration for the project:

First train in the new livery is allegedly a 1033 departure from Euston on the 9th. Nothing visible in TRUST at that time yet. Not long to go now...

Knew I'd seen it somewhere, 238 in all over red. Not my photo!

I think it looks quite good with the red front end! I think I've seen a picture of 238 on Twitter, looks equally smart (and different).

Some of the new Hull Trains set too...

With GWR HSTs we used to have a Q path in the system every Monday morning to turn any HSTs that had been reversed over the weekend (or for any sets on the Oak that had found itself the wrong way round), if there had been an engineering block that had reversed sets either planning would try and calculate how many sets would be the wrong way round or a number of paths and crew diagrams would be put in to try and correct the fleet. This was also the case when we knew the sleeper would be required to go via Yeovil - which at one time was every 6 weeks. Today there isn't too much turning of the 2+4s because the routes they're covering generally don't have any opportunity to turn them. There is a correct orientation for them (TGS at the Penzance end) as it affects where the TSD is and now with the CIS systems advertising which way round the service is top brass are keen it is advertised correctly. As for PMH-CDF services most of them go in and out of Portsmouth Harbour with Fratton drivers although Westbury and Bristol West also sign all the way into the Harbour and do have some booked work during the day. I think all Fratton drivers sign via Havant and it is a utilised reversal point in the case of issues with the units. Reversing a unit via Eastleigh is probably the most common reversal you get on the Wessex. Generally speaking you get quite a good heads up about where a driver will fail a unit, the last one I had the driver called me after he left Brighton and said he wouldn't take the set beyond Southampton if I couldn't get it reversed via Eastleigh, in the end the WICC were able to accommodate a reversal at Fratton. But at least I was given plenty of warning! Defective cab cooling is a pandemic in the summer and we're now at the time of year where defective cab heating is causing a couple of issues too! But I digress... EDIT - When I say reverse via Eastleigh that is to reverse at Southampton Central and then go round through Eastliegh and Chandlers Ford

They're still stripping some units of their branding, the 1933 Euston - Blackpool was cancelled last Tuesday and the internal information given was '1P21 caped due to shortage of Voyagers. 221101 stood down to be de-branded' - disappointing to be cancelling services for the sake of a logo! Seatfrog may well be introduced or continued in the future, it has recently been introduced with GWR so First Group should be switched on to it.

Had a few days at the workbench recently, interspersed with night shifts which make my head feel like soup and not very patient! 37602 has been put to one side for the moment whilst I strategise about how to move forward, thanks to Jack for some ideas, and I shall hopefully get back on it soon. In the meantime I have been busy placing orders for lots of etched nameplates. It occurred to me that when looking at my fleet there are quite a few named locos and having recently purchased both Bachmann's 37099 'Merl Evans' and regional exclusive 37025 'Inverness TMD', both of which came with etched nameplates (and shed plates in the case of 37099), that they added a little pop to a model. I delved into my stock boxes and made a list of all of the locos I had and perused the internet and placed an order for a number of items from Shawplan... 73205 Jeanette - A lovely little model from Dapol although it needs some fettling as it is a jerky runner. Interestingly the etched plates are somewhat smaller than the printed ones, I haven't stuck them on yet as I need to figure out the best way forward! I was considering wiping off the old names with a cotton bud dabbed in thinners and then hoping a spray over the top with matt varnish will take away the gloss effect where the old plate was. Here is the size mismatch: Next up was a Heljan Western D1002 Western Champion for which the nameplates, numberplates and Swindon works plates came on the etch. Filing the little tags of metal from the edges of the name/number plates was easy enough but the works plates?! They were something else, so small and fine I was terrified I would drop one and that would be the end of that, lost in the carpet forever. Fortunately a steady hand prevailed and they were applied with no issue. My chosen method of sticking the plates down has been enamel gloss varnish painted on from a 12ml jar. With a nameplate I bought a couple of years ago I used polycement but had a little bead creep out from under the edges of the plates and when I tried to scrape it off I just damaged the model and made a mess. This time I painted on a thin coating of varnish making sure not to go too close to the edge of the plate and then gently placed in on the loco before nudging it with tweezers and pressing down to make sure the whole plate was bonding to the model. Generally speaking it has worked well and any that seeped to the edges is less obvious then the UHU I used last time. Following the Western there was a Metals sector 37, this benefited from a pair of etched BR logos and Tinsley depot plates, I didn't get an individual photo of this as I was on a roll! Next a pair of Tinsley plates for the fictitious 14701, a Class 14 in Loadhaul livery. Next was a class 58 in Coal Sector livery which has gained BR logos and the smaller Toton depot plaques applied to the class - these were another incredibly fiddly plate to file the tags off the edges. Next was a model that I've never actually run because I was bought it as a present and always said I would run it when my layout was finished... the Deltic Prototype. Unfortunately this one also proved to be a little bit of a problem. The plates match up wonderfully but the printed detail on the Bachmann model (which is 5 years old now at least) is exceptional! It is no criticism of the plate but sadly it just doesn't compare, you can read each line of the printed plate but not the etched one, which is a real shame. At the moment I have filed these away in a drawer and left the model as it is. Now I really ought to crack on and finish the layout... Finally it was the turn of a pair of Great Western HST powercars. Living and working on the Western I have a particular passion for the current day (post 2015) operation and have in my collection two full 2+8 sets, one in the FGW blue/purple and one in the new GWR green. The first powercar(s) I worked on was the Harry Patch commemorative set with 43172 in the Remembrance livery and 43154 in the plain FGW blue. I particularly liked these two as I was working in train planning at the time and drew up the drivers diagrams to work the powercars into Bristol Temple Meads station for the naming/unveiling ceremony - sadly I wasn't present. The model received etched nameplates and 43154 & 43172 both received etched Brush Traction plates as found on the driver's side. Initially I applied a plate to both sides of Harry Patch before realising all of my reference photos were of the same side of the loco! Further research and an enquiry to a former colleague who seems to know an encyclopedic amount about the modern day railway confirmed the plates were only present on one side. I hastily whipped off the plate on the secondman's side whilst the varnish was still tacky and managed to dab/smear away the residue so you can only see a slight mark under certain lighting. After studying a lot of reference photos I couldn't help but noticing that 43154 had a chunk missing from its side grill, the more I see photos of it the more I want to have a go replicating this but I daren't for fear of ruining a very expensive model! The Brush Traction plates were another eye popping exercise in concentration and steady hand work. Finally I purchased some etched GWR logos for the sides of the green powercars which are 43187 & 43188. The plan with these is to apply transfers to turn them into 'The Welshman' and 'The Flying Welshman' as they were branded up not long after coming in to service (initially we were told that the branding was only temporary however they are still branded up some 4 years later!). I thought that if I was going to add transfers and work on the powercars then it was only fair to add etched GWR logos like the real things! (GWR only added plated letters to 4 powercars in the end; 187 & 188 were part of the first set painted in to green - LA15 - and the others were 43005 and 43041 - these all initially had their numbers written on the cargo door at the rear of the powercar, subsequently the GWR has been done as a vinyl and the numbers written on the cabside.) I have had the Welshman transfers sat on the workbench for a while waiting for the letters to arrive. Well... this is another model that is going to require a little thought. Having battled to get the letters free from the etch without bending them I placed them on the model as a test. They don't fit over the original lettering! So either Hornby's printing is fractionally out or the etches are, I'm not pointing the finger at either. I did notice however that the plates had Bachmann written on the etch around them making me wonder if they were originally produced for their models of the GWR Class 57/6. I haven't progressed any further than this at present but I think my plan of attack will be to rub off the existing GWR with a cotton bud dabbed in thinners and then put the new plates on, transfers on and then seal with matt varnish... what could possibly go wrong! Just visible below (apologies for the less than perfect picture) is the new plate and the old printed GWR. With the letters on top of the Hornby printing the spacing is now incorrect compared to the real thing. A lineup of the models I stuck plates to in this piece, they've really added a nice edge to their appearance! I have already started a shopping list for Warley this weekend so who knows what will join the workbench queue next... if you're going to Warley this weekend I hope you have an excellent time! More soon...

37602 - This was my plan for a 'quick win' to get be back into the modelling groove and accomplish something I could have on the layout quickly. Some time ago I bought a Bachmann 37 shell (DRS 37405) and subsequently found a 'cheap' chassis online. The desire was to have a Wipac nosed DRS 37 and having ordered a pair of replacement noses from Rainbow Railways I was ready to get stuck in. The exact identity I was trying to create was decided based on the numbers I had in a pack of transfers I had bought for another project, from memory there were 3 different numbers I could have had for 37/6s but for whatever reason I chose 602. The instructions were simple enough (although subsequent steps I found to be vague!) and after a small application of force the old noses popped off. I had to apply a little more force than I wanted to and was rather worried the old noses would split or break somehow but they did eventually come out. A gentle test fit of the new noses suggests they will plug in fairly easily with little fettling. The next step as per instructions was to paint the nose yellow (they're pre primed allegedly) and out to the garage I went with my rattle can of Rover Yellow paint. Heeding advice previously given to me and a couple of light passes saw the noses completed. There's something about this particular shade I think comes out of the can very thickly, having used several other rattle can colours I haven't had the same experience but both cans of yellow seem to me to almost be splodgy. Fortunately I was happy with the finish on this occasion. Here they are sprayed up and ready to go... The next step was to paint the insides of the noses black to prevent any light bleed and to paint the light clusters on the front, once I had made sure I had a steady hand these were tentatively hand painted using a pot of matt black... There is just the slightest bit that has hopped over the edge of the light surround and onto the nose, I will try and correct this at some point! The noses really came to life with the black on and I was beginning to feel great about getting back into modelling. Next up you are instructed to make the toplight that has been added to the locos. For this there is a smart little brass etch. The instructions simply say 'Fold up the etch' - unfortunately for a neanderthal like myself this wasn't enough! Much inspection of photos of the real locos was done and some head scratching about which bit to fold first, whilst I'm aware that there are maybe only 4 folds to the etch I found this quite tricky and folded both of them up differently and had to examine them closely to figure out which one was nearer the right way! During this I noticed a couple of pieces of the etch getting quite wobbly and realised I now had limited movement before something snapped off! Once one was folded up I tested it in position and drilled out a 2mm hole for the wiring being careful to support the windscreen as I did as I found the drill bit had to work through the glazing too and I didn't want to break that! The next instruction was a smidge vague and simply reads 'feed the small 2mm optical fibre through into the inner cab and paint outer surfaces black.' Now does this mean you put the light into the cab (where it will be both visible and surely just illuminate the cab space? Or do you put it in the etch and feed the wires to it through the etch and cab? If you rest the LED in the etch the the bulb will protrude from the front but if the LED is in the cab then surely the lighting effect won't shine through the etch properly? I was most confused. I interpreted it that I needed to get the LED into the etch, so I tried to size them up... and they didn't fit. So I had now bent the front of the etch slightly too as cruelly highlighted in the above photo and had to reopen the diagonal piece of the etch that should have sloped up the windscreen face. Not totally flummoxed by this I decided that I could probably file the edges of the LED to make it fit... I duly did this and wondered if perhaps I had filed too far and the might have damaged the light and that the best way to test this would be to actually test the light... So to the railway room I went, clipped a pair of crocodile clips to the legs, turned the track power onto half power and touched the rails. For a brief moment the LED lit up bright enough for you to see it on the far side of the moon and then there was a small pop and a smell of burning. So that was the end of one of the toplights then in a moment of madness! Realising I had now broken one of the lights I shuffled off in a huff returning to the workbench later to investigate further how I thought the LED might actually fit into the etch, in doing so I broke a part off both of my etches. That was the end of that and all of the parts are still strewn across the workbench. I have sent an email to Rainbow Railways asking if I could purchase a new LED from them as I'd really like to hope I haven't killed this project completely! So much for an easy job! ************************** In writing this I have had somewhat of an epiphany, I suppose now I read it again that the LED is meant to sit in the roof of the cab painted black to avoid light bleed with the very end poking out into the etch, this will probably still create the effect of the toplight. Frustratingly I think both etches are now too vulnerable to nudge and shape again into the right shapes, tightly formed up so as not to bleed light from any edges that are not sealed up! Perhaps I need to purchase another set of noses and start again...a costly learning lesson perhaps!

So I've attempted to get some more things done over the past couple of days but I've hit a bit of a roadblock today. For most I think it's probably just another day but sadly 7th November is not a date I shall forget in a while! My Mum was always my biggest supporter when it came to my modelling and she was delighted to hear I was building a railway in my first flat after leaving home. When she saw the baseboards (just about) standing for the first time with a length of track wired up and a loco able to run backwards and forwards her reaction was 'You built all of this?! And it works and you didn't burn the flat down?!' - allegedly she never knew I had it in me Anyway, having married a railwayman many years ago she had become quite the fan on the railway herself, she had a particular thing for 37s and 20s (her whistling impression of a 20 was hilarious). Living on the Cumbrian Coast and with a house that overlooked the railway was perfect for her, she stopped straightening the pictures in the house because the next flask train would rattle them all out of kilter anyway! She also insisted on fuelling my desire for locos as well and birthdays and Christmases I must admit I was spoilt and was usually generously bought a loco from my wishlist. In November 2015 she tripped up out of the back door and smashed her right shoulder up pretty well, she was discharged from hospital but died of an embolism the following day. The following weekend I was at the Workington model show and the model at the top of my wishlist had just arrived, Bachmann's DRS 37405, which seemed rather apt considering her interests and what we used to watch roaring past from the bedroom window. After a little research I came across Narrow Planet etched nameplates, the chaps there were very helpful and by the time it would have been her birthday the following February I was able to unveil this... Shame about the slight glue bleed along the bottom edge! Normal modelling shall resume shortly I hope and I can update you on how I've managed to paint 3 models in the wrong shade of blue and yellow and how my 'quick win' project resulted in me destroying an LED and both the etched parts I had to use...

Thanks Jack, really appreciate it, your modelling is somewhat of an inspiration! I've attempted to crack on with a couple of things but they have not gone well as I will try and elaborate soon...

Aaaaaand I'm back! I can only apologise to those of you who have read and commented on this thread and the 5 of you who are following that there has been just over 7 months of radio silence! It was a couple of things that came about all at once; firstly I met someone and one thing led to another and we went for a date. From a past experience when my modelling was not, how shall we say, 'understood' by the other party I have been a little sensitive about my modelling and how it's perceived. We all have our own interests and that's what makes us interesting but sadly I feel modelling has a stigma. Anyway, wishing to seem 'normal' my modelling took a back seat until it was ousted when they came over and saw the workbench in the corner of the sitting room! Long story short it's worked out on both fronts and I'm getting back into modelling and they've even said they might go to Warley with me at the end of the month to try and see what all my fuss is about! Secondly and more positively I started a new job, same company but a promotion within the Control Room. I've gone from being responsible for the response to disruption from a passenger perspective and arranging replacement road transport to managing the fleet and making the decisions in real time about whether a train is terminated short, runs fast missing out stations or other service alterations. I've also got to make sure trains end in the right place for maintenance and exams. It's chaotic because my fleet of trains isn't the most reliable and my geographical area spans from Swindon to Great Malvern, Cardiff, the Bristol metro, down to Weymouth, Portsmouth, Exeter and Penzance (and a lot of branchlines in between.) It's a real challenge and one I've aspired to do for as long as I've worked on the railway but my gosh sometimes I leave work and I feel like my brain is bleeding out through my ears and sometimes the last thing I want to do is come home and manage a fleet of 1:76 trains! So back to modelling! I have a number of projects line up on the workbench, most of which I've had the donor models for some time and I was mid project on something when my hiatus began. To attempt to whet your appetite this is what I've got on the list to do: Revisit the DRS DBSO which need filling, sanding and potentially stripping the yellow paint from the front to have another go... 47828 The dummy runner DRS class 47 featured earlier in this thread. 37194 a dummy runner DRS class 37 using a Lima donor 37510 a respray of a Lima 37 into DRS guise (with working motor) There's another motorless Hornby 47 that's future livery is undecided, either a DRS 57/0 or WCRC 47 37602 with WIPAC lights and new noses created from a Bachmann shell 47323 'Rover Group Quality Assured' - a family inspired project using a Heljan donor A DRS Class 20/3 (I currently have a Bachmann 20 chasis) Many NR test train vehicles. The above is in no particular order and a couple of projects are already underway and hopefully I can get some pictures/posts up in the next few days as I'm on a week of rest days! But to conclude with a picture: I bought my first house back in August 2018 and earlier this year I managed to finally get myself set up with my first proper workbench rather than using any flat surface or the kitchen of my previous place. A trusty IKEA desk in the corner of the sitting room complete with magnetic whiteboard to keep track of projects (and stick information/guides/reference photos to). It is not this tidy anymore...

68017 sat at Carlisle awaiting the road to take the set ex 1Z57 Paignton - Carlisle onto Kingmoor for tanking. 68017 brought the stock back out of Kingmoor for 1Z58 Carlisle to Aviemore (hauled by 37409 & 37419) a couple of hours later. 27.09.19

Former FGW 43037 in new Scotrail guise next to the rearmost mk1 of the Autumn Highlander charter 28th September at Aviemore. The set was a refurbished set with sliding doors and Scotrail livery/vinyls - I must admit it looked rather smart!

37884 dragging 317501 through Rugby back to Ilford. I believe the 317 was post refurb (??) 18.09.19

57304 sat ready for action at a dreary Carlisle on 27th September.

A few from the Pathfinder 'Autumn Highlander' 27th-30th September: Firstly 1Z59 Aviemore - Kyle of Lochalsh on a photo stop at Strathcarron Next day and the pair stopped at Helmsdale for another photo stop on 1Z61 Aviemore - Thurso Tried being a bit artsy... And on arrival at Wick with 1Z62 Thurso to Wick. The locos had been split and were working top 'n' tail with the pair reunited at Georgemas Jn for the return to Aviemore that evening. (During the last run round 419 picked up the mother of all flats and thudded along for the rest of the tour) On the final day 1Z64 Aviemore - Exeter SD stopped for a booked loco change at Carlisle. 37219 was sat over by the wall and there was the oppurtunity to get 3x37s next to each other. Alas, I wasn't in the right place so that photo isn't worth posting!

Cumbrian Coast Set Mk2s - Having made a start on the DBSO and set that to one side my next task was to work on some of the mk2s for the formation. I had purchased a few air con mk2s when they were being flogged off by one of the big retailers and one evening set to work. First step was to remove the gangway doors at either end, nice and simple as they are held in place by 4 little dimples. They took a little persuasion from a scalpel blade but popped out nice and easily - although some of the pips sheared off and are still in the end of their respective carriage! I masking taped them all together to try and make them slightly less easy to lose. Removing the bodies from the chassis was equally simple - I did try a technique recommended to me by a friend to use the stick part of a cotton bud, flattened between some pliers, and these can be put in place next to the lugs that hold the body to the chassis prying them apart slightly. I find this saves my hands going all over the place whilst trying to ease the body off either end of the model. Perhaps I'm over complicating it! To strip the blue/grey livery from the coaches I tried a new technique that I had read somewhere on RMweb - isopropyl alcohol, or IPA. I bought a 1 litre metal tin of the stuff from the now defunct Maplins and poured it into an old washing up bowl which I covered with a bread board (ingenious or insane, you decide...). After a couple of hours I removed both bodies and gave them a good scrub with an old firm toothbrush. This stripped most of the original finish nicely and I ended up with a very faded blue/grey. Satisfied with this I left them to dry and put the IPA back in the tin. I did lose some of the IPA as it evaporates and I have since changed tactic and I use a tupperware tub with a lid that clips on, this has a good seal and so doesn't allow anything to evaporate away. Next step was to cover both coaches in primer - I used a rattle can with a grey car primer in. Once this was dry I applied the first coach of the blue. My choice for DRS blue was another aerosol can claiming to be a shade of blue for Vauxhall Astras! This seemed to my eye to be a fairly good match. Here are the coaches (with the DBSO) after a coat of primer: After leaving to dry and the application of a few more coats of blue I removed the masking covering the roof, masked up the bodysides and sprayed the roof black. With this done and looking a lot better than I had expected it was on to the doors. After some scrabbling around I found someones suggestion that the best colour match for the doors was a Revell paint. I popped over to my local WHSmiths which used to have a Modelzone in it, as it was closing down they were selling off their rag tag selection of stock. But absolute chance they had the colour I needed (and little else), so I purchased two tins. This left me with the daunting task of hand painting the doors, I was worried I would ruin my progress so far but on a wing and a prayer (and good fortune I imagine) it appeared to come out pretty well: The cruel nature of the photography shows up where there was some paint bleed but also where I had crudely tried to patch up bits of the paintwork with a blue Humbrol tin that was a poor match to the original coat for the body. So I masked up the model again and resprayed my original blue: (Please ignore the junk mail in the background... even if it does look like shoddy product placement!) One final touch up around the doors and it was on to my new favourite thing - transfers! These transfers posed a new challenge compared to the ones I had previous done on the 97, they weren't just warning flashes and data panels and contained a very large bodyside decal with the DRS stripes and logo. Deciding to bit the bullet these were the first ones I attempted to apply. After watching them loosen slightly on the backing paper I carefully lifted them out of the water with my trusty scalpel and tweezers, lined them up and slid away the paper. I did this in one fairly smooth motion for fear that if would go wrong if I faffed about too much. A little dabbing to remove excess water, some re-positioning and then finally wicking away the remaining water. The results: I gently ran the back of the scalpel blade along the long transfer to make sure I pushed out and wrinkles and air bubbles and nudged it if required to straighten it up. Et voila! There was only one moment with one of the bodyside transfers where a small tear appeared and by very carefully nudging the transfer around I managed to line it all up and settle the edges down so that it was not obvious. Carriage numbers, data panels, warning flashes, lifting points etc were all added. I must say, my best project to date and I am delighted, this has provided so much of the confidence I required to carry on with other projects! But there was one more thing I needed to do to finish the model - passengers! I felt that if I was going to respray the set I might as well go the whole hog and add some locals to travel on it! I found on that popular internet auction site that there is a business in China selling 1:75 scale people. Sure they're not perfect and the finish on them is a bit gaudy but it would give the right idea. Once the bag of people arrived I set about plonking them in seats... only problem was they don't fit without much butchery. Many legs were severed and some hips filed to be narrower. Liberal amounts of polycement were applied and the finished result: With that the glazing was glued back in to the inside of the coach bodies, the bodies clipped back onto the chassis and the gangway doors popped back on to the ends. I now had two mk2s from the Cumbrian Coast set! At some point in the future I will make up a 3rd to make the set the correct length but as my transfer pack only had enough for 2x TSOs and a BSO I'll stick with that for the moment.

NR Class 97 A couple of months prior to starting work on the DBSO I thought I'd have another go at detailing up a model. The previously mentioned 47 dummy runner was still sat on the side whilst I debated the painting issues so the challenge was how could I detail up or edit a model without worrying about painting? By good fortune Hornby brought out their Network Rail Class 37, or 97 as it is registered, with TTS. Now I'm still a DC modeller for the moment but after some enquiries with a friend they enlightened me that I could simply remove the chip and it would run as a DC model. I quite fancied a yellow 37 and so snapped one up. With it being a TTS model the mould is an old Lima one I believe and thus fairly basic but an excellent starting point. I chose not to get more etched parts to update the window frames, roof grills and fans because this would require some remedial painting but what I was able to do was renumber the loco and add some more detail in transfers. The original model not having overhead electrical warning flashes, lifting jack points, data panels or other details. I ordered transfers from Railtec and set to work, I would renumber the loco as well from 97301 as bought to 97302. Armed with a handful of reference photos I carefully scraped away at the old numbers with a scalpel blade. Now saying 'carefully' does not instruct you how much weight to apply other than to be... careful. I was a little heavy handed and have ever so slightly left scratches on one side of the model although these aren't very obvious. The answer was to use the lightest of scrapes. Having removed all of the numbers I dunked the new ones in water before removing them and carefully placed them on the model as per the instructions. To do this I used a pair of tweezers and the back of the tip of the scalpel to carefully pull them off the backing paper. Kitchen towel was then used to carefully wick away the excess water after the transfer was straightened to my liking. I actually found this incredibly therapeutic and I may have found something I really enjoy doing. All of the transfers went on with ease and after letting them all dry and completing the other side and noses I must say I was pleased with the result! I painted the buffer heads silver with a splodge of black in the centre to represent grease. I also painted the kick plate by the bottom of the cab side doors and this might be one of my favourite touches. However I did feel the model still looked a bit plastic and a bit yellow, which was a shame. Brimming with confidence from my simple accomplishment I decided that this model needed... weathering. Weathering - So like a bull in a china shop the next day I went out and bought some Humbrol weathering powders (because I was still fearful of using paints) and, after reading around about how to use them, set about stippling them on with a paintbrush. Well, it went okay I suppose, I was trying to fade a little black onto the roof with more around the exhaust port and a rust/oxide brown/orange over the noses as seen in prototype pictures. Dark earth was rubbed in patches along the sides. The black sadly looks more like the roof has been scorched than an exhaust-y dirt. My enthusiasm didn't stop there, I also took out a set of 3x HAAs and decided to brush down the sides with a good coating of black powder. With hindsight I didn't focus enough on the variation in the dirt on these wagons with some clearly showing the marks of where something has brushed horizontally along their sides whilst they've been going about their duties. I have another 5 of these somewhere so I will have another go in the future. My overall feelings on this weathering - needs improvement, more research into techniques required. Because of that I purchased George Dent's guide to weathering last week when in a book shop in Birmingham. The weathered 97 and HAA with a clean one for comparison: You may notice the windows on the 97 are no longer transparent - I decided that to seal the powders onto the model I would use a spray can of acrylic matt varnish. In a moment of foolishness I forgot to mask off the windows and so they are now cloudy... always a learning process!

At the moment the diagrams run up to and including Saturday 18th May although they've not been completed yet. There are three diagrams from Monday 29th April to Friday 17th May and four on Saturday 18th May although the weekend diagrams haven't been started yet so that will change. It's probably about another 3/4 weeks before the diagrams will be finished and confirmed. There are plans in place to run a charter/special farewell tour with tickets on sale at Long Rock Open Day next month, the itinerary for the tour on 1st June at the moment is: Bristol TM - Paddington via Box, Paddington - Carmarthen via Oxford and Hereford, Carmarthen - Paddington via Gloucester, Paddington - Plymouth non stop.

109 now in service for GWR, it worked 1G38 13:36 London Paddington - Cheltenham Spa and return on Thursday 21st, can't tell you when exactly its first day was.