Jump to content
 

kitmasterbloke

Members
  • Posts

    15
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

kitmasterbloke's Achievements

54

Reputation

  1. It is sad but fully understandable. The Warley MRC team have always treated our little Club with respect and professionalism and I would like to thank them all for making us so welcome over so many years. Without them, we would not have been able to spread our message on the joys of collecting & building old plastic kits to so many new enthusiasts. All of us at the Kitmaster Collectors Club wish the Warley MRC the very best for the future whatever they decide to do. Steve Knight KmCC Secretary
  2. Well that is interesting and from a commercial point of view would justify re-running it.
  3. So Hattons have announced that Heljan will produce the standard WMD railbus in the colours of the totally dis-similar Wickham railbus DB999507 Laboratory 20. And at only £152 each. What is the point of that?? Would you buy one? I certainly would not, and I'm a fan of Derby RTC stock.
  4. My 1960s Southern Region EMU/Steam transition era layout is Branksdowne Park. Set in the Bournemouth area  during 1966-68. It is long and thin - just 13" wide - to fit in my shed. I can accommodate 28 feet of the scenic section at any one time, but the layout overall will be 40 x 16 feet with a 10 road fiddle yard at the rear. The concept is to show full length trains of up to 12 cars (3 x 4-car sets) at relatively high speeds passing through a small Suburban station, redolent of so much of the Southwestern Main Line. In this scenario, the S&D route is still open, although Bournemouth West has closed - so all S&D traffic has to pass through our little station too. The first five scenic boards are nearly complete (July 2021) with the signalling installed (Absolute Aspects) and most scenic work finished. We then have one more 5ft scenic board plus two semi-cenic corner boards to do, one of which is half finished as it contains the second part of the Steam Loco depot. We expect to be able to show it in October 2022 at the East Anglian Railway Museum's Small Trains Day.

    20210206_101336.jpg

    20210124_182758.jpg

    20210124_183135.jpg

    20210216_220720.jpg

    20210216_222215.jpg

    20210216_223333.jpg

    First working signals 200521.jpg

    20210410_153854.jpg

    141846397_416576479615006_7282378605398131253_n.jpg

    71 and 74 Branksdowne Park.jpg

    DS975025.jpg

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Huw Griffiths

      Huw Griffiths

      I couldn't agree more.

       

      I'd also like to see more of this layout - preferably at one of the shows I can get to (assuming, of course, that they make a proper comeback, in the not too distant future).

    3. kitmasterbloke

      kitmasterbloke

      The central scenic section of 28ft will be on display and working in end-to-end mode at my free Open Day at the Colne Valley Postal History Museum on Saturday September 11th 2021 - details at www.cvphm.org.uk

    4. TT-Pete

      TT-Pete

      Any more dates and locations?

  5. Superb bit of modelling and lovely finish John! Just shows how good the original kits were.
  6. It is with great sadness that I report the death last week of Dennis Franklin at the ripe old age of 90. Dennis was a lovely chap and we became friends whilst I was researching my first book, "Let's Stick Together" about the history of Rosebud Kitmaster models. Dennis Franklin was Rosebud's Technical Manager from the mid-1950s to early 1960 and designed most of the first series of Kitmaster train models in consultation with renowned local modeller Frank Roche. They were both members of Northampton Society of Model Engineers. Dennis used a lot of the Roche drawings in his design work, which explains why Rosebud's "Duchess" pacific embodies all the faults of the Roche drawing, including the wrong tender type! Dennis was responsible for the full 1959 Kitmaster range which included The Rocket, 08 Shunter, Stirling Single, Schools Class Harrow and GWR Prairie tank. Some of his designs (L&Y Pug, Prairie and Schools) are still in production today, from his tools, at Dapol. Dennis was eventually lured away for better pay at Mettoy in Northampton, where he went on to design the Playcraft Railways British outline models to a VERY tight budget and using a lot of available French Jouef components - the Class 21/29, North British shunter, BR Brake Van, 21 ton mineral wagon and their Mk1 coaches, including the working ore discharge wagon and TPO sets (which used a novel mechanism to avoid infringing Tri-ang and Dublo patents). He was most proud of the Playcraft British semaphore signal set which he cleverly designed to allow two complete signals to be assembled, or by combining two kits, a complete gantry signal. This kit is now on display in the National Museum of Wales in their Mettoy section, as production was at Forest Fach near Swansea. Whilst at Mettoy, he also designed the Corgi construction kits, such as the Bately Leofric garage and the AA/RAC Telephone box set and the full Silverstone Circuit buildings set. His later career in plastic injection moulding was in the Republic of Ireland, where he worked on purely industrial contracts. He retired back to his home town of Kettering and passed away there in a care home from natural causes. He is survived by his wife & two daughters. Dennis Franklin - unsung legend of British model railway design.
  7. Official announcement at 3pm 17th June -Warley show postponed until 2021
×
×
  • Create New...