Ruston

This looks like it's going to be a bit of a challenge to say the least! It's a cast resin kit, from Milicast, for a Caterpillar D7 dozer. It is to go on the waste tip. It's probably a bit too old as a prototype for the later period of the site but it's suitable for the 1950s and perhaps even the 60s. Ideally I wanted a D8, as I have driven one of those, but this seems to be as near and as large a dozer as I can find. There does seem to be a lack of earth moving plant in 4mm. Langley do a Drott B125, which is certainly suitable for the 70s and 80s, so I will also get one of those at some point.

It's not quite finished but I had to try it in position and then have a play with the trainset. I still need a lot of trees. I wanted to buy some from MBR https://en.mbrmodel.eu/ but that website hasn't been working for weeks. It's all jumbled up on the screen and if you follow the links you can eventually get to pages with pictures of the trees but I can't find how to add them to a shopping basket. I've seen these trees on other people's layouts and they look really good, so I don't want to end up using Woodland Scenics trees but it looks like I will have to.

Ex-BR 350HP EE shunter, 08016, at the NCBOE's Blacker Lane Disposal Point.

I found a roll of kitchen foil with not much left on it, so used the cardboard centre. The corrugated panels were bent over a paint bottle and glued to the cardboard. Here's the roof with still wet paint. I put in some short lengths of plastic rod to represent the return rollers and stuck a length of painted cornflakes packet card on as the return of the belt. I'm now tempted to make all of the troughing rollers and belt and leave the sides partially open, with just low windboards, so the belt can be seen. I won't go into the detail of bolt heads and what not as none of it will be viewed closely but a representation of the rollers and belt will suffice.

Thanks. I've had a go with the aluminium and it seems to take being bent quite well. I'm just looking for a cardboard tube to cut up to use as a base to stick the ally sheets to now.

The screens building now has the roof covered with CI. And I have been putting together an internal use re-railing/P.W. train. I pick up cheap second hand wagons at my local model shop now and again and give them a repaint and weathering. Always the ones where the tension link couplings are missing - there's usually a substantial price difference when the couplings are missing. I think the steel dropside is a Cambrian kit, a GWR Starfish and the van is a Cooper Craft Mink. The flat is a cut down RCH mineral, an Oxford model that had damage to the body. I'll put some ash ballast, sleepers and the chairs that Rob gave me in the Starfish and some tools and junk on the flat wagon.

Progress on the conveyor. I won't be making all of the rollers and belt as they would be mostly concealed by the roof and wooden planks on the sides. The roof ought to be curved corrugated iron but I will probably have to put a peaked roof on this one. I can't work out how to put a curve in the corrugated aluminium that goes against the corrugations. I haven't actually attempted it yet but I get the feeling it will crinkle and warp. I installed that guard rail around the concreted area but it was only glued on and has already been knocked out of place by my clumsy hands. It will have to come off and have lengths of brass wire soldered on so that holes can be drilled into the wood beneath. I was going to also have a chain link fence around the edge but it would interfere with coupling operations. In addition to being scenic, one of the reasons for having this raised and concreted area free from buildings and what not is to give somewhere to rest my hand when using the shunting pole and having a fence would prevent that. The conveyor has paint on it and is presently drying in the shed.

And of course the model is wrong for both the time it carried the mock GWR livery and after as the cab has had doors and widows added. There is evidence that wartime builds of 48DS and 88DS were outshopped without lining, so a plain green with RUSTON painted across the front would likely be correct for a 1945 build and that's what they ought to be doing as a first release of the open cab type, especially if they're saying it's "Era 3". I'm sure there are people reading this and thinking 'so what?' but imagine the reaction if they tried this sort of nonsense with something like an LNER A3, with the wrong type of dome or chimney. Having said that, it's not going to stop me from buying one. I'll just take the GWR stuff off the cab and have it in an anonymous plain green livery. It's just a shame that I'll have to get someone to make a transfer for the front.

224353 was built in 1945, so that would be what? Era 3? I don't know, I don't know what years exactly the era things apply to and from. The catalogue contradicts what the 2024 announcement says, as far as the Era goes, too. Catalogue says 4, announcement says 3.

Digitrains Class 08 sound on whatever Zimo Next 18 decoder fits.

I was looking at those on Google. It's not what I meant by a Foden half-cab, but if it was the correct size I expect something could be done with it. The Foden I was thinking of was a proper off-road dumper, such as this one.

Oh. The front page of the site looks alright but as soon as I click on the shop it all goes wrong. I give up. It looks like this on phone and laptop.

Making a conveyor to go between the screens and loader buildings.

That's strange. It's fine clicking the link given by Kylestrome but I bookmarked it and now if I go from the bookmark it's gone weird again. I suppose that's the internet and computers for you. I'll just have to come to these posts any time I want to visit the MBR site in future.

Thank You! That seems to be working. I don't know where I was going wrong. I've had the link saved in my bookmarked pages for a while, so perhaps it's changed since I did.

That would be W/n 224353. It was built for the Derby & Notts. Electric Power Company and at some point in its life was at Bulmers, in Hereford. It didn't go to Didcot until 1971 so at the very least Hornby have got their "Era" wrong. It shouldn't be Era 3, which implies it was owned by the GWR and carried their livery back when the GWR was still in existence. The loco was scrapped at some point, but I don't know when. Not listed by the IRS as being at Didcot by 1979, so perhaps scrapped there? If that is the one then a pseudo-GWR livery, carried by a loco for just a few years during the 1970s is a very odd choice. It's also either poor research or a deliberate attempt to mislead would be buyers. We can do whatever we want with our models, and have them in any livery we please, so if you like the idea of a GWR Ruston then fair enough but I do think that the manufacturers ought to be straight with people as to what these liveries represent. It is interesting that it has the open style of cab, so if it is the "GWR" one then it would mean that Hornby are doing the open cab. I mentioned this after seeing an unpainted sample on their website however long ago.

Have you taken one of these things apart? If you had you'd know that the motor fills the space right to the top of the tank and the chassis block casting as almost as wide as the tank. The chassis block is wholly unsuitable for use in a crane tank. I'm not saying that it can't be done on an individual basis but the modeller would need to put in so much work on the chassis that it wouldn't be worthwhile, even if someone made a replacement body. Even then it would be massively compromised and look rather odd. No, they didn't. Crane tanks weren't converted locomotives. They were built as crane tanks from the start.

I see... As that isn't a historic livery, and the loco wasn't owned by BR, Hornby need to change the "Era 4" to whatever it ought to be, whatever era applies to the time it was given that spurious livery. The same applies to whatever modern fake livery the GWR one is based on. I've had a look on Flickr and Google but can't find an 88DS in GWR livery, so what are they basing that one on?

I've been wanting to order some trees from this company for a couple of weeks now but their website doesn't seem to be working. Has anyone ordered anything from them recently and is the website working for you or not? https://en.mbrmodel.eu/ Thanks

Well, yes, but that's a 165, not an 88, so still doesn't explain it. I don't understand it either. It's as if these things don't have a history of their own and that an invented one that involves having been owned by BR is somehow more interesting to their owners. Or that their owners think it makes the engine more interesting to visitors to whatever railway the engine is based at. [Mystic Dave predicts the next posts in response will be be either someone saying that the livery doesn't matter because at least they've been saved and not scrapped, or someone saying that if we want them in an authentic livery then we should buy the paint and do the work...]

Hopefully they don't. It would look rather silly.

Is it April the 1st? No, but someone's playing silly b*****s. I've never heard of the GWR owning an 88DS and the works list doesn't show one as being built for them either. As far as I know, BR never had a D2959 and if they did, it would have followed on from D2957 and D2958, which were Ruston 165s.

Another couple of pics of the dump truck. I'd like a 4-wheeled Foden half-cab, or a Scammell Mountaineer, but I don't think anyone does kits or diecasts of them.

AEC dump truck at Blacker Lane D.P.

The weekend's project was a lorry re-weather. Way back on page 3 I showed the Oxford Diecast AEC 690 dump truck that I had bought for the waste tip. It was then pictured, weathered, on page 4 but, to be honest, it was lacking something. It didn't look filthy enough for a truck hauling pit waste. The shade of orange paint was the factory-applied Wimpey livery, which also didn't look right for my needs. I was looking at some photos on a Facebook group that showed big Scammell dump trucks hauling waste at North Gawber, which inspired me to give the AEC a makeover filthover. This is how it looked after the first attempt. And now. It just needs a load in the back now.