clarkea1

60001 passing Llangewydd near Bridgend in Feb 2015. Taken me a while to process these!! Some more to come once I have got through the 600 odd photos I have just downloaded from the camera!!! Alastair Edited to correct epic fail with loco number. The above is clearly NOT 66001........

Thanks for documenting this! Is it likely to be regular traffic? Secondly, how do you get a panel mimic on your phone? Cheers Al

Hi Mike, By Brush 0-4-0 DE, please tell me that you mean one of these: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/industriallocomotive/h6EF00CD#h6ef00cd Fingers crossed.... Cheers Alastair

You very nearly didn't! The 70 went down to Baglan from Canton, but then the logs didnt emerge from Baglan. Couple of hours later, the 60 shot past me towards Baglan, and later returned with the logs. Later that evening, the 70 worked to Westbury, returning to South Wales today with an infrastructure working to Grovesend Colliery Loop on the Swansea District Line. Seems like very, very short term plan to me........ Alastair

Mighty fine point that! Living in Bridgend I can confirm South Wales is not having the best of weather at the moment! Alastair

Hi Jim, The Baglan logs were cancelled tonight apparently "waiting for customer traffic". I'm struggling to figure out from RTT if there is any pattern to the operations - can you shed any light on the Baglan workings or is it as-required? Many thanks Alastair

Arthur, Shotton retained a cold mill until the 2001, so this would of generated scrap coil ends and possibly side trimmings from the associated pickling process. I'm not sure if the colour coating and galv lines which Shotton retains process coils individually or continuously (I.e. coils butt welded end to end to allow a line to ru n continuously). If they are continuous lines the they are likely to still generate scrap, although not in the quantities hot and cold mills do, Alastair

Excellent news - a range I feared lost. Now we just need Impetus kits to re-emerge too.....

I must admit, since Colas bought Pullman (occupiers of Canton), my morning commutes have got a lot more interesting! Nothing like a bit of Class 60 visual stimulation to start the day :-) Alastair

Great set of pics Jo! I particularly enjoyed the Brush Bagnalls at Margam Yard, right up my street. More depressed though by the shots of Briton Ferry Yard - I remember what was there and now it just seems to be endless bushes! Such is progress apparently. Thanks for posting the gallery Alastair

Thanks Jo. Not the same without the semaphores, you're right, but still a nice location. I did actually manage to stop to see it come back from Maesteg through Tondu, but didn't have my camera with me as we were en route to a restaurant for our wedding anniversary meal. My wife is getting used to my random little detours.......

60039 was working the Taffy Tug 2 railtour today, I got a photo of it passing Aberthaw this morning. My little boy even got a friendly wave from the driver Alastair

How far north is Century Wharf likely to come then? Last time I was down that way the southernmost set of buildings had a roller-shutter door manufacturer, and a shotblasting company. Mind you, I was despatching twenty quid out of a brown envelope to get a set of Rostyle classic car wheels blasted "out of hours" by a friendly chap who had earlier (whilst the boss was in) told me to come back and see him whilst he was working the night shift on overtime. Needless to say I think his beer fund was boosted than night rather than the company accounts!!!!

That's all we can ask! Many thanks Dave. All the best Alastair

Absolutely over the moon at this announcement. Can I make a plea though on behalf of us wierdo's who like EM or P4 modelling - please can you make sure this is an "easy" conversion. I'm not asking for off the shelf finescale, just please try to avoid the complications some models force us into in converting them! Many thanks Alastair

So, you've been off sizing up Colas's next addition to the fleet? The holiday was just a cover story right? Al

Possible management buyout has also been reported, so all hope for the Robeston tanks is not (yet) lost! Cheers Alastair

Some kind of forging ingot?

Arthur, That image of the Sentinel shunting slag pots looks great - very realistic. When do we see you full layout coming to fruition - as far as I recall this is a test plank? Regards Alastair

Can I second that please - having originated the slag ladle kit now in the RT models range, I have box files full of drawings and photos of the darned things and am always interested in other people's models of them! Thanks Alastair

Really loving the "Sound City" soundtrack album recently - particularly this song Pretty great collection of musicians and some great songs. Not often you get an album with Stevie Nicks and members of Rage Against the Machine on it......

Mark, Steve Hall did an article in MRJ a while back showing a full re-work of these wagons to P4 (if memory serves). According to the MRJ index website it's in No. 163. If I recall he did a LOT of work to convert these to P4, finding it less than straightforward! May be of use - I can dig out my copy and scan if you haven't seen it. Cheers Alastair

Thanks for clarifying about the scaling option. I can definitely recommend the prime grey option - it is not quite as good at Shapeways FUD, but doesn't seem to suffer from the various issues they seem to regularly have with it. I think i.Materialise are really on top of their equipment and know what they can and cannot repeatedly do with it. I think it helps that they're the "consumer" arm of an industrial RP bureaux.

Dan, It was Solidworks, which is a professional engineering design package. It costs a few £k as far as I know - I am lucking in that we use it where I work, and nobody minds me using it for my own work "out of hours". Don't be put off however, there are a number of packages which are either free or very inexpensive, with which you can produce identical results. I use Solidworks as I spent many hours teaching myself how to use it a few years back and, as such, I now find designing in it very straightforward. There is a thread in this Rapid Prototyping area (I believe it's a sticky at the top of the page) which discusses the various free/inexpensive software packages. I'd hesitate to make a recommendation as I've never used any of them in anger. Best Wishes Alastair

Yes it's in 4mm scale - the eventual loco will be EM gauge. It would be entirely possible to print in 3.5mm scale - if i.materialise don't have a scale function (which I haven't checked - they may well do) then my CAD software certainly does, so I could generate a new STL file at HO scale, if you're interested. Regards Alastair