coachmann

The early 1970's was when whitemetal bus kits were a their peak with manufacturers such as Pirate models, Anbrico, Westward Models, Cotswold Models, Alan Brackenborough and others. The bus as we know it with low floor really came into being in 1928 with the Leyland TD1 and AEC Regent 1. Prior to that the chassis were rather like those of lorries and s several steps had to be surmounted to climb aboard. I am sure at least two pre-1928 bus kits were done but I have forgotten by who.

Summer is the best time for those of us outdoors. My layout thread (Carrog) shows I have continued modelling since the hot spell started. It was 90 degrees in the shed yesterday which is quite cool compared with some days, but I have brownish skin and cope well with heat without sweating. With PVA going off so quickly, the whole 14 feet of layout was laid and ballasted in one day.

First of all, the goods yard following today's revisions after it was discovered the station buildings were all too close to the platform edge by over 6 feet..... Put simply, the station masters house had to be moved back and the tearooms moved forward as a result. This entailed quite a bit of reconstruction work. The goods shed and lamp room had to be re-sited further back as well. Black lines representing side doors were painted onto the cattle dock and fencing was erected where it should be.... Thing are now more like the prototype as it was in steam days (garden centre stuff yet to be added) and the place is looking far more spacious...

Just remembered, wasn't a Rover the first so-called jet car. I recall an exploded drawing in a 1950's 'Eagle' comic.

Some are buried alive under points.....

I never knew my two Rovers were known as P4's. We had three in the family, as dad had the original 90 with single headlight in the middle of the grill. I had a 12 years old 1954 Rover 60 with sloping boot and a decent handbrake. A few years later I bought an immaculate Rover 105 with flashers, wrap round back window and overdrive in place of the freewheel. 'The working mans Rolls' as they were known in the 1950's and 60's, upright Rovers were limos in every sense of the word right down to the front opening doors. When the low-line Rover took over, I started buying Fords. It wasn't quite the end of the association, because I also drove AEC Regent V buses with the Rover style tin front.

I have one with a lifeless motor. Getting into the darn things is not easy.

By gum, a hot 'un today, so all I did was a spot of grassing until the long stuff ran out. First of all, ballast was chiselled out of the cess, and real ash glued down. It was soon dry enough to file to dust. A narrow strip of glue was run beside the ash and yellow grass glued down to represent sun scorched grass. This was followed by applying PVA to the rest of the embankment and gluing down long grass. A domestic vacuum cleaner hose sucked it to stand on end and removed the surplus... Various colours were used.... Grass 'planted' in front of the cattle dock is not looking too healthy. It's either the sun or weedkiller........

I think what the captain was asking was, is it controllable at slow speed on DC. DC to me is Dinasaur Control and i have no time whatsoever for it. I wired my layout to a DC Gaugemaster Twin controller for a couple of weeks so I could test and run-in a pair of Heljan 47XX 2-8-0's. A DJM/Hattons 14XX was also operated, and while it ran smoothly once it had got going, it was not precisely controllable when setting off or shunting.....It was unsurprisingly typical of locos on DC.

There was another dry summer more recent than 1976. I think it was 1994 (poor memory). I spend several week in hospital after an RTA and was not allowed to drive unitl the July, and my friends were telling me i was missing all the class 37's on the north Wales line. But once back behind the wheel, the bit I remember was seeing and filming the original Festiniog Railway trackbed that had reappeared in the bottom of Tanygrisiau lake due to very low water levels across North Wales. Incidentally, 'How Green is my Valley' is no doubt true for those who live inland, but how sunny is the coast applies along here, afterall, Rhyl and Colwyn Bay did not develop as holiday resorts for no reason.

Your description of travel, even short distances, rang a few bells with me. For the first four weeks on McAlpines in September 1967, I was a 'chainboy' while waiting to take up the engineers minibus driving job, and my South Afrikan engineer had an old style MG, which he thought it was great fun with no hood. We loaded every available space with wooden pegs and dashed of hither and thither, even in drizzle, while my appearance steadily deteriorated. Old friend Roy dock (ex.Editor or MRN) also had something MG-looking. But he was ex.RAF and always dressed for the part although he never got around to starching his long scarf...

Teenage confession? Here goes: Aged 15 I bought a Hornby 0 gauge clockwork SR L1 4-4-0, stuck some balsa wood to it and hey presto, I had an LMS 2P. Two Mills Bros LMS coaches (Bakelite) formed the passenger consist but I had no goods wagons. A 4mm scale drawing was doubled and I built an LMS 20 ton goods brake to 8mm scale. Stupid me! Not wanting to waste the underframe (I soldered this with dads large copper iron heated on the fire, it became a flat wagon to carry my pet tortoise. Track was traditional creosoted sleepers with spiked flat bottom galvanized rail, all obtained from Tyldesley & Holbrook on Deansgate, Manchester. The line was laid at ground level around the back lawn and the creosote smelled great that summer. The following year I started work and lost interest completely in modelling railways for the remainder of my teenage years. Gee, that was interesting...not.

Glue, lay & ballast at the same time is better suited to thin sleeper tracks such as SMP, however, I cannot get on with the alternative process of sprinkling ballast, wetting it and spraying on diluted PVA. It usually ends up looking like porridge in my hands, besides, it's tedious and that isn't for me.

When Jintyman was in the shed a couple of weeks ago, he said he liked the 'run in'......That is the stretch of line from the shed doorway to the station. Had I done Carrog in 0 gauge, as planned last Xmas, trains would have entered the shed and immediately entered the station. The effect of open country would have been lost. A quick comment on the track. To the naked eye, the track looks pleasing, but the camera paints a different picture.....

Yes. For some months in high summer, the layout gets bathed in sunlight after tea. Shadows from the window bars are a problem when taking photos, so I have to be very selective. I have criticized DJM's choice of drive, but I must say this loco is a very smooth runner on DC and I am looking forward to having it fitted with DCC and sound.

The long hot summer.........No doubt the crew of this 14XX will be glad when they reach Croes Newydd and can book off for a pint..... The track is cambered, but the fence shouldn't be..... Doh...!

I've been creating a new border beside the goods yard using new fencing and various static grasses.... Liberal use of sun-burned/weed-killed grass (U takes your choice) has been made along the edge of the cess while working my way towards Glyndyfrdwy. Progress so far....

The Crewe-Shrewsbury running-in turn was well known. But the Crewe - Barmouth Junction was the stuff of legend...

As a regular purchaser, Sheet 14 in 'Pressfix' has never been out of stock. It kept by business going until such time as the HMRS could reprint 'Methfix'. This they did last year and I purchased a quantity. If however it has now sold out again, I worry about the future not only for Methfix type, but also my business.

H o o r a y....!

Red and yellow wires hanging down at convenient spots are labelled 'feeds'. There was one hairy moment when both sidings were dead. I traced the yellow back to a distribution point but the red weaved its way through holes in cross-member and came to a dead end. It wasn't connected to anything! Ah well, such if life. Wiring was completed this morning and it is still hitched up to Dinosaur-Control (DC) so I can run in some non-chipped locos.

Must be dinnertime......One of the offspring has landed....

Having seen the 0 gauge Heljan Class 25, I have high hopes for the 00 version.

White sticks at the ready....

The fireman of 4F 43924 has already noticed that the level crossing has been reinstated. He will also have remembered, when booking on, that the Notices informed crews passing Carrog to watch out electricians working trackside today.... Kadee drop arms were all readjusted last night after the track magnets were glued in place.