Dukedog

I picked these up from Modellers Mecca on my last visit. A tad expensive at £10 a pack but very nice indeed. Made by Noch, they are supposed to be garden Veg, but I can only recognise the rhubarb and leeks! I decided that I would just use them as random plants/weeds around the layout and this is an example of how they look when "planted". I would like to add more of these but at that price it will be a long wait! More soon Cheers Frank

Those that are good at carpentry look away NOW! I've just spent a few days "wood butchering" the new baseboard for the long delayed extension to pen Y Bont. setting the layout up has to wait for decent weather as It's too big with the extension to erect indoors! Anyway here it is! the long awaited extension in place but, about 2years from finishing! Looking towards the fiddle yard, track and turnouts just placed on the board for checking the "fit" A little closer to the fiddle yard end and you can see the approximate position of the engine shed and coal stage. Looking the other way towards the terminus, the cut out for the river under the railway near to the main board has yet to be done. And finally a closer look at the position of the engine shed and coal stage looking towards the terminus again. That's it for now. Please don't expect rapid progress on this extension, It's took me 2 years to get this far! Cheers Frank

Spent a few enjoyable hours outside yesterday butchering some timber for the new extension board for Pen Y Bont. Now, wood working was never my best subject at school, so, wood butchering is the appropriate title for today's entry. Yesterday's little exercise was quite successful by my standards, No cuts to fingers and thumbs from using the hand saw, No bruises or injuries through use of the Brummie screwdriver (Hammer) so I was most pleased, until this morning. I have just discovered that I have locked all my tools and tackle in my tool shed and the keys are still inside! Looks like a touch of breaking and entering is required......Oh ######!

An update on Pen Y Bont's appearance in public. I have a few expos lined up for Pen Y Bont but nothing until the Autumn. This has given me chance to make some important changes and upgrades to the layout before I build the new 4ft extension board. The layout has been completely rewired and new control panels built. This is to facilitate the planned extension, thus making the layout available in two formats depending upon exhibition managers space available. In it's present format the layout is just under 11ft X 2ft when the extension is built it can go to 15ft x 2ft. Here are the exhibition dates at the moment. .3 confirmed dates Telford October 2nd 2011 November 5th&6th Wplverhampton MRC January 15th 2012 Weston Super Mare To be honest I don't want too many bookings just 2 or 3 a year will do me. Neither my wife or myself are in the best of health these days so Just the odd show here and there will suit me fine. More as, when or if things change. Cheers Frank P.S. Any exhibition managers wishing to see a layout details sheet, use this link http://www.frankcoll...ocs/Details.pdf

I thought I would share some of my bench work via this blog. Starting off with this Coopercraft cattle wagon kit. Sold as GWR diagram W1 / W5 it is a little too early for my layouts era. So, I decided to modify the kit slightly to make it look more like the BR standard 8/12 ton cattle van. Using Paul Bartletts picture gallery as a guide this is the assembled kit before painting. This is the second one of these kits I have done in this way, learning from my mistakes on the first attempt! The original top doors have been removed and replaced by plasticard. The buffers are white metal from Lanarkshire Modelling Supplies. The etched brass parts are from a Mainly Trains etch and the axle box tie bar is a length of brass 1mm "T" section. Screw cuoplings complete the major part of this conversion. Here is the finished, painted and weathered model ready to run on my layout. I used Humbrol enamel (red brick) for the main body colour, strange though that red brick looks more like bauxite! and Humbrol "rust" is almost (if not exactly) the same! Transfers are from Modelmaster and intended for use with the Airfix/Dapol kit of the same wagon. More in another entry soon. Cheers! Frank

Going too follow this one with great interest. I was in Cheddar on holiday a couple of years ago and noticed that the buildings still survive albeit as private premises. Good luck with your project. Cheers! Frank

Just going through the blogs and noticed that there are no updates. any progress? cheers! Frank

Thanks all for the comments, help and advice given above. As I said earlier all this "blogging" is new to me. Being some thing of a Luddite might have some thing to do with it! I have started another blog so I can keep this one for general ramblings, Prototype gricing reports, general comments and so on. I am open to ideas on what I should or should not include in my blogs as I have got over 12 months work that I never published here due to being "away" for a while. I will try and keep the blogs updated at least weekly so readers can see what I have been up to. Cheers all and thanks again for help and advice. Frank

Cheers Geoff, Nice to hear from you, will be in touch again soon. No, definitely NO smoke units! I'm not much into gimmicks like that. To be honest these gimmicks put me off some layouts, especially if it's overdone. I've made my feelings known about this elsewhere on RMWeb and been slapped for it so I won't say much more here. As for the new extension, It's not even started yet! soon as I do something worth showing it will be here on Blog or layout thread. I will add the loco shed build to the blog soon. Cheers Frank

If the entry title sound familiar, then it is! Some time ago on the previous incarnation of RMWeb Neil Ripley of Walker Marine fame produced a model of a burnt out BR brake van. I was inspired by his modelling to have a go myself. Here are the results.

Well this it, My first attempt at "Blogging" (If that is the correct term). This bit is all new to me so please excuse if I make a few mistakes along the way. I am not adding much content yet until I see how this "Blogging" lark works. I'll just post some thing of an introduction for now and see what happens. Indeed I shall be surprised If anything does happen or I get any comment back saying "Yes I can read your blog" If there is no feed back then I have obviously done something wrong some where and it will be back to the drawing board. So, folks I would appreciate any comment at all just to prove that what I write and publish can be read before I waste any more time typing in more drivel. Cheers everybody! Frank (AKA Dukedog)

That is exactly how I have done this to my 22xx seen here on my layout. The weather sheet is simply a piece of masking tape folded under and over the cab roof and suitably painted.

Having worked in the steel industry I can honestly say how authentic it looks! I wonder what wheels you will be using for it? Just one more suggestion. The prototype often had bits of solid slag in some of the places where it could have splashed out of the bowl and set solid like bird muck to your car windscreen! Cheers!