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Got a bit more work done today.......hanging curtains...and doing the signage on the High St Kensington side......I’ll post some photos later. Nothing done over the weekend as we were away in the cold of Edinburgh. I can throughly recommend the Falkirk Wheel and The Real Mary King Close. Managed to knock a few bits of line in Glasgow off my Baker Atlas....Milngavie branch, Balloch branch, East Kilbride branch and Anniesland to Queen St via Maryhill.

My email bill arrived yesterday.....might see them soon.........now all we need are some nice 1970s cars to go with them.......

It’s L shape is approx 12 inches by 10 inches in length and 6-7 inches high. Depth is between 1 and 2 inches.

Its been a long time coming....but this is the latest building for Kensington Olympia. The TWA Air Terminal / Royal Kensington Hotel building. Scratchbuilt from Mount board and plasticard this is 2mm scale. Its been reduced in length and height but is still a big building. The pictures show the Russell Road frontage. The Kensington High Street frontage is the Hotel entrance and unfinished, trying to find some 1970/80s photos of it for the signage. I'm not holding my breath as its been difficult enough trying to get the TWA part correct. This building still exists but the TWA part is now incorporated into the Hotel which is now a Hilton. In real life it dwarfs the adjacent Georgian town houses, here both they and the TWA building are a storey lower than they should be.

Some more progress today. A repaint into a better colour and some slight weathering. Missing intermediate floors added. Russell Road signage added. Its looking a lot better now, much better in fact....its taken long enough and I'd certainly change the method another time. Still plenty to do to it, I've just printed off a selection of 1970's naff curtain colours.....yes there's some orange involved!

Finished fitting the windows today and all the doors are cut out and fitted too. Will put a couple pictures up tomorrow. Next job will be to put a top coat of paint on the building prior to adding curtains, people and signage..........

Got the signage and doors printed off too, this afternoon. Multiple copies of each letter as the top letters will need to be cut out individually and mounted on the building facia above ground floor. Still need to do the main ones for the Kensington High Street side which say Royal Kensington Hotel....I think! The other signs are for the rooftop hoardings as per the pictures. This is the label grid to make the doors, the shaded areas are removed to leave a silver frame on the clear plastic. Same method as I've used before making a table on WfW and adjusting the cell size to fit.

Around £180

An extra photo today, the frame work for the ground floor doors has been added but the doors will be later. The building is roughly positioned where it will end up. Russell Rd runs L to R and Kensington High Street top to bottom.....just missing the bridge at the moment! The small building in front of the TWA building is the Olympia service station, an ESSO garage. This is a Walthers Kit and will be a stand in as I can find no photos of it from the front.

Well at least that phrase makes sense it’s better than my wife and I could come up with. Even found a website with airline slogans which helped not a jot! Good stuff, thank you.

This image of mine, a bit clearer but doesn't show the full text! 25302 plus it looks like a nuclear flask and ferry CCTS as barrier vehicles to me. ?????????????????? of America to America?

A bit of progress yesterday at the York area NGS meeting. Quite a lot of the windows added into the TWA building. I've started to set up the signage for this building but am struggling with the slogan on the top of the roof. It appear to have an airliner either end then TWA and something something America to America.....I've not been able to find a better picture than this one of mine..........anyone out there know what it says or able to manipulate the image?

They only seem to do the fan grills, or the description is a bit vague like ‘roof grill’.

I’m about to start the conversion of one of the current issue of Farish class 25/2s into one of 25083 - 25088. These 5 Locos had steam heat boilers and underframe details that largely match the 25/2 but using the 25/3 carbody. Does anyone know a source of etched cantrail grills that could be used for these, I’d even consider class 26/27/33 ones as a stand in. This is what they looked like https://www.derbysulzers.com/25083a.html https://www.derbysulzers.com/25087.html Ultima, BHE etc seem to do fan grills but not the cantrail ones.

Well he who hesitates.....https://www.en.dm-toys.de/newsletter.211/items/newslettere464.html they have all sold out in a little over a week. I’m sure as they have been so popular that a rerun will be arranged. The TWA building is coming along very slowly, glued all the outside walls on after I thought I’d done all the windows that couldn’t be accessed from the rear only to discover one complete vertical run of windows I could get to! Knife out again and wall removed. I’ll get a few progress pictures done shortly.

Prices up for the Mk2f on the website. We had better start saving! http://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/graham-farish-br-mk2f-fo-first-open-coach-intercity-374-762/

Excellent news, you can NEVER have enough pway wagons. I will be ordering some for Olympia.

Nearly a month since the last posting, not good. Off to the NGS meeting on Saturday where I might make some progress on the TWA building. I did spray it with the stone effect paint and it looked.......bloody awful.......so it’s been resprayed in undercoat for me to hand paint it with lighter tones. I like ferry wagons and this is very interesting shame it’s to 1/160 but I might still get one or two https://www.en.dm-toys.de/newsletter.211/items/newslettere464.html

As did Brighton and Eastbourne.

My first visit to the Doncaster Show, bit closer living in York now rather than Brighton. ECML blocked for engineering works York to Doncaster so only one train an hour, HSTs, diverted via Knottingly so a nice little trundle round the countryside. Doncaster bus station, New but depressing. Shuttle bus went from A1 not C6 and not well signed. Service good. Show was very good, busier than I expected. Some tight spaces between stands and some large empty areas. Good balance of layouts and traders. My favourite layouts Shirebrook- brought back memories. Lime Street - unbelievably good and the Forth Bridge well that was amazing. Food court not enough tables and seats and the less said about my Pie peas and mash the better. 7/10 Overall an enjoyable day out.

The research is often the most interesting part of our hobby....keep going please Grahame

This is the PG models cab married to a modified BT models box van chassis and enlarged body. This will gain some Harrods logos eventually. And whilst being worked on.....I changed my mind what it represent hence the change of colour.

I’ve got an article on the Transfesa vans and some RTR substitute ferry vehicles if you’d like that first?

Not much progress on anything Grahame, been busy with the first of the books. I’ve done a little more to the TWA building but the Interfrigo van hasn’t been touched. Most stuff has been packed away, maybe a bit prematurely, as we are expecting the builders to descend on the house shortly. I’ll probably take the Interfrigo van to the next NGS meeting and do some work on it and get some photos taken then.