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Hi Mark - ill put up some pictures of my little sanding block this evening - to fit these etches the raised detail needs to completely removed from the roof. This loco was intended to be a donor to become 50010 Monarch, modelled as dumped at laira , but ill have to change that now , as monarch didnt have a roof , let alone an accurate roof So - i've had a minor reshuffle of my 50 fleet, . I have Vanguard in Revised NSE light blue with ploughs. Technically this is wrong for my period so will be renumbering this to '001' and removing the ploughs. The large logo model shown here will inheret the snowploughs and become 50036. I will then use another loco to re-do vanguard in Revised NSE dark blue, with the big logos on its headcode box It the same time ill be joined by 'lusty . Im looking at using a lima shell to do Monarch. I modelled 50036 a few years ago - it was one of my first 50s so not up to the standard of my other locos now and has a few errors . The plan is to plod on and keep adding to the fleet untill i have all the 50s still listed in my old 1991 platform 5 book.

You thought the class 37 grille was fine - the one for the 50 is so fine is almost invisible - the mesh being exact scale size - As a result it needs to be fitted when the loco is finished , as its so delicate , but more on that next time. I fix small etches with Ronseal clear gloss - a thin smear on each surface - then leave for a few minutes so the varnish goes 'tacky' before fitting the parts . The same method also works well for fitting nameplates, (though i use PVA more for that now) as you get a bit of time to adjust things before they set. back tomorrow - hopefully with the grille panel completed tfn jon

Goodevening - At Alexandra Palace Brian Hanson gave me some new class 50 bits to try - first up , a set of etchings for the exhausts - this corrects the panel on the Hornby model which is too long - theres also a pair of surrounds for the other two exhaust ports. heres the panel rolled to shape and fitted with Devcon - theres two small etches to add which I've attached with gloss varnish. The replacement exhauts ports , fitted again with varnish. To remove the moulded ports i use a small block of plasticard , with wet n dry stuck one side with double side tape very nice! Next ill be fitting the new roof fan and grille - tfn Jon

I had a nice day at Alexandra Palace today - and spend a few quid , but one of the smallest things I bought (for all of £1, thankyou Missy!) is the most interesting - a sample of 2mm association easitrack . As my N guage layout of Bodmin Parkway only has 1 set of points (there are others but they arent required to work) I cottoned on that modern farish and Dapol stock will run on easitrack without having to change wheels - , just in time , as i was about to start laying Peco 55. Now I've tried a bit for myself - im sold - its dead easy to build , and looks very nice , but you knew that already. I have lots of PECO CDAs, which I thought wouldnt run on the easitrac , their plastic wheels always looked quite coarse to me, but they glide along the 2mm track lovely. I would like to find some better wheels for these wagons anyway though - the rest of the model is so nice, and now with nice track to run on , I think the CDA would benefit from some proper wheels, with brake discs, and some more discreet couplings. heres the peco model on my new easi-test-trac - I think the Peco cdas and MGRs get a bit forgotton about sometimes - theres some superb fine underframe detail on them, and theyre nice and crisply moulded. So , Roll on easitrac - literally tfn jon

Went back to the Dapol stand three times to ogle the 86s - and the 58s for that matter , oh and the silver bullets - The RES 86 looking very pretty

aha! somoeone else who uses vitrains boxes as loco cradles Looking at the shape of the bogie keeper plate do these models have 6 driven axles or do the innermost ones 'float' as on the old Bachmann 37s ? tfn Jon

I was going to weather these coaches - but i think they look too nice to make dirty - instead im going to use a Barble livery TGS and TSO to break up the set a bit - and have those two weathered instead , to show a mix of old and new coaches. Id like to do quick conversion to make a TSRMB and a TS(D) soon aswell. tfn jon

I agree - the Hornby bogies are pretty naff - and the wheels they're fitted with dont help matters either. As for the pipework between the cars - yes its very distinctive - for the best effect the physical coupling between the coaches needs to be placed as per the prototype too . Not entirely impossible if you look at what japanese N gauge modellers have enjoyed for the last decade http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/kato-replacement-couplers-2161-0.html

- Keep an eye on Shedmasters blog , as he has a handy little gizmo for re- spacing the sleepers on Peco track - which im sure he'll post details of soon (if not , pester him!) it should be exactly what your after tfn Jon

There was no way I was going to be able to resist these - way out of period , but I've travelled on HSTs down to cornwall for a good few years , so a set for the archive would be nice. In the products thread , Magic Monkey and others mentioned/showed how to tint the windows using Tamiya smoke paint - so ive had a bash at that - and it works I used the non hairy end of a paintbrush to draw the paint over the glazing , which stops any bubbles. while the bodyshell is off , theres another little job to do , which Hornby have forgotten - the lower section of the toilet windows should be painted blue - I decided to paint the inside of the glazing rather than the outside, as it would look a bit neater. On the real things this section isnt an exact match for the main body color. I used Precision Mainline blue as its a close match to hornbys FGW blue. A similar job on the buffet car - the three small windows in the middle of the vehicle need painting white - which Hornby didnt do - and the two windows on the left have been paintd blue - again from the inside - just incase I made a mess of it! on the buffet , the blue doors , at the 'counter' end of the vehicle, should really have thier handles removed - but I wasnt feeling that brave , so painted them out in blue. If you do try and carve these handles off - watch out - as under the blue paint is not blue plastic , but pink paint! Hornby have painted all the doors pink on the buffet, then gone over the doors at the counter end in blue paint. TFN jon

Goodevening - I've been working on a model of 47580 'County of Essex' in large logo - I've started with a vitrains 47401 - (vitrains are my preferred 47s) a quick look on fotopic showed there was only a couple of major differences between 401 and 580 , which id have to cover: 47401 had white lenses at the no1 end and sealed beam headlights at no2 end. 580 had sealed beam lights at both ends. Looking at the headcode boxes again , 47401 had a black headcode box at no2 end , 580 had both headcode boxes painted black. Rather than trying to carve off the white lenses and try and rebuild the box with sealed beam headlights - i chopped the entire cab off - and grafted on a new cab from the no2 end of a spare (damaged) 47401 shell I had. So the result - is both ends have the correct style headlights, and the right color headcode boxes - and i didnt even have to get the black paint out Next I had to remove the numbers and the printed names - unlike Bachmann and Hornby stuff , a cotton bud and thinners wont work with vitrains printing- but all is not lost - Make a sanding strip - a strip thick of plasticard about 5mm wide - and using double sided carpet tape fix a bit of very very very fine wet n dry to it. smear the bodyside of the loco with neat washing up liqid - and add a drop - literally one drop or water , just to thin it down a tiny bit - then rub away wth the sanding strip - the numbers will come off leaving the paint intact and polished perfectly for new transfers to be applied. And heres the result - renumbered , and with the printed nameplates removed . The 'new' cab i grafted on is closest to the camera tfn jon

Now thats a lovely looking model that, and it looks right at home on your layout - the Bachmann farish class 170/158 chassis is one of my favorites - is simple, runs lovely and is easy to maintain - infact my 158s with this chassis are the best running N gauge models that I have - maybe only matched by the farish 150. The cross country livery looks its best on the class 170s - and the 170s look thier best in cross country livery just a shame it hasnt got the full front skirts - i think they look nicer. your lucky you can justify buying one - i dont think they got to cornwall , especially not in 1992 tfn Jon

Brilliant - and yours will definately be finished before Bachmanns version Jon

At warley I had a good chat with the Vitrains Rep about class 50s - you never know!! If they can do a 50 on par with ther 47 id be a very happy chappy tfn Jon

Wow - lovely tidy job - why buy the Bachmann NRM model if you can get such good results with the Dapol kit - and know that its all your own work tfn jon

the drivers going to hate me - hard getting in and out the cab without any handrails tfn jon

For 007 in mainline condition the 'LA' symbols should have only been on opposite corners of the loco - Hornby put them on all four cabsides , as preserved - to match all the other detail painting on the loco. Fair enough - but the shade of green they used is nothing like that worn by 500O7 in preservation - its more like early '90s shade so the model is a bit of a Hybrid. Also from memory the yellow around the cabside windows extends too far down i think - my 007 is tucked away at the moment Technically Hornby havent got any of thier class 50s right - you still have to rebuild the windscreens whatever one you buy! I made the mistake of buying Hornbys 'Dauntless' in original NSE - and thought I could correct the upsweeps on the livery and turn it into 50032 - but in the end i gave up and just resprayed the whole thing from scratch - The stripes on the model of 50048 , not only being wrongly proportioned on the cabsides , are also at a different height on the bodyside compared to 50032 - so as it turns out - respraying it all was the only way to get it completely correct after all More 50s on my blog (and even more coming soon) tfn jon

Nice choice of livery for this Intercity mainline 37s are not modelled often enough IMO Are you going to try and do the 'Mt Fuji' name for it aswell? I wanted to do this in 4mm but could find a decent picture of the name to work from. Am I right in assuming youve chosen 415 as it worked china clay /speedlink in cornwall You should have a go at the class 50 kit next - most enjoyable! tfn jon

I say ! The Railfrieght class 70 looks very beastly indeed Hows about loadhaul ?? jon

Goodafternoon - Just before christmas i treated myself to (another) Vitrains 47 - as my loca shop had them on special offer - so it was hard to resist. I came away this time with the RES version. I decided not to change the name or number , and finish off the loco with as many of the supplied Vitrains bits as possible , rather than changing them for other parts - in order to get my moneys worth, and to see just what results you get from vitrains - I have lots of vitrains 47s already but they are being repainted, bits changed etc - this is the first one that I've just taken out of the box and detailed up. So heres my 'value' 47 - i still have vacuum pipes and couplings to fit - Ive changed the wipers for A1 versions , and resprayed the windscreens , but thats all. I think it looks very nice , considering the only aftermarket parts are the wipers - For the period im modelling, RES Livery 47s would have been ex works and I think this does a good job of looking like one tfn jon

Goodevening - ive just finished 50007 this eveing - the final hurdle was glazing the new windscreens which is a job i hate doing - i think i managed to put it off for about a year. Along with the new windscreens this loco also had new bodyside louvres, has been lowered and converted to P4 to join its classmates. Hornbys first release of 50007 was finished as preserved but for my collection I need it in early 90s condition - so no snowploughs unfortunately - to backdate the model the red horn grilles have been painted green - black nameplates and number plates have been fitted over the current' red versions and the red stripes have been removed from the axleboxes so they they are just yellow , also the 'LA' markings are removed from the cabsides on the drivers side. I havent got the heart to weather 007 - for my period it should be a little more battered and bruised tfn jon

Goodevening - this afternoon I finally weathered the chassis of the two class 08s shown earlier - so theyre now finished - I cant even remember when i started them - most of the colores used are derived from mixtures of Rail Grey, humbrol rust and executive dark grey. lucky i have these two locos out the way now - as thw workbench is clear for a nice new 50015 tfn Jon

Luckily, the 08s have been able to donate the motors to other things - one has already been transplanted into a Hornby 153 - so ive saved myself the cost of a blck beetle. Dapols 'dummy' locos seem to sell - so the idea must work - for them at least.

they were all too tidy to be scrapped IMO

Goodevening - today ive finished another 'withdrawn' loco which will join my two BR blue class 08s on the Laira scrapline. 50030 Renown - the loco is in revised NSE light blue - but for some reason got NSE dark blue cabs at one end -- nice! As its a withdrawn loco ive taken out the gears so its just free rolling , incase it needs to be shoved along a siding or something. Ive not gone too far with the weathering - as i saw the real loco when it has just been laid up, and it was still in pretty good nick externally even though a few parts had been robbed for spares. Its my standard class 50 'job' - noses rebuilt with shawplan Windscreens body lowered onto its bogies - new bodyside louvres , speedo added to the bogie and converted to P4 using Branchlines conversion pack . Im just waiting for Hornby to release 'Valiant' now as a source of a sound chip as ive decided to add 50037 'Lusty' to my collection, as I need some more West of England branded 50s in dark blue (I have too many light blue ones with BR arrows at the moment) tfn jon