Steadfast

Nice one Trev, Water Orton is one of those places I've wanted to visit for a while Here's the same train a wee while earlier, just west of Cam & Dursley near Gossington Looks like the weather followed it north! I wonder if any other members snapped 6E41 yesterday? jo

Cheers Ben, It's progressing surprisingly qucikly, if it continues at this pace then it could well be in primer by Leamington. It'll be with me for sure, whatever state it's in. Yes, the Tiphook KPA was crying out to be included, think I'll have to swing by the NGS stand for a purchase. Nice weathering on them too! There's a few trains around London that use these wagons, some Mendip based (Whatley - St Pancras or Hayes generally) and some Acton ones too. jo

Thanks Simon, I'm looking forward to seeing more Gresby progress I hadn't realised the NGS did one - good value too looking at the website. Think I'll have to pick one up at Leamington... jo

60049 came and went from South Wales twice last week I believe. 60096 has been solid on the Murco tanks, and 60049 is the only other EWS 60 to have been in Wales lately.It's now been stored at Toton, leaving 096 on it's own at Margam. 60007 should be just about done now, hopefully it'll head this way! HTH jo

I've decided to have a play with a thread rather than a blog for a bit. I always liked the old work bench threads, let's see if this gives me the kick up the backside to keep projects moving forward Previous work was on the blog here: http://www.rmweb.co....60-ewsjos-blog/ Anyway, last week I had an idea. Whether it's a good idea or not, I don't know... Recent deliveries of stone hoppers have more than a passing resemblance to the current designs of coal hoppers. I have a few hoppers that I picked up cheaply, so didn't mind hacking them about. I've got a nice set of RMC hoppers, which I felt could do with a bit of variety. All this sounded rather worryingly like a plan... Right, so first up here's a piccy from Flickr with the kind of mix I'm looking to achieve. http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/ A set of RMCs, with a couple of EWS wagons thrown in, plus a lovely KPA. Towards the back are a Cemex blue and grey IIA as well as a Cemex and an EWS HOA. Add in the fact this train can occaisionally produce a 60 and we're onto a winner! I'm going to start with an IIA hopper, this looking more involved than the HOAs. These wagons were ordered by EWS for their contract with Cemex, orginally operating off Peak Forest with the HOAs, displacing the RMC JGA hoppers, but as shown on the link above have migrated elsewhere, too. A batch of identical wagons went to Nacco and VTG for lease to Mendip Rail, which due to living where I do, I have many more pictures of, so will be using these to illustrate at times. The wagons were built by Wagony Swidnica, part of Greenbrier, in Poland, the same people who did Freightliner's HHA coal hoppers. Looking at the side and end profiles, there's clearly a family resemblance, and that's where the idea begain. Here's a quick bit of Photoshop work to highlight the work involved, with a Mendip Rail liveried IIA to compare with. Modelling those "breadloaf" buffers could be interesting... So, from the top down: Everything above the red line is cut away, this will be replaced with a 6mm wide piece of plasticard as the IIA has this as a single plane, as opposed to the two on the HHA 5.5mm up on the flat bodyside needs to be a horizontal groove. I have made this 1mm deep, with the remainder of the original bodyside above this at just under 1.5mm. On the prototype it is at a 45 degree angle, but on the model I have simply represented it by putting some flat plasticard behind the gap Top shows the unmodified side, bottom has the top angle cut off and the groove added. Looking back it may have been easier to file this groove in... The dimensions show the IIA is much shorter than the HHA, most of this is lost by loosing one hopper bay, but additonally each bay needs shortening by 3mm. Here's current state of play, showing the inner moulding having lost a hopper bay, but still needing each remaining bay shortening This final image shows the difference in length between an HHA and a JGA stone hopper. The IIA should be slightly longer than the JGA if I'm remembering rightly I'm keeping my eyes open for some cheap IIA/HYA (Fastline/GBRf) coal hoppers to do some HOAs once this one is done More soon! jo

Lovely stuff Simon, I've been following the thread silently for a while. Who makes the Lowmac kit? I could do with one for Baby Laira jo

Nice catch Andy. That looks like a DB Schenker container/swapbody on a privately owned lorry. DB Schenker (and the older Schenker logistics livery, link here: http://www.gapgroup.com/content/images/schenker.jpg) trucks are quite common visitors to the UK, and they must have a UK base too as I've seen some UK registered ones. Some pics here, http://publications.2evolv.co.uk/?userpath=00000082/00008126/00058282/ from the DB Schenker site HTH jo

Yep, 60010 on 6E41 Westerleigh - Lindsey Sounds like 60096 is back at Margam...again.... jo

59203 after 70000 failed at Warminster. Rather drawn out affair including diverting FGW and SWT services via Yeovil, the 59 dragged the tour back to Westbury, then the water boiler removed and 59203 took the lead There's a pic on here from a local photographer http://tomcurtisrail...ugust-2011.html In other news - 60007 was reported on the Toton load bank yesterday. Hopefully the paintshop now beckons jo

Thanks to everyone who managed to stop by for a chat at Stormex, layout performed pretty well. Got a dodgy track joint and a couple of rolling stock issues to sort as well as labelling up switches permanently. Here's a few pics from the day Apolgies for the quality, they were taken on the phone. The transfers on my stock were applied in a bit of a rush Friday night, well, Saturday morning really, so today I've started doing a proper job of them. Only the basic livery elements were applied, so today has seen the first of my mk3s gain carriage letters, numbering, cantrail stripe, OHLE flashes etc. The next few days should see the rest of the mk3s, sprinters and power car brought up to scratch. Even if I say so myself, I'm really impressed with how the transfers have come out. The dynamic line is printed at home on white inkjet transfer paper, with the rest printed by Kelvin at Red Firecracker with his ALPS printer Clicking the piccies blows them up to way bigger than life size! Oh, and the roof on my stuff is blue all over jo

Mike, the Hattons images show Swallow liveried mk3s so it looks like thats how they ship jo

Thanks guys! Go on Mike, you know it makes sense to come up to Cheltenham. Not sure on the reaction if we did actually rock up with the big speakers on Saturday lol What's this DCC malarky all about then? jo

Thanks Ben, with the debut show this weekend, progress is moving on. Here are some quick phone snaps Worth commenting on here are the jacks and the open windows. The jacks have a length of wire glued into the bases, with a pair of holes in the depot floor for each one. This gives a close and a wide setting, alowwing stock to be supported on them, or to give enough clearance to allow things to pass. It also makes them nice and stable More soon! jo

Hi Stu, The yellow stripe stops short of the doors, level with the CDL lights, it should go over the doors to the ends. Compare this http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonedome/5921468888/sizes/o/in/photostream/ to the Hattons images Layout progress: Currently contact adhesiving everything! jo

Cheers David, A full rake at this point in time will be just 4 mk3s, but when the TGS is available I'll finish up a 2+7 set since I'm doing a micro buffet Right, to Photoshop and my transfer artworks... jo

Hi Stu, I think two tone roof is hideable with weathering, the first class stripe, headlights and nose logo less so. I can't check the pics as I'm on my phone typing this, but I think the cooler group is ok if i remember. It'll need painting silver or blue though dependant on power car. No one seems to have noticed the warning panel and the yellow stripe error on the GC set yet, to add to your list lol jo

In between throwing bits of layout together in preparation for Stormex, I've had the chance to get some painting done. Phoenix Precision First Group blue and magenta (or Rubine Red to use its proper title) have been used. The transfer applied is one that didn't come out quite right, done as a trial to see how it'll all look. These started out life as blue grey liveried mk3s, bought cheap at Hattons due to the Inter-City branding being higher than the 125. Assuming the pics of the Dapol FGW livery on the Kernow site are production models, I'm glad I've gone my own way with these. Here's a picture of the real thing in case anyone reading isn't familiar with the livery The sprinters are in the same condition (albeit masked up still) awaiting the light blue fade to be airbrushed next week. I'll pop some pics up of them too when they're done All for now, jo

Here's a piccy http://www.lococarriage.org.uk/St%20Philips%20March%20HSTs.jpg There's another head for the bar that allows two power cars to be coupled nose to nose, too. http://www.trainsferriesbuses.co.uk/43198-43155-md-01.jpg The bar is normally stowed in the luggage area of the power car, at least in the ones I've seen it is. Hope this helps, jo

Indeedy, even my Grandma calls them Fat Alberts They sure will be missed round here, hope all is well with you Matt. Here's some piccies The first plane (The K) took off and headed to the right of the picture. The next 3 (all Js) took off and went left, with the K bringing up the rear, heading north towards Tetbury. These two pics show 2,3 and 4 taking off Planes 2 and 3 swinging round to the north After the tour of Wiltshire, they flew over Chippenham, then turned to fly over Lyneham and Wootton Bassett. This is taken near Foxham, with the planes about to pass over the base again A shame this will no longer be a regular thing around here, and it does leave you wondering about the future jo

Thanks all for the comments and help - finally got the time to post a reply now, been keeping an eye on the thread on my phone up till now. Which it seemed to stick to, thanks for posting those Paul. I'll get some photos up in a bit Thanks again, jo

Hi guys, Friday should see the last flight of a C-130 from Lyneham. It's due to do a tour of Wiltshire before going to Brize Norton. Points West on Tuesday night had quite a detailed route map, but everything else I've seen has been quite vague? I don't suppose anyone has come across a vague guide to times at various points somewhere on the interweb? Any help is appreciated! Thanks jo

Cheers Pete, I'll probably get an FGW example when its out, to run on club layouts etc. It's an expensive set to buy and then hack holes in the front for a coupling bar. Also the fact I'd need two or three sets to get enough dummy power cars. Soon adds up...compared to the cheapy Farish power car shells I have in my stash. What's more, I have plenty more, so another era could easily be covered.... jo