Bill

like canteen sandwiches

A whole range of white metal kits and figures from a variety of manufacturers arrived in the post quite a while ago, they just sat in a bin as progress on the layout ground to a halt. Recently things started moving again, and it was quite a surprise to rediscover them. Now was/is the time to assemble and paint them... Here is picture of some of them before painting - all ghosts from a far distant past... To this day I am not sure what I was thinking when they were ordered.. The Water Crane, obviously fits. An ancient metal luggage label machine? Not so certain. The metal figures are from Border Miniatures and work very well - 10/10. The Peco platform pieces are serviceable. But I also now know which manufacturers of white metal kits I personally shall avoid in the future, (names withheld as other's experience might be different). Assembly and painting is currently underway along with the construction of a Slater's Diagram 208 Vent Van. The difficulty in living in Canada is getting paints that match 'British Railways' standards. I am having fun making do with what is available here and have so far found some good matches but it is an expensive journey finding out....

like Marvin, the

Paul - thanks for the encouragement. I wish I could say I built the locos The pannier is RTR from Lionheart Trains and excellent value it is too - the Prairie and The Saddle tank came ready painted from Tower. They are all very nice runners, not that they do that much running on a 12 foot layout... In my view the 45XX prairie was the most beautiful tank engine ever built. Whoever designed it loved engines and got the proportions just right. Though I am pretty sure not all would agree.... I would encourage anyone to try out a small O gauge layout - It s quite a revelation to do so..

Thanks for your very useful comments - I guess I have been living too long on the wrong side of the pond (that and all the codeine in my system from my last root canal) - The cars do need to revert to UK driving rules. And that's really helpful about the signal - it felt as though it was in the wrong place but I could not quite put my finger on it... And with a little bit of tinkering the level Xing could be made to look a bit more like the Bronwydd Arms version... Maybe I should get another Peco Kit and start from scratch - unless someone else makes a GWR 7mm level Xing kit?

The Peco Level crossing has been assembled and painted and located (not finally, but good enough for now,). The paints used were Tamiya and excellent they are too, they give a good finish and are water clean up. They appear to be consistent in quality, which is more that can sometimes be said for other brands. Because of the way The gates were hung and in trying to conform to Peco's picture on the box. Essential if one does not know what one is doing, it wound up with having to put the closing bolt on upside down... So I searched for a prototype to see whether the hanging post should be on the right or left from a streets eye view. Here is a photo of it - <div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/17/58/175826_a44be158.jpg"><span property="dct:title">Level crossing gate, Oakington, Cambs</span> (<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/2182">Rodney Burton</a>) / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></div> (with appropriate permission...) Now the Peco image shows it reversed... i.e. hanging on the left from the streets eye view So some questions for anyone who wishes to answer.. (1) Does it matter which way the gates are hung? (2) More importantly - was this style of crossing gate ever used on the Western region? The layout is more or less stuck with it - maybe in this instance GWR bought some surplus gates from the LNER? :-)

mice running up...

Activity has resumed after a lengthy hiatus. Buildings have appeared and are appearing, mostly RTP. Fences are being planned and located. The garage/coal merchants has now a home. The Peco level crossing is mostly built - all it needs is some final assembly and a paint job. At last some RTP 50's lorries in actual 1/43 - this truly a wonder - I found them advertised in the O gauge guild magazine... So things are looking up and if the momentum continues - summer is a busy time for my business and can slow things down - there ought to be more to report... Here are some not very expert pictures to give a sense of how things are moving on...

said Englebert as...

attic making strange

black and bruised...

picture perfect planet...

on dodgy deaf-aids..

always do when...

By Doctor Beeching..

lit a cigarette

dangling dangerously close...

shut with MEK

gathering of hiccups