St. Simon

Hi, Right, today saw remodelling of Hythe's fiddle yard begin. We Started by getting the Hop Field board up and ready to begin work at around 10:00 (About half an hour after I woke up! ). This was followed by ripping up the curve in 'Hop Cutting' in about 5 minutes (in real life this would take a week long possession and countless health and safety forms! ). We went down to Hunts of Marlow to get some radius 3 curves, along with a tunnel mouth. We got back and started work again. Within an hour we had the track down and tunnel mouth in. We also cut the backscene to suit the new curvature. We've just got to construct the tunnel and redo the scenery. Unfortunatly nothing can be done until Friday as we have one of dads' old school friends, whose also a train fan, is coming to stay Simon

Hi, Do these get down to Dollands Moor, if they do, I can justify a couple on Hythe Parkway Simon

Hi, Work on the Shingle Train is progressing, but very slowly, the secound wagon has been constructed and is waiting to be painted along with the other wagon For those who don't know what the shingle train is, here's a brief explaination: One of the most important freight flows for the New Romney Branch in Kent was Shingle from the vast shingle banks of Dungeness & Lydd. These were conveyed in a fleet of modified LNER designed, Steel bodied, 13t Open Wagons (otherwise known as Highfits). These were modified for use on the shingle trains by having their body side doors welded up, along with the legend 'SEALED DOOR' above said doors. The trains were hauled by BRCW Type 3 Bo-Bo's (later Class 33 ' Cromptons') from a quarry in Lydd to a recieving terminal in Arlington. My plan to model a 10 wagon (may be more!) train using the Parkside Dundas kit of the wagons and using a Bachman BR Suzler Type 2 (Class 24) as the motive power, I know it's not prototypical, but I can't find a Green Heljan 33 anywhere! I will purchase a Southern 20t Brake Van when I have built the whole train, until then I'll be using a Bachmann 'Queen Mary' bogie Brake Van Simon

Hi Guys, The SESR has a new arrival, A Bachmann BR Green Class 20, which I brought off a club member on Wednesday. It's one of the older batch of models & I brought it for ??20 I don't know what I should do with my old Lima class 20, any thoughts? Simon

Hi, Progress on Bigporth is steadily increasing! First, thanks to the kind nature of Graham_muz, concreating of the Goods yard area is now nearing the stage of completion. Secoundly, I was at the Aldershot show on sunday, operating 'Hinton Parva' and managed to pick up the station building for bigporth, it's the Bachmann Scenecraft Stone Station Building, it's perfect I create a gallery for it tomorrow and upload some pictures! Simon

Hi, This is my first ever blog, so I hope I'm doing it right! Since Hythe's appreance at the RMweb Members Day, it has been decided that major remodelling will take place over the October Half Term. This will be in the form of completely changing the fiddle yard from the conventional type (A fan of sidings) to the cassette type. Remodelling of the curve in 'Hop cutting' will be relaid to make a gentler curve in the cutting, plus turning the fiddle yard entrance 'Hole' into a tunnel I was at the Aldershot show on sunday, exhibiting 'Hinton Parva', I notice (well, Graham_muz pointed out me!) a hand painted totem with 'Hythe' on it. This will now form part of a display that will be displayed along the front of the layout, instead on the side Well Bye for now! Simon