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4 months have elapsed since Trainwest and my last update as there has been nothing to update on due to all my spare time being focused on Land Rover rebuild which is progressing much slower than planned, and costing quite a bit more than planned. To provide a little alternative entertainment I decided to crack on with the conversion of an Airfix Lowmac to one of the 2 Malago Vale carriage siding wagons. In essence these were a Lowmac on to which a frame was welded to take 4 industrial skips and were used to take the waste from Malago Vale (which had no road access) on the south west side of Bristol to Kingsland Road sidings on the East side of Bristol for collection by the waste processor. For the model most of the framework has had to be made from scratch as are the bins which are sized by looking at photos etc. My main camera is broke so the phone has been pressed into action, apologies for the small size of image:

D6886 is blue, repainted in 1970. D6982 is green, tell tale is lighter roof colour and peeling lighter colour undercoat on the bodyside, plus it was repainted blue in 1972 so would not have been that poor a condition so quickly.

It was indeed the 4/44 that used the X-PAG engine, the dipstick position was different between the Wolseley and MG variants and is the easiest way to tell them apart, it was also fitted to the MG TC. My father along with many MG enthusiasts raided 4/44's in scrapyards in the 60's for the spare engines, as the 4/44 were more plentiful and thus the engines are cheaper.

Just been catching up on the latest developments Peter, some very impressive looking photos many of which it is difficult to tell it is a model.

You can never have too many class 37 models, I once had models of 10% of the class!

Look forward to following developments, Castle Cary is a nice choice of prototype, I went past it quite a few times commuting from near Wells to Blandford Forum in the early 2000's and was always tempted to model it one day.

Lovely little layout you have built Stu, you have a good eye for colours as the scenery is very nicely done.

No in fat finger land...

Thanks Tony, great to meet you too. There are a few more exhibition appearances locally over the next few years, hope to see you at Thornburg in November perhaps. Good luck with your layout, look forward to seeing it when it is finished.

Thanks Phil. I was home by 16:45 and the last train came off the layout at 16:31!

Just been ctaching up on the latest updates, you are certainly making good progress Pete!

Trainwest proved to be a great weekend, the layout behaved well all weekend with even the 3 link couplings proving easier than normal. Thanks to Alan doing a sterling job on the controller I had some time to browse the show on Saturday and catch up with some familiar faces and make new acquaintances. The layout received many comments over the weekend which were really appreciated with many people recognising the Avon Street connection before reading the blurb at the bottom of the layout. What was great at this show more than ever was the level of audience interaction with many people sharing pictures and thoughts of their own projects and asking questions on the layout. The next show is November at The Chantry in Thornbury, a great little show in a very characterful venue.

When I worked at the warehouse behind Greenford station a class 56 went through and the windows nearly rattled out of the frame....

Great to see this in the flesh for the first time today and meet up again. It is a great layout although it is not how I remember Towcester as you have put a station where Tesco and Homebase is ;-)

As part of the Trainwest Points West filming Peafore Yard was used in the advertising Video for their Twitter and facebook pages. https://www.facebook.com/pointswest/ https://twitter.com/bbcpointswest?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

The layout has been rescued from the depths of the garage and road tested by the kids in readiness for the weekends show, hopefully it will be a good turnout as BMRG have really stepped up to the plate with the venue this year.

It is more shortage of washers at the moment from loses incurred in battles with the angle grinder

I think there may have been a little bit of scope creep from "just get the bits sorted for the MOT": The chassis has since been painted (Frost chassis black) and is going to get dinitrol inside the chassis as even though it is Galvanised as I don't want to take any chances.

Looking at my diary I realised it is less than 2 weeks until Trainwest, it looks like the BMRG team have got a good show lined up. The date has crept up on me a little as the layout is currently buried under a big pile of Land Rover bits so I apologise in advance if the hall stinks of old engine oil.... Do say hi if you pop past, it is always good to catch up with some fellow RMwebbers.

Yes indeed, I briefly owned both and the SLW one is streets ahead. Irrespective of Bachmann bringing out a headcode box one first, I will still wait for the SLW version. Anybody who has the body off an SLW class 24 and looked at the chassis will be reassured about there being of a 25/2 in the future....

It looks tidy but from your mention of rust, I presume there are some holes in the inner sills and floor? Good luck with the repairs, I know first hand how a few holes become new sills/floors etc... I used my dad's midget as my everyday car for a few months in the early 2000's, as you say cracking car to drive because you are so low to the ground. The Midget heater was fantastic and with a 3/4 toneau cover I was nice and toasty with the hood down most days in January.

G No probs Neil, I am well versed in dealing with young Children at shows, my 2 lasted about 2 hours before they get bored and that's with a cake break. I generally leave my wife at the shops when I go to the shows otherwise our purchasing gets "restricted" a little....

Thanks Tony, glad you brother enjoyed it!

The last paragraph highlights a key thing that Hornby have lost by direct selling and not having the retailer relationships. In the example of the 4f and the 9f it is very easy to get the feedback via the reps to the product and marketing teams. If the rep comes back saying "Trains R us told me they sold 15 Bachmann whatevers and only 1 of ours all the customers say ours is too expensive/ lacks detail etc" you have useful Intel and can use it as part of your marketing and product strategy. If you sell direct you lose that feedback, not just in sales comparison but also direct feedback (albeit you can look at RMweb etc)

No probs Tony, hope you are feeling better soon.