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I made a start on transferring bits onto the new chassis tonight, first item being the battery box followed by the rear springs. I cut and glued them one at a time to make sure I had a reference point for their position on the new chassis. To help orientate them I put the rear axle, propshaft abd gearbox in place as well so I could position the wheels. The front springs proved more tricky, the chassis being hollow near the battery box so I will scratchbuild these.

With the Calne show out of the way, I can focus on making progress on the Dodge. I managed to stock up on 5mm channel if various thickness to make the new chassis. I made the new chassis slightly shorter as the rear overhang is to long by a few mm for the body and also there is no rear cross member. While the chassis set I also made some progress on the body, filing back some of the filler previously applied. On the otherside I have started to deal with the distorted rubbing strip. I decided to file back the most distorted part so I can then rebuild it with various thickness of microstrip. Next step is to transfer the bits I am keeping to the new chassis and finish the body.

Yep Happened while parked in the Crewe Heritage centre for the weekend.

Nowt wrong with a mainline loco on a shunting layout Nick, that 25 looks tidy

Good luck with the new project Richard, will be great to see what you do in O gauge.

That shunter looks tidy Nick.

Well that's another show done, good show by the BMRG crew, and an enjoyable weekend, with some nice comments about the layout. I found out through conversation with a couple of the visitors that one of my former layouts (Parsons Vale) is in this month's Hornby Magazine so will have to get a copy. Here is a few photos I took from today. I need to add some residual scrap to the empty wagons; 37029 had a few fans today, a couple of guys literally filmed every move it made for bit

The Youchoos guys did a good job to do the hard sell, they had some class 50 fitted with some massive speaker on full chat this afternoon!

Really enjoyed today, nice relaxed feel to the show, last couple of photos from the day;

Spookily @Calnefoxile said the same just as I was reading the above Nick... I am also pitched opposite youchoos who have some nice sound stuff on display. I am non technical on things like electronic and digital bits (Our IT tech team at work all go on break when they see my name pop up). Maybe on the next layout. A few photos of stock on the layout, a different view of the DMU 03382 is first train of the show.

All set up, ready to go. I need to find a better place for the contollers but looking much better now.

Thanks Nick will do.

It feels like only yesterday I was loading up for Crewe but it is less than 48 hours to Calne show which at the moment is my last outing in 2023, say hi if you are passing. Thankfully Calne is only 20 mins drive away so not too early a start on Saturday. I had harboured an outside chance of getting the Hymek ready but time and other things have worked against me. In terms of future show I have a trip to Stafford in 2025 pencilled in as well as interest from the New Milton show for next year. I will take the break in the shows to crack on with the extension over the next year.

Thanks George, very kind of you.

Thanks Chris, the wheels had been subjected to a clean up before the photo, one has a hole in the inner wheel but it is not visible.

Having followed the good work @ChrisS has put in to build an SBT Developments Leyland Road Runner crew van I decided to purchase the Dodge Commando variant at the recent MIOG show at Crewe. I chose the Dodge version as the SBT cab is a good likeness and is the right era for my layout. The chassis and body are sold separately as the bodies were fitted to various different chassis. The basic chassis/cab bits are laid out below; Last year I built an SBT Leyland National, which required a fair bit of work to build and get to a standard I wanted, primarily because it was the first one of the 3D printed variants. The Dodge is a bit more refined, the components except the chassis (more on that in a bit) being an ostensibly a good fit and after a bit of cleaning up the cab sits nicely on the floor. The wheels are nicely detailed, my only comment being they appear to be sized to represent a 22.5inch rim used on a 16t/17t truck rather than the smaller 19.5 inch rim used on a 7.5t chassis which is what the Crew vans were based on. The chassis has been glued together but the chassis has a slight twist to it and is not flat on top. Having scratchbuilt trailers before I am minded to make a new chassis out of suitable plastic channel, then transfer the springs to the new chassis. The chassis is slightly too long as it protrudes beyond the end of the body so I will correct this. In the photo below the chassis is not fully seated, the springs being a touch too wide between the tool boxes but was easily fixed with a file. My plan is to finish the chassis first then tackle the body. The body will be interesting as the bottom corner on the drivers side is somewhat distorted; Ordinarily I would be asking for a replacement but I love a challenge so the plan is to sand down the distorted rubbing strip and remake it with plastic strip. It won't be visible when completed anyway as it is the otherside that is visible on the layout

Nice photo's Ade, always had a soft spot for the Nene Valley as I used to take my daughter when she was little to give my wife a break when we lived at Silverstone. The motorhome Park looked nice when we passed it.

Looks like it is a matter of 1 to 2 inches that has made the difference. Based on location and colour of truck I have a hunch who the operator is, have never seen them run a double deck trailer though so likely to be either the driver chanced it hoping for the mythical 3 inch allowance that bridge heights have marked or forgot they were pulling a double deck trailer.

I live a few miles from this portal (and less than 1.5m from the other end) so am looking forward to seeing this completed. Out of interest is the portal available from Intentio please? One of the pubs above the Tunnel has this as their fire place, there are a few like this around here.

I can see the attraction to younger viewers who are more digital than analogue minded. I have had some fixed displays on the front of my last 2 layouts explaining where reality and fiction differ and I would say 20% of people read them and of those 50% then ask a question related to what they have read.

Good luck Rich, I thought I was being risky repainting loads of the layout in the 2 weeks before the show but that is nothing compared to your total rebuild!

Thanks Nick, definitely much smarter looking

As posted previously one of my big takeaways from Crewe was how well presented @Nick G Cripple Corner was. The key things that stood out was how well the legs were hidden under drapes, the end of the layout all painted, fiddle yard painted etc. While I had worked hard on the scenery elements of Peasevern Yard, the fiddle yard was still partially bare wood which had also had bit of paint on it. The clutter such as empty stock boxes, tool boxes etc all piled up underneath was visible as well. To show what I mean here is a before shot (from a while ago) I still had the drapes from my first exhibition layout (pallet lane) as the purchasers didn't need them. I also had loads of gloss black paint from having painted the fascia of the layout. I would have preferred Satin but I didn't want to have to Repaint the existing parts of the layout. Here is the after shot which looks much better and presents a much more professional image. I am going to replace the name tags with something more professional in the fullness of time as well.

Some lovely weathering on your stock. Good luck with the layout and welcome to O gauge, the amount of detail and weathering you can achieve compared to the smaller scale is very noticeable.

Less than 2 weeks to the layouts next show, the layout is mid spruce up with a lot of focus being on how the non scenic areas are presented, copious amounts of black paint being applied to match the existing layout fascias. The old drapes from Pallet Lane have been dragged out of storage and will be washed/Ironed before being adorned on the layout. I had moved away from drapes as they are one more think to store/forget/add on but they do make a difference to the presentation. There is also a new addition to the loco roster; I had fancied a Hymek for a while and wanted to model 7017 in its final months complete with vinyl numerals. I recently acquired this Hymek off eBay, which is DCC Sound fitted. Since the photo has been taken the sound chip has been removed and is now on ebay. This is one of the earlier releases and the lighting had been rewired to the chip so the original circuit board wouldn't connect so I have removed one motor and hard wired the pickups to the motor, I can live without lights. The removal of the 2nd motor is to reduce the current draw below 1amp. The body has been dismantled and headboard clips removed as they were not fitted to D7017. The ends will be changed to full yellow as well.