nickwood

I would say the same advice still holds true.

Just seen your news Jim. I hope there is a positive and improving outlook on the horizon for Linda. Keep your chin up, be strong and we'll still be here when you have the time to look in.

Nice job Tony. The paintwork looks superb. The main compromise you appear to have made is in keeping the three panels either side of the rear doors, the D15's only had two, albeit they were much wider. You do appear to have addressed the positioning of the guards duckets though which should be opposite each other not offset like on the Triang donors. I am in the process of making a pair of D15's. The bodies are complete and ready priming however I have done the opposite to you and removed the panel strips and made new ones out of 10thou strip to make two panels but have left the duckets offset. I've also gone a little further on the ends and removed the handrails and steps and adding then back in brass wire and etched steps. I'm interested to know how you have done the roof and the glazing? I have tried bending plasticard for the roof but I'm not happy with it and I'm currently waiting for a friend to have a go at 3D printing the roof section. The glazing looks like it is almost flush ??

Much Murkle's last outing for 2018 will be as a guest layout at Pendon Museum over the weekend of 17 & 18th November. My team are looking forward to having a great weekend in a more relaxing atmosphere than the usual exhibition environment. Fortunately we will be located in the workshop room so no one will be able to make a direct visual comparison of my modelling skills to that of the Pendon modellers. Pendon are also holding a "Friends of Pendon evening" on the Saturday night at which I am giving a talk and demonstration on building and exhibiting Much Murkle. It should be an interesting evening. If you haven't been to Pendon for a while, or have never been before why not come along and get some added value to visit. Hope to see some of you and have a chat.

The Much Murkle team all thought this was one of the most enjoyable shows we have attended, ever! The credit for that must go to Adrian and the Uckfield club for making us all feel welcome, hosting a great social evening on Saturday and coming round during the day with teas, coffee and biscuits. Much appreciated guys.

Much Murkle has had a small refurb to freshen up the presentation and is now packed ready for the journey to the Uckfield Exhibition this weekend. If you are visiting the show, please say hello. There will be a few items of new stock making an appearance other than the Railcar. A couple of cut and shut clerestory coaches, a D37 brake third and a C10 all third and a Hattons Andrew Barclay industrial 0-4-0 to shunt the cider works (nameplates are temporary)

Invite yourself, I did and Much Murkle appeared last year. They are not always aware that a layout is available for exhibitions, or still available. Just send an email to Mike Wild and I'm sure you will be welcomed for a future year..

I've finally found the motivation and time (both have been a problem these last few months) to complete the weathering on the Railcar, just in time for the Uckfield show this coming weekend.

Details arrived today. Looking forward to getting Much Murkle out again as it hasn't seen daylight since February until last week when I decided to spruce it up a bit with a fresh coat of paint and attend to a few maintenance items. There will also be a few new items of stock appearing to confuse the operators.

A small correction if I may Adrian. Much Murkle is not based in Hertfordshire, but in Herefordshire where the cider is far superior. It looks like you have a really good show lined up.

The organisers have had a tense couple of days due to late running essential maintenance works at the School. It is hoped that these works will be completed today and everything will go on as planned. However, depending on how the works progress today, it is also possible that the contractors may need to work on Saturday to complete their work. If this is the case then there may be some inconvenience experienced by visitors on Saturday, particularly in our ability to provide refreshments. The works will not affect the traders and exhibitors attending. We apologise in advance if any visitor to our show finds themselves inconvenienced in any way but the situation is entirely beyond our control. THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

Moorside will be replaced by Praa Sands, a small O gauge layout. Due to illness Burnham Constable has withdrawn. Fortunately we have found a replacement with another O gauge layout, Danbee.

Unfortunately Moorside has withdrawn. No replacement as yet but we are looking.

Sad news indeed. Another of the great inspirational modellers from my youth and beyond gone. RIP

Thanks Nigel, listing has now been amended

Andover Model Railway Club are pleased to announce their Annual 2 day exhibition MODELEX 2018 on; Saturday 1st September 2016 10:00am to 5:00pm Sunday 2nd September 2016 10:00am to 4:00pm JOHN HANSON SCHOOL, FLORAL WAY, ANDOVER, HANTS SP10 3PB John Hanson School is a wheelchair friendly venue For further details and directions see www.andovermodelrailwayclub.co.uk QUALITY LAYOUTS IN VARIOUS SCALES AND GAUGES WIDE RANGE OF TRADERS DEMONSTRATIONS REFRESHMENTS FREE PARKING Details of Layouts attending: 2mm scale Bodmin General Longmoor Stapleforth St Stephens LLangerisech (9.42mm) 3mm scale Winterwell on Fosse 4mm scale Klive (OO) London Road (Box) (OO) Doddbury (OO) High Offley (OOfs) Oldshaw (EM) Leicester Belgrave Road (OO) Tidworth (OO) Severn Ash (OO) Folly Lane (OO) 009 Wickenbreux Road Vale Quarry 7mm scale O gauge test track Green Pond Lane Itchen End Goods Depot Burnham Constable Other Merg - MERG Society South Hants Model Auto Club - Competition cars, lorries and vans by SHMAC Lynton and Barnstaple Railway - Society Stand by the Thames Valley Support Group AMRC Club Stand - Club stand, info and secondhand items for sale Weathering Demo & questions - Demonstration by Mick Bonwick Modelling Card Buildings - Demonstration by John Barrett Coach Building - Demonstration Andover and District Model Engineering Society - Society Stand Andover Dolls House and Miniatures Club - Club stand Traders Coastal DCC - DCC equipment and advice Andover Sales AMRC - New and used models Brian's Trains - Secondhand trains and books Motorail - Buses cars and kits JB's Model World - Storage systems, cases, paints Kytes Lights - Lighting for all models Neil Cresswell - New and used models ABC Model Railways -American, British and Continental Models Brunswick Railways - Precision paints, adhesives etc Andy Lynch Railways - Pre-owned Model Railway equipment Smith & Sons - Books Amberley Services - Tools and 0 gauge items Platform 3 - Layout design Model Railway Bits - Scenics, trees, kits Replica Railways - British outline models Andover Model Railway Club is proud to support Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance http://www.hiowaa.org

No 'fraid not. The Vale scene is firmly set in the Vale To pick up on Andy's earlier comment that Wednesdays are a good day to visit Pendon with the children / grandchildren for the Junior drop-in modelling sessions. These only take place during school holiday's (for obvious reasons). The modelling team are usually very busy from opening at 11am until around 1pm when it then tends to get a bit quieter. Best to be there when the doors open and bring them straight upstairs to the workshop room or leave it until after lunch.

Much Murkle was built using code 100, primarily because I had lots of it in stock at the time. Photograph by Andy York Apart from couplings the trackwork is what I get most questions about at exhibitions. Very few believe that it isn't code 75. From this angle it is clearly code 100 but from a slightly lower angle at exhibitions it is difficult to tell. The secret is in the ballasting and weathering.

I received an email from John's son, Nicholas to inform me of John's passing which I have copied below. "It with sadness that I have to inform you that John died on Sunday. It was sudden, and I don't believe Dad suffered at all. He was on his way to Church with his jacket and badge on, locking the front door on his way to the garage when he must have collapsed. I was just with him the night before enjoying a beer and having our regular chat about our various projects. We had just come upstairs from discussing his new project Hintock St Loe. I attach a picture of the layout as he left it. Also, a photo of the plan that he had just completed to post no doubt on the railway forum. (Photos attached at the foot of the post) I cannot express the thanks I have for your companionship with Dad over the years. His railway and his friends and fans he had on the forum gave him so much vitality and enthusiasm for life. He often shared your stories with me and kept me up to date with how many likes he was getting on his posts. On a more practical note, it is my responsibility to handle Dad's extensive model railway gear including all his stock, models, etc. I would appreciate any help you could provide as to how I should proceed. If possible, I'd like to see at least some of it go to people who could appreciate and utilize the product of so much of Dad's time and effort. Thanks again, I'm sorry to be the bearer of such sad news. Nicholas" I first remember John's name from reading articles that he wrote on Owlcombe and Hintock in the modelling press back in the 1970's I think. He was an early member of YMR and it was here that he and I first struck up a rapport, commenting on each others layouts. He gave me much critical encouragement during the construction of Much Murkle, both on the forum and privately. I liked the fact that he never fought shy of saying if he didn't like something I had done, but he also gave encouragement and praise in equal measure. I found his work on Hintock inspirational, hopefully some of which rubbed off on me. I was lucky enough to have a face to face discussion with John, and his son Nicholas when they visited the UK in 2016. We talked about lots of things and obviously modelling was one subject that got aired. John was adamant that my adopted approach was too much towards the finescale end of the spectrum for his taste. He was always quite prepared to completely omit details which couldn't be seen. I retorted that his approach was more akin to an artist and storyteller. John may not have been a finescale modeller in the true sense of the term, but he certainly made some of the finest models and settings I have had the pleasure to see develop and read about. We exchanged many emails over the all too few years I had his acquaintance. It was clear to me that John was very much a family man first and modeller second. He cared for his wife Jeanne for some time before she eventually passed away and he always took great pride in relating to me how his sons and their families doing. I am aware that my friendship with John was not unique as he took much time and trouble to correspond with the many people who took an interest in his work. John was still modelling and submitting articles of his work to Railway Modeller magazine to the very end and a couple of photos can be seen below of his last unfinished project Hintock St Loe. There will undoubtably be many modellers who will be sad not to hear from him in the future and to see the Hintock story come to an untimely end. I will miss John and our periodic exchanges greatly. A true gentleman. R.I.P.

I am in the process of detailing my No12 which I've descibed on my Much Murkle thread which starts near the bottom of this page http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/58847-much-murkle/page-25 I'm intrigued by the two tone roof shown on the photo above, but I'm wondering if it is white and black as suggested or perhaps white and brown? Can anyone say for certain?

I received one of these a while back http://www.hattons.co.uk/58947/Dapol_4D_011_001_Streamlined_railcar_12_in_GWR_lined_chocolate_and_cream_with_shirtbutton_emblem/StockDetail.aspx The model catches the prototype very well but having large windows, gives a very good view of the interior, which can only be descrided as BLAND. It is moulded in a beige/light brown plastic and is frankly disappointing. So the first job was to brighten it up a bit. Researching the colours of the interior and upholstery drew a blank as the only pictures I could find were in black and white, but they did show a variety of patterns on the seat cloth, mostly tartan. So the floor was painted a dark brown, the seats a brown/red colour to mimic stained wood and the walls in cream. I then copied a green tartan design and printed onto an adhesive label sheet. These were then cut and stuck to the seats as shown below: I bought some seated passengers at the Southampton show back in January. After painting these were used to populate the Railcar. With the addition of a driver the interior is finished. The exterior is well detailked but there are a couple of things on the roof which with a bit of work will lift the model to greater heights if you'll pardon the pun. The torpedo tube, which is actually part of the ATC equipment has conduits running from it across the roof and down the sides. These are represented, but are so finely moulded they cannot really be seen. Also on the prototype there are bearers running across the roof between the vents to support the tube; these are missing completely. The supports are an easy fix by cutting thin strips of 0.25mm plasticard and slipping these under the tube and between the vents before glueing into place. The conduits were a bit fiddly but made out of 0.5mm wire bent to shape and very carefully superglued into position. Both the conduits and the supports can be seen in the next three photos. A couple of photos that can be compared to the link at the start of this post to show the overall effect that painting the interior and doing a small amount of detail work can make. To finish this project I will need to repaint the roof and weather the Railcar. It will then be ready for service on Much Murkle. PS, it runs beautifully.

Andy, thank you for producing a superb video of my layout. You have found some interesting angles to film from and I particularly like the close up and low aspect filming, something you rarely see in the small snippets of video that most people take. From my point of view it is a pity there isn't a little more of Rancoutt's yard and an appearance of the mineral train but hey, you have shown many of the other trains which frequent Much Murkle. It is good that you've shown the operating as it is, warts and all. The odd train that comes to an abrupt halt is a result of not checking that points are set correctly, but at least it alweays happens in front of the signal box where we can claim that the driver has stopped to exchange a few words with the signalman!! I enjoyed the chat with you on the day and hope to see you with your camera again sometime. Regards, Nick

Can't think who that would be.... nothing personal taken, we know you only came up to get away from Howard The Much Murkle team had a great weekend with some lovely comments on the layout and it's operation. We were very grateful that we were upstairs as it was much cooler than the main hall on Saturday which I understand got very hot. Every time someone went out of the double doors onto the seating area of the Grandstand to have a ciggy or make a phone call, it sent an icy blast of air our way, keeping everything at a pleasant temperature. Thank you to all the RMwebbers who introduced themselves and took the time to ask questions or just chat especially those who expressed that to see Much Murkle was the main reason they had come along to the show.

Thanks Popeye (sorry forgot your real name) It was good to have a chat and I hope the video comes out well, you must just about have the full sequence! Nick

Much Murkle is ready for loading in the morning and making the trip to Donny. Hoping to catch up with a few friends over the weekend and see what reaction the GWR gets in the north.