johndon

I've been working on and have finished, the cockpit for the Ta183. It's not perfect but, as the canopy that comes with the kit is one piece so can't be modelled in the open position I don't know how much of this you'll actually see... John

They aren’t the same ones that ran from Redcar to Consett which were larger. A shame as I’d definitely have bought some for South Pelaw.

It’s an Academy kit but, yes, it is a rebox.

The 162 is almost finished, it has just had a gloss coat after all the decals dried, canopy frame needs painting once some masks I've ordered arrive then it'll be weathering and done... Having built a v1 and now the 162, I seem to be attracted to early German jets so, once the Spitfire is finished, it'll be on to a FW Ta183. Designed as a replacement for the Me262, it was still on the drawing board at the end of the war although the Soviets did build one from the plans after the war and looking at it, you can clearly see the influence it had on the Mig15 design. With looks only a mother could love, its a bit of a chonker compared to the 162... John

Iron ore definitely came from Sweden to Tyne Dock in the mid/late 60's. The very dark ore is, I understand, called Taconite and thousands of lumps of it still litter the track bed to Consett if you know where to look. This lot was lying at the site of Beamish station:

Almost finished the cockpit for the Spitfire: and overall:

Some better photos (not mine) here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/85954524@N02

A most unusual formation at Tyne Yard this morning, HST Power Cars 43484+43465 with a delivery of one of the new units for the Tyne and Wear Metro system. Apologies for the not great quality but the weather was pretty horrible and I only had my iPhone with me. and looking in the other direction we can see the new bridge being built over the ECML for the widening (7 lanes in total) of the A1, the new bridge is around a hundred yards or so to the south of the existing one and the whole A1 will be skewed to cross it once the work is finished.

The 162 is almost ready for decals and has been joined on the bench by a Mk1 Spitfire from Eduard, my first ever Spitfire...

The He162 edges ever closer to completion... Fuselage haves are yet to be glued together and everything else is just placed in position for now.

I thought viewers of this thread might appreciate this photo which appeared on Flickr today: 60862 at Peterborough (pjs,1341) by Geoff Dowling, on Flickr

Exactly what was supplied at the Manchester show that I mentioned, pretty much useless for stopping visitors getting right up to the layout...

At the Manchester show in December they had barriers but I lost count of the number of times we had to push them back to their initial starting point as the crowds gradually pushed them ever closer to the layout. Expo EM in Bracknell last year didn't, as is often the case with society shows, have any barriers in front of the layout. We have a siding at the front of the layout in which we park some small colliery wagons and one visitor actually moved one of the wagons so he could rest his elbow on the layout!

A rather more 'DIY' version of a height gauge that I use to mark the waterline on my 1/200 warships 😀 principle is exactly the same though...

Once you've got your scenery done up to the board edges, 'skin' the sides with thin ply which will make it nice and neat.

Having enjoyed the build of the 1/48 Tamiya V1 late last year, I've decided to have a go at another German Jet, this time the Tamiya 1/48 Heinkel He162 A2 'Salamander'. Very early days but progress is being made. As you can see, it's not that much bigger than a V1...

Slow progress as usual but a delivery of frog juicers has seen the crossover on the branch line as well as the turnout and catch point for the banker's siding fully operational so I'm now able to replicate the return of the banker from Consett to South Pelaw:

Figured it wouldn't be easy...

Undecided as yet but if you fancy converting it for me…

As a follow up to this, Rails sent a replacement a couple of days ago. Apart from a couple of bent (but correctly installed) lamp irons, the replacement has none of the issues of the one I received originally.

Issues I'm aware of: 1. The livery for the BR version of the NER green is wrong, the model has a black border to the green round the bonnet sides - the black shouldn't be there at all, it should be green. 2. The 3rd rail collection shoes are in the wrong place on the beam for the 'in service' locos although they are correct for the preserved version. 3. The box mounted on the roof (very obvious in photos of the real thing) at one end is missing completely on the model, it appears the preserved loco doesn't haven't it but it is a very distinctive feature of the in service locos.

A little bit of positivity... So far I've no interest in any of their other products but but the Consett Iron Ore wagons are very, very good indeed with KR having listened to feedback and changed the EP accordingly (I will freely admit to being one of the most vociferous critics of the original EP of the wagons). Dimensionally, they are bang on, they are missing a couple of very small handrails (but so is one of the much more expensive kits that were available of the wagon), are missing an air pipe and have some holes in the interior sides that shouldn't be there (2 minutes per wagon to fill in) but other than that, I think they are very impressive, especially for the price. Once they've been weathered and those small details added, they fit in very easily with the kit versions that have been the only option for these wagons till KR came along.

Tony, I've just sent you a Private Message re the B2. John

I'm seeing Martin and Mark (and possibly Rich) on Saturday so I'll ask if they know.

I can't speak for the loco but I do know that the Audley End layout did not come to fruition.