Darwinian

Whilst I agree with the other points I'm not so convinced there is an issue on this one. The saddle tank on these locos does not reach all the way to the smokebox, there is a short gap, presumably to make lifting the saddle tank on and off the boiler easier, or to clear a ring at the boiler/smokebox junction. I would add that I think the smokebox door looks too thick at the edge too. However as commented some of these might be a case of how well the different components have been fitted together. Could both models depicted actually be the same example before and after the weathering application? Remember too that this is a pretty small loco, my kit built one is only 10cm long, only a little larger than a 12ton mineral wagon, so gaps and ill-fitting parts are going to be accentuated. Hopefully they will be much less apparent when seen with the naked eye. Sadly now that I model S-Wales I cannot really afford/justify another 1361 much as I like them.

That's very smartly done . I don't know that I would have been that brave.

If you used low melt solder 70 to 80 degree melting point then the kettle may be your saviour. Hold the loco vertically over a washing up bowl. Carefully pour freshly boiled water over the funnel. With luck you'll be able to get it hot enough to drop off. I've done this when I didn't get a funnel on vertically.

Secret "Chocolate mistral" GT0 experimental loco spotted at Brent!

Re the handrail posistions. Could it simply be an allowance for the fact that most people are right handed? Arrive with lamp in carried in right hand. Place left hand on handrail, right foot on step, pull up to standing on step. Reach up/across with right hand to place lamp. At the Right hand end of the van if the handrail was closer to the end it would be on the wrong side of the person's body. Maye something to try next time your climbing over it Castle?

The broad gauge society list a variety of etched Dean bogie kits for standard gauge 8'6" are F4162 at£19 a pair. I've not tried any so cannot comment on quality.

The broad gauge society list a variety of etched Dean bogie kits for standard gauge 8'6" are F4162 at£19 a pair. I've not tried any so cannot comment on quality.

I am most impressed by your determination to get the best result you can with this build and redo things that don't quite pass muster. It is really starting to come together now.

Tree time. I have finally bitten the bullet and had a go at making some trees. My plan is that the fiddle yard entrance for the colliery line will be disguised by a copse over-hanging the cutting so I need semi - mature Sessile Oak trees (other species available) that might have been in place before the cutting was put through the copse, and/or have grown up since. As I am a plant scientist by training I really felt I should try to at least get the overall appearance as close as possible BUT with limited time to build quite a lot of trees I needed a fairly quick method. Most of teh ready made trees I have seen have two issues. They are too open in form, more akin to specimin trees in a garden, or childrens picture book trees and they are quite expensive. These are my second attempt. Construction is using Woodland scenics plastic tree armatures, bent to shape and painted a green grey with some scatter on the branches and trunks to represent lichens/moss. One side was given an overspray with a dark green to represent the wetter North facing side that would have more such growth. The fine branch material is horsehair mat teased out quite thin (various suppliers). Chunks are applied to produce an outer "shell" representing the fine branches/twigs. It is attached to the armatures with Woodland Scenics "Hob-e-tack". Foliage is again woodland scenics "Underbrush" held on with cheap spary adhesive from a local discount store (the type recommended to fix down carpets) I tried some pound shop spray adhesive but the spray was more of a jet and it was far too wet. The foliage didn't attach very strongly so the whole tree was then sprayed with mat acrylic varnish (Windsor and Newton) using one of the inexpensive outside mix Badger airbrushes. The wagon is a 7 plank open to give an impression of the size, I cannot go any higher than these as, being on top of the hills, they would be taller than the backscene. They still need the wispy bits of horse hair trimming off and shaping to fit with others and to model the lower branch level to be consistent with grazing by wild animals (Were there many Deer around the upper reaches of the Valleys in 1930?). Oh, and the round plastic bases will not be used on the layout.

There may well be more out there but look at the authorship of articles in recent issues and you'll see the same few contributors providing the bulk of the content. I too will miss it when it ends.

So a lighting rig is now attached to the layout and the other half of the backdrop hillside given some basic scenic work. I am pleased with the way the LED lights look. The lightweight construction with timber and foam board seems to work although I do wonder if the horizontal battens won't sag over time. The lighting pelmet will have a central raised area carrying the layout name which will be held by velcro across the join so hiding it and keeping the two halves in alignment. The velcro is just about strong enough to hold the pelemts up although they do hang at a slight angle. I had to superglue the self adhesive velcro to the wooden battens as the glue on it would not hold firmly enough on its own. Front view of layout: From behind showing the lighting supports: The station area lit by the lighting unit alone: As you can see I decided to bodge the error on the goods shed doors. The main carcass is now assembled but there is still a lot to do.

Here are a couple of images of my layout under its own LED lighting only. It is a loft layout with no natural light. Photographs were taken with an iPod touch. To show how the "white roof" issue you raise appears I have placed weathered and unweathered white painted items on the layout, The Powell Duffryn wagons are in the process of being built and have not been weathered, nor has the Hornby Clerestory composite so they give an indication of how bright the white objects appear. I expect everything to be a bit gloomier when the backscenes are put onto the white backboards. More on my Cwmhir layout can be found on my layout thread. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/106286-cwmhir/

This sounds a really interesting layout, hope you manage to sort out some pictures for us to see. With regard to the layout ligting I have gone for "daylight" LED strip lighting (there are a few threads about this on here). A single strip of LEDS mounted in a lighting pelmet along the front of the layout and angled back about 20 degrees. It's probably a bit too bright and I have the pelmet too far back so the front of builidings at the front of the layout are in shadow. Here is a picture of the exchange sidings under construction (I've had another go at attaching the capping on the wall!) showing the lighting effect. I'll try to pop up into the loft and take some more overview pictures.

I'm really impressed with the crane construction. Might I make a suggestion for the continuation of the footplate (this is just an idea I've never tried it)? As you appear to prefer plastic to work with I would be concerned about the strength of bond between the whitemetal footplate and the extension piece. However there is a nice U shaped channel behind the cab steps. If you put beams of stout plastic card reaching back to the rear buffer beam (possibly with a section connecting them across the back to help support the bufferbeam (assuming there is one) these could be packed out in that channel to trap them in place thus strengthening the joint. A sub floor layer with a thinner plate on top could then be fabricated to butt up to the existing footplate all the way across, leaving the fixing point block in place. If the fixing point block gets in the way of mounting the crane then you could cut it back to where the nut is which would hopefully give you enough room. On the prototype loco (as per your picture) there are some prominent rivet heads in the valance at about the point where the footplate would be joined so they would help to hide the joint. What you want to avoid is any possibility that there would be flexing at this joint as it would always be liable to crack. If possible I'd try to stagger the joint in the valance and in the footplating (is that a word?) too. Just a suggestion to consider. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

Hello Mikkel, I have received some Vallejo Air colours for Christmas and I'm going to try to match the standard GWR colours using those, I generally spray paint most models but have used your panel flooding technique where a full pannelled livery is needed. However I find that I use enamels so little that they usually go hard in the pot before I use most of it. Also the solvents aren't too pleaseant when spraying so I was keen to give the Vallejo acrylics a try. I'll try to post on RMWeb somewhere if I manage to get a reasonable matches from mixes from the basic colours set. Adrian.

As a fellow S. Wales valleys modeller I will be following your progress with interest. Good luck and a happy new year

Lost my mojo for this project and got sidetracked onto other things, then my Hornby Collett Bow ender arrived and I realised that the underframe was the same so they'll probably make some at some point (?). So better get these built before that happens! More work completed on the underframe. And end detailing begun A comparison with the ex-Airfix (now Hornby) B-set brake compo. The slightly shallow solebar isn't that noticeable and will be even less so once the step board has been added. Since taking these I have added the buffer beams and the brake rodding. However I put on the brake rodding as for a Composite but it has to be different as both vacuum cylinders are on the same side of the V-hangers so I'll have to correct it.

What with holidays and outdoor maintenance to do I have got relatively little done over the last month. Whilst on holiday I took along materials and plans to build the goods shed. Construction is in Wills stone sheet and I've attempted to use the jointing techniques described in MRJ 247 by Karl Krowther. However the black milliput I had with me didn't seem to stick to the sheets very well so I'll have to go over it. Construction uses 0.5mm plain plasticard as the inner wall with strips of the same spacing this out from the Wills sheet to form an open sandwich construction. To prevent any build up of solvent vapour inside the sandwich gaps were left around the edges. Corners are arranged so that each layer overlaps forming a strong bond when assembled. The shed is a based on Ashburton, plans of which are in the GWR Branch Line Termini Vol2. book but with square door openings with steel girder lintels above, My admittedley slightly limited research suggests that there were no standard designs of shed on the Rhymney so I've adapted Ashburton as it's a nice size, Here is the front wall showing the allowance for setting into the goods yard surface. The shed sits across a baseboard joint hopefully hiding the join across the station platform behind it. When checked against the layout when I got home it fits perfectly into the back of the platforms BUT I forgot that the Ashburton branch was broad gauge so the rail track door openings are too wide and look ridiculous . The Rhymney was standard gauge from the outset. I'll have to do the end walls again,) Or bodge repair the openings and hide it behind the open doors / end office. Don't really want to build new ends as I'd carefully matched the stonework going around the corners. A trip to my local Model Railway shop in Norwich to get more plasticard also yielded some stone and timber sheets by Auhagen. The stone sheet will be used for the supporting walls for the internal platform and the timber for the doors.

Just for fun i just "googled" - Streamlined steam locomotive and searched the images. What Collett did on the GWR was nothing out of the ordinary if the results are anything to go by. For some reason I've always rather liked Bullied's pacifics in both forms despite being mostly ibnterested in GWR (Well GWR/Welsh Railways). Adrian

Must be time for another update. After much cursing and beavering away in the shed I've put together the rest of the backscene support boards and added the cross rails for the lighting pelmet to attach to. The cross beams have a short dowel in the end that locates into the top of the upright. They are bracketed on small metal right angled brackets and held tightly by bolts passed through the upright and secured at the back with a washer and wing nut. This all disassembles so that if I need to I can get it all out of the loft without having to break anything up. Anyway here are some views. The LED lighting strip will be cut up and mounted in a pelmet made of white foam board which will attach to the front of the beams with velcro (at least that's the current plan). Here's an overview of what it looks like at the moment. Here are the exits to the fiddle deck, The intention is that the rabbit hole will be disguised/hidden by trees growing along the top of the cuttings. For some reason this seems to be coming out sideways despite rotating it. And here is the back of the end board showing the differece in heigth of the two exit lines, hence a casette system is being employed (I hope).

This is a smashing layout. Congratulations on achieving such a convincing and consistently high standard. Only four years to thuis stage too, it's taken me 8 to get less far with my much smaller loft layout. Adrian

Sorry, late night typo. Should have been 58'4". Anyway I've loojked again and - I think it was due to the bracketting in the table in Lewis being misleading as it included lot 1375 which were D95 Corridor Brake thirds. Lots 1376 - 77 are cited as 20 four coach trains but no area of allocation is given. Adrian.

According to the figures in Russel / Harris there were actually quite a lot of the non-corridor suburban equivalents to the Hornby Bow Enders. Also some 54 foot versions too. D98 6 compartment brake/Thirds 50 (? Russel) E131 Composites 56 Some of these were Some Chester and Birminghm areas but not all. D101 5 compartment brake/thirds 24, E134 Composites 12 C56 Thirds 12 (the latter two with D101s for Cardiff division sets ).

I've spent some time over the last week building the backscene boards. I had some white faced hardboard backboards from a flatpack wardrobe that we scrapped so used that. As this is a moveable rather than protable layout I split the backscene into two 5 foot lengths which means the join is half way along but does not coincide with a baseboard join. The hardboard was framed with light timber sections and is hung onto the back of the baseboard with flush mount plates (as shown by Gordon Gravett in MRJ recently). Holes had to be cut out to clear the baseboard joining catches. Here's a view of the flush mount and the clearance hole at the left end of the right hand board. And here it is in position with an ID backscene clipped in place (not actually the section that will be here). Having little confidence in my artistic ability I am planning on using these ID Backscenes. They aren't quite right for "the valleys" in my period but they are a lot better than I can manage so they will do. The high rear bank/wall coveres most of the "valley" part and strategically placed trees and hedges should hide the more modern looking buildings. The upright timbers extending above the backboard will have light beams across to support a foam-board pelmet and LED lighting strip (eventually).

Thanks Edwardian, Don't expect rapid progress as I have limited time for model making, however the feedback has encouraged me to get on with the scenics. The trackwork looks fine but doesn't all function well (In other words I cannot reliably propel 12 coal wagons and van back into the sidings from either colliery or main line routes without the odd derailment). I might need to replace the double slip especially as it was one of the first bits I built and has some issues although finescale wheeled stock generally copes with it well. I move the back to back out to 14.8mm on all the RTR wheeled stuff but Hornby flanges bump and grind a bit. One day I'll rewheel the lot. The lines of coal wagons are a mixture of scratchbuilt (the bogie coal wagon because I didn't know Cambrian did a kit for it and RR brake van), pre-printed Powsides and Slaters kits, home built Slaters kits with Powsides lettering (Cannot now remember which were which) and most recently 4x Cory Brothers (coke rails removed) and 4x James Emanuel Bachmann wagons as bargain packs from a well known box shifter. I'm planning on doing a big batch (maybe 10) of P.D. lettered wagons using the Powsides transfers and Cambrian 7 planker. My reading of Welsh Mining history is that Powell Duffryn and Cory merged about the time the layout is set (1929-32 mostly) so a preponderance of these for the local collieries would be appropriate.