"The Carriage Works"

And here it is! I've been working from a few books, some photographs I bought copies of, and the ever useful Flikr for this particular bit of scenery. It is much more accurate than the red brick backscene I made for the Day of the Deltic episode!

I made it from a spare length of wood, cut to shape (nineteen roofs precisely), covered in Scalescenes scratchbuilding sheets - corrugated iron, and then with their windows pack (one windo to a roof). Peco roof building kits cut to shape and stuck down with Araldite. It started the day looking like this:



After the sheets were stuck down and windows added (with pritt stick onto the sheets), it looked like this:



Roofs were then added, cut to shape with a stanley knife and stuck down with alradite:



Then after nine hours, it looked like this after adding the leftover sprues from the peco kit as guttering:



And finally, here it is in an aerial view of the set showing the ballasting, weathering and general decay being portrayed here...



We're getting there!

Things still to finish: the shed to do, lights to fit. Until next time!

"Concrete and Singles"

A few photographs of some work at 56C then. Seen above, the "concrete" (in reality Polyfilla) has been put down to form the base for the new five road shed layout. I've had fun putting 60006 onto each road this afternoon, checking the formation and praying it works each time...which it has, thankfully! You can find more information on this through clicking the "Copley Hill Layout" link in the "Eastern Region Connections Box" at the left hand side of the main page.

Next, a present from a friend is getting majorly bashed into a better representation of its class - its a Stirling Single from a Bachmann "Emily" model:



Needs the cab to be modified to better represent the shape, windows drilling out, proper handrails added and moulded stuff removed, its original tender has been replaced with the spare kitmaster GNR one (which needs repainting) and lastly, on order, a proper smokebox door...

Other than that, a good start I think!!!

Until next time.

"It all started 22 years ago"...

It's my birthday today! Had to write an update. My birthday was the ninth of september in nineteen eighty seven - actually being born at nine minutes past nine on that day. Freaky! Twenty two years later, the date is 09/09/09 (which happens once in a hundred years) and at nine minutes past nine, it is my birthday again. Hooray!

Got some lovely presents for the layout from friend Mark and girlfriend Charlotte (thanks guys - means a lot to me). One Royal Scot and a K3 - perfect pressies. The K3 is going to have a little unorthodox modification to it. A set of nameplates ("Charlotte").

The last present - something fifteen members of my family chipped in to buy! Was a much needed mysterious black and grey box for making some special effects in filming...

...but thats' another story! Until next time, thanks for everything, everyone.

"G190VBM"

I was devastated this morning to discover that the family car of 21 years - only one year younger than me - has been written off in a very sad accident.

Thankfully my father wasn't hurt in the smash - which is the main thing, given what happened. He'd swerved to avoid a car driving on the wrong side of the road, down Rectory Lane in Foots Cray, happily missing the speeding vehicle but hitting a lamppost on the passengers side.

I've been driving this car around the country for the last five months, and it's been such a pleasure to do so. My mum gave me her keys the day after I passed the test (she now drives its younger, bigger sister, an XC90), and I never looked back.

139,577 miles on the clock and it seems, no more.

I know why I'm so cut up about it - this car has taken us on so many holidays across Europe, to sunny places like Spain, to friends in Munster in Germany, to family in Laval, France, across the length and breadth of Great Britain (literally), and to, as far as I can count off the top of my head, 62 preserved railway lines in England alone - the first one being Llangollen in Wales in 1994, where I've found a photo of the big red car sitting behind the fence opposite the big green one - Flying Scotsman. I'll have that blown up and framed I think.

I don't think I'd be as cut up about this car if it hadn't shared in so many adventures, year to year. It's been an incredible car for us, kept us so safe and so secure for so long, and to think that it'll be off to the breaker's yard at the end of the week is literally heart breaking.

How very British in some ways - getting misty eyed and sad about an old, clapped out estate car. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks for the memories, Very Big Motor.

Until next time.

"The (not so) Permanent Way!"

The above photograph shows my work on the new Copley Hill set - putting down some scenic matting on which to start laying some track. That was finished this afternoon, thus:



Which meant I could start laying some track! Happy days! My tracklaying train was primed and ready to go - "Stuart" is an old Bachmann digital engine that was brought in to pull the train of track pics and my small hammer round the partially built layout:



And after about an hour of moving things about, the track plan I had come up with a few months back finally appeared in track form!



To the left is the "lot". It basically compromises a small siding for works trains and a storage line for trucks/etc which will reside there when not in use. The white strip of wood is the new backscene for the carriage works, and to the right of that is the five road engine shed and sidings, with the main line forming a complete loop of the board. There are two three way points to be installed, none of the track in the shed area has been pinned done as wiring needs to be completed!

I leave you then, with this photograph of main character "Stephen" meeting "Stuart".

Until next time!

"Wales Week"

Well! What do you make of that then. Mr Martin stands proudly alongside the Talyllyn Railways number three, Sir Haydn, renamed Sir Handel for the TR's "Duncan Day".

I was invited onto the Sodor Island Forums "Wales Week 2009" and had a terrific time with the hosts of SiF. I had a lot of fun going around the Welsh railways - best pics will be up shortly in another post this week.

The forum moderator, Ryan Hagan, was a very gracious and may I say terrific host, and it may surprise some of you to know that the start of the holiday - 23rd August - was a year to the day that I joined SiF and started hosting my series of videos there.

Ryan and the lads were great fun and it was a wonderful week. I will never forget this great welsh adventure!

Until next time - in which I promise to have some very real updates including (possibly) a small teaser trailer available for viewing...

'Till then, Ta Ta for now!

"Sample Artwork"

In between scenic work for the next episode of The British Railway Series, I have been working behind the scenes with a publisher and artist for my book. Here is a sample piece of artwork, created for me by Chris Signore of the Sodor Island Forums. Seen above, it is simply superb work, and I am in no doubt I will be returning to Chris for some more artwork towards the prototype copy of my first book.