"Stirling Single Updates"

While I was ill in November last year, I did manage to do a little modelling on my Stirling Single. In a complete departure from what I normally do, I managed to post my update on the RMweb Copley Hill Works, but completely forgot to post that update here. So, here it is!


The first part concerns the cab. I have begun modifying it to be closer to the real Stirling Single by cutting away and re-shaping the cab side sheets, and in addition drilling out the cab spectacles.


The bext job was to modify the tender. I've taken the kitmaster top and made the decision to make a new tank underneath (adding rivets in one of two ways, possibly through carefully placed suerglue dots!), and then attach to the much modified (but instantly more prototypical) looking chassis.


Here it is seen as a very loose fit, but I assure you that it looks a lot better now! All the holes have been milliputed up and sanded down, and the tender has been painted in a black primer to bring up the blemishes:


It is getting there, slowly but surely. When I return to university on monday next week (dependent on the weather!), I will be doing more work on the body - that all important driving wheel splasher I have been procrastinating on WILL get done...!


Until next time!

"Staff Competition Entry - 65503"

You may remember some time back, that I was working on making a pseudo J17 from whatever bits I could find. I finally finished it, and here is the result. Resplendent in unlined black, a modest attempt at catching the look of the East Anglian workhorse.


It's presented in 1950s condition, albeit minus smokebox numberplate at present (this will be rectified after the staff competition is scored).


My final changes were to the tender, which still sported some bits of blue paint, here and there. The tender has now been finished in the same matt black. I haven't decided if I will weather the engine or not, I'm rather liking it as it appears here.

However - I need to obey rule 3 of the staff comp - and incoporate the PW logo.





Until next time - goodnight!

(And I haven't forgot - ballasting next week!)

"Slug, Scot & Duchess"

What's this? A diesel?! Yes indeed, and it is one I've been waiting for a very long time. I finally found this model in the Loughborough Model Centre - I've wanted an English Electric Class 37 (nicknamed "Slugs") for quite a while now, and originally I had wanted one with the split headcode panels. However I saw this one on the shelf, and...well, the rest is history!


Bachmann when they released this model, took a lot of criticism from a lot of quarters in the modelling press that the model just didn't look the part - the front end not being well shaped as per prototype. To those people, I salute you - as I can live with whatever little discrepancies there are. I bought this second hand for a very reasonable sum and love it to bits.

EDIT: Reliably informed by a friend that since my diesel is a 37/0, it should be nicknamed a "tractor" - the slugs were the 37/9s apparentally! Learn something new every day - thanks Hiesler!


And here is a very special model - my great friend, Mr Syret, bought this for my 22nd birthday. It's a Hornby Royal Scot, and this is 46120 - Royal Iniskilling Fusilier.

I am already I am thinking of making it my favourite of the preserved Scots - namely 46115 Scots Guardsman. We shall see...

Finally - we have a visitor of sorts to Copley Hill - I'm not sure they ever appeared at 56C (and most likely never in this livery) but this is one of my favourite locomotives, and models, so...


46237, City of Bristol, a "semi-streamlined" duchess class locomotive. One of my favourite models, I bought this purely for its express passenger blue livery, as the class in this form wears it incredibly well.


It's just a shame I didn't notice the buffer was squeew whiff! Never mind, it still looks the part amongst the other engines.


This is one of the jobs I WILL get around to doing soon - I am going to fit a pair of etched plates from the Fox transfers range, as the Hornby ones do not do this engine justice at all. For starters, the red nameplates were not silver lined, but gold, on BR engines...


Even so, its an incredibly minor niggle for something that has so much grace, majesty, and elegance about it. It's not my favourite pacific class...but in that livery, it comes very, very close...

Until next time - less motive power orientated, and more layout orientated when I finish the ballasting!

"Festive Spirit"

It's been another incredible year updating this blog - it has slowed down the last few months, mainly due to university work and family taking priority, but I'd like to assure you that there's a lot of work and fun still to come.

I've had a small haul of modest presents this year, which I think have been much more fun than my usual clamour for model trains, or rolling stock and so on.

I've done a few nice things with the family and girlfriend, seen a few films (wasn't Avatar awesome?) and generally got on with writing my dissertation and general final year university work.

Christmas has been one of the calmest and most pleasant for years. But its been tinged with some sadness. My research partner at Warwick died suddenly a month ago, and its been tough, I will admit (but by no means as tough on me as it has been on his father).

We always toast the "absent friends and family" at Christmas, and normally I only ever thought of immediate family. That was incredibly narrow minded of me. Fact is, everyone around you impacts on your life, and whatever the circumstances of a meeting, you should be grateful for each and every friend and family member, and enjoy their company while it lasts (for nothing lasts forever).

I'd like to end 2009 with this post, because in some ways its been a mixed bag, but there is nothing I regret so much as not trying hard enough - did I try hard enough? Well...I think so. But in the event that I did not try hard enough, I'll put that in the "new years resolutions" box.

I hope you all have had a great Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you all - 2010 awaits, the undiscovered country...

Until next time.

"A Few Old Photographs I found in a Drawer"...

I found this amongst a few other tatty photographs in a drawer at my grandmother's house. It shows some photographs of Leeds, Copley Hill as my grandfather knew it in the late 1940s and possibly early 1950s. Is that him standing on 60119's front, cleaning its smokebox door?







Of course, this is just the layout with the smoke machine in use and the camera set to sepia and grayscale modes. But there has been some modelling - more grime, the lintels are done on the shed as well as the supports. There's more lumps of clinker here and there, and then there is the smoky atmosphere...

Sometimes I will squint, look along the layout at eye level and see my grandfather climbing up the cab of [i]Kestrel[/i]...

Next time I hope to have 82026 on the layout as well as adding some yard lamps and more weathering to the buildings and rolling stock.

Until next time!

"Normal Service will be resumed shortly..."

Hi all,

Been quite ill recently! A swine flu bout, followed by an infected lung and throat. Happily after four weeks of bed rest, antiobiotics and lots of strepsils and lemsips, I'm feeling much better and raring to do some modelling (if funds allow before Xmas!)

Until next time (with a full and proper update).

"Volvo's back!"

Some news I completely forgot to share with everyone!

My car is back on the road after - incredibly - being fixed!

When taken down to the garage after the accident, it turned out that the bulk of the crash damage was aesthetic - the old Volvo Chassis stood up incredibly well to the collision!

So, here's my car, fixed and shining in the sun: