"Project Copley Hill"

Three Projects. Three Locomotive Characters. Three Aims.

One Shed.

THE BRITISH RAILWAY SERIES
Coming Soon, in Three Different Forms

Until next time!

"In the Archives...!"

Stephen, The Wandering 1500, at the National Railway Museum. Dean Walker

I need something a little bigger than a 1TB HDD for my videos. I hate getting rid of footage, you never know when it'll come in useful. I currently have four HDDs with various amounts of BRWS footage and similar, and I never delete any of them. It would be criminal, should I actually make it big, not to have something for the blooper reel and to say "that's where I started...!!!"

So going through the archives this week has reminded me of a few serious bloopers. For example - when former team member Jason did the original subtitles for the second trailer on Youtube, way back in 2007 (when Allen was still actually intended to be "Arthur"), he misspelled the name to "Authur".

Then there was the original trailer itself. No faces. Looks really, really weird now. Lots of subtitling with phrases such as "the end of steam is nigh" and other really depressing catchphrases.

If it had been up to me, we would have gone into the series in 1948, with our lovely Holden B12 character at a famous museum, narrating the whole series and their stories to a few children, sat there listening at the marvel of a talking train!

The potential for this to be made to my vision now is steadily growing. "Project Allen" - the worst kept secret in the history of literature (and particularly if you look carefully at the artwork on this blog, and one other!) has shown the way forward in storytelling for me.

It has been a delightful creative exercise, but it meant for the first time in three years I dug out the original scripts I had written, and reworked them into something more meaningful and wholly more satisfying than the five first episodes on Youtube which were extremely hit and miss.

Soon I hope to share with you all the fruits of my labour, something tangible I can put my name to, with beautiful artwork and stories which go somewhere, teach you something, and entertain all in the same book.

So until next time, keep listening out for news of "Project Allen", and wait for the anniversary video on the 17th, where I am trying to cram in as much old/unused footage, "how to" segments, and a few new pieces of footage, all into one 10 minute Youtube video!

Until next time!

"A Birthday Surprise"

So I got an email today from my artist - he's been doing some fabulous work recently that I hope you can all share in soon. Anyways, he's organized a bit of a surprise for me, and as it turns out, it is a really beautifully made poster to celebrate the series' 4th year (see above).

Dean Walker - he of NE Ramblings fame - and Zachery Ehlers have come together to create this beautiful poster, featuring Herbert on the left (by Dean), and Allen (in express passenger blue, drawn by Zachery) on the right.

To say I was a bit choked when I saw it is an understatement! To be thought of enough to warrant such a beautiful piece of fan fiction overwhelms me. I can only hope I can repay their kindness over the next few months as "Project Allen" continues apace.

Until next time - with under two weeks to go under The British Railway Series' 4th Anniversary. It promises to be a good one!

"The Countdown Begins..."

To the right, you will see a countdown clock. On the 17th August, 2011, I will be releasing a video chock full of unseen BRWS footage from across the 17 Episodes and three specials I have made over the last four years, and I'll also be throwing into the mix a closer look behind the scenes on set.

I didn't celebrate either the second or third anniversaries, mainly due to the workload of university, but approaching the series' half decade, how could I not look back and see how far we've come in such a short space of time?

There will be updates to this blog in terms of look, there will be details on "Project Allen" to follow, and there will be a big change to the Youtube Channel, as I make the changeover to the "Cosmic Panda" channel interface.

Until next time!

"PW Staff Competition - Results Video (Trailer)"

I'm still working on the video, but I thought you might like to see the gorgeous Fury, the sumptuous no. 22C01, and the ludicrous no. 701 in action to whet your appetites for what will be an assuredly fun, Top Gear styled video: ambitious, but rubbish!

Until next time!

"The PW Staff Comp 2010-11"

From left to right: Gavin Rose, of The Railways of Sodor fame, in the middle is me (!) and on the right is Sean O'Connor of Sodor Island 3D.

On the 19th July, 2011, we finally finished The Permanent Way Forum Staff Competition, which was started on January 1st, 2010...!!! Our charges (from left to right, as per their owners) were Low on Money and Starving, Fury, Late and Never Early, Dawn Treader, and Slow Rail, Bulleid Baltic Tank 22C01.


Each model representing a different railway company, and a different way of doing things. Gavin's was historical, Sean's was a "might have been built" and mine was, as Sean put it, "a complete flight of fancy with some logical development of thought". Okay, that's not quite what he said, but that is my story and I am sticking to it...!!!

So now I am working on a competition video, which should show us and our engines competing in a series of challenges, Top Gear style, to see which would come out on top. After all - how hard could it be?

Until next time, goodnight!

"Hornby VS Bachmann Tornado Review"

In short: it's in production and will be out by the end of the week, provided the Hornby model (which has arrived in Liverpool, apparently!) arrives in good time for filming.

Until next time!