"We will remember them"

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

"Thompson D Class 4-4-0, The Morpeth"

Finally made a start on my Hornby D49 conversion. During the war Thompson rebuilt The Morpeth with two inside cylinders of the Director (D11) type, and it is this locomotive I am portraying with my modifications.

Two spare D49 bodyshells were sourced off Ebay, and one was cut along the front portion of its running plate, up to the front of the leading splasher, and and at the bufferbeam end for the curved running plate section.

This was then mounted further back, forming the curved section of running plate ahead of the leading splasher which the prototype had so prominently.

Plasticard strips were then added to form the running plate and one side of the bufferbeam. This was repeated on the alternate side:



...and then painted black after Humbrol plastic filler had been applied and sanded down several times, to see the overall finish.

Note I also made for each side a representation of the frames which are seen more prominently on this inside cylindered locomotive. This was done with very thin plasticard I had lying around, cut to shape and poly-cemented into place behind the running plate (but remember to leave enough of a gap for the chassis and motor arrangement to fit between them).


Not bad, but needs a bit more work. The Hornby D49 which will be used as a donor model will lose its handrails, dome, and various other bits and pieces. I'm waiting on a smokebox door and door dart to complete the components needed to finish the model (when the Hornby donor arrives, that is!)

Until next time!

"Facebook Group Xmas Competition"

Just to say, for anyone on The British Railway Series Facebook Group, I'm running a special competition where the prize is a signed print of an artwork Dean Walker is preparing for the series.

The rules are as below:

***XMAS COMPETITION RULES***

1. Create a piece of artwork that incorporates a railway theme, and a wintry theme.

2. It can be in whatever medium you wish, showing whatever you like, that is related to railways and winter.

3. Upload it to this group for everyone to see, putting in the title "XMAS ENTRY - Your name".

4. The winner will be chosen by me.

5. The only criteria for winning there is is simply originality, and creativity.

6. The prize this year will be a special "The British Railway Series" themed print featuring more of Dean's beautiful artwork and signed by both Dean and I.

7. The closing date is the 15th December, and the winner will be announced on Christmas Eve (24th)

8. Final rule - have fun! :)

Until next time!

"Goodbye Stephen the Green Engine - Remastered"

Two years ago I started remaking the original episodes of The British Railway Series so that Youtube users and fans could view the episodes in their original format, i.e. in one single video. At the time, my Youtube account had a limit on the length of video uploads, and all of the videos were uploaded in two parts, or specially cut to fit the ten minute limit.

Now of course, having a Youtube Partner account, I can have videos of any length (though the longer they are, the longer they take to upload!), so I have been working through the episodes and adding annotations, etc etc, to them to allow people to see them as they were originally intended when first made.

In this edition of "Goodbye Stephen the Green Engine" - the last episode to be made by the team - I have replaced the opening and closing titles, added music and generally tidied it up for a 16:9 release. I think it looks much cleaner than it did originally, and may have to re-do episodes 1-5 to match (minus the annotations).

See what you think at any rate, and comment on the video with your thoughts on the "remastering".

Until next time!

"New Banner to the Youtube Channel!"

I have been working on a new banner for the Youtube channel, firstly reflecting Dean Walker's excellent artwork, most of which is going into the first book in the series, and secondly reflecting the new overall look to the blog, channel and twitter page over the last year.

You'll see that Stephen, Herbert, Sir Ralph and Allen feature in the new banner, in Dean's magnificent artwork.

Please support the series and Dean by taking a look at his website, where his artwork, general commentary and photography can be found.

You can also access his artwork by clicking the picture labeled "NER Ramblings", in the left hand side column.

Until next time!

"New Page to the Blog!"

You will notice a new tab above this post which reads "The British Railway Stories".

The aim of this page is to explain the background behind the upcoming first publication and e-book of the companion books to The British Railway Series.

Stories is used instead of Series to identify the books separately to the Youtube videos.

Here's what the page currently reads:

The aim of The British Railway Stories is simple:

To educate and entertain in the same story.

It is pure History and Entertainment coming together to provide the logical step between the imaginary, and the history, for the 7-9 age group.

The stories, set in the 1950s, at Leeds, Copley Hill, were originally written as a made for Youtube Video Series (The British Railway Series).

Since the first video appeared on Youtube in 2007, the eighteen episodes of the series have been watched 3.3 million times, as of October 2011.

The series is being developed into an e-book, which will tell the stories in the way they were originally intended.

The final episodes of the model era will soon give way to a computer generated Machinima, showcasing old and new stories in a bright and colourful new format.

Simon A.C. Martin, the author, would like to be able to help preserved steam railways of the United Kingdom through dedicated donations from the sales of future books, perhaps based on the stories of the preserved railways themselves.

Please get in touch if you'd like to be a part of The British Railway Stories.

For these are the stories we tell...

Until next time!

"End of Great Northern"

Four years after I started my Great Northern conversion of a Hornby A1 (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here,), today the locomotive was broken up for spare parts, so I could have a second go at making a model of the infamous 60113.

I've been thinking on the model for some time: one of my earliest, most ambitious, and rubbish kit bashes I've ever done. My skills have got a weeny bit better since 2007, so I've decided to use whatever I can from the now defunct model to make a new one - hopefully much better than the old one!

However that project will wait in the wings for now, until the Thompson D class, the 4VEP, the Stirling Single and the Great Central D11 are complete, my four main priorities on the workbench at this point.

Until next time!