David Holman

Great news Paul - and about time! If I had mine again (and knowing what I know now), S would be very tempting. Lovely scale, lovely size and that rather enigmatic, imperial track gauge too. Sixty three sixty fourths of an inch for those who didn't know. Looking forward to reports as the project develops and what a jewel Elf is too.

After the delights of a week touring the south of Spain, the return to Blighty seems to have coincided with a series of soft days to rival anything from over the water. A good time to get back to a bit of modelling... Am afraid the Barclay has gone through another livery change, though only minor this time. Decided that my Swilly logo attempt wasn't good enough [far too big to my eyes], so it was out with the meths to remove it. Swilly locos varied in having the lozenge, lettering, or even nothing at all, so on the basis that if I can't [yet] get the first two right, then nothing at all is the best option for now. Currently on the workbench are two Donegal sliding door vans. These are scratch built, plasticard bodies on Alphagraphix white metal chassis, with Slater's wheels. Plenty of detailing still needed.

Had the "Emergency" turned out differently, such things might just have happened...

As long as nothing is getting hot, would hope all is well.

Fantastic bit of work. Love it when simple ingredients come together like this - and the paint job is superb. Not just the wood but that lovely dark rust on the ironwork

Another 'Oh my!' from me Ken. The loco looks great and am sure the detailing will gild the lily, as it were.

Excellent! Though credit must go to Alan and Ken for the idea in the first place. Personally, I'm waiting for the woodwork muse before I begin mine...

For Ian Rathbone's book on painting and lining and he does the same. Reading about it not quite the same as doing it though!

Stuff! The bandof our lives, JB - we all have way too much of it. Be ruthless? Easier said than done. Reorganize? As above Dig down? Expand upwards or outwards? All down to money... Don't envy you.

Thanks again folks, but am starting to think my time would be better spent working on my hand lettering skills. That said, fine white marker pens are hard to find, so looks like I need to practice more with my lining pens!

I much prefer the "original" Thomas series, as voiced by Ringo Starr. Main reason being they were actual films, which used (I think) Gauge One models and were based on the Awdrey books. Less sure about all the new stuff, which seems a bit twee and cartoon like. Nostalgia IS what it used to be! However, if it gets kids interested in railways, that's fine by me. Serious, 0 gauge modellers should note that the Connoisseur LNER Wisbech and Upwell Tramway etched brass kit comes complete with a nice set of Toby nameplates. Built one years ago and bought the Awdrey book so I could draw a face on a piece of card for each end. Was initially worried what the purists might say, but it just made everyone smile and kids loved it.

Me three! Fitted them to Sir Henry and they still need tweaking.

I really must try to be neater when soldering. Always great to see skill in action.

Shades of the Triang Big Big train - battery powered on plastic 0 gauge track. Got a set back in my class teacher days and my Year 6 pupils and I had a lot of fun building a model village around it. Before the National Curriculum came in, of course, when we could do pretty much what we pleased. Happy days!

Classy. Lovely work, Ken. Can only agree these things require care and patience.

Works well. Especially like the hazy view towards the station.

How fab is that? Great to know the layout is still giving good service and the new stock is wonderful.

Nowhere near scruffy enough! Brilliant idea for a shed and have occasionally wondered if anyone has ever repurposed an actual goods wagon as a model railway room. It would be a reasonable amount of space inside, albeit a bit cold and draughty. Near the Kent and East Sussex Railway, there are several refurbished wagons in use as holiday lets, including a GWR brake van. The owners usually have an advert in Railway Magazine.

Vaguely remember back in the early days of P4, that Scaleform (or whatever it was called then) held haulage trials. The winner was nearly always a rewheeled Lima diesel, full of lead. Whether they had two pancake motor bogies, or just one, I have no idea!

Anybody here got any experience of making your own waterside transfers and therefore advice on the process? Seems to me the main issue is that if you want to print your own, via a computer, how do you get white? So many Irish wagons have white lettering, but your average inkjet printer doesn't do that, instead relying on paper being white - not much good for a clear transfer sheet. Have been looking around for years for various Irish prototype sheets in 7mm scale, but always end up either hand lettering or picking bits from other transfer sheets. The latter now running low. Would very much like Swilly and Donegal logos, but all I've found so far is 009 stuff, which is too small, so will be interested to hear of alternatives, please.

Me neither, but do know the model runs well, is cheaper than many 00 locos and could form the basis of a nice shunting layout. Correct 're class nomenclature.

And I thought Cultra was a long way for a one day show! Looks fantastic!

Checkout the latest edition of Continental Modeller, which has something similar - and very nice it is too.

The Green Bible says they were standard Sentinel products - makers numbers 6846/7. Built in 1927. Allocated to Cork and Tralee, one was tried out on the Castleisland branch, but by 1931 both were at Tralee before moving to Limerick in 1932. Here they worked the Market siding until this closed in 1940. Apparantly, they then lay out of use until withdrawn in 1948. They were numbered 280 and 281. Have often wondered about a 7mm version as there are at least two rtr models. Moving the wheels out to 36.75mm gauge has been tried in the Chatham Club's SMR version, which has run trials on Northport Quay, but it doesn't fit either of my timescales.

My much abused Barclay tank is on yet another incarnation, having stripped/sanded the tank and bunker sides back to brass, then reprimed and resprayed to get rid of the Horlicks I'd made of the lettering and lining. It may have looked ok in the photos [though bet you didn't enlarge them], but the reality was a mess I couldn't live with. The crew are fixed in place, as is the cab roof and glazing, while the bogie has been weighted with lead. Rather than redo the lettering, with my transfers showing way too much backing film, decided to go with a Swilly 'lozenge' instead. Made a diamond from a piece of plasticard, then held this to the tank side with a small piece of Blutak, before drawing round it with white gel pen. Used the same pen to do the LSR lettering [nowhere near as fancy as the prototype], then, once dry, went over this with orange felt pen. Final [?] tidying up was done with a fine brush dipped in thinners to remove the worst of the blemishes. Still not sure about this, as from some angles, the lozenge looks too big, but Swilly engines varied greatly in their livery, ranging from lining & lettering, to nothing at all - the latter has not been ruled out either... Judicious used of weathering powders has followed. Pictures show that Swilly engines were well looked after, right to the end. No 4 awaits its builders plates and couplings, but hopefully the pictures show an improvement from before - plus at least it now runs well enough. Meanwhile, for those interested in such things, a picture of my main 'to do' list, though this changes according to mood. There are many others too!