Clik here to view.
"Valentine's day special...61990 Charlotte"
WARNING: THIS BLOG ENTRY CONTAINS SOPPINESS. KEEP SICK BAGS ON STANDBY!A few years ago...well, nearly five years ago, actually, I met someone who I fell head over heels in love with.We've now been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Long term project updates: 60113 Great Northern"
Having had both of my A1/1 chassis back from a good friend recently, who very kindly took on the job to fit  Graeme King's excellent etched parts for the valve gear, I've restarted work on both of my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Great Northern: a few minor updates..."
I've very much enjoyed building my replacement A1/1 Great Northern from Graeme King's resin parts. I'm now at a stage where the locomotive doesn't look different, update to update, but there's been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Rant of the Week: Ranting about ranting!"
Ranting about ranting. A popular past time on several model railway forums at the minute. You can't say this, you can't say that, you don't know that or the most infuriating one, you don't know that, I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Hornby Thompson L1 Musings"
I love Hornby's Thompson L1. They are simply superb models. I have four of them, with three out of the four currently awaiting renumbering and rebranding.One of those awaiting rebranding is no.67717,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Suburban Shortness: Gresley N2 plus Gresley Teaks"
I get genuinely cross sometimes about my lack of being able to run trains, but now I can say with confidence that I have my first "complete" train to run on my work in progress first proper layout. My...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Great Northern on the final straight..."
I've been working on a model of Thompson's lone A1/1 Pacific, Great Northern, for what seems like forever at times.However with the failure of my original build, out of the ashes comes a much more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"We're in the printing stage!"
The excitement for the forthcoming children's paperback book, Tale of the Unnamed Engine, is building as we are now in the printing stage of production!The artwork for the Amazon Kindle and Kobo eBooks...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"New project musings...Thompson B3/3?"
I still have a few Bachmann B1s knocking about, despite now being superseded by Hornby's excellent model. I'd recently bought this spare Great Central tender (spare from a Bachmann Great Western 2251...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"A4 Conversion Etches - further update"
I've had a surprising amount of interest in these etches to convert a garter blue Hornby A4 into either its post-war variant or into Sir Nigel Gresley of the 1980s, so an update is necessary.I'm taking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"A4 Conversion Parts, Final Test (Part 1)"
It's been nearly a year since I started developing this conversion kit to make a late 1940s London & North Eastern Railway garter blue A4 Pacific, from a Hornby 1930s A4 Pacific. In that time I've...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Vote for Allen as the world's most famous steam locomotive"
Dear everyone,I'm NOT the most famous steam locomotive in the world, but I'd like to be! I need three nominations, and lots and lots of votes! Nominate and vote for me here!Many thanks for your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"A4 Conversion Parts, Final Test (Part 2)"
The first part of the build for this final guinea pig in the A4 Conversion Etches development, was to T-Cut the whole bodyshell and the tender to get a bit of sheen on the plastic. After some hours...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"A4 Conversion Parts, Final Test (Part 3)"
 All done! The final test for the A4 Conversion etches has been completed, correct lamp irons and all.Fox Transfers numerals were applied to the front end, and sealed with Johnson's Klear, airbrushed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"West Riding Musings"
Recently I visited Halifax in Yorkshire, for various reasons. Aside from the subject of my business meeting, it was an opportunity to take a few photographs of Halifax's railway station, and its track...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Great Northern: cab sides and bogie modifications"
Having found myself with a lot more time on my hands (and a lot less money) I've elected to finish all of my major outstanding projects, and where possible to trim the locomotive and rolling stock...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Great Northern: the niggly bits..."
We're at that sort of stage of the build, where Great Northern doesn't really change much on a first glance, but it does take a lot of time and effort to add the smaller, niggly bits.In today's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Gresley N2 into an Ivatt N1 - test build, first shots"
I had a pleasant surprise in the post today: one of AJModels very promising looking Ivatt N1 3D printed bodyshells arrived.The bodyshell has been designed to fit on the Hornby N2 chassis, and you can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Great Northern - www.a1/1trust.com ...?!"
A little bit of humour with the title of this blog, for I well remember the lovely grey livery 60163 Tornado carried during her running trials on the Great Central Railway in 2008. Was a great year to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Ivatt N1: Detailing and Resin Casting..."
My first Ivatt N1 model (now with a chosen identity: superheated no.69478 of Bradford shed) is nearing completion, and has had a plethora of detail parts added.I've elected to recycle as much of the...
View Article