It seems the thing to do these days is to let people know exactly what you are building - you never know there might be somebody interested out there.

Well my passion is coach building both OO and O gauges - primarily Southern region coaches but not necessarily restricted to just that region (if the right kit comes along at the right price then I will try and build it!)

New out of the works over the last couple of weeks have been:

Maunsell Un-classified Corridor Brake S4440S from a Roxey Mouldings kit. These were interesting vehicles in that they could be used as 1st, 2nd or even 3rd class vehicles depending on need with the class indicated by stickers placed in the windows - you would have known your luck was in if you were travelling 3rd class in one of these - the seating was apparently amongst the most comfortbale on the Southern at that time.

Roxey's coaches are great to build - the only tricky bit with thier OO coaches is their plastic roofs which are not easy to get right when fitting, but with care and patience a good result can be achieved. I believe Roxey's O gauge coach roofs are or metal construction but I have yet to build one of their O gauge coaches.

The second new arrival is not a brand new coach but a complete strip down and overhaul of a Comet Bulleid SO S1481S. I originally built this coach about 5 years ago as E1469E and it represented one of the batch of Bulleid SO coaches transferred over to the Eastern and Scottish Regions in exchange for a number of Mark 1 coaches during the mid 1960s. The model was originally finished in lined maroon and was used as part of a 9 coach ER inter-regional train that we run on Bodmin's club layout 'Old Elms Road'. I was never 100% satisfied with the finish on that model for a number of reasons so I retired it after we appeared at Warley last year and it has now been fully stripped down to bare metal and undergone a change of both livery and a number.

That said I clearly suffered 'senior moment' as I had intended to number it after the preserved example on the Bluebell Railway that I recently travelled on i.e. S1482S - however it wasn't until after I had numbered it and added a couple of coats of varnish that I realised that I had given it the wrong number - oops!

However I am pleased with the result and whilst Bulleid coaches did look attractive in maroon - anything but green does not seem 'right'. With many of my Bulleid/Maunsell coaches I have used Bachmann's SR coach bogies for smooth and reliable running but this coach represents a slight departure as I have used a set of Hornby's excellent Maunsell coach bogies for this coach for the first time. They look slightly better than the Bachman versions and run really well.

Bogie kits do come with most of these coaches but I tend to use RTR bogies if possible purely to save weight - a 9 coach rake of brass coaches can be heavy so this can be reduced by using good RTR bogies where possible - you also always know they are very free running and can be easily replaced if one gets damaged during an exhibition.

In works at the moment is a Comet Bulleid loose Brake Composite which will be used to supplement one of my SR express rakes from 8 to 9 coaches. I already have a crimson and cream one so this one will be in BR green. The body shell and chassis are complete and now the roof fitting and detailing will take place - I estimate this one will be ready in around 4 weeks (I'm not the fastest coach builder).

Awaiting construction is a Comet Thompson SK which will be finnished in crimson & cream and will replace the Bulleid SO mentioned above in my ER inter regional set.

I also now have all the bits required to add a second Bulleid 2 car BSK+BCK set to my fleet having built my first one a few years ago so I have a number of projects to keep me going for the next 4 months or so.

All these coaches will run on Bodmin club's Old Elms Road layout which is scheduled to be at Tolworth Showtrain in South London in November and also at Stafford exhibition early in 2016