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Know it well Ian. Lived in Fovant for 12 years so Tisbury my local station. The loop is very useful, well done. The whole area is really quite beautiful. If only the route was still doubled to Exeter! WR vandalism. My current bit of railway, from Buxton to Manchester is also very beautiful in places... Kind regards, Richard B

Pleased to see Ferrari doing so well at Monaco. As others have said, the first few corners are going to be interesting with so many youngsters at the front with something to prove/championship to win. Kind regards, Richard B

Thanks Michael - but not quite square! Perhaps not as obvious as I thought in the picture. Now sorted thanks. By the way - a really good design separating the tank from the running plate and that from the chassis, should make tender pick-up much easier. Kind regards, Richard B

Tender body now about complete, even the drivers steering wheel is in place..... I guess I shall move on to the brake gear next and then we are almost done. I have not noticed before (where are those specs!) but tank filler etc need re-positioning. Needs a little dab of greenstuff on the coal raves in places. Kind regards, Richard B

Tender going together well. All very straitforward. Not cleaned up yet. Kind regards, Richard B

Wonderful work Michael. Particularly liked "Hecate". Pleased to see that the Q4 has the correct shaped firebox cladding...... Kind regards, Richard B

Sorry Peter should have gone to the top of the page but got no further than admiring your latest pictures of your work. Kind regards, Richard B

Peter, This work is absolutely astonishing in its ambition and quality of the implementation. Bravo! Fabulous! Just keep it up! Can't wait to see a stream of EC pacifics and V2's pounding through. Not forgetting the rich variety of stock and locomotives on all those coastal and interregional trains. I suspect that you have seen it but BTC Films available from the BFI made a lovely film in the 1950's about York Station Master. Yet another modeller shows me why I should just pack it in! (Only kidding!) Kind regards, Richard B

A truly lovely little place. The first few production HST trial runs terminated here and most of the team lunched in a tavern in Alnmouth. I can remember on one occasion some of the team, me included, missed the return trip to Derby LL. The runs to Alnmouth ended shortly after... Kind regards, Richard B

I seem to remember that Richard Branson made a similar comment when he was eying up the Gatwick Express franchise - that and "we need to incentivise drivers to go faster". How innocent it all was then....

The tender tank is now a complete box. Michael, I soldered the tank sides and back to the top of the tank because the top includes the front of the tender thus making it a little easier to solder it all together square. Anyway it seems to have worked, the tank base, that you suggest should have been soldered to the sides and back first, fitted fairly easily because, in part, the tank was very square. I made up and soldered the bunker to the top of the tank first before the base was fitted! It fits, what is the running plate, just fine. More than one way to skin a cat I guess. Bunker soldered together. And soldered to the tender tank top. The indents on the tank top are for, I believe, lifting eyes. Base soldered to the rest of the tank. Kind regards, Richard B PS Took some pictures of 61475 in natural light - setting sun catches this corner of the layout well.

Hi Ray, Which parts are missing Ray? Not much to a 700 class tender. Kind regards, Richard B

And so to the tender. I have had warnings that although "standard" GCR tenders have many variations so I will move carefully! Give me a shout if/when I go wrong. Underframe is very straitforward with inside bearings for the axles so no pointed axle ends to fit into slightly miss-aligned axleboxes! It is, as one would expect, a well designed kit (Michael Edge) and again, reasonably priced compared to some. This is the running plate with the two 12BA nuts, to which the underframe is fixed, soldered in position. The four 14BA clearance holes in each corner are used to secure the tank (tender body) to the underframe. Sorry not a great picture. This shows the 14BA screw locating the nut ready for soldering into position. This is the way I always solder captive nuts in position for accuracy. Care needed to avoid soldering the nut and screw together. Very helpfully the screws supplied with the kit are black steel so don't take to solder too well. The tender tank (top, two sides and back) soldered together making sure that the half etch strips are to the top of the tank, these will locate the curved top sections of the tender body. The base of the tank offered up to the tank ready for soldering. I will not solder yet untill I have checked out access for soldering the coal bunker sections into position. Note the large clearance cut outs for the 12BA chassis securing screws/nuts. Kind regards, Richard B

Well done Ray, a really great job and the painting/lining has been applied really well. So I gather you are building a Drummond 700 class next? Good luck. Kind regards, Richard B

Some progress with re-constructing the engine shed on my layout. Townstreet supplied the plaster cast sections and I painted/enhanced them. Lots more to do though!! The Townstreet sections are not a perfect fit for Basingstoke but it is close. Basingstoke Station plateform in thebackground. A view from where the coal stage will be located. This is built and awaits re-furb and fitting in. Water tower in a very temp. location! Kind regards, Richard B

If I may add, we took the wrong turn some time ago. Privatisation has de-skilled Britain's railways by removing a centre of Engineering excellence (Derby RTC), running down our railway manufacturing base and lastly tieing TOCs into long term maintence contracts with train suppliers with the resultant loss of "in house" maintenence facilities and skills. As to the train leasing and franchising arrangements....... I was involved with the withdrawl of the class 321 from Euston - Birmingham sevices due to loose wheel brake discs. Fortunately we had our own skilled maintenence team at Bletchley and help from the Leasing Company and rectified the fleet ahead of plan. We were also able to short lease some stock to fill some of the gaps. Privatisation had not at that stage (2001??) undermined joined up railway thinking. I should add that the Minister at the time took a day to day and intelligent interest in our progress. Sorry to go on! I wish the TOCs involved a speedy resolution to this problem. Kind regards, Richard B

Just noted that no sandpipes fitted to 61475 so this has been corrected and then a light dusting of weathering powder has been applied. I then polished the boiler, splashers and parts of the cab with a cotton bud which brings a slight shine to the polished areas due, I think, to the slightly abrasive effect of the powder. It looks very effective in natural light not so good with my camera! Tender started. Kind regards, Richard B

John, Sorry I misled you re motors/gearboxes. The second MN had a big Mashima and Branchlines gearbox. I used the High Level parts on the A1/1 and A2/3 - I better check that! Kind regards, Richard B

Hi again John, I have built a couple of Millholme MNs and they do go together well and, as you would expect, have tremendous pulling power. My first had a biggish Mashima with a two stage Branchlines gearbox the second had a Highlevel Coreless motor and two stage gearbox. They are both good set ups but the High Level is very smooth and pulls very, very well. Chris at High Level is still out of action though. MN first one. MN second one MN third one - PDK one in blue to keep the P2 company! Kind regards, Richard B

Hi John, What a great idea! I rather like the look of both types of P2 cladding but doing one in BR blue looks right to me. As to a name the former seems appropriate but in her way, as we shall see I suspect, Nicola will be equally revolutionary! So you will have to do two! Kind regards, Richard B

As mentioned elsewhere, I will move on to re-erecting the Engine shed on my layout now that the B9 locomotive is complete. I will progress the layout in parallel with building 61475's tender (don't ask why an SR modeller would build an ex GCR 4-6-0!). The turntable is now programmed and the operation is very impressive. The shed building walls are going up progressively. This is how far the shed progressed on my layout when we lived in Wiltshire. Mostly survived the move! Making a start on re-assembly in Buxton. The turntable - still some scenic work to do. Kind regards, Richard

Hi Simon, Thanks for the very kind comments. I am very pleased thanks. And thanks for all the kind and helpful advice from you and from Michael. Much appreciated. After being told by no less a person than Ian Rathbone (and Michael) that the boiler bands are too thick (they are) I must start using Scotch Magic Tape. I will now build the tender alongside re-erecting Basingstoke shed on my layout! Kind regards, Richard b

Thanks Michael. I have already ordered post war black painted loco shaded LNER transfers from Fox. As far as I can tell from the images, the LNER on the tender was shaded. I don't think she had a BR front number plate but understand why you have fitted one. I recall seeing Brunswick shed at whichever exhibition it was when I bought the B9 kit from you. Very impressive! I agree, the B9 looks a lot like the O4 I have. Kind regards, Richard B

Thanks very much Richard - without wishing to sound too big headed, one of my objectives is to encourage others to build loco's. Good luck. Kind regards, Richard B

I am John, many thanks for all your positive comments. Kind regards, Richard B