Giles

..... That'll polish out....

I did my HGV 1 training on one of these in 1982 - so I'm hoping it will all come flooding back....!

The next victim....... A Bedford TK. A thing I found horrible to drive when I was young - purely because I was too rall for the cab, and had to drive with my head tilted to one side and against the cab roof. Going over bumps was extremely painful, and bad for the neck..... However, they were ubiquitous.......

This will be next for butchery. It will get a flat-bed trailer (permanently coupled, before anyone gets any ideas!). There are various aspects which will make this a little less than straight forward, amongst which will be the necessity to fit sub-frames to carry the rear axle, due to the way the model is made. I think the battery will end up going under the trailer for convenience.

The stylus was cut and bored out to make a tool-holder, and new stylus nibs were made And these are the frames in the video (with no extra work) for an 0-14 Decauville

Very well worth the effort!!! And they will be magnificent when they get there..... Incidentally, I tapped my crankpin bushes out 10BA (they are already the right size for tapping) rather than opening out the hole - which saved more space, and seemed to work fine. A very happy New Year to you!

Mean whilst, I've been playing with my Christmas present....... And very useful too......

I've done all I shall do to it now - and it will shortly get glued to the railway!

Yes - about 0.5mm, and then dress the corners down with a ten inch file....

Excluding the back wall (which is about 16" long) I think the actual laser cutting took about two hours - but of course the whole process took much longer, as I was drawing it as I went, and, as you know (!) correcting all the bonding takes more time.....! I quite enjoyed doing the chimney and fire-place, though - that made a nice little unit.

A new building for Denton Brook Very nearly there - needing a chimney pot at the brick capping grouting, all to be followed by a dirty wash....

A new building for Denton Brook Very nearly there - needing a chimney pot at the brick capping grouting, all to be followed by a dirty wash....

Very nearly there - needing a chimney pot at the brick capping grouting, all to be followed by a dirty wash....

A fire in the 'Goods In' office (still needing final detailing) caused extensive damage over the weekend.

Stunning work on that building....! In some ways the laser does the morta course better in 4mm, as it's quite fine for 7mm. That really is beautiful! Happy Christmas!

Forgive me reposting your video again.... It's well worth everyone seeing!

I really want to see this - but I confess, I can't make out much of what these parts are - unless the one on the left is a chassi block? Looking forward to whatever you're doing! Happy Christmas....

IT is when it finally does what it says on the packet....... But I'm self-employed, and people expect 100% results on things that have often never been done before - and that is immensely stressful. They also want to pay pea-nuts for it..... (How hard can it be?). The real satisfaction is stuff I have devised is in theatres all over the place, but no-one really notices it...

I've been getting so little done in recent months because I've had a major job on, inventing and designing s suite of 'disappearing' auditorium seats for the RSC in Stratford. Some of these are used when the need to put Production Desks into the auditorium, but most are needed for wheelchair positions - I.e. Seating that can appear or disappear according as to whether it is needed as flat floor to accommodate a wheelchair, or conventional seats.... The problem is that normally this takes significant time and man-power to remove or fit seats, so a better way was needed. These rubbish videos are of pre-production prototypes. Both units are sunk into the floor, with seats that rise automatically. The first one by swinging up from horizontal to vertical (assisted by rather powerful gas-struts) and the second using electrically powered elevator, containing a pair of seats, sunk into the floor. Normally, developing these would take the thick end of two years, but we've had four months to do these.

True.... You and Ken have got two hands a-piece..... I don't know what I was thinking..... And I know you can reverse a trailer....

Well, I'm hoping so - provided it works! Operators won't have time to run trains though...!

At some stage (probably not before Railex) I hope we might have a Bedford TK artic (radio controlled - if I can squeeze it all in) to play with. That'll be fun - but I need to sort the layout proper, first!

You obviously have excellent taste...!

All good info...! My wife is also called Diane. I taught her to silver solder after we got married, and she now spends more on tools than I do! Your good lady does understand that untrasonic cleaners clean jewelry up nicely, doesn't she?

This is a life-time achievement that we all aspire to, but most of us never get near!