"Going East Anglian..."

The J17 is rapidly taking shape. Its had lots of parts out of the spare bits box - a Gresley standard pattern cab, some handrail knobs and wires, a smokebox door and even a whole tender. But now - now, its nearly complete, with only a smokebox numberplate and cabside numerals to go:





One last push to finish for the PW Forum's Staff Comp, which ends 21st July, and I'll be a happy modeller!

I'll leave you with one last pic - until next time!

"New Copley Hill"

Yesterday evening I finished dismantling the snow set of "Copley Hill". It had to go - I have now made a promise to myself - "Day of the Deltic" is going to be the last snow episode I ever do, ever!

A new and better designed set, which will be more in keeping with the real thing, is being constructed over the next few weeks and will appear in my "making of" video on youtube.

I'll leave you with this delightful tidbit - the inaugural run on the new layout, a stock move of number 60163 and her support coach.

Until next time!

"Deleted Deltic...!"

A teaser video of deleted scenes, some sneaky pics at the next "making of" video for The British Railway Series, and one last sneaky peak, at the first in a series of BRWS shorts featuring a certain Hawksworth Pannier Tank Engine...

"Top Gear Tornado!"

Well, what can be said except "wow"!

As some of you will know, I'm a covenator for the A1 Locomotive Trust - and I absolutely love their creation, Tornado. My late grandfather was a fervant supporter of the trust, but sadly died in 2001 long before the boiler was ordered, and she became a whole engine.

With the royal naming, the LNER gala at Barrow Hill, and now this - a wonderful hour of entertainment in a race to the north on BBC's Top Gear, this is all part and parcel of showing the world that Tornado means business.

Some say, that she once raced James May in a Jag, and that she blew bacon out of her chimney near the A1...all we know is...

...she's called Tornado!

Until next time, goodnight!

"Staff Competition Entry"...

For those of you who've been keeping up on The Permanent Way, I've been making a new tender engine for the staff competition there.

Gavin, Sean and I decided to make models according to these rules:

The Staff Locomotive Design Challenge is a varied skill competition, which will run from:

11th April 2009

Until

21st July 2009

Using the standard Hornby 0-6-0T chassis (as seen on the Jinty/08 Diesel and Thomas The Tank Engine Models), each participant must build an 0-6-0 tender engine.

The rules are simple.

1. The model can incorporate components from RTR sources, but must have a degree of scratch built components to be considered for nomination. The use of RTR valve gear is acceptable. Any building material is acceptable.

2. The locomotive may form a prototype or be to a unique (and original) design. If it is built to a prototype design, a photograph of the prototype in question must be included for comparison with the model when finished.

3. The livery of the locomotive can be up to the designer's discretion, however the tender of the model must incorporate "The Permanent Way" Cog Logo into its livery.

4. The Locomotive must be shown at each stage of the design and build stages. Locomotives which are not finished are still elligible for the competition, provided entries are posted before the deadline.

For the purposes of this competition, these locomotives may have their own dedicated workbench threads in the competition section of the forum.

Once the models are complete, the best photographs of the models will be placed into a voting thread. The winner of the competition is the Staff Member with the most votes from the forum members.

My model is intended to be a representation of the East Anglian J17 class of 0-6-0 tender engine - and you may remember this model:



Which now looks like this:



It now has a new ex-B12 Holden 6 wheel tender - a necessity for making a J17! I'll be making further modifications to the original LMS 3F model now LNER J17, including adding handrails, sandboxes, smokebox numberplate, and - especially for the competition - a special and unique fictitious livery. What that livery will be is a secret at present...



Until next time!

"Working at the Works"

Quite a lot of models have been and gone through the works recently, and there are quite a few projects on the go at present.

First up, a USA dock tank which started life as one of these:



...and now looks like this:



We've also had a Bachmann 4MT (made from a very worn out and dead Mainline 4MT and a fairly badly battered Bachmann 4MT second hand) go in and out - coming out looking like it should go back in! (On a side note, I've since re-done the limescale weathering - as one poster on RMweb put it, I used some overscale Seagulls for this one!)



Would you believe it started off as a green liveried example???

Finally, we have this oddity, bought off Ebay:



Which has been severely bashed into the beginnings of a pseudo J17 model. The GNR tender behind it will not be its tender when finished (I am going to use a near-correct B12 tender, with modifications, for that), however it will form the basis of the next project for the Copley Hill works - which hasn't had an ex-LNER locomotive in it for some time!



Finally - a little video to show how the model has been using the latest hornby standard 0-6-0 chassis (which is DCC chipped, and gives surprisingly good running at present).