"Great Scott! A New Episode!"

"Great Scott!"

Scott the A3 pacific is unhappy. He's fed up of being "just another engine", and wants to go back to the heyday of his career. Stephen tells the other engines a short story about Scott's true greatness.

You can find more information on "The British Railway Series" here: http://www.sodor-island.net/thebritis...

The contents of these videos, including all text and photos (except where credited otherwise) are ©Simon Martin 2007-2010

Music composed by Kevin Macloed.

"Competition Time!"

Welcome to The British Railway Series
“Create a Character” competition!

The competition will run until December 20th 2009.

The rules are simple: you must create your own engine character to appear in a BRWS Short episode.

Your character must appear in a youtube video introducing him or her self – for example, talking about their place of work, their hobbies (i.e listening to cricket on their driver's radio), favourite colour, whatever!

The title for competing videos must be:

"BRWS Character Competition - Name of Entrant & Name of Entry".

As an example, if I were to enter the competition, my title would be:

“BRWS Character Competition – Simierski & Stephen the Holden B12”

The video can be in any film form - modeled, animated, and so on.

All videos must be posted as a “Video Response” to the Competition opening video. There is no time limit to the video length.

There is a special “Mystery Guest Judge” for the competition. All decisions take by our mystery judge will be confidential and and all decisions will be final.

Now for the prizes! They are all items of 00 scale model railway equipment.

Firstly, there will be a special prize for “most original thinking” - the winner will win a model steam engine from the Hornby Railroad Range.

10th, 9th, 8th, and 7th places will win a truck from the Hornby Railroad Range.

6th, 5th and 4th placed prizes will be a model steam engine from the Hornby Railroad Range.

3rd , 2nd and 1st prizes are very special indeed.

Your created characters will be modelled in 00 scale by yours truly, and then filmed
for a BRWS short (with names of creators in beginning and end credits).

After filming, the models will be shipped out to their new owners with a DVD of the short in
question (and a special treat included on the disc too)!

The overall 1st place winner will also receive this specially made model of the character "Gronk".

If you are placed within the competition and are due to receive a prize, you will be required to email a name and postal address in order to receieve your prize. Prizes will not in any way be reallocated.

So – get your camcorders out! Put your thinking caps on! Get out those history books – and come up with the best original character you can think of.

---

Breakdown of the Competition Rules

1. The competition supervisor reserves the right to disqualify any entries that break copyright law, abuse individuals or groups, take part in "trolling" or otherwise bring the competition into disrepute.

2. There is only ONE entry allowed per Youtube Account.

3. All entries MUST be posted by 20th December, and as a Video Response to the Competition Video. There will be no exceptions.

4. Winners MUST send a legitimate mailing address in order to receive their prizes. No personal contact details will be revealed or otherwise made public at any time.

5. Remember to have fun!

"Great Scott! A New Trailer!"

Coming Soon to a Platform Near You!

Until next time - the 27th of September!

"Pottering with the Shed"

It's not quite finished yet, but I thought I'd show a "work in progress" photograph of the new shed for 56C MkII.

It's being made in plasticard and utilising whatever I can find, really!

A few more shots of the layout - which has had a little more dressing to it since the last few photographs:





And one final photograph to show how the full layout is coming along with the dressing up of the set:



This set of photographs will be the last on the blog until Episode 16 of The British Railway Series, Great Scott! is released.

Until then, ta ta for now!

"The Carriage Works"

And here it is! I've been working from a few books, some photographs I bought copies of, and the ever useful Flikr for this particular bit of scenery. It is much more accurate than the red brick backscene I made for the Day of the Deltic episode!

I made it from a spare length of wood, cut to shape (nineteen roofs precisely), covered in Scalescenes scratchbuilding sheets - corrugated iron, and then with their windows pack (one windo to a roof). Peco roof building kits cut to shape and stuck down with Araldite. It started the day looking like this:



After the sheets were stuck down and windows added (with pritt stick onto the sheets), it looked like this:



Roofs were then added, cut to shape with a stanley knife and stuck down with alradite:



Then after nine hours, it looked like this after adding the leftover sprues from the peco kit as guttering:



And finally, here it is in an aerial view of the set showing the ballasting, weathering and general decay being portrayed here...



We're getting there!

Things still to finish: the shed to do, lights to fit. Until next time!

"Concrete and Singles"

A few photographs of some work at 56C then. Seen above, the "concrete" (in reality Polyfilla) has been put down to form the base for the new five road shed layout. I've had fun putting 60006 onto each road this afternoon, checking the formation and praying it works each time...which it has, thankfully! You can find more information on this through clicking the "Copley Hill Layout" link in the "Eastern Region Connections Box" at the left hand side of the main page.

Next, a present from a friend is getting majorly bashed into a better representation of its class - its a Stirling Single from a Bachmann "Emily" model:



Needs the cab to be modified to better represent the shape, windows drilling out, proper handrails added and moulded stuff removed, its original tender has been replaced with the spare kitmaster GNR one (which needs repainting) and lastly, on order, a proper smokebox door...

Other than that, a good start I think!!!

Until next time.

"It all started 22 years ago"...

It's my birthday today! Had to write an update. My birthday was the ninth of september in nineteen eighty seven - actually being born at nine minutes past nine on that day. Freaky! Twenty two years later, the date is 09/09/09 (which happens once in a hundred years) and at nine minutes past nine, it is my birthday again. Hooray!

Got some lovely presents for the layout from friend Mark and girlfriend Charlotte (thanks guys - means a lot to me). One Royal Scot and a K3 - perfect pressies. The K3 is going to have a little unorthodox modification to it. A set of nameplates ("Charlotte").

The last present - something fifteen members of my family chipped in to buy! Was a much needed mysterious black and grey box for making some special effects in filming...

...but thats' another story! Until next time, thanks for everything, everyone.

"G190VBM"

I was devastated this morning to discover that the family car of 21 years - only one year younger than me - has been written off in a very sad accident.

Thankfully my father wasn't hurt in the smash - which is the main thing, given what happened. He'd swerved to avoid a car driving on the wrong side of the road, down Rectory Lane in Foots Cray, happily missing the speeding vehicle but hitting a lamppost on the passengers side.

I've been driving this car around the country for the last five months, and it's been such a pleasure to do so. My mum gave me her keys the day after I passed the test (she now drives its younger, bigger sister, an XC90), and I never looked back.

139,577 miles on the clock and it seems, no more.

I know why I'm so cut up about it - this car has taken us on so many holidays across Europe, to sunny places like Spain, to friends in Munster in Germany, to family in Laval, France, across the length and breadth of Great Britain (literally), and to, as far as I can count off the top of my head, 62 preserved railway lines in England alone - the first one being Llangollen in Wales in 1994, where I've found a photo of the big red car sitting behind the fence opposite the big green one - Flying Scotsman. I'll have that blown up and framed I think.

I don't think I'd be as cut up about this car if it hadn't shared in so many adventures, year to year. It's been an incredible car for us, kept us so safe and so secure for so long, and to think that it'll be off to the breaker's yard at the end of the week is literally heart breaking.

How very British in some ways - getting misty eyed and sad about an old, clapped out estate car. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks for the memories, Very Big Motor.

Until next time.

"The (not so) Permanent Way!"

The above photograph shows my work on the new Copley Hill set - putting down some scenic matting on which to start laying some track. That was finished this afternoon, thus:



Which meant I could start laying some track! Happy days! My tracklaying train was primed and ready to go - "Stuart" is an old Bachmann digital engine that was brought in to pull the train of track pics and my small hammer round the partially built layout:



And after about an hour of moving things about, the track plan I had come up with a few months back finally appeared in track form!



To the left is the "lot". It basically compromises a small siding for works trains and a storage line for trucks/etc which will reside there when not in use. The white strip of wood is the new backscene for the carriage works, and to the right of that is the five road engine shed and sidings, with the main line forming a complete loop of the board. There are two three way points to be installed, none of the track in the shed area has been pinned done as wiring needs to be completed!

I leave you then, with this photograph of main character "Stephen" meeting "Stuart".

Until next time!