Friday Update: Thirty Nine Twenty-two…

Today's Friday Update comes from a wet and windy North Wales, and a little later than normal due to a few errands this morning. Let's kick things off with a look at some of the N gauge projects on my personal workbench...

This 'clay' train is the product of Graham Farish (Polybulk), Peco (CDAs) and Dapol (50149), and the thing to consider here is that this stuff is as good as modern OO yet is a fraction of the size. All now fitted with the DG couplings I'm adopting, and you know what, yes they're fiddly, and they do need some tweaking to run reliably and couple and uncouple first time, but gosh no way near as hard as I feared. The Polybulk and 50 are a straight superglue to under the head stocks with a few bends put in the shank. The CDAs need a little bit cutting off the chassis, and the coupling shank thinning, and they too glue in place. N is continuing to be a wonderful distraction and my late 1980s British Rail modelling has found an outlet! 

In other exciting news, the new 'crew' packs for Victory will be available shortly. I was sent this preview from Alan at Modelu to evaluate and I've made a few tweaks to the sprue but the figures themselves are great - I'll paint them and write up about them in a separate post but these will fit other models too, will cost £14.50 delivered from Light Railway Stores and come with a bucket of tools and other details suitable for industrial and narrow gauge steam locomotives. Sign up to the Planet Industrials or Light Railway Stores newsletters to get the news on their release first!

In the evenings this week I've enjoyed absorbing the Cass County in the latest Railroad Model Craftsman - this is a wonderful study in the art of railway modelling. A consistent finish across all elements, clearly of the artists hand, perhaps more saturated than my own modelling palette but the attention and finesse is clear to see, yet it feels of a whole and is joyful to look at - I must track down some more photos online! It's not often an issue comes along with modelling like this, it will go with my 1989 issue of Model Railroader (Cat Mountain) as an inspirational classic.

What is this? A picture of cardboard boxes? Well exciting news - Victory has left the factory and has started the long journey to Planet Industrials HQ in Bexhill. In the coming weeks Steve and I have plenty of behind the scenes work to get through, but it won't be long until these are available to you all. I can't wait to see what people think of the models, we're really really pleased with them. It's been one hell of a journey, with a global pandemic thrown into to mix and a mini budget that wiped ££££ off our profit when the £ tanked against the dollar just as we made the final payment, but it's done, they're paid for, and they will soon be here! Steve will be at the Uckfield exhibition in a few weeks with production samples, and a few new kit releases on the Light Railway Stores stand so please do head there if you'd like to examine one in the flesh.

I visited John Wooden's this week to see his new exhibition layout, Bont. What a masterpiece of texture, I enjoyed seeing it in the flesh. I've taken plenty of photos and I've written a little bit more about it for a longer read on Sunday. Come back then to read more...

Finally I'm having a bit of a clear out on eBay, and I have a couple of layout design books from Lance Mindheim available - these are great reads, with a clear and easy to read approach interspersed with diagrams and amazing photography of the authors own layouts (the reason I first bought them) but they're making space for more retro 1980s colour photo albums - the book shelves are groaning and these have to go... 

How to design a Small Switching Layout is £8 (plus postage) and Model Railroading as Art is £10, for sale on eBay.

I hope you have a good weekend, I'm hoping to get up to Wigan so if you see me out and about feel free to say hello - otherwise, let's all hope for some modelling time, be it planning, reading or physical work. In the meantime, more soon...