Friday Update: Two Five Twenty-five…

What an exciting week, with news that my new book and the second Model Railway Companion have arrived from the printer and are now available. But there is more, so grab a drink and a biscuit and take a seat, let’s take a look what I’ve been up to on the bench…

What variety! Not the workbench but the old dining table, large scale Ruston, U23B, GWR 2-10-2T, stock car and new books… we’ll touch on some of these more below - however it’s worth saying the Ruston 44/48 are almost there now - and hopefully I can share more on their finish next week. The GWR large tank engine is structurally complete and work will move onto the finishing now with some rivet detail to add before painting.

The new books - what can I say, it’s been wonderful to see such warm comments and the speed at which these are selling - and more, I know many of you are holding off to collect a signed one from me in Bath on the 10th. I’ve filmed the usual videos (above) to give you a little taste of what to expect!

You can get yourselves a copy from the usual quality railway book shops…

https://www.billhudsontransportbooks.co.uk/

https://rail-books.co.uk/

https://www.titfield.co.uk/

…and I’m sure there will be a few more to mention next week including Book Law (and even Rails!).

Many many years ago I dabbled with racing car modelling - perhaps as a ‘cooler’ more socially acceptable modelling than railways. I enjoyed it but it didn’t make my heart sing like trains… so here we are! However, it is exciting to be asked to work on a 1/24 scale stock car for a customer who felt the paint scheme he wanted to achieve was slightly beyond his skills with an aerosol. Happy to contemplate any sort of modelling or craft based commission - variety as they say is the spice if life - I’ve really enjoyed it!

Mid week trains are nothing new for me but using it to pick my car up from the garage was something of a rather lovely novelty. By DMU through the glorious weather felt wonderful, if you haven’t had a trip on the railway for a while why not visit this year, mid week DMU offer panoramic views and quieter trains (and towns!). Regular blog reader Dave introduced himself too, he’d popped down from his holiday for a ride and spotted me getting on at Glyndyfrdwy - always lovely to meet blog readers, hope you enjoyed the rest of the trip Dave.

Now some personal projects, and it is exciting to share these photos of the rather indulgent cut-down Class 03 duo! The cut-down 08 was completed last year, and since then I’ve pondered back dating the project to vacuum braked wagons and an overlap between 03 and 08… well I’m not quite sure what finally pushed me over the edge but I’m glad I jumped in because this project has so far been both a challenge and highly enjoyable. Of course the main changes are to the cab - removing 1mm from the base and the recess around the bonnet… then the hand rail holes all need moving up by about 1mm too, 0.3 and 0.45mm holes drilled with a great deal of care! The windows on the cab side and fronts then reduced by adding 30thou strip to the openings, cut smooth once dry and then, with the old handrail holes, filled and smoothed. The bonnet, cast metal, has the hole for the exhaust increased in diameter with a tapered reamer to allow the stack to be dropped in height. I’ve also removed the steps from each side of the radiator, matching the prototpe in the 80s. I think I’ve settled on 119/141 but I might change my mind when it comes to adding the numbers! Lots of little paint and marking differences between each making this something of an enjoyable puzzle.

Beyond N, and back to Beaverbrook and HO scale… I love the design and fidelity of KV Models etched details - and was excited  by the option of replacing the solid plastic radiator grill on the Atlas U23B with one that was much finer. A trio of small etches with just 5 parts form the replacement. The rad core folds up as one, the frames glue to this to give raised detail. Then the grill is attached, and finally the walk way down the centre. I had to add some styrene to the edge of the opening at each end to give the replacement grill something to more firmly attach too - none of this was particularly difficult and as the moulded part just clips out it was fairly painless! The results speak for themselves, below.

I always thing an open door lifts a model too, perhaps a hang over form my Proto2000 GP20 I had as a teenager! Anyhow, I also cut out the moulded cab doors and used KV parts here too (above). Now the heavy lifting is done I’ll begin to add the final few items (new horn and bell, and drill holes for pilot details).

My last free weekend for a fortnight starts this evening and I’m looking forward to trains in the valley amd some cooler weather, a chance too cut the grass, wash the car and attend to a few bits of tidying up on the layouts coming down to Bath with me… I hope you can enjoy the long weekend and find some time for your hobby too - until next time, more soon…

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