Ive recently been doing a few revisions on the layout.
The first was prompted by a failure. It had always irked me a little that the above lamp was a little bit crude and the top wasn’t really the distinctive shape the lights at Round Oak had. Being at the back in a dark corner it wasn’t noticeable enough to invest any time into. However when it recently failed why not kill two birds with one stone? 
So after a bit of tweaking I’m much happier with it now.
Ground Signals. I originally used the MSE kits but I had found a few drawbacks. First thing was A few had took some knocks while cleaning the track. As they use a whitemetal casting for the main body and legs they really didn’t like this at all and were starting to look a bit bent and battered. Secondly as I had fitted lights there wasn’t a lot of room to work and I had just drilled out the lamp housing and shoved a nano LED in there with slightly mixed results.
One consequence of this wass more light bled out of the bottom than through the signal despite various attempts to fill the hole
So step in the Palatine models etched kits as a replacement. These are hopefully stronger and being an etch theres more room to position the LED in a better controlled way. I say more room but in 4mm scale ground signals are tiny but because of that even a slight gain is a big help. I modified the kits a little to make them work and drilled a couple of holes for the lights. Results are below
On the subject of signals Ive been playing around with resistors again to try to get the lamps a bit closer to how the real thing looked and less like a modern colour light. I think I’m there now.
Up on the road Ive added a few telegraph poles meaning I think I can call this area finished now. 
A revisit to my classic (or is that cliché?) scene. This time a wider verson.
The finished wagon in the company of yet another D2150 13t open.
The BR wagon has had a Rumney models sheet rail added and been mated with a clasp brake chassis to produce a D1/040 variant. Buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.
First up the Accurascale 24.5t hopper which i picked up cheaply from a private sale on Western Thunder. It came in brown livery and with a certificate saying it was a limited edition number 061 of 500. If this sort of thing matters to you and you have one you will be pleased to know that your model is now even more limited being 1 of 499 (You’re welcome!). It was separated into its component parts (a process that had already started in the box) and the body resprayed. These are not a straight drop in wheels job as the axles used are a little short and theres a boss on the back of the W-iron, much like Lima was doing 40+ years ago. Its not a huge problem though as a few turns of a bearing cutter (I use Ed’s tool) and a little bit of thinning the boss down and off you go. I also cut off the NM pockets.
My solution was to make new lower sides from 1mm lead. This brings the wagon up to 50 grammes. If you would like to follow suit I drew up a little cutting template which you can download from 
Another parkside 21 tonner based on a picture that came up on my facebook feed. (some of the wagons in the post are waiting a delivery of couplings you may notice). Theres often a discussion when these kits crop up that they are difficult to build but they really aren’t. The trick is to assemble a side and end as 2 pairs on a piece of glass with a cutting matt to ensure they are square, let these set fully before assembling the rest of the wagon and theres no problems Any slight gaps between the panels can be filled from the inside using Mr Surfacer 1000 liquid filler.
Now a few oddballs – this is an ex L&Y diagram 81 loco coal wagon from the old MAJ models kit. The kit is supplied with a wooden chassis which is correct for the earlier wagons but i wanted the later one so only used the body. The brake gear on these were a little weird to say the least
The plan is to have a short train of condemned wagons that is delivered to the yard as a trip working from Bescot. These are then to be collected by one of the Round Oak locos to be taken away for scrapping and the metal bits melted down in the furnaces. This is basically what happened and quite a few locos met their fate this way in real life. Unlike some of the more famous railway scrap yards stuff didn’t hand around for long so nothing from my scrap train will have any hope of reprieve sadly. The condemned markings are from Railtec,
Another victim this time a GWR diagram 04 open from the cooper craft kit. Like another Coopercraft kit I’ve built this has the bearing holes mounted too low meaning that the wagon looked like it was on stilts. This one has slightly odd brake gear as well. You can just make out the old GW branding.
The LMS traction truck has finally been mated with its load.
Also based on a picture that cropped upon my facebook feed is this Borail from the Cambrian kit. Making the load was far from the most interesting task I’ve ever done I can tell you and despite it being essentially hollow this wagon still hovered up 5 meters of rail!
The tender subframe – Again with options on the brake shoes.
Chassis and footplate.
Tender with its outer frame.
The cab
Pretty much everything above the footplate and forward of the cab is catered for by a 3D print. Here I’ve made a start on the basic detailing
The tender body, like the loco, is a 3D print.
The lights on the upper floor of this building failed before the show but after the building had been planted onto the layout. It was too close to the show to fix it before so this is something to look at now I have time. I also want to add a few yard lights and sort out the telegraph poles on the layout because as they stand now they don’t make a huge amount of sense.
Since the show I have a small stockpile of new rolling stock to be tested. The rule is all stock must go everywhere without falling off, even though in this image only the middle road of wagons will go into the yard at shows. Of this little lot only 4 wagons were rejected and returned to ‘works’ for some fettling. These 4 have now been passed too.
A leyland LAD cab and chassis, destined for a wagon load on Brettel Road. The cab is Base toys with some minor tweaks and windows added to the rear. I was aiming for a new vehicle being delivered and wanted an open chassis. The source for this was a cheap Langley Models kit for a Guy Otter/ The chassis was shortened and wheels are from RTI.
The Body is from the previously mentioned Langley kit mated to a Base Toys chassis and more RTI wheels. I need a spot of work with a sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface to get it to sit properly. This will be a reasonably old vehicle on New Street.
This was then tided up by first sealing the knots with Zap Pink superglue. Theres no huge reason to trim the ropes inside the wagon but it pays to just keep things neat so they don’t get in the way later.
To break up the rake a bit I added a few 10ft wheelbase opens too. These are actually way more typical of the actual wagons used in the clayliners. The ex LMS Diagram 2150 I’ve featured before a few posts ago.
The spare brakes that came with the above kit were used to correct the brakes on my prototype 24.5t hopper I’ve featured before.
So heres the model had already done on its new underframe. The bogies are Brassmasters with the original sideframes attached. Buffers have been replaced with more accurate ones from Lanarkshire models.
As is usually the way for me I got a little carried away. Why build one new floor when you can build several? Theres a few subtle differences here such as the roof vents and footsteps.
This is the more normal side. Note the dynamo is at the opposite end to the more standard versions.
The other side is decidedly more odd with basically next to nothing there. It almost looks like the model hasn’t been finished. Note also the steps on the bogie.