Spurred on by a current thread on RM Web, I felt an over due ramble........

Like many, in my world, increasingly far too much time is spent in front of a screen, be it a computer, mobile device or television.

Despite this, people are frequently discussing whether the printed page will be around for much longer. For me, there's nothing like having a good read during the daily ablutions or sitting on a train from a device that doesn't need batteries - I don€™t think I€™m that unusual in this respect? Having a coffee with my wife whilst casually browsing through a paper magazine or newspaper, is somewhat more sociable than reading a virtual version of the same thing on a laptop.

We're all different and have differing needs I suppose, and because of this there is an increasing requirement for electronic versions of their favourite printed media for those anti social desk tied animals. So, back to the question, does this mean that printed media will die out? No, my feeling is that there'll always be a place for the printed page for a long time yet for reasons already mentioned.

To put this a different way, in the 1960€™s, it was thought that we would be living under round or in €˜space age€™ high rise flats, wearing space suits (the €˜shell-suit€™ never did really catch on), popping food pills. Of course what happened is that people like to touch the past, they love their Victorian villas, they like organic food and nice traditional wooden furniture, olde worlde pubs, steam trains and country walks. What happened to the high rises? They€™re pulling them all down and frequently replacing them with lower more traditional looking structures €“ well they are where we live!

However, things do change, and in the long term of course publishers will have to embrace different and newer formats to run in parallel if they're to remain in business - like it or not. Whether an electronic clone of their current publication is the only route to take is another matter, with people increasing turning to the internet for breaking news, publishers may have to consider a more topical newsy downloadable or web version of their magazines. This would leave the printed magazine for less immediate stuff like 'layout features' and 'how to do' articles etc. The biggest problem ahead will be getting people to part with cash for similar material that may be free on another web page, this I fear will be tricky, albeit impossible. Sponsorship and advertising may be the answer along with a subsidy from the printed version.

Something that could happen right now would be for publishers make back issues available electronically as a PDF (or suchlike) for download or CD for a slightly lower rate than a paper reprint. Like many no doubt, recently I had to recycle dozens of magazines simply due to lack of storage - which is such a shame.

I'm so taken with Humbrol Matt 109 as used in the mechanical 'orse, the previously out of the box Bemo HOe locotractor, is also being painted in 'Eclipse Peat Co of Catcott' corporate blue.

This is the result with glazing removed with just one coat (will need 2 or 3). The underframe will need to be 'less fairground' in colour before the whole lot is rusted and dirtied up. A few of these former German wartime narrow gauge units made it to the UK for industrial use after the war.
It's very good mechanism with lots of heavy metal and brass. From the cab forward it's all die cast metal too with very crisp castings. The glazing, removed here is flush too. Running wise, it's a little twitchy with a Gaugemaster handheld feedback unit despite the good weight, mighty fine with something without feedback pulses though.

I like the utiliatarian look of this loco, it getting use on all my narrow gauge exploits. For anyone unfamilar with these Bemo units, this loco is about 2 inches long. Must reduce the length of those couplings - snip.

D2298 performed many of the Highbridge to Glastonbury goods workings serving the Clarks shoe factory at nearby Street after the end of steam. Here we see D2298, now preserved at Quainton Road clanking through Catcott with one of these trains in the late summer of 1968.

Messed about today with the telegraph wires using 'Slik Worm Invisible Elastic Thread' as recommended by Graham Muz! Highly elastic, hopefully enough to survive 'spawn of chav' and elderley women who have to finger everything when on the road. Will it survive me when I get a shunting pole hooked up? We shall see, it's vvvvveeeeerrrrryyyy elastic - boiinngg!

Back in the summer of '62, well known Bath based photographer Ivan Locksmith captured this unusual view of Templecombe's ex GWR 0-6-0 No. 3206, paused at Catcott Crossing picking up an empty milk churn. Few crossing keepers' cottages on 'the branch' had running water, so the churns were used to carry vital water supplies, these being delived by the crews of passing trains.

The 9F, a standard issue tender driven Hornby 'Evening Star', was inherited in 2001 after the death of a good friend.

As a sort of tribute to him (he used to rebuild old cars to concourse condition, so would have appoved of the upgrade), I decided to turn the engine into a proper workhorse rather than be the rear powered bluffer the Margate factory decied it should be!

Rather than use the mint Evening Star body, at a local show I picked up a tatty 9F body and tender for a few pennies. On this one, I stripped the body and tender right back, replacing all the moulded gubbins with wire and new brass bits like handrails and brackets etc. The missing front steps were formed up from the brass sheet. The outcome looked great, but of course, being tender drive worked like a dog and jammed going thouh my bullhead pointwork on Combwich due to the Tupperware wheels on the tender drive. At the time (2002), which is before Bachmann bought out their gem, there is/was a business which performed loco drive conversions called 'Model...sumitorother' (cannot recall name) to new locos. I contacted them to see if they'd do me a conversion to an existing loco instead.

A week or two later, a fully functioning chassis came through the post. That's about it! Of course, with this progressive upgrade, in the end, none of the original loco was touched!

What could have happened? In real life, the GWR Radstock to Bristol route closed due to a landslide in the late 1960's. Imagine though, if the landslide had happened a few years earlier which resulted in the S&DJR from Radstock to Highbridge (with a reversal at Evercreech Junction) remaining open for coal, cement and stone traffic? We can dream!

The picture. Riddles 9F 2-10-0 No. 92224 clanks through the crossing at Catcott Burtle with Cement train from Westbury to Portishead (via Frome & Radstock) on 5 September 1964. That's the fiction, in reality, the 9F started life as a Hornby 'Evening Star' which has been converted to loco drive and extensively detailed. The 'Presflo' wagons are from ancient Airfix kits.

Catcott, the little 5 ft x 15 inch trainset has taken a backseat over the last week or two while the 59 took precedence. Back to the sort of modelling I'm far happier with.

A look through the garage and a pack of Ratio telegraph poles were located to accompany a Wills/Ratio SR style concrete loading gauge kit put together in front of the TV last night. Looking at old pics of real railways, it's amazing just how many telegraph, electricity and telephone poles there were/are all over the place. In real life engineers spend enormous amounts of time placing these things to ensure they'll mess up that master shot, I have a little more control in my world! Oh yes, the little grotty sheds next to the water tank are 'Wills Grotty Sheds', also made up in front of the TV last night.

OK, here we are on the other side of the operation after the front end surgery, repaint, new grills (A1 Models) and weathering . Scale couplings, cast plates (on order) and warning flashes (for front end, not sure who does those) still to be added.

Still a bit to do yet..........

Here's the shopping list so far - all from http://www.mgsharp.com who are very quick!

A1 Models A5900 bodyside and roof grills, etched brass.
DW 117 Details West Pyle Twin Sealed Beam (white metal, for vertical markers, 2 pairs required)
DW 290 Details West Headlight Mars Twin (for the one in the middle, the base is a tad wedge shaped, a file will sort this).

Why 59005?
I have several pictures of it (it's my favourite too), redoing those tiny stars to denote another loco would have been a pain in the whatsit. Lastly, because I didn't want to repaint the sides, hopefully the Shawplan number and name plates will hide the printed ones! Representing another loco with shorter name may not cover what's there! I'm a bodger and fan of any short cuts that can be done.

For the front end repaint after the nip and tuck and grills:
Humbrol Silver 27002
Humbrol Matt 109 (blue, 95% correct, weathering masks the very slight difference). Why this colour? I just so happened to have it at home for dry brushing onto BR 'banger' Blue for that faded effect!
Humbrol Matt 120 (pale green for cab interior), why this colour? Again, it was at home! It was bought to represent faded SR green (for buildings), near enough for this job.

Weathering;
A mix in varying amounts, of black and chocolate brown matt interior household emulsion (no bespoke 'Mongolian 1956 tank grey' or such for me), simply painted on then wiped off to leave pigment in groves (add some ashing up liquid). Then, matt varnish and Precision paints 'sleeper grime' mix applied by airbrush. Top coat, my last can of Testors Dullcote matt varnish. No longer in production, it being deemed too dangerous :what

Left: 59004 powers past Worting Junction with the 7V01 Woking to Westbury empties , 13 January 2005.

A bit of a change from my current historic Catcott project; on the modelling bench, a Hornby (ex Lima) Class 59, 59005 'Kenneth J Painter'. Hornby have used the body shell for the later 59/1 & 59/2 locomotives. The main difference being the incorrect lighting clusters.

Below; on a temporary workbench (tea break at work), the 59/1 lighting clusters have been removed and replaced with some new 59/0 style bases made up from some plastic card. A little more tidying then the white metal light units will be grafted. The 59/0 used lighting parts from the USA, MG Sharp have been able to supply me with some accessories from the US, they'll need a lit of fettling, nothing too dramatic hopefully............

The little hut in this picture is based on the little ground frame at Ashcott & Mere between Glastonbury and Shapwick on the former Burnham on Sea branch of the former Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway. The model is made up from some plastic card and some thin strips of self adhesive labelling to replicate window frames. A splash of paint, a bit of weathering, and we have a box ready for Catcott Burtle, my current 'could have been' project in 4mm scale.

On the modelling bench, a Hornby (ex Lima) Class 59, 59005 'Kenneth J Painter'. Hornby have sadly made a hash choosing the prototype to represent, so irritatingly, I'll need to modify the lighting clusters on the front along with other general detailing. http://nevardmedia.fotopic.net/search.php?txt=59005&t=p . Luckely I won't have to disturb the blue paintwork, getting a match for that might be tricky, silver is no problem matching in though. The baffle/plough thingy in the front will need to be fixed to the body rather than bogie too - simple enough. It's either that or going for the Hanson livery, which would be correct for the Hornby body. In the end I fear that cutting up a little plastic will be easier than trying to create Hanson paint job and sort out a Hanson transfers - so 59005 it is!

"Most of us would secretly quite like a model railway layout, especially when you see these attractive little scenes created by the railway photographer Chris Nevard."

The above from the Daily Telegraph Online took me a little by surprise, actually I'm quite chuffed, even though this temporary moment of glory is all about us Brits and our nutty hobbies. This of course means that I am officially a nutter. Still, I've known that for years, but now it's official!

Cheese Rolling is in the same feature too, and because that's something that no doubt makes all the wet health and safety limp wristed luny lefties twitch, this in my book is really quite cool - I'm honoured to be along side them!

The cat picture (Smudgie our human/feline clone) is purely here because I couldn't think of a picture to post.

Bit of a bumper update for Catcott, with yesterday seeing a few trees finished off from copper wire originals.

Bend wire > solder joins > cover thicker bits in masking tape > cover in Humbrol Dry Clay (might as well use it up) > paint in thick PVA to strengthen > add a fine gossamer of Woodland Scenics microfibre > spray a mist of matt black and grey primer over whole tree > spray microfibre with photomount > dust on Anita Decor & Silvia 'tree foliage' scatter > adjust colour with 'Ford Laural Green' (Halfords) > Place under layout lighting > realize looks too emerald > adjust with diluted biege/greeny matt emusion PVA mix through an artist's diffuser > have a Westons Cider. Gottit?

Other growth (much still loose, just positioned for appraisal - only rear fixed so far), scatter coated seafoam, rubber nag's hair (what happens to the horse, is it still alive, dog food or a 'plat du jour' in Paris? Guess we'll never know, let's not think about it...) and some Heiki tree foliage. Re-coloured as per the trees. Have another cider.

Still much to do, should really sort out the gate targets, just working out how to get a really round (really round!) and clean mask when adding the white surrounds to the red centre. For the sceptics, everything you see here is 'as is', no sky photoshopperrrtrickerypoos......... It's interesting how the little Canon compact makes the backscene appear bluer over the more subtle Nikon DSLR. Of course one could match them with Photoshop, maybe when the layout is finished. Lots still to do....maybe another cider and some sleep first, there's no rush.........

Oh yes, forgot to say, added the climbing rose to the cottage.....

Want to find out more?

Catcott, 16 May 2008, added the hairy bits to the right hand side, a mix of hanging basket liner and Silfor, in turn colour adjusted with this odd greeny PVA mix I made up some years ago which has been used on both Arne Wharf and Cement Quay, stippled on with a 1 inch brush. Before setting, the fibres were brushed upwards with some L shaped tweezers. The grass was then finished off with a buff colour matt emulsion just on the tips of the blades. This way the Silfor and hanging basket liner blend quite well. Still some tidying up of stray hairs to do.

As per the real structure, there was a water butt, this is simply a tube of corrugated plasticard wrapped around 1/2" chopped off the end of a pencil after failing to find anything white metal at Expo EM today. In the event scratchbuilding only took a few minutes. One of the shots shows just how close the front of the cottage was to the running line (as was the real thing). There will be a little low fence from old sleepers in due course between the cottage and the railway and probably some other standard Exmouth Junction style sheds etc.

To replicate the very fine chicken wire on the gates, I dug out some gift wrapping ribbon (gauze with 0.5 mm holes), having decided that the supplied gauze was way to course (scale 6 inch holes, probably OK for gauge 1).

Still much to do, one of the bigger jobs being trees and some signals to protect the crossing. One will be a LSWR latice (bought today from Wizard Models at Expo EM), the other, a tall wooden S&D post maybe, like the one at Bason Bridge. The low relief shed will look better when the end has a bush there to hide the transition to backscene.

The muddy area in front of the cottage, will be a vegetable patch/allotment soon.