August Digest

The end of August is here and it marks my first anniversary of "Blogging"  I have enjoyed the last 12 months of posting my jottings, ramblings and most of all making contact with people of like minds and interests.
It's been a year of ups and downs the ups out weighing the downs by a fair margin.
I have made over 5000 hits to this blog which I am happy with.
My only disappointment is maybe the lack of comments but, I suppose no comments means people have little to add to my waffle.

Also in August I was asked to take Pen Y Bont to Midland Railex at the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley. (Swanwick Junction actually) one of the nicest exhibitions I have had the pleasure to attend.

The show went well with only minor problems with some of the stock, a few screw link couplings decided to break on us, Luckily we always take more stock than we need for a show so there was no real disruption.

We only encountered one visitor who falls into the "No Soap!" brigade, luckily for us he must not have been a fan of Steam or western region so he and the odour didn't hang about for long! We also had the usual Pedants and armchair modellers making the odd comment. One such pedant told me that this wagon load was totally wrong  as the wagon floor would not stand the weight of such a load! Fun-illy enough he went quiet once I explained that the model was based on two photographs in reference books on my bookshelf!

The other good thing about this exhibition is that it is held at a preserved railway with all the usual attractions that only such a venue can provide. As well as layouts, demonstrators and traders there are "Real" locomotives to look at as well. I'm not a diesel fan but liked a few of the heritage diesel locos on display.

It's been a long time since I have seen a class 40 up this close and I was impressed by the work of the preservationists in charge of this impressive machine. D212 Aureol, 

So, with Summer(?) out of the way and autumn / winter approaching I'm starting to gear up for some more serious modelling over the next 6 or 7 months, Don't expect too many updates here though because the pace of progress on some of these projects can be painfully slow at times. I have also been handed my first commission job, which is to build and paint a white metal 00 gauge loco kit and modify some RTR locomotives for the same client. I will also post progress on these projects as they progress.

Thanks for reading this months monthly waffle more updates as and when.

Cheers

Frank