This Roundhouse Jack had a cab back (upper and lower) added, various detailing parts applied, was repainted from blue to black and lined in brown and red.

The bodywork for this loco came here for a repaint in to the maroon lined in red scheme that the full-size loco carried while at Dinorwic Quarry in North Wales. (Photo by Gareth Jones)

This MBV Schug - Accucraft Europa Decauville 0-4-0T was converted to represent the full-size BARBOUILLEUR housed in the Amberley Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Museum in West Sussex. Conversion work included:
 - Shortening of the side tanks
 - Fitting of dummy side-mounted safety valves to dome
 - Removal of maker’s text from smokebox door
 - Shortening and reprofiling of chimney
 - Reprofiling of dome to give it a rounded top
 - Modification of cab roof
 - Repainting of bodywork, cylinder block cladding, wheels and wheel rims in to Turquoise Green
 - Repainting of motion and buffer/couplings in red
 - Repainting of boiler, cab roof, boiler bands and domes in satin black

The question is, of course, why do model and full-size not carry matching shades of green? Well, the full-size loco is currently awaiting overhaul and, the owner of the model tells me, will be repainted in the colour carried by the model. (Photo of full size loco by Simon King)

I don't venture in to the mystical world of 7/8ths (of an inch to the foot) scale very often, but here is one I've just finished. This loco has an Accucraft Talgarth chassis incorporating a DJB Model Engineering coal-fired kit (boiler, fittings, axle pump, pipework, etc.) housed in a Simply ⅞ths Baldrig body. The latter needed a lot of modifications for coal firing, in particular the building of proper water tanks to supply the axle pump and the associated pipework. The GW transfers were supplied by Fox and the number plates came from MDC. My thanks go to Paul at DJB for his assistance with this one. I doubt it will ever be this clean again!

Another Roundhouse Penrhyn Hunslet done... Charles again, with lined frames, chimney ring and, unusually, converted from radio to manual control...

The owner of this loco sent the bodywork and the chassis to me for attention. The chassis received replacement axle bearings. The body was converted in to an oil-fired configuration with a dummy oil tank in the back bunker and removal of the tank top coal baskets. It was then repainted in Penrhyn-style livery. The bits then went back to the owner for final assembly. (Photo by James Trebinski)

This is a John Turner Caledonia, unusually set for 32mm gauge track. Being a model of a 3 foot gauge Isle of Man prototype others that I have seen have all been for 45mm gauge track and, of course, are not regaugeable.

This one had been in storage for many years and the owner asked me to check it over and bring it back to life. Initial inspection showed the chassis to be seized solid and the 27MHz radio gear past its best. Careful inspection and lubrication soon had it running again, and it steamed very well under manual control. Replacement of the radio gear with 2.4GHz equipment followed, after much head scratching. These locos are controlled by two push/pull rods running between the frames from the cab. One controls the regulator under the smokebox, the other controls the valve gear attached to the frames. So not the usual "two levers" arrangement. I used three servos, giving independent control of the whistle for the first time. I'm no electrician but I even managed to get the lights working too!

The gas tank proved problematical in that it was tricky to fill (needing a long-lost special adaptor to do so) and there was no way of fully shutting it off completely. The tank was heavily modified, tested and certified by Shawe Steam Services under my instructions to address these issues and it now has a standard type of gas filler valve and a repositioned outlet to avoid liquid gas being sent to the burner.

It did not take long for a new Roundhouse England to arrive here for some attention. The owner already has a maroon England from a different manufacturer so he decided that he would like a green one. To the best of my knowledge the full-size Palmerston has never carried the Festiniog's green livery so we had some latitude as to which scheme we went with. The original plan had been to apply the scheme carried by PRINCE in the 1960s, with the black tank top, tank front and cab front but we decided it was a bit austere and to go with the scheme applied to WELSH PONY just before its recent return to traffic. This meant the loco has two lining panels on the tanks sides, instead of one, green tank top and front and green cab.

This is not so much a "might have been", more of a "might be one day". Who knows?

(Photo of WP from Ffestiniog Railway Society web site)

A Roundhouse Lilla with blower pipe, injector water handles, lubricator drain pipe and Penrhyn-style lining with satin finish. (Photo by James Trebinski)

This Finescale Engineering Quarry Hunslet had suffered some impact damage to its rear end, causing the cab back sheet to part company with the footplate and the paintwork to be scratched. This cab back was repaired and the cab, footplate and saddle tank were then stripped back to bare metal and repainted in satin black with Penrhyn-style lining. Doing this allowed me to make a couple of changes to the loco as supplied in that I added lining to the cab front panels and also positioned the name plates in the slightly odd positions in which they were and are carried by the full-size loco (GWYNEDD, for example, has them higher up the tank side and further towards the front).