A new acquisition arrived this morning.

Most people would have seen the reviews or videos of the new loco launched by Heljan over the last few weeks of the Metropolitan BoBo. This at the moment comes in four guises but the particular version I really liked was the fourth one to be released which was ‘John Milton’. 

All four versions differ slightly in their appearance with one of them in grey wartime livery, John Milton in my opinion looked the most attractive with extra detailing on handrails, red sides to the chassis frames and a few other extra details too. 

After the initial wait for this to be released then it arrived on my desk at work this morning and when I opened it (well, I couldn’t resist waiting until I got home could I !? ) I wasn’t disappointed - another stunning model from Heljan. 

I will write up further details on this when I have more time but in true blog tradition then I thought that this would be newsworthy and post this up as “Hot News” as of 15 minutes ago when it arrived - you can’t get newer than that!

Heljan item number 9001 Metropolitan/BoBo 9 John Milton

Well it’s been almost a year now since starting this blog and after the first entry then I will be honest and say that I forgot all about it, so I thought it about time that I start to utilise it. I shall be retiring at Christmas and no doubt will have more time to keep this blog up to date with hopefully a few interesting snippets of what I have been doing or what I may have planned for the future.

I Have to confess that it will be biased towards model railways but there maybe the odd occasional ‘odd ball’ item thrown in that was of interest to publish an may hopefully be of interest to you too.

Lakeside - my OO gauge model railway.

For three years or so I have been busy with a hobby that I never thought in my wildest dreams it would take me to the hight of interest that this has done and that hobby has been my OO gauge model railway which is set up above my garage and measures 16 feet x 8 feet, not huge in comparison to some loft layouts I have seen on YouTube but plenty big enough for me to build and manage. Manage probably being the operative word here because I have seen many smaller layouts which appear to be majoring on track work with umpteen tracks, many, many points (turnouts) and various yards - far too much for me in my old age to handle and I would feel uneasy in it’s operation. I wanted to keep this layout simple from the outset but with some good scenic details and a few platforms, signal boxes etc - in other words, a large train set.

I have very little knowledge of trains but I do like the modelling aspect and so this layout is first and foremost for fun, it is totally un-prototypical, I will run for instance GWR region trains with Southern region trains, in other words I will run what I want and not was is correct. Although having said that, Lakeside does have a history in-built as it is set very loosely in the Yorkshire area and there is a Youtube video laying out that history which you can find here:  

Lakeside is very much a work in progress layout and is (like most model railways) something that will probably never be finished but will be updated as time goes on, I do try to do as many videos as I think necessary to keep people up to date with it’s progress and I also produce the occasional ‘How to’ video where I think it’s appropriate.

So why not follow me along this very long journey of building this model railway, as long as you can appreciate that this layout is primarily for fun and enjoyment and not to be too serious about being prototypical then you will not be disappointed.

Tentative steps into O gauge.

For my 66th birthday last August my wife bought me an O gauge kit of a Class 50 diesel manufactured by Just Like the Real Thing (JLTRT). This was something I had been wanting to try for a few months for two main reasons. (1) It was O gauge and so was big! and (2) It was a kit and I really liked the idea of building a locomotive from a kit to test my modelling skills - or not as the case maybe!

Although not quite complete at this stage of me writing this, it has been a most enjoyable build and has taught me a few new things that I had no experience of. It has also made me think about either building or buying other O gauge rolling stock or locos to keep the Class 50 company, I do have something in mind at the moment but whether this comes to fruition then we shall have to wait and see on that. I have documented the build of the Class 50 with about 12 YouTube videos but the very start with me opening the box starts here:  

  

So what else is in the pipeline?

Well as regards model railways then I have in mind to build an end-to-end N gauge layout next year, I haven’t decided on the size yet but it is going to be small enough to fit into the back of my car for ease of transportation, I have a rough theme mapped out in my mind but nothing actually drawn up yet - I guess the first thing to do is to measure the back of the car up to find out the maximum dimension is!

I think that about brings me up to date after a year but I will hopefully post more at a later stage when there is more to report.