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Back in 1961 Kitmaster released their kit of the Austerity Saddle Tank, and the moulds subsequently passed to Airfix and then Dapol before being destroyed in a fire at their old Nantwich premises whilst the latter company was moving operations in I believe 1994, so there are not quite as many of this kit about as some of the other ones. I can't remember when I bought mine but it must have been at least 20 years ago, and although I seem to have made a start on it, it has been sitting in storage for a long time. In fact I had just about forgotten I had it until something in in my build of the Dapol Schools Class kit jogged my memory, and as I seem to be in "railway mode" at the moment I thought I might as well see if I can finish it. The frames are not bent as the photo suggests - that seems to be an optical illusion!😄 The first step will be to remove and replace the moulded-on handrails! As you can see there is a bit of flash on the parts but not as bad as on the Schools I have just finished, perhaps because the moulds for this were at the most around 30 years old - I believe Dapol only produced 4000 or so before the moulds were destroyed so this must be one of them! In 1942 during the early planning stages for the invasion of Europe, it was realised that large numbers of main line and shunting locomotives would have to be built and used on both British and European lines. To ease the problem quite a few locos were imported by the US Army, and I gather that after unloading at Barry docks many were "stored" in the Graig tunnel of the former Barry Railway just across the valley from me here in Pontypridd. A number of designs were also produced in the UK and Robert Riddles was put in charge of the design work for the WD "Austerity" 2-8-0, 2-10-0 and this 'WD Austerity 0-6-0ST'. It was based on a "simplified" version of a Hunslet design and the first locomotive was steamed in January 1943, and a total of 377 were built for the War Department over the next four years. In 1944, a number were loaned to the Ministry of Fuel and Power for working various open cast coal sites. Some of the modifications introduced to speed up construction caused problems, such as overheating axleboxes, but after these were overcome it proved useful not only for shunting, but also for short haul local trains. The LNER had been loaned some during the war, and in May 1946 decided that rather than build more of their "in house" designed J51 they would buy 75 as their Class J94. These were inherited by BR upon nationalisation and operated over quite a large area. Withdrawals started in 1960 and all were gone by 1967. However, quite a few found their way to industrial sites, coal mines and the like, and I am pretty sure it was one of these locos I saw in NCB markings outside a local coal mine in South Wales back in the early 1980's, before they were all closed down. Several have been preserved. Pete

Oh dear, I seem to have got the steam loco bug again. Having just finished my build of a Kitmaster/Airfix/Dapol SR Schools Class, I was going to do yet another one with the original chimney and livery, but instead I thought I would finish off my West Country instead. Originally issued by Kitmaster back in 1959, by the time it got into the hands of Dapol it was a very old mould and the instructions for this one say they were re-printed on September 4th 2010 - the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain - this kit was issued as one of the Battle of Britain class but I am building it as the similar West Country. Here are the tender parts which I started painting about 10 years ago. and here it is an hour later. Still some parts to add and painting to do. Unlike the Schools, this is painted in what seems to be the post war version of Malachite which is both darker and more yellow than the colour I used on my pre-war Schools. I will try and keep the lecturing down this time, but a little background is perhaps needed. When Oliver Bullied took over from Maunsell as Chief Mechanical Engineer at the SR in 1937, they still had a lot of medium power locos inherited from their constituent pre-grouping companies and they were getting old. Although the Southern did not have a lot of long routes, it did carry a lot of traffic to and from London and in 1938 Bullied was authorised to design and build some new and more powerful locos. With his background in the LNER he initially looked at 4-8-2 and then 2-8-2 wheel layouts but the Chief Civil Engineer refused to sanction them as they would be too heavy for the track in his opinion, and in fairness some of the lines were of a poor standard. Bullied therefore decide to build Pacific 4-6-2 tender locos though he had to take steps to make them considerably lighter than "normal" ones as built elsewhere, but more on that later. The fact that he got permission for what would eventually be 30 Merchant Navy class machines was a bit surprising but by then it was apparent that war was likely so the company foresaw the need for big locos to haul troops and supplies to the channel ports. Even more surprising was that he also got permission to keep building throughout the war as the government banned the building of express passenger locos, but he got round that by describing them as "mixed traffic" ie passenger and also freight. The first Merchant Navies entered service in March 1941, and a couple of years later Bullied decided he would built a set of lighter locos for use on some of the less well built lines. This became the Battle of Britain and West Country classes of which no less than 110 were eventually built. So next I will build the bottom end of the loco. Pete

Previously in another dimension... This Dapol kit was the second build to miss the deadline in 2021. I replaced some of the moulded detail with aftermarket parts, finished the bulk of the painting and made a start on decaling when I ran out of time. There is still some detail painting to do and the rest of the decals to add along with the lining, and smaller details like buffers, couplings and steps to sort before this is finished. This is where I am at with this one. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr

Looking for something different - and unarmed - in the local model shop, I decided to go RIGHT out on a limb. . I got an example of this ancient trackside modelling product. Can't help it, I just have to have a go at this. It's the challenge! There are several moving parts around the driving wheels and piston assemblies of which I know nothing, and the instructions, for such an intricate mechanism on each side, are appalling. I'll take a picture of this section and put it on here to illustrate my point...... It certainly won't illustrate anything else to do with the assembly procedure ‼️😶 The main wheels and chassis are well underway. I'm having a bit of trouble with the Flickr links at the moment so I'll continue later 😇