Invasion of the Peppercorn A1s

Picton Whiske's A1 Fleet has increased to three with the new arrival 60134 'FOXHUNTER'

She joins her sisters, working 'the Talisman', 'the Flying Scotsman' and not forgetting fast freight on the East Coast Main Line!

Another Darlingon A1 is coming to North Eastern Steam

Thats right, another Darlington built A1 will be joining the current fleet made up of 60130 'KESTREL' and 60144 'KING'S COURIER'

The A1 will be this one, 60134 'FOXHUNTER'



A Leeds engine all her life so not out of place at Picton Whiske Sheds from time to time.

You may notice I don't have any Doncaster variant A1s, with the snap head rivets on the tenders. This will change this Autumn, with one arriving late October! More on that in the near future :)

My A3 Fleet, together at last!

I now have my fleet of A3s together running on the layout.

We have
1.LADAS, a single chimney
2. SANDWICH (to be renamed GAINSBOROUGH) with double chimney
3. THE WHITE KNIGHT with double chimney and german deflectors.
4 HUMORIST with double chimney and Peppercorn deflectors.
Enjoy these photos of them together





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All engines need coal in their tenders don't they!

My two Peppercorn A1s have currently had coal added to their tenders. This was my first attempt at such a thing, but I must say, it certainly improves the appearance.

Firstly, we have open coal fires, so I used a hammer on some coal. I then added some diluted PVA into the empty tender, and brushed it around the inside. Then added the coal.

Finally I coated the coal in the tender with diluted PVA. Do be careful though as I noticed my tender was leaking alot of PVA!

I have also be improving the weathering on my locos.




LADAS has been fully weathered too, my new single chimney A3.

and.... keep an eye out, a new Peppercorn A1 may be seen very soon........ Aynone fancy some FOXHUNTING.......

More A3s!?!?!?!?!

Yes thats right, more A3s!!

To date I have 3, in the shape of 60039 'Sandwich' 60077 'The White Knight' and 60097 'Humorist'.

What I am trying to achieve with my A3s is showing them in all their types during BR, hence why I have ordered another. 60067 'LADAS' in BR Green, early emblem and single chimney. All my other A3s are Kylchap Double Blast Pipe.

As well as LADAS coming along too, 60039 is going to be renumbered. I don't like the name Sandwich, it doesn't suite a locomotive like an A3. Therefore it will become 60086 'Gainsborough' one of the few A3s to never have Smoke Deflectors.


I think Gresley would be proud with all the A3s arriving at Eastcote Central, don't you?

NORTH EASTERN STEAM Episode 2 Teaser Trailer

Teaser Trailer for Episode 2 'Old Ned'

Enjoy

North Eastern Steam Special 60097 Humrosit

A special episode I made, seen as work had gone so well on her.

A3 60097 'Humorist', joins the Picton Whiske Fleet!

After the last few weeks of blood sweat and tears, Humorist has finally been completed, apart from odd little area to touch up.

She is now on the layout running quite happily with a mixture of Crimson and Cream and Maroon Mk1s and Gresley stock.

I hope you like these pictures, and im sure you will all get to see her in North Eastern Steam at some point.

60097 begins to take shape!

Work continues on 60097.

A mini disaster took place yesterday when removing the number off 60049, as the solution took off the paint as well!!!!

But after some touching up with Brunswick Green Paint, she doesn't look too bad at all, plus addition of varnish before the new numbers (60097) is added.

But today has been about adding the smoke deflectors to 60097, the very thing that made her look unique.

Enjoy these pictures above :-)

The Unique A3....60097

Modifications are to be made on one of my A3s, 60039 will become 60097 'Humorist'

Humorist was a unique A3 as she was fitted with a kylchap blast pipe way back in 1938, over 20 years before the rest of the class.

In 1947 she was fitted with Peppercorn Type deflectors in 1947 which she kept right through until she was scrapped, making her a distinctive looking A3.

60097 picture used with permission of Bill Wright owner of the photograph

NORTH EASTERN STEAM..A Youtube Success!!

Episode 1 of North Eastern Steam has been a youtube success!

The Episode has currently had over a 1000 hits, 32 5* ratings and over 30 comments!

We are also a youtube partner now which has also helped increase our numbers!

A big thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past months!

North Eastern Steam Main Title ready for viewing!

Thats right, the main title for the series North Eastern Steam, is ready for you to view.

So get a glimpse of what is going to be seen when the series starts in a few months!

East Allerton....at NIGHT!

Indeed,

we have all seen the images of East Allerton in the day time, but what about at night.... well here are the first pictures of he working lamps at East Allerton Station. They certainly give an atmosphere to the scene!

East Allerton...nearing completion

East Allerton, my rural country station on the Eastcote Layout, is nearling completion. Compared to last pictures, there has been a real dramatic change.

We now have a hill overlooking the station 'Lady Hill'

Plus the track has been reworked to give East Allerton a 'Head Shunt' line so locos can shunt without having to cross onto the main line, and also, cross over lines have been added so that engines can use the yard on either the up or down line.

Anyhow these pictures show the current state of East Allerton...but don't forget there is more to come, such as.....

Station lights....coming very soon!

Lights Camera and ACTION! Eastcote Central hits Youtube in proper trailers!

Eastcote Central Layout has hit youtube in 3 trailers so far, all building up to the first episode of 'North Eastern Steam', my series documenting steam in the mid 50's to early 60's, all filmed on my layout.

The latest trailer can be seen here, although other trailers can be found by clicking on my youtube links at the bottom left of the main page.

For now enjoy the latest trailer, with another coming soon.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOT1KBnKYec

Eastcote has new arrival....Ex LMS locomotives!!!

Picton Whiske sheds have had rather an influx of Ex LMS locomotive, 3 to be precise!

1. Stanier Black 5

2. Stanier Jubilee 'Achilles'

3. Rebuilt Royal Scot 'The King's Royal Rifle Corps'

and here are all three locomotive, in action 

Heavy goods needed....bring in a 9F

Yes, you heard it, we have a 9F on the Eastcote Layout. So a 9F was ordered and arrived this morning.

Enjoy the pics

Art comes to Eastcote!

Decided to add some extra touches to the pictures taken today, see what you think :-)

Eastcote Layout gets it's country station....'East Allerton'

We now have a country station on the layout... East Allerton,  a small station situated somewhere on the North Eastern Region of the East Coast Main Line.

Although far from finished, these photos give a simple idea of how things are shaping up :-)

The first Thompson B1 joins Picton Whiske Sheds

Picton Whiske Sheds, has another loco to add to the fleet, the Thompson B1 4-6-0 Mixed Traffic locomotive. They were built in the final years on the LNER and were numerous over the Easter and North Eastern Regions of British Railways. It is said that they were a better engine than Stanier's Black 5s!!!

Spingbok was the first of the class, and she will have plenty to do helping with goods and the smaller passenger services on North Eastern Region.

More of Eastcote Revealed!

More Backgrounds up! As promised.

As can be seen, Eastcote is surposed to have a look of York....as one background picture looks like York Minster...... 

Some more teasing shots of Eastcote Background

Here we have some new teasing shots of the new backgrounds, the backdrop of houses is to the south of Eastcote Central running along the East Coast Main Line.

Here we see V2 60903 with a van train heading South out of Eastcote for Peterbrough and 60019 Silver Fox, runs nonstop out of Eastcote with the down Talisman for King's Cross and finally 60039 Sandwich is seen approaching Eastcote with a stopping train for Leeds Central. 

J72 joins Picton Whiske

Eastcote was really missing a tank engine to do the shunting and piloting, well at last we have one, J72s were numerous on the North Eastern Region, so it only seems right we should see one here.

Slight weathering has been added to give it that little bit more 'used' look!

Eastcote Layout increases in size!!!!

The layout has had a major extension to the front, which is always a good thing for a modeller :-)

Plus boarding is being added to display scenic background, more pictures to come very soon, but for now, you can compare these two photos, showing before and after