This Regner Niklas came to me with one simple instruction: Make it look more British. There is no doubt that, as supplied, it is based on American practice, with its balloon stack, headlight, bell and wooden buffer beams. They all came off, with the chimney being replaced before it arrived here and the front buffer beam replaced with something more Linda/Blanche Hunslet-like. Fortunately, removal of the other three wooden buffer beams revealed suitable alternatives, with no significant work needed. There was not much I could do with the cab structure, so that was replaced with new. The cab roof was re-used with some modification. The dome cover was also replaced with something more appropriate. To make it less of a black blob, my work was finished off with a repaint in to maroon with yellow lining and a coal load in the tender.

A customer was looking for a loco that captured the essence of the 2-6-2T locos used on Irish narrow gauge lines, particularly the long footplate section that these locos had in front of the smokebox. He decided that a Roundhouse Argyll could form the basis for one and so an Argyll was presented to me along with a comprehensive job list. Argyll looked a bit "leggy" with its big wheels so the first task was to replace the supplied 42mm wheels with 33mm replacements. Dropping the loco by about 5mm then, of course, affected the rear pony truck and the coupling heights, which all had to be adjusted. Then it was time to attack the front of the frames, with the front end chopped off and replaced with an extension that would incorporate a front pony truck. This took some thinking about! Then on to the cosmetics, with the biggest change being relocation of the dummy tank fillers to the front of the tanks - because that is where the fireman would stand to fill them. A repaint in to the owner's standard livery finished it off nicely. The owner assures me that he will fill the front footplate with tool boxes, jacks, chains and other assorted tat.

Delighted with the result, the owner asked me to do another one. The only difference between the two being the "step" in the front footplate.

Accidentally damaging a loco must be soul-destroying for its proud owner. Fortunately, I offer a full repair service for such an occasion. This Accucraft Wren came to me after it took a tumble and ended up with a very bent cab. The roof itself was not repairable so was replaced with new, but the uprights straightened out again nicely, with one exception where a fracture had occurred at a screw hole. Everything else was found to be in good order.

This brand-new Evans Steam Services "Frank" Garratt came to me for conversion from radio to manual control and then repainting in Deep Brunswick Green and lining in orange and black. While here it also received some modifications to pipework and bodywork to allow for easier and future disassembly, maintenance and reassembly. I like to think its new paint garb makes it look more "grown up" and credible than the basic green and bare brass as supplied.

Built on a Roundhouse chassis, both of these locos received new bodies made by Shawe Engineering for loco and tender based on the Festiniog Railway's Blanche, rather than the more common Linda. The level of detail is outstanding and I was delighted to be asked to paint and line both locos.

A Roundhouse Mk1 Millie, which came here for repainting, lining, a general service including mechanical repairs and fitting of sand pots. It was also fitted with radio control, all contained on-board the loco.

JOSEPHINE started life as a standard Roundhouse loco, but the owner decided to make it look somewhat different and scratch-built a new body for it. He made a rather nice job of it and it was a pleasue to paint and line it for him. (Photo by James Medd)

This venerable Roundhouse Dylan - an old lady, complete with 1/2-inch cylinders, came to me for a mechanical check, various bodywork repairs and fitting of an Enots valve water filling system (visible in cab door) allowing for continuous running.

These older Roundhouse locos used different threads for the regulator and safety valve, so the boiler from this one had a new turret made and fitted by Jack at Shawe Engineering that uses the current threads, allowing a standard safety valve and regulator to be used.

This was all followed by a repaint in to a scheme inspired by Great Eastern Railway practice. Always a pleasure to work on Roundhouse locos of this vintage.

For those of you that receive and read the rather excellent Throwback Modeller digital magazine you may have seen on pages 51 and 52 of issue 42 an article giving a short history of this Garratt built by the late David (Dave) Johnson in Leeds, probably in 2002. The Garratt's body components came to me recently for repainting and lining. The owner chose dark blue lined in cream and edged in black. (Photo by Mike Leckenby)

This wonderful Pechot-Bourdon locomotive was built by the very talented Graham Duncan-Smith. I was very pleased to have played a small part in its construction in that I was asked to paint and line the bodywork components. It was a delight to be asked, and a delight to do the job, Looks great, doesn't it? (Photo by Graham Duncan-Smith)

The Roundhouse model of Hunslet Beddgelert uses the larger 42mm diameter wheels (most of their other models use 33mm) and these are not available in un-insulated form, so they have a plastic boss that provides their fixing to the axle. With no track power on the owner's railway there was no need for any insulation and so the opportunity was taken to replace the plastic bosses with steel. The main reason for doing this is to eliminate the "wobble" caused by the impossible-to-fit-accurately plastic bosses. My grateful thanks go to Jack at Shawe Engineering for his fine work.

Another modification made was to the sand boxes mounted on the tank sides, which were moved backwards to be against the cab front. The owner's usual black with red and blue lining repaint followed.