Nine months ago I waffled on about the Metropolitan Jubilee 4-wheel coaching stock needed for Basilica Fields, and revealed that I had my mitts on a test etch, drawn on TurboCad by John Birch. Unfortunately circumstances have meant that I have had little time for modelling since then – a situation soon to be resolved – nevertheless, things have been chuntering on in the background, and progress has been made, while I’ve only had time to write electronic reams of a history which “didn’t quite happen like that…”

Discussion between John and Ken de Groome resulted in the artwork being redrawn and added to by John, and once etched they were married to castings from Ken’s range so that now the full series of Metropolitan Jubilee carriages – a first, a second, a third, a brake second and a brake third carriage, along with alternative parts for those sold the the Mid Suffolk Light Railway in 1905 (seven were also sold the Weston Clevedon & Portishead in 1907), are now a part his range of Metropolitan Railway kits. Ken’s first test build, a brake third which he built and painted, is illustrated above.

The first two of nine carriages (the brake second and a third on one fret, and two underframes on another, plus a bag of castings) arrived here yesterday, but will have to get packed away in one of the bulging stock cupboards for a couple of months while I catch up on commissions. And jolly nice they look too!