All this inclement weather makes it difficult to model in the garage but you may now be welcome to model in any room in the house. You might not have known that Wilkinson sell an O gauge portable workstation (they also market this item as a cutlery tray). As you can see from the illustrations it is now possible to model in the living room, kitchen and even the bedroom. First of all, stick a couple of pieces of foam onto the base of the longest horizontal compartment in the tray and saw off one end to allow for long coaches. This can now hold steady an upside down locomotive or coach.

Next, mount your soldering iron holder on the right hand tray if you are right handed. The other vertical tray allows storage of the tools you are using on the job. The compartment furthest away can hold the parts you intend to fit and, most important, the other slots in the tray hold all the bits and pieces as you dismantle your model. It certainly beats trying to find them on an overcrowded bench later or search for them on a patterned carpet or garage floor. It is so useful that I have now got two more as I often seem to have more than one loco in pieces and it saves getting the parts from each mixed up. One of my photos illustrates that this little device even allows you to work in the kitchen and oversee the family at work.

I am hoping that repairs to the rolling stock and locos running from Victoria to Beckenham Junction will be accomplished more efficiently this winter. I should add that this idea was inspired by my good friend and neighbour Bob Stanley. You may know him as one of the foremost and painstaking restorers of Leeds models. However, I know him as the modeller with the most untidy kitchen work top ever on which is the messiest jungle of loco parts and tools imaginable. And I am fed up with getting down on hands and knees to search for a tiny spindle or nut on his kitchen floor. Happy and tidy modelling in the warm to you all with your cutlery tray work station.