Light Railway adventure...

Often my modelling follows a meandering course and items that evoke an emotional or nostalgic response re-surface and take me off on another journey, and so it has been reading the Middleton Press book on Colonel Stephens over the past few weeks...

I bought this book for my Dad for Christmas 2010 and he passed away at the beginning of January 2011. I have kept the book and dipped in and out of it in the past but hadn't read the whole thing initially finding it a little too painful. However these days, whilst I do still miss him, my memories are more rose tinted and happy and it's been a good read and reminded me of my Dad's interest in his later years in light railways, specially the Weston Cleveland and Portishead, which he found fascinating with it's American style bogie coaches and on the doorstep of his childhood in Bristol and the West Country.

So how did this Hornby Terrier end up in my collection of OO Industrial and GWR locos? By accident? Well combining my recent re-discovery of Colonel Stephens and a gradual interest that's building in the K&ESR and the High Weald, I have another string to weave into this situation. As a child the GWR liveried Dapol Terrier was always highly desirable for me, and I can't really say why - I didn't know it was a Terrier at first, and I didn't know about the WC&P and it's history. I just liked how small and cute it was, and always had a soft spot for the shirt button livery. Over time this interest in the odd little non-GWR tank engine expanded to Terriers and the Hayling Island examples I was seeing in old photos in books borrowed from the library (!! anyone remember those!). 

So you see it was sort of inevitable I'd end up with one eventually. I managed to get one of the new Hornby models on eBay, but unfortunately when it arrived it was damaged and didn't run. All the pickups were bent out of place - it looked as if someone had tried to fix it and made a hash of it. I was very lucky that the seller offered me a big refund and my original plan was to try and source a replacement chassis. However reading about on the internet I reckoned it was worth re-adjusting the pickups carefully, very carefully, as they're not very strong. I used a pair of needle nose tweezers to first pull them back 'out' (they'd been forced up and bent between the wheels and the chassis, probably when the wheels were taken out?) and then gently straighten them. I then used a watch makers screw driver to help set them to push against the back of the wheel rim.

So did it run? Yes, success, it was in fact a very sweet running model. Perhaps geared a little high but otherwise very nice indeed. I then was set wondering what exactly to do with it? I had planned on keeping it and modelling Rolvenden as it was in the 1910s... however there seemed to be too many things 'wrong' with it to represent Rolvenden, or in fact any other K&ESR or Colonel Stephens Terrier. So a repaint was probably on the cards. I did choose to remove the cab, strip out the windows (they're well glued in and broke so I'll have to work out a replacement), remove the window bars and coal bunker and make good the extra holes in the cab front. Then primer, then Satin 195 and then matt black 33, brass and satin 174 red for the buffer beams. However, above, it looked too dull and I was worried if I started to weather it in this condition it just wouldn't have any 'zing' in the finish, so this morning I masked the chassis and wafted over some clear lacquer which has added just the right amount of shine to the paintwork and a great base for weathering (see below).

The model will be finished as a generic Colonel Stephens terrier, probably named Hecate. I intend to add the missing sand pipes, a coal load and replace the clack valve pipework before weathering. It's a very cute little model - and who knows where it will lead... I grew up watching the Darling Buds of May with my Mum so I may end up with a micro based on a 'what if' branch to Rye, or perhaps another project altogether. As an unbranded loco though it can visit other lines, so may well make an appearance on the embryonic WD(L)R in the future. Happy Fathers Day. More soon...