Friday Update: Eighteen Six Twenty-one...

I’ve been busy with sourcing parts and materials for commissions as well as restocking Planet Industrials decals, but one smaller OO project has been building the Ruston 165DE for a customer...

I’ve enjoyed putting the kit together, it really is a chunky and purposeful looking machine. This will be heading through the paint shop shortly so you may not see it again until it’s complete. 

Out on the road, I delivered Paddington a few weeks ago, but the customers Tx20 handset had become faulty and so I took it home and asked Andy at Micron to take a look. He repaired it for the cost of the postage, so this week I headed back to see if we could get Paddington running, success, it was lovely to see him ‘at home’ and with blue sky too... I love how the side lighting highlights the grain I hand scribed in the styrene, somehow wood didn’t feel like the right material here, and the results look good and fitting with the character of the project (no pun intended)...

Behind the scenes I’ve been busy wiring up large scale diesels with sound and radio systems, so not much to share visually. What has been interesting is using the Fosworks radio system with a DCC sound chip, can I recommend to anyone following in my footsteps to source the DCC components from one supplier (in this case Jeremy at Digitrains as they offered the right sound file, but usually I use Kevin at CoastalDCC for my own stuff) and another for the radio (this was Steve at Fosworks, very helpful, again though I usually use Andy at Micron). An example, the speaker provided by the radio chaps was 4ohm and the DCC chip needed 8ohm... these technologies have been historically separate areas of expertise and the overlap hasn’t matured enough for one supplier to be able to offer a one stop shop, yet...

I’ve been running trains on both Kinross (above) and Beaverbrook (below). Beaverbrook has become in some ways the new Pont-y-dulais as in its always ready at the flick of a switch, whereas PyD and Kinross require plugging in, but nevertheless the variety in operation and length of distraction available is wonderful. I can loose over half an hour switching out the cars on Beaverbrook, running a train on Kinross can be 2 minutes to 20... perhaps it’s worth considering what you might have space for to give yourself the same headspace away from the days other demands?

Finally this week, I’ve had a tidy up on the blog and made a few changes, and there are one or two more to come. My blog has always been about sharing my adventures, my own and my customers projects, my theories and experiences and I’ve always felt, that despite the traffic this generates, I would not succumb to the adverts peppered amongst others blogs and websites. The running costs are low, the time spent feels an investment, I love writing it... that being said I want to keep it ad free, subscription free, fire wall or number of reads per month free forever and to that end, like the Guardian, I’ve put a ‘donate’ button up (this should take you to a PayPal page). I don’t expect to be inundated with offers, neither do I expect to retire off the proceeds however if you enjoy stopping by and would like to show your appreciation then I would be both very humble and very grateful. These things can become an echo chamber but I love the variety of comments and views you share with me, and long may this all continue. I’m sorry, that’s the ‘promotional ’ bit done, I didn’t want to not mention it, but I also didn’t want to make a big thing about it either.

My Dad, circa 1998-2000 in front of the last great project, Canada in our double garage!

I’ll finish this week hoping that you can enjoy your weekend, and spend some time enjoying the company of, or fondly remembering good memories of times with your own father. My own Dad passed away ten years ago, and I have him to thank for the hobby and now job I have today. Whatever you get up to, I hope you find some time for yourself and modelling in any of its forms. I’ve got another N scale instalment lined up for the weekend, and I really must get some better photos of Beaverbrook. Until next time, more soon...