Friday Update: Twenty-one One Twenty-two...

"Cold and frosty morning, there's not a lot to say, about the things caught in my mind" well in the words of Noel Gallagher I've had a very busy week but there isn't a great deal to show for it...

Apart from starting my Llangollen Railway 2022 Flickr album and the doing the odd school run, it's been finishing off and packing (not a small task in itself) my garden railway commission to my customer in Florida. As one is finished, another starts, whilst others progress...

The Backwoods Taliesin is now in primer, and will wear the earlier livery, unlike the previous example of this kit I assembled. This model is not straight forward, it's well designed but fiddly, and some of the things you need to do have perhaps a different order to those in the instructions. I also gave up with the supplied pick ups, as I did last time too, and will fabricate my own from 0.4mm phosphor bronze wire which is a lot more flexible and provides less drag on the wheel sets.

The new commission on the bench is assembling 8 PXA wagons from a batch of parts from S-kits. These large aggregate box wagons were built in the 1990s and used on the TML channel tunnel traffic. My customer had assembled the basic boxes from the flat resin parts but I've been prepping and cleaning 16 pairs of truck side frames. Next week will see the work on the boxes move forwards.

It's been a bit radio silent on my Ruston LB in 7/8ths project, however, I should have an update on progress next week. In the meantime I'm looking forward to a rest this weekend, perhaps working on some test pieces for the road and ballast surfaces on Beaverbrook, and some more greenery on Bear Creek. I've got a Hilton and Mears lined up for the weekend blog and hope you enjoy it. I'm also hoping to do some filming of the Kerr Stuart Victory now it has the finalised Paul Chetter sound file. In the meantime, until next time, more soon...