Friday Update: Eight Nine Twenty-three…

The week started hot but sunny but by this morning it’s now just hot, muggy and overcast. Yuck! A week of contrasts then, weather and work… 

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go and visit Wrecsam Canolog and take a few useful prototype photos, and these have come in useful this week with the start on platform mock ups on the shelf model. It’s funny, I didn’t expect to need to visit twice but the sunshine earlier this week and a few hours spare whilst Janey did some errands meant I took a ride on the Borderlands line to sample the new 230s, but more on that another time! Not pictured, this week I’ve been really enjoying a couple of layout design commissions.

In the workshop large and small, large above, the Ruston LB have all been finished off with details and bodywork AND they’re now all wired up and operational so can begin the job of painting. This year all four are due to be Ruston green which means less variety, but the customer is always right! It’s been great fun customising each of these, putting the radio on and getting lost in the craft, cutting styrene and adding boot and rivet heads… less fun wiring but working through systematically things didn’t take long and the relief when all four move as intended, you can imagine the size of the sigh.

A little smaller, the Bagnall diesel I’ve been working on for a customer is now in colour. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to pin down what colour the prototypes were painted, not only the colour (blue or green) but  also the shade. I opted for a mother James Hilton custom mix, blending Brunswick (Humbrol 3) with grass  (80) to get a sort of faded colour that still looked cared for - this will be weathered down later, but is now hardening up before I add the buffer beams and detail painting. This prototype of a forthcoming Planet Industrials kit has worked really nicely and I’m looking forward to seeing how the model looks as the finishing stages all weave together. What’s most important though is how pleased my customer is, and he’s over he moon with what we’ve achieved.

 

It has been a week of new arrivals… some exciting, some others less so! The DB Schenker 66 was for the ‘modern’ N collection and a second hand example, but the running wasn’t as refined at the slow speeds I require on my shunting layouts so sadly it had to go back. The EFE Rail Clay Tiger arrived for the ‘China clay’ collection (that’s pretty much itching for a layout itself now!) and is pretty good, certainly how else would I have acquired the prototype in N so I can overlook some of the shortcomings. This will look great once weathered and I’ll share a seperate post on that when it’s finished. 

I received a Kaslo Shops Canadian National ‘SWEEP’ kit earlier this year and ordered a Walthers Mainline sound fitted SW9 as a donor chassis from Gaugemaster. After 3 months wait this finally arrived this week. I have been planning the build of this kit over the autumn… to find the donor model runs well and sounds as hoped, and then on inspection, that the chassis design makes it completely unusable in the SWEEP… I went for high to low in minutes. Funny how model trains can do that to us, in reality is just doesn’t matter. In the moment it’s a crushing disappointment.

I’ve now sourced a second hand Lifelike Proto Alco S2 chassis, which I hope is narrow enough to fit within the SWEEP shell. Watch this space…

In the aftermath of that disappointment I decided to do something focused and moved the latest industrial project forwards. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to build but I’d like to have a limited clearance on the layout and only the cut down Peckett and this Barclay will fit… I’ve now detail painted it and it’s hardening up ready for weathering. I like the combination of colours and wasp striping contrasting with the green body and red beams, the yellow rods and the repair to the cab roof still in red oxide primer. Etched plates have been ordered, I’ve gone for a company rather than name - I think the model will look great with a rake of Planet Industrials 21T wagons too, the bright colours should pop against a murky industrial scene, I’m in two minds whether to try and model winter, with yellows, greys and browns, only a little green and a touch of snow? 

The weekend beckons, and I’m looking forward to working on and enjoying my own personal layout projects. I’m also prepping Paxton Road for the display at Corwen a week on Saturday. Hopefully this weather will either cool off or dry up, either way more bearable than the hot humid overcast we have at present. Enjoy the weekend yourself, whatever you’re planning. Thank you for your continued support and interest here, it makes writing and creating this material worthwhile, thank you also to those who choose to donate - that really is very generous indeed. Until next time, more soon…

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