Friday Update: Twenty-six Four Twenty-four…

What a week here in North Wales - weather update, cold, a little dryer and the odd spell of lovely sunshine and blue sky. I even managed a coffee break in the garden...

In the workshop are a lot of commissions now waiting on parts - either custom ones I've designed or just little bits from specialist suppliers. That has meant lots of little bits of progress of which I can't easily take a photograph. You're left with the big stuff!

Rushcliffe Halt has gone from basic box to 'model railway'. The track is in, the wiring is done, the lid is on and it has been fully tested ahead of track painting and ballasting. A little more pre-work done on this example meant the process of wiring up the track was painless - such a relief, as it's one of my hated jobs usually! I am looking forward to adding some more texture to the track work next week - as you all know, ballasting is one of my favourite jobs - for the headspace it can give us all.

Meanwhile - a customer overseas has been arranging for a whole myriad of old Bachmann 04s to be sent here - along with some new 03s for grafting under a set of tramway skirts! A mock-up to check it all fits with minimal modification above, the body shells will be mildly re-worked and repainted - and the 'modern' chassis allowing DCC and or sound to be fitted by my customer. This one is a way off, but it was fun to re-visit the basic Bachmann model which feels very much one of the Mainline era - echoes of my Dad's old 03. I'm not sure it's true, but I'm sure there is an urban legend that this 04 was created from the 03 tooling - in effect destroying the chance of any more 03s from it at that point?

Weathering - what I originally planned as a simple wash and airbrush turned into something a little more involved. A set of 6 Accurascale MDOs were next up for weathering - and as I turned to the bible (Paul Bartlett) for inspiration the sheer variety in finish encouraged me to hand paint the weathering and rust patterns onto the bodywork. The results wouldn't pass microscope inspection but as a set of 6 they look great together. A waft of road dirt and coal dust with the airbrush will finish these off later on today.

On my own bench, I've done a fair bit on Kohlenbach Brücke Werks - the concrete hardstanding is in place with basic finishing complete and the slab section wall build, painted, and weathered - this end of the layout feels ready for greening up! At the moment it's a glorious cacophony of muted greys and browns, like a mono-chromatic stage where splashes of colour come from the locomotive and VW pickup. Even the stock in its greys, browns and white echo that same feeling - curious, it wasn't a conscious decision but it seems incredibly powerful. I'm pondering what sort of green to use, perhaps a cooler bluer tinge than usual, to continue this theme - I wonder if the colour balance itself is part of why it works so well?

  

Elsewhere - the High Weald rolling stock build continues - 5 more Ashby opens and a PW ballast wagon are moving across the bench. Half of these are destined for Steve, my co-conspirator on the project. More, I'm sure, on it soon. Janey and I enjoyed a walk mid-week heading above Corwen and this lovely green lush valley felt like a mountain rain forest with its carpet of moss. Forest bathing, very much a good way to calm a busy mind. Last weekend, my daughter and I headed to Liverpool and it was my first chance to ride on one of the new Stadler 777 units - this felt well built, solid, smooth. The seats are like ironing boards though - far too hard for the 40 odd minute journey from Chester, awful. Sitting behind the cab on the leading unit above the bogie was very noisy too - on the way back we sat mid train, middle of the coach and it was very quiet. On Sunday I managed this lovely photo of 3802 heading towards Corwen, a small part of our wonderful valley and look at that sky. It might not always be bright blue skies and sunshine but it is invariably beautiful. We are very lucky to live here!

I'll finish with the answers to yesterdays question... Strike is a private detective from JK Rowlings post Harry Potter era - I've not read the books but the TV program is excellent and he is a great example of the unsung hero. Perez is a Detective Inspector on Shetland, again adapted from books - but it is the TV series I'm familiar with - his sense of the morally right and wrong balanced against the law, quiet and un-assuming whilst carrying a great deal of sadness is a classic example. Mac, left field perhaps, is a hot-shot US oil executive working for Knox Oil and Gas in the classic film, Local Hero, who becomes bewitched with Scotland and the small village in which he stays... I'm sure they're a plenty more but they're my favourites at the moment.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned. Until next time, as usual, more soon...

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