Friday Update: Twenty-two Eleven Twenty-four…

Just a few hours before I'll be on the train heading to Birmingham for the inaugural 'National Festival of Railway Modelling' formerly known as 'Warley', at the NEC...

This week we've not escaped from the snow that blanketed much of the country - for some reason I'd got it in my head that we weren't due any so to wake to an inch or two was a pretty surprise - whilst the main road and civilisation continued across the valley we end up snow bound by the state of the country lane, at least for the first 24 hours. I braved a walk on Wednesday to capture this lovely scene at the station - magical and untouched, the snow a purifying and cleansing blanket on a sleeping railway...

Minus temperatures mean a real fire - and snow and puppies mean the new one (right) was tired enough to settle with Bronwen in front of this one after a fun day with the girls off school. Not great for my sanity, but it was lovely to see them as children again, enjoying being outside and playing with the dog. It's been insanely cold in my workshop between bouts of central heating - but some progress has been made - so enough about dogs and the weather, lets see what has been going on...

Big news on Coalbridge Street is the arrival of another locomotive - a bit of a surprise this one, I spotted a Rapido 44t on UK eBay with some broken detail parts for a bargain price and snapped it up. It arrived in a lovely Southern Pacific livery but after testing and inspection was stripped down to become Claremont and Concord number 16. This 44t served at several Pinsly lines before finally being sold on in 1974 - perhaps... in my alternate universe, it went onto serve on the Ballard and Wantage... The model is beautiful and runs so smoothly - but standing it next to my Bachmann model I feel somehow the older and less accurate tooling captures more of the character of the prototype - funny old world isn't it! 

As you can see the snow and children being at home has allowed me to make progress on the repaint - 16 sported wasp stripes on each end, these have now been applied by painting yellow first, masking with 2mm tape and then applying the red. Once this is dry, next week now I expect, I'll mask the ends off and paint the body red, allowing me to get a straight edge up to the ends of the radiator grills. I've got some suitable decals in hand, it will be nice to bring this one to life, funny how it's skipped the Wantage Terminal's 45t - that is likely to be next in the printshop now, alongside some N gauge models (but more on that another time).

Down on Coalbridge Street, the distraction from work has helped progress too - I've got the back track of Langton's yard ballasted - and the tile grout applied to 'blend this in' - the yard surface between the tracks has been treated to a coat of emulsion with grout served over the top and tamped down - the excess vacuumed off when dry and then sealed with scenic cement. Next up some static grass - and then we'll see what else might be needed to bring the surface to life.

In between New England distractions I've progressed this quartet of Fourdees carriages - in a 'faux' red and cream livery to match my customers other stock. This is Humbrol 'ivory' and 'crimson' gloss paint and I've used 110 to pick out the drop frame windows and gold and black paint pens of the door furniture. The interiors have been painted in suitable colours and these will be sealed with lacquer next week before final assembly and fitting of the roofs.

I have also been working on the Hudson GoGo tractors in 16mm scale - the die cast tractor engine blocks have been cleaned up and modified to sit on the frames of the chassis I have built. These will be glued in place and then the cab sides, radiator and bonnets can be built up around them. The 7/8ths Ruston are moving along as well - with the gearbox prints arriving from Dean Goods - these, whilst dimensionally accurate are incredibly poor quality prints on old SLS machine but will clean up fairly easily and certainly save me the effort of having to draw and print my own.

So I'll leave you today with a view from yesterday afternoon. the snow has fallen from the trees but the fields are still white, the valley cold but beautiful. Trains return this weekend (albeit in my absence!) with the Branchline Society chartering a run over much of the railway - and then the Santa's begin in December - so the dulcet tones of 5310 will again be heard alongside the river.

As I mentioned in the intro, I'll be catching the 15:57 from Ruabon this afternoon to head down to the NEC to help Paul Marshall-Potter with his layout 'Maple River'. Paul is bringing his collection of 1970s stock and I have some more modern example to bring along to 'ring the changes' - if you're heading to the show then do stop by and say hello - we're near the N Gauge Society and next to Alan Gibson from what I understand.

Whilst I'm away I've written some material for the blog to go live over the weekend. A report on the show will follow next week - but in the meantime, whatever your plans this weekend I hope you find the opportunity to relax in whatever way feels natural with this wonderful hobby of ours - until next time, more soon...

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