The hospital job…

Well I was supposed to be doing something else, but this happened. In the tradition of favourite models they appear out of clutter and a sense of un-ease in their appearance, I am once again, bowled over by the result (and it’s not finished yet!)…

The hospital job? Many years ago I began work after university as a Project Engineer in construction. I’ve no idea if it was widely used, but a phrase for a project that could be done when time allowed, around other larger projects, was described in the office as a ‘hospital job’.

It was Chris you see… at the start of the year we were both experimenting in N. Chris was picking up Atlas B23-7 for the HMLX operation on the Claremont Industrial… whilst I was messing around with CP Rail in the smaller scale, I wondered about us creating a model in both scales… and how neat it would be to have the same faux prototype run on our layouts under the HMLX banner.

The difficulty in finding a B23-7 in HO in the UK for sensible money led me down the U23B rabbit hole. Here was a unit with real character and the same heart, but a few feet shorter (always useful on Beaverbrook). Available in both scales too… and former Conrail units did make it to Shortline service in our variable time period / history… I picked up this D&H liveried example, and Chris parked his N scale project. That said, I kept chipping away at jobs on this locomotive… I enjoy the almost 90s feel of the modelling. Paint strip, replacing details, repainting etc… reminds me of my early days of Canadian modelling before we had super detailed trains fresh from a box.

Those little jobs have, over the past few weeks, become more frequent and yesterday I sent this photo to Chris with a comment about how happy I was with her already, how she felt so quintessentially HMLX - yet how cruel photos can be and the stages left to complete…

Isn’t the neat part of this how it can be worked on continuously. Layers of finish applied over time each collaborating, incrementally investing, in the story of a model. All at once the present day living story of past tense.

Details added, and in unifying primer. A favourite stage, where the model takes on real character and mass.

Blue. A mix of Humbrol 25 and 28. Various faded shades added all over, masked once dry and pure 25 added as patches over the locations ‘Conrail’ markings would have lived.  

Details painted, pilots painted. Preparing for gloss lacquer.

This week has seen the custom designed number and number board decals applied, sealed and the weathering started with my usual processes… gently around other work, yet in a manner that brings a great deal of calm and satisfaction to those moments.

It is Railex this weekend and I’m helping Paul out again with Maple River. Whilst I have no firm plans to finish her in time for a debut at the show, it is possible that ticking a few jobs off every day will see her ‘finished’… however, I will just keep enjoying the process - and in the between times, the sight of her parked up on Beaverbrook. Until next time, more soon…

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