Friday Update: Twenty-eight Eleven Twenty-five…

Well thank goodness for this unseasonal warm spell! Double figures at least half this week! An eventful one too with BT replacing our old phone cable in the lane with a new one, apparently part of the gigabit roll-out…

Meanwhile, on the bench it has been just two large commissions taking my focus this week. Above, the Backwoods Miniatures NGG16 rescue and completion is moving towards the paint shop. I’ve spend the past few days fabricating pipework runs and missing details! The results, I hope, are generally passable - not one particular prototype due to the way the original parts had been assembled, but full of character. Hopefully, today will see it go into primer so I can check the bodywork finish, fill and smooth any gaps and consider getting the finishing colours on next week.

The other focus has been Kenny Hill. This has seen the scenic foundation completed, with extra filler and some carving of the hill cutting. Track down, and wired - obviously tested (!!) and then sleepers and rails painted. Ballast with ‘cinders’ (in my opinion too dark, but the customer was keen to keep things as prototype) and now…

…trees! There isn’t a great deal of Kenny Hill so what there is needs to be hand crafted. These twisted wire armatures will be finished to represent the shapes and colours of trees in the prototype photos. Once basic forms are done I coat the trunks in PVA (here) before applying a PVA/plaster bark mix to thicken things up before paint and foliage

In the workshop there have been some new arrivals following the recent clear out…

This Pullman Standard 50ft car is, I think, an ex Rock Island design. It won’t stay in CNW! I hate weathering and fading yellow! Instead, it will be stripped back and repainted in brown, patched out and faded and then lettered for LRS - not the Laurenburg and Southern - but Light Railway Stores! 

As exciting are some Rio Grande models - regulars may remember earlier this year I considered something using the Scaletrains GP30 after quite a deep rabbit hole. The discovery in the summer of a slide my Dad took at Crede in 1971 was the touch paper though. The first pair of three items are here. ‘That’ Rio Grande 40ft boxcar, of course and a Trainworx caboose (oh my word, superlatives do not do this thing justice). That GP30? Due today…

As I pose a little Modelu figure on the caboose I’m taken, in that moment, to Newfoundland in 2001. My Dad stood on the porch of a ‘van’ at Port Aux Basques. Model Railways, wonderful time machines. What, you might ask, am I planning? More on that when I’ve worked it out myself!

It is nice to observe the the clear out and subsequent Rio Grande fuelled excitement has bubbled over into Cwmbach. I have built the two turnouts required for the small layout - not finished the tiebars or wiring, but they’re made - which is real progress. I had a Peco Code 55 out on the shelf, so it was interesting to compare - both to N standard, the Peco suffers from every two axle wagon dropping each axle in the frog gap causing an unsightly bump bump bump bump down a train. In contrast, no such problem with the British Finescale example. You don’t need a micrometer to see the difference though, a ruler will do…

We’ll wrap things up with a rather lovely photo from a blog regular and fellow N gauge enthusiast. Stephen has given a number if my models a new home over the years. The latest, 08710, is pictured jere after arrival, on Traeth Hafren! A lovely touch…

Stephen Lawrence photo.

The weekend ahead offers me the chance to hear trains in the valley, albeit slowly, heading to Carrog for the Santa Specials - bah humbug, I hate tinsel on trains. I’ll be Dad taxi no doubt too - but with a Rio Gramde GP30 to entertain me, I can dream of places it will stretch its legs in future. With this the last of November, the festive season is nearly upon us, so I can then enjoy Mince Pies with immunity (don’t ask about the ones I enjoyed in October or all through November). Until next time, more soon…

Support my work

I love writing and creating material for the blog. If you enjoy what you read and engage with I would be appreciative of any donation, large or small, to help me keep it advert and restriction free. Alternatively, feel free to buy me a coffee.