Triple grey discovery…

Whilst Paxton Road is largely served by trip workings by the local shunter it is nice to have some larger locomotives in the collection, reminders of the railway of my youth and those books from the library…

This pair weren’t intended to happen together - the 37 arrived some time ago and has been slowly progressing. It is destined to become plough fitted 37242 circa 1991 before the headlight was fitted. Finding a donor model wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped - in the end I started with a model of 242 in Mainline blue! This would mean the headlight needed removing and the repair making good - in addition to the filling of hatches and footholds in the body.

The 47 arrived because Kernow were selling the DRS one cheap. My first ‘modern’ diesel in OO was a Network SouthEast 47 so I’ve always had a soft spot for the class. This one, with the cut away buffer beam cowling will become 47095, that as released after overhaul and repair In this condition early Spring 1991, just a few months before the end of Speedlink. The ETH and MU socket holes needed filling and making good - and I chose to replace the handrails on the noses with 0.3mm brass wire.

However they met in primer so it seemed a slight time saving to let them move through painting together, especially as the upper two greys are hand mixed. Now though, with that and the orange cantrail finished it’s back into seperate models to progress through decals and detail painting - perhaps to reunite at the airbrush booth again for final weathering…

There is a wonderful side effect of working on models like this that I often try to articulate. Over many years each skill required has been practiced and honed, my tools, some as old as me, feel comfortable in my hands. Working on ready to run models follows a predictable set of steps, where each task is almost second nature, minor problem solving occupies my mind, just enough, and the modelling my hands. Together they help me rediscover myself, recover having been lost in the every day.

Today I will be pressing on with 47095. Perhaps you’ll see more over the Easter weekend… equally exciting, primer went on the structures for Night Shift last night too - so who knows, only that it is likely to be ‘just more N gauge’ - but I sincerely hope that scale and subject don’t matter all that much, when I talk about craft and headspace, the processes, reflections and learning are always scale agnostic. Until next time, more soon…

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