Thursday already

I think the word for it is knackered. That's the trouble with work- it gets in the way of the interesting stuff. Little modelling achieved in the last 3 days. Club night was last night and we got three boards running together for the first time from the permanent controllers- that will be a rush to finish for exhibition in September.

On the small engines front the J11 (6009) has a new set of transfers on the tender side and looks better, while I got 4 locos coaled this evening before starting to type up a set of minutes- more yawns....

Another pair I did earlier

This one was done at the same time as the J27 2350. This might look the same but it is a J26. How do you tell them apart? This one has circular cab spectacles (front windows). The J27 has shaped spectacles. The bad news is that 22 of the J26 class had their cab spectacles replaced in the twenties after crews complained the view forwards wasn't good enough.


One J26 was transferred with the J27s to East Anglia, so would be a useful Grantham engine in 1939. It was 379, which had shaped cab spectacles. 416 kept round ones, so is right for the loco but wrong for the layout it is to run on. Tough!

Another Union Mills model, this one came with an enormous tender, which has been replaced with a smaller one. Improvements so far are the same as on 2350.

5256 is a J11, a Great Central loco. This particular one was allocated to Retford and could well have been sub-shedded at Newark, so is quite appropriate. This is another Union Mills model. This one has had a rear stanchion added to the cab, with the other modifications done to the others.

All three are yet to be weathered.

Another day gone with the only modelling done being a fresh coat of paint onto the three tender sides I had to strip yesterday.

Bed time, trying evening. Cat wants to play trains by sitting on my knee and moulting all over them, and three tender sides have had to be stripped back to bare metal as the varnish lifted the corners of the transfers.

Here's one I "made" earlier

This one is a Union Mills model of a J27 class 0-6-0, originally built for the North Eastern Railway. The LNER in their wisdom transferred a small number into East Anglia, including this one. By 1939 they were all at Grantham. 2350 has had a partial repaint, a crew and coal added and been given cab glazing and a headlamp.

Today's group includes its partner 2389.

Sunday Funday???

Half past eight on Sunday, where did the last 24 hours go? Lawns needed mowing (at least it stayed fine) and some homeworks to set and mark (yawn).

Meantime the little group of engines got nearer to finished. What are they?- a group of goods engines in N-gauge being painted into correct LNER or LMS colours for 1938-9, and given numbers that correspond with locos used in the Notts/Leicestershire area if at all possible.

First attempt at a blog

Just sitting down after spending an afternoon lettering model locomotives- seems strange, but if you want your locos on an exhibition layout to be different to everyone else's that is one part of doing it.

I'll try and get a picture or two up tomorrow.