Sunday Again

Another couple of weeks gone, and a lot of work shifted but little modelling. Still, holidays in three weeks and then it is under "Farndon Road" for the best part of a fortnight to finish getting it working.

Currently on the work bench Trev's J25 now has its number, and my BR J27 is now 65860. Both await varnishing. A D11 is getting its boiler lining done and the D20 from eBay is waiting a new base coat of paint, having swapped its tender for a smaller one. This one's for "Parnhams" VIP train so will need to be lined out and clean. The D20 class included LNER 1234 and 2345, though not at the same time. This is a prewar one so can become 1234.

From Union Mills has come an LMS 2F. for Parnhams. Also being painted is a 4P tank (Fowler) which needs lining. Still, if not quite right plenty of these ran dirty.

Some coaches

The dreaded triplet dining car set- an old Cav'n'dish set bought at the N-Gauge Society AGM. At this time it was in two parts and had Farish BR bogies and some wheels missing. It has taken quite a while to get it this far- it is now sitting on NGS Gresley bogies. Some of the wheels are Farish pizza-cutters but will be exchanged for better ones when I can get hold of some (probably by cascading Farish ones from other coaches).

Still to do is to get the bits of underframe that dropped off replaced, replace a missing buffer or two, and put a corridoor connection between each car. Plus the important one of freeing up the articulation so that it follows curves, which it doesn't quite manage at present.






Another Gresley, a corridoor third. Again a Cav'n'dish model it has taken thirty years (yes, thirty) to get it built and running. The original Cav'n'dish bogies weren't exactly brilliant and fitting Rapido couplers to them proved a forlorn hope. As a result the coach and its partner spent over 20 years in the loft. Now fitted with NGS bogies (currently with pizza-cutter Farish wheels at present) and finally in service. A small amount of touching up still to do.

The track by the way is Tomix. Cheaper than Fleischmann and very good for a table-top test track or display purposes.

Over a month!

I can't believe I've had no time to write for over a month, though thinking back I've been away in Manchester for four days and then marking solidly for three weeks.

Time to get back to some modelling!

The N-gauge Society AGM came and went, and Trev and I operated Parnhams Maltings for the last time. Of course, being an exhibition, some things didn't work, but overall we kept it going and Trev had one possible buyer for it.

I've been investigating a sound system for the new Parnhams and have paid a deposit on one. More as it materialises. Meanwhile I've sourced an MP3 player and some countryside noises- about 25 minutes of them- to form the backing track.

Modelling wise, nothing yet to photograph but two 4-4-0s bought on eBay (a 2P and a D20) and a Gresley triplet dining car set. The triplet is on the dining room table at the moment waiting finishing. Pics when done.