Bridge and Loco

The paint brush has been the most active bit of my modelling life recently, first of all I've done the basic colours of the bridge that make the scenic break between St Ruth and the down hill section.

It needs considerable toning down but I'll wait until the scenery is changing colour to green before I do this, the river road bridge and signal box will also need this treatment.

I've also started making the rough outline of the scenery with blocks of expanded polystyrene and off cuts of wood and MDF. I must get the track finished and the wiring done before I play with this much more but I hate wiring and track work and like scenery making. Still you can't play trains without the track and wires.

I also finished the paintwork on the Chris Ward side tank, I'm very pleased with the look of this loco, I need to glaze the windows but apart from that it is finished. It hasn't had a go on the main line yet but performs OK on the Underhill branch. You can also see a new flat wagon and yet another micro coach, they are both built on Parkside Dundas skip chassis. The coach is lower to the ground that the rest of the rake rather in the style of an FR bug box and yet smaller, the ride would be unbearable in this on a skip chassis. The first time I went up the FR in a Bug Box I thought it was off the track and just being dragged along!