Stairway to... well a wall

I added some handrails and a bit more height to the actual bridge bit so that the little plastic people don't fall onto the track. I've also taken the completed model out to the garage and sited it where it will end up.

At the moment the scenery blocks the location but with some modification it will be fine. The square block in front of the track will be much lower and there will be somewhere for the stairs to lead to at the back. I might even get carried away and make some low relief house backs in the style of Tanygrisiau. Before I do that I have 6.5m3 of logs to move round the house and stack which had been delivered when I got home yesterday... I guess they will still be there when I get home tonight too.

Bridge over troubled styrene

Gave the new loco a final coat of hull red and touched up the other colours where I'd messed up. Looks the part now.

When you're building a loco you get the urge to build a bridge, well, I do. So I decided to start work on a foot over bridge which will work as a scenic break at the top of the big hill.

This is the steps on their own

It is vaguely based on the footbridges on the upper section of the FR. It has to be rather taller than the FR ones as it has to clear the Egger blue coach with the brake cabin.

 

This was the state of play at bed time. The steps are made from Evergreen strip chopped up with scissors. Using scissors gives the cut edge a rough edge not unlike the rough slate blocks of the prototype. I then made a solid shape with sheet styrene which I then covered with a laminate of Slater's stone sheet. The edging stones were cut from thicker styrene sheet and glued onto the top edges. The bridge bit is made from more Evergreen sheet with detail from strip.

I'll add handrails from brass rod, hopefully tonight...

Straightish and redish

Been busy at work and at home so hadn't made much progress with Beckfoot but I have finally had the chance to get the body straight on the chassis. I still can't find a way to secure the two part together but it is now a reasonable interference fit so it will have to do.

I've also started painting it, I gave it another waft of primer to even out where I had added and changed bits and then I've given it one coat of Hull Red the standard IoSR loco livery. Another coat should even things out and then a bit of a tidy up of the other colours and it can enter service.

Name plates are on order from the ever fabulous Narrow Planet and a couple of bits and bobs like oil cans, dirt and crew will see a finished job. It will end up weathered as a pre preservation, working loco and I suspect will see plenty of service as it seems to have plenty of pulling power.

Slight progress

With not much time available I've made a few additions and adjustments to Beckfoot.

 

It needs cab rear hand rails but I don't have enough knobs in hand at the moment and where they need to go is rather fragile so I will have to file them flat and glue them on which is not ideal. Apart from that and securing the body to the chassis its pretty much finished... except for paint, obviously.

Straightening a bent thing

Having looked at the new loco in the cold light of day I realised that the footplate had a droop in it towards the front. This actually gave it a character which I quite liked as I'm intending this to be a pre preservation condition loco. However there was really too much wonkiness to finish it into a working machine. With slight trepidation I prised the tool box off the footplate and grabbed the front of the footplate with some smooth jawed pliers and bent it upwards... thankfully all was well and it didn't just fall to pieces as I'd feared it might.

Try as I might I couldn't get the chassis to sit square inside the body. I thought that the front part of the chassis was too tall so I scraped away at the inside of the boiler to make room for it but whatever I did it still wouldn't sit square. I still can't work it out but in the end I packed up the ends of the chassis so it sits very slightly higher; this then meant that the couplers were too high so had to be removed and lowered.

Raising the body slightly left the chassis looking too exposed so I've added a further section of styrene under the footplate. Not sure if it looks right, it needs to be primered again anyway as I changed the whitemetal roof for a styrene one to help move the balance over the wheels.

If the bits for the tumble drier don't arrive today I may get a chance to do some more work on this tonight.

Week away and ByG

I've been away on hols the last week but managed to smuggle a small tool box into the luggage. I put the bare essentials in it such as a knife and cutting mat, small drill bits and archimedean drill, some files.

The box

Construction underway

The last few summer holidays I've been on I've built a loco and named them after the place we were staying so I have Staithes, Burnmouth and now Beckfoot. I pretty much finished building the loco which was a fairly straight forward build of a kit for a Southwold Railway 2-4-0. I shortened the boiler and fabricated a new smokebox out of styrene and a smokebox door casting. My version sits on a ROCO 0-6-0 chassis and so the footplate casting needed some shortening which I did by cutting a section out of the middle and glueing it back together adding some styrene strip to the edges and underside to strengthen it.

Getting there

I haven't worked out how to secure the chassis to the loco yet but other than that she is basically finished. The night we got home I gave her a waft of grey primer and painted the smokebox black so she could run in works grey at the exhibition... talking of which...

Arnold Lane Wharf in action

Beckfoot posing

The exhibition was a two day affair but unfortunately I am so stupid that I forgot about it when the family summer hols were being booked so I could only attend the Sunday, however I enjoyed myself and the layout behaved itself. There were some other very nice layouts including three other 009 ones with live steam featuring too!

When I got home there were some nameplates from Narrow Planet waiting for me, I finally finished my new Skylark, Nettie.

Went for a ride on the Ratty while on hols too