Welcome to 2021, fingers crossed for a less shitty year than 2020, not really starting that way though in the 'real' world. Fortunately in the world of 009 things are going rather better. Mrs Lord Stoner gave me some nice railway based presents including a Fourdees PECO open and a Minitrains toastrack both of which are delightful. I've added a little weathering and changed the blue awning to green on the toastrack so it goes with my other opens, otherwise they just need some people.
The first stage of construction
With the FR end door
Now on wheels and with a balcony. The coaches are similar to FR small Brminghams and so an FR style van was what I was after.
The internal spaces are not very big but are actually bigger than the real FR van 10 guards compartment!
Finished but not painted. I think it will probably be finished in the overall green 'unpreserved' livery that one of the other coaches carries. It will put a nice end to my quarrymen's train, with a few PECO slate wagons tied on behind. I have my eyes on a couple more kits on evilbay so more may follow.
From my unfinished kit pile came a Tom Bell designed cattle wagon. Unfortunately the chassis had broken in the royal mail parcel smashing service so I'd just abandoned it when it arrived, however I found an unused Dundas chassis and it was a perfect fit and a pleasant evenings lap traying.
I painted and finished off the new 'homemade' diesel and here it is down at the wharf on test.
It will mostly be used by the P way dept but here it is on a sand train having been weathered. It runs well and pulls a sensible amount of stock, a good result for a scrapheap challenge loco.
The elephant in the garage was the large gap where the fiddle yard had once been so I finally made myself get out in the cold and start work on the woodwork. I'm terrible at this and don't remotely enjoy it; far too much like DIY.
The support frame coming together, held with clamps at this stage.
The basic frame now screwed and glued together.
The state of play when I finished the first days work. The plywood is just perched on top of the frame to give me an idea whether my rough idea for a station plus hidden fiddle yard would fit. The good news is that I think it will. I end up with three fiddle yard sidings plus a couple of small railcar kickback sidings. My most evolved plan has the leftmost fiddle yard siding curving round behind the scene to run parallel but hidden behind the backscene on the projected next phase. I could use this to access a further fiddle yard or possibly connect up to the 'mainline' at Port Lucy... but these things are just ideas at the moment.
Back out to the garage to muck about with more wood next then... brrr.
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