Three little maids

Just for Mick.

Doris, Lord Stoner and Beckfoot

Interestingly I did a bit of a test while I was taking the pictures and Doris is much more powerful than Lord Stoner. I may need to fit some more weight although its pretty heavy already. Another thing which emerged is that the red PECO coaches run much better than the green ones, another thing to investigate.

Burnmouth storms the 'big hill'

Siblings

Lord Stoner is much better than before but Doris is still better looking and stronger.

The return of the Lord Stoner

The work on 0-8-0 Lord Stoner is complete and for very little work I think it is much improved and more plausible. Apart from painting the new parts I've freshened up the rest of the paintwork and since the pictures taken last night I've added a subtle amount of weathering.

I've also had a good clean up in the garage and I'm ready for a scenery push on the main layout. No pictures of that but there will be.

Here Burnmouth and Lord Stoner pose together at Underhill both freshly out of the works and ready to feel the burn on the main line.

Reboilering

Well, I was never happy with the spindly little boiler and fittings on Lord Stoner and once Mick said he didn't either, that was that.

I set about removing the boiler in a gentle way... then I got out a pair of pliers and gave it a jolly good twist and off it came. Fortunately no damage done to the cab but the boiler now looks suitably second hand. I'm sure it will find a use in a junk pile or such like.

The bits after separation

 

I never had a way of keeping the body attached to the chassis with the old arrangement so hopefully one of the advantages of plan B will be in the form of a nut and bolt.

 

After a rummage in the famous bits and bobs box I found some boiler bits and bobs which looked a bit meatier.

 

Boiler fittings just resting in the above pictures but they look much more like the job. It does now have the look of Ivor The Engine's butcher cousin but I can live with that, better than an eight stone weakling.

On another matter entirely, the pictures below are of a 7mm model of Linda which was constructed as a gift to the late Allan Garraway. It has been returned to the railway to be displayed, once I have the details I'll post them. Its a lovely thing and apparently even the flat wagon is the correct running number for the one on which Linda arrived at Minffordd all those years ago.





Pictures this time

I didn't fancy the antarctic realm in the garage tonight so I sorted out the coupling height on Grace Alice. Once I'd done that I had a rummage in the loco box and picked out a couple that needed some work doing.

Firstly I picked on Lord Stoner. It is a Langley WD Hunslet bashed onto a Fleischmann 0-8-0 chassis, it runs well but there are things about it which I've never been happy with. One of these was the chimney as when I made it I hadn't drilled it out so this I duly did. It still isn't 'right' but at least the smoke can escape now.

The other loco which ended up with some slightly more effective surgery was Burnmouth. The first mod was to change the couplings for another set of Mr Ts flexible couplings. These looked good but the rear set overhung the bottom of the buffer beam so next I extended it with a spare bit of whitemetal.

Before surgery

Originally I had used an N gauge GWR safety valve cover which I was never really happy with so off it came and I replaced it with a lovely brass casting I got a Warley. Unfortunately I can't remember who from. This meant I needed to move the whistle so I mounted that on the side of the dome and added a pipe to it. With a few paint touch ups to finish off I now have a loco which I am much happier with.

I also weathered the two RT models Dinorwig slate wagons which I had made and painted and then mislaid. They were in a box with a loco.

Snow business

Well, not snow; Plaster. I put on some warm clothes and went out to the garage to have a look and a fiddle with the layout. I intended only to asses what needed to be done but, as you'd expect, got caught up in playing trains.

In order to do this I had to scrape and excess plaster ballast of the running rails and their inner edges. I had been pretty tidy when I did the plastering so it wasn't too arduous. I didn't have many locos or much stock to hand so most trials were conducted with my Chris Ward Fairlie and PECO coaches or a rake of Parkside Dundas FR size stock. The section being cleared is 'the big hill', as its known to drivers and so the trickiest to get a train up. I was baffled for a while why the coaches kept stopping on the curve at the far end when the gradient eases to allow for the extra friction of the corner. On closer inspection the footboards were rubbing on the wall of the cutting so a bit of plaster mining with a knife and a file later all was well.

If I get a chance later I may finish off the 'ballasting' of the section up to the river bridge. I need to gap the rails first as the limit of shunt will be where there is a change of controller from the 'main line' to the StRuth station one.

One other job I did the other night was to change the couplings on 'Grace Alice' my 0-8-0 Bagnall to Mr Ts ones which swivel. This loco has a rather long over hang and had a tendency to fling stock off on the sharp curves, this seems to be better but I need to move them up slightly as the swivel has also added a slight droop meaning that they keep dropping stock off. On 'the big hill' this can lead to the rolling stock shooting back down the line at a great speed until it hits a curve or just falls of the rails. Not ideal.

I don't seem to have remembered to take a photo of any of this so in the mean time here is one of my dog on the beach.

Lady in Green

Not a new record from Chris DeBurgh but my Minitrix bash with some paint on it.

Here it is with newly out-shopped PECO coaches on the bridge at the throat of StRuth. Taking my new rolling stock out to the garage has made me determined to make some progress and get trains running properly.

Here are both rakes at Blackhill. It looks as though there is snow on the ground, unusual on the Island.

Lady arriving with an up train, the down will pull in shortly on its way to Port Lucy.

Black roofs

Being a man of my word, yesterday evening I painted the roofs black and brushed Decal Fix over the transfers. I must say they look rather smart... if a bit FRish. I contemplated trying to paint the top panels in cream but then they would look like current FR coaches and I'd probably make a mess of them.