I took a trip down to Paxton Road today as I heard that an EWS 37/4 was on the MOD job - a rarity these days. Mid morning saw the feeder service from the hub at Didcot arrive behind a battered 37411 'Keith David Hilton'. I managed to grab a few snaps during my lunch break but had to head back to work so didn't see so much of local shunter 08543 shunting the depot. As I left 37411 was stabled in the layback siding and the place was deserted. I guess there isn't too much urgency about things on a cold winters lunchtime.

Hope you enjoy the snaps. 37411 is a modified and weathered Bachmann model (based on 37411) with custom name plate transfers from Precision Labels. 08543 is another modified and weathered Bachmann model (08648) with a repainted roof, rebuilt front steps plus some nice subtle weathering. All stock is modified Bachmann with weathering and detailing. The VAAs await a further trip through the workbench to sort dropping coupler and fit disc brake calipers and disc brake etchings to the wheel sets. Questions and comments welcome - I'll keep an eye on comments on this blog.

37411 arriving at Paxton Road:

It was then uncoupled, ran forward and into the loop awaiting the shunter:

Todays resident shunter at Paxton Road is Eastleigh based 08543. A shunter is outbased here during the week - unless an 09 is rostered, in which case this trips up with the MOD working from the second hub at Eastleigh as required.

Just as I was leaving I grabbed a shot of 37411 stabled:

08543 shunts the newly arrived vans into the headshunt for the MOD sidings: