Back home now from Wales. Stopped off at Aberystwyth on way home and could almost use a pic of the scene of destruction on the seafront for my layout! New shed for the VoR looks impressive and there was a little diesel shunter working in the yard but couldn't stop to investigate. Anyway, having got bored of what I was meant to be doing I made a start on the Nigel Lawton 20hp Simplex that arrived the other day. This is a very well packaged and presented kit with some really interesting design features that I will highlight as I get to them. I have made one of these before so am hoping I can remember some of the tricks as it was a couple of years ago now.

The chassis went together very nicely and is now finished and working except for the pick ups which is a part I always hate doing on models. To make maters worse this kit came with all wheels insulated so either have to do two pick ups or fit a jumper wire to one side which I am very tempted to do. One thing that I did remember from the other kit was the difficulty with fitting the couplings so I milled out a hefty chunk of the threaded cross members before fitting them. Another thing is that I am not going to fit the second motor to make the fan work as had real trouble with this last time and the extra space inside will make room for an ice cube speaker for the DCC sound. These locos are pretty small remember , about 55mm long and 35 wide so need all the space I can find.

The body is coming along nicely and greatly aided by the thoughtful design. Much use is made of sacrificial tabs to hold things in place and the whole thing is held solid by the great big bit of brass across the middle which is only removed at the very end once the frame itself has been made up and is holding everything together. The instructions do say to glue the body sections together but I have soldered all but the very smallest of detail parts.

Am really pleased with how this is coming along and hope I can find some time to play with it tomorrow.