Evening all, so following on from last time, I have cracked on a bit and got Spencer back into one piece. The cab roof i made time was consigned to the bin and another one made that was square, every concievable space hase been filled with liquid lead, expecially the tanks to try address the balance issue and i even managed to get a bit of paint on it! The chassis is a lot better than it was although it does make a lot of noise campared to the farish 08 powered pecket & drewery diesel, any one know any alternatives/plug in replacements for minitrix motors?

Here he/she? is in photgraphic grey or primer if you like, parked up next to the Pecket camparing size, doesnt the Pecket look huge for a 2ft guage loco? This was just after the first round of filling and attaching of vairous bits of pipe such at the lubricators on the smokebox and the odd boiler mounted sandbox operation rod (the dome thing nearest the cab is a sand box aparantly) Now according to the plans i have in the Harrogate Gas Works book and the 2 pictures i have, the dome is a little under size and the taks are slightly too short and the front frames arnt as long as they should be so it gives the impression of being higher than it should be, the chimney and cab hight is just about spot on so maybe one day i may get round to changing the dome but i think its looking ok so far. The original Spencer had its safety valves moved to the front of the dome so i recreated this by making a very small bracket for the slightly shortened langly castings to be stuck to. Once painted, i 'borrowed' a whistle from a Hornby pannier tank and mounted it sideways behind the safety but horizontal, looks odd but distintive as per the prototype.

(St Paddy & 50 006 shouldnt be in the coal drop sidings, there just parked up whilst i was cleaning the dcc circuit, so if you can imagine a couple of 21t hoppers instead!)

After a couple of checks and to see if it still runs, thankfully it did but its only highlighted where the 009 track has become warped, especially the points so whilst contemplating how best to rip the tack up I brushed on a couple of coats of lovely Humbrol black

Last night i had a bit of a detailing session and created some head lights akin to the ones that it out shopped with from Hunslet in 1921 after the cut down rebuild, other bits picked out in copper and a bit of red splashed on teh bufferbeams. Off to Doncaster at the weekend so hopefully may find some Spencer name plates from some one (247 might be best bet) and a nice spray fo satin varnish is a must whenever the weather decides to behave!

Nice to see 3 of the Gas works locos altogether now, just waiting RT models to release a kit for Barber, hopefully itl be this year when the real Barber gets back up and running with teh Pecket, cant believe out of 4 locos for a relatively unkown little line 2 are still in existance and hopefully working this year!

I still need to figure out what couplings to use, latter the Gas Works used Bucke eyes so i may investigate Kadees for the job, but yet to make up my mind.

As you can maybe see the track is slightly askew and makes the Drewery look like its falling over so this will be coming up shortly and the baseboard squeared back up and the track re laid, i think when it was ballasted it warped whatever we pinned the track to, not sure what it is for the 009 but i dont think its up to the job, its been down for years but the little trains have no where to go, so now iv got 3 of the 4 gas works locos (hint hint rt models!) a proper run will be shortly created.

Think thats it for now, cheers for looking in. Been an intersting little project over the last few weeks, just wish the minitrix chassis wasnt quite as crude as it is but hey ho, iv got a Spencer now!

Cheers

James