Finally the sun has appeared today and thankfully iv got a week off so out came the rattle can of satin and Spencer got a blow over to get it ready for naming.

I ordered the plates specially from Narrow Planet, great service and the plates are fantastic, really impressed.

So tonights job now the varnish had hardened was to get the plates on and finish Spencer off.

Very interesting project, if i had to do it again id defiantely look into a better chassis but the mashima motor was easy enough to put in, and a bit of running in im sure itl be fine. So thats 3 out of the Harrogate Gas Works locos, roll on summer when Barber returns from over haul and RT Models kit will hopefully be released. Just need Narrow Plante to get their hopper kits sorted and that will be me sorted! I never thought id the Harrogate Gas Works locos modelled, let alone own them myself so im grateful to all involved who have produced the kits and prvided advice along the way.

As Spencer has been runbling on, i have been adjusting the trackwork in the 009 yard and now the track actually continues through the tunnel mounth! except i demolished the tunnel mouth because i was really sick of my original effort from 10 years ago. Armed with the gas works book and a ruler i, set about drafting up a plan for a new tunnel mouth, was quite easy working from a pic and scaling it up, its not exact but it looks a dam site better. Iv trimmed the hill back slightly, its still not ideal coming straight out onto a point but it will have to do, heres a few pics of the process. Also i still need to get round to re ballasting the track after straigtening it back up after some board movement over the years.

The new tunnel is made from plasticard and thin ply i had knocking around, pretty pleased with it so far, just need to get it bedded in to the scenery but first job is to re lay the track onto the hidden sidings in 009 rather than some scrappy old n guage we used as a 'practice'

As you can see it was a very tight tunnel, its just about to scale but eased out slightly, you might just be able to make out the 'escape hatch' at the back of spencer's cab above the bunker, all the gas works loco's had these just in case they failed in the tunnel, wouldnt like to hae tried mind!

And finally another bit of varnishing finished off my 09, it was a model zone limited edition me dad got years back when he worked there, i test ran it straight from the box and one of the extended axles sheared off after an hour or so! Was not happy that night, my dad says he remembers a few of the limited edition 09's came back to the shop with the same thing so any one know if it was a bad batch? Any way it was a long time back so after i calmed doenn i bought a new set of drivers and con rods from ebay and now seems well touch wood.

Just pipes to add and its job done.

I know i cant really justify it in N Yorkshire but it looks better in BR blue than that horrible mainline scheme it was in.

Been a busy week off and its been good to get a couple of bits finished, and clear the desk, next up could be a 13 if i can get a cheapish Hornby 08 hmmm really useful in North Yorkshire!

Cheers for looking

James