Updates on a couple of loco projects here.

The Cambrian 2-4-0T was one of the locos absorbed by the GWR and given the Swindon treatment. Although I've no particular intention of modelling
the handful of rural lines on which these three engines operated, I still thought it would be a nice little loco to own, especially given that 2-4-0s in general
aren't very common on layouts.

A couple of years ago I bought a package kit containing white metal body parts, a chassis, motor, gearbox and wheels. The body originates from the Gem
castings, while - at least according to the instructions - the chassis appears to have some basis in Gibson.

First the good news: the chassis goes together superbly well, with a very good design of slots enabling accurate assembly of the spacers and chassis
halves. Allthough I used a pair of jig axles, and aligned everything on a gridded cutting board, I'm pretty confident that it would have gone together
nicely without these basic aids, so positive was the location.

I did run into some issues getting the Rod Neep gearbox to mesh nicely, but these were eventually resolved and they're no reflection on the quality of
the components. The motor is an open frame Mashima for which there's plenty of room in the body. In fact, I doubt that I'll bother trimming the motor
spindles as there's no real need, especially one a crew is installed to block the view into the cab a little.

The bad news is that the body parts were pretty poor in general, with some awful pitting and voids. Perhaps if I'd paid more attention on receiving the kit I could
have chased after some replacements, but I'm afraid I was far too taken with the shiny etches to pay any heed to the castings. Anyway, nothing ventured,
nothing gained, and I still decided to make a go of the body:

This is the basic structure in all its ghastly glory, and fair amount of bodging was needed to get the cab and bunker parts to mesh well with the boiler, various
bits being well oversize and needing some delicate filing back.

Thereafter it was a case of filling in the major voids with solder, where possible, and model filler where not. I went over the body several times before applying
a test coat of matt black, to highlight what was still needed. Then it was a case of more filling, more sanding and filing, until the parts started looking a little
more acceptable. The main issue was the two lumpy halves of the boiler.

Finally I was happy to start adding additional boiler detail, and on went the chimney, dome, safety valve etc:

At that point I realised that the kit's instructions really weren't adequate to help with the additional boiler plumbing, which seemed to vary quite a bit from loco
to loco, so after an internet trawl I managed to find two photos of the same engine from each side, and I now need to rework the pipes from the top-feed, which
should bend back to the horizontal rather than running down the boiler sides as seen here. In the meantime, I'm waiting on handrail knobs to complete that
aspect of the detailing. As can be seen, the chassis now has full brake detail which certainly goes a long way to making it look "interesting" in my view. I've
a particular liking for locos with outside brake linkage...

Which brings us neatly to:

Those who've been reading this blog for a year or two may remember the protracted saga of the Dean Goods, but finally it all came good and after several weeks
of very satisfying test running, I'm happy to call this one conquered! The chassis is Comet, with their own gearbox and a Mashima motor, and it runs brilliantly,
and with more than enough grunt for my typical goods trains. All that remains to be done now, other than final painting and decal-work, is to get rid of that huge
coal load. This one has been particularly satisfying for me as it's been far from an easy road to get here, but it's been well worth the hassle.

Cheers, and thanks for reading.