Given that work on 59004 has now come to a halt through lack of parts, I've made a start on my 2nd Class 59. This will be 59104 in Hanson livery, again fitting to a Bachmann Class 66 Chassis. Unfortunatly I've left the lima body/chassis back down in Devon and wont be able to pick it up for a couple more weeks, so theres only so much that can be done without it.

For the most part this will follow the same process that I have used with 59004, with the main differences being on the headstock. The model reuses the Bachmann light clusters, which will be improved with the Shawplan etch and fitted with working marker lights. The other big difference with the headstock is that the 59/1 has a pair of lashing eyes on the front under the steps (Whereas the 59/0 have none). These were modelled through carefully cutting the parts off the 66, drilling the hole in two per end and glueing into position. The fuel tank again uses the Bachmann part, but this time I have made 2 cuts, to get the detailed end, and a main section that starts at the gauge/filler. A little more work but looks a lot better than my attempt on the 59/0.

The only other work I have been able to do is preparation of the bogie frames (removing the Class 66 sideframes and adding the plasticard pieces that support the new frames.) The sandboxes at the headstock end have been chopped off, and will now be fitted with the same triangular sections that I fitted to 004.

Once the work is finished the loco is going to need some amount of repainting to fix a dodgy Lima paint job, I am hoping that the paints will be a good enough match to just spray the areas that need paint (cab sides & roof) and save on masking over the ribs, but we will see. Either way the painting will wait until the body is fully detailed