Not realising that restoring the images to some of my blog entries would also shunt them to the front of the queue, I thought I'd best add something new to redress the balance.

Having sat to one side for some time patiently waiting for me to get 'other stuff' out of the way, my William Bridges Adams light locomotive has been lifted out of the box and steered towards a state of completion. At least the locomotive is almost there notwithstanding a few finishing jobs. It still lacks the composite tender brake carriage to which it was close coupled and I have yet to even start this, but it has to be said, completing the loco is spurring me on to get it done. The original was built by Adams at his Fairfield Works in Bow in 1849 for the Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway in Ireland. a couple of others to this pattern were constructed but Adams went bust in 1850 so the design was picked up by Stephensons who proceeded to construct further examples with the addition of a footplate, larger cylinders, better valve gear and other improvements. I suppose you could say this model represents the design in its Mk 1 condition.

The loco is built entirely from scratch, 4mm scale EM gauge. A tiny open frame motor (possibly from a Tenshodo motor bogie) sits in the well tank under the boiler and power is transferred back to the driving wheels using a couple of nylon spur gears from the odds box to a 38:1 Branchlines worm and pinion combo. Heaven only knows what the reduction ration is a I haven't bothered counting the teeth on the two spurs but it runs very sweetly at a realistic speed so that's good enough for me.