Following on from my points in my first post about why O gauge was a good idea for me to try something new, I'm also wanting to try a number of new techniques that I haven't done before.

My first part - albeit bizarrely - is to attempt a brass kit, something I've never done before.

Having grown up near Chard Junction, and having fond memories of the Ruston 165 shunter pottering around the yard moving milk tanks around, it seemed a good place to start. I contacted Mike Edge, and after a few phone calls, the kit, some wheels and a motor/gearbox were all in the post on their way to me.

A few years before this project was even an idea, I managed to track down the Chard Junction shunter. As a replacement for the Ruston 48 they had, the 165 was sold on in the mid 80's when the dairy abandoned milk by rail.

Some enquiries later tracked it to the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway, who had then sold it on to the Mid Suffolk Light Railway, where it had been restored to working order. A few phone calls later resulted in a day out at the MSLR, armed with camera, where I took a number of shots "just for old times sake".

When I knew the shunter, it was in all over bright (but grubby) yellow, with a flashing amber beacon on the cab roof for working in the concreted yard. But, she was still running, and although I regret not being able to video her in action and capture the sound, the 30 year old memories came rushing back.

So, here I am, about to embark on recreating those childhood memories with some bits of brass.

This evening, I made a start on the kit. I assembled the motor and gearbox (Mashima 1833 plus Branchlines 40:1 gearbox) - which I have never done before. One or two minor glitches, but it basically went together first time and ran sweetly. I'm quite pleased with it, although it's very basic.

Next challenge is the chassis, and once I have got the chassis together and running sweetly, I'll be installing a German DCC sound chip I picked up from a trip to Digitrains in Lincolnshire. It's not perfect for a Ruston, but being a generic "small diesel" I reckon will sound about right when it's installed. It's been tested in a OO gauge loco and sounds fine to me. There's few people out there that'll be able to tell me it's wrong, and let's be honest, it's my layout so nyah!

More to come. No burnt fingers yet with my nice new 60 watt soldering iron.