DS1169 was a Ruston 48DS, one of two owned by British Railways (the other one was built to 3' gauge and worked at Beeston sleeper works). Originally supplied to Bristol Aviation Company it was taken into BTC stock in 1948 and used for shunting civil engineering stock at Folkestone, then it spent a period working at Broad Clyst sleeper depot before moving to Yeovil in 1962. It was withdrawn in 1971. Info taken from 'The Diesel Shunter' by Colin Marsden.

I've been asked to build a model of this loco by another RMWebber, using the A1 body and the RT Models chassis. As I've bored you all before with my 48DS builds I'll just post a pic today. The loco modelled was built with an open cab, this was modified by fitting side sheets at some stage of its life.

My modelling mojo has taken a serious hit recently, the arrival of this kit coincided with my return to work after a long period of unemployment. Returning to work after such a long time has left me feeling tired, especially as I tend to grab any overtime going, which means that I've been working seven day weeks, leaving me even more tired! I'm not complaining though as jobs are hard to find at the moment.

As I want to finish this loco to a high standard I've been reluctant to work on it unless I'm feeling 100% (its taken 3 attempts to get the cab soldered in place, not helped by a burnt tip on my iron), so obviously not much has been done to it recently. However, a long walk in the woods today and the arrival of a parcel from Eileens this week has tempted me back to the workbench.

The parcel contained two new Antex soldering iron tips and a bottle of Strong Flux, 12% phosphoric acid rather that the more usual 9%. The tips seem to be ready tinned, I've only used one so far but it seemed to take solder far better than other new Antex tips that I've had in the past, which have needed a lot of cleaning and re-tinning before I was happy with them. The flux also seemed to help the solder (Carrs 145) flow better as well. I'm not worried about the flux being stronger as I clean the assembly carefully after every soldering session.

Anyway, enough of my waffle, and apologies for boring you with yet another Ruston!

Paul.