...you mow the lawn and find a car. That was just one of the laughs on the list of 'You might be a redneck if...' that amused me a while back. Well I had a similar moment today when I found a Heljan 86 whilst tidying up the heap. I remotored my Hornby 86 some time ago using a Heljan Hymek mechanism, which has the same wheelbase as the Hornby model. It's a great runner but the fact that it is the wrong wheelbase started bugging me almost as soon as I had finished it. Sometime later a cheap Heljan 86 was acquired to put this right but as with so many projects, it got sidelined in favour of other things. So with SWMBO out for the day and the Rolls Royce DMU sound project completed, the opportunity arose to put this right. Good progress has been made and I am very pleased with the results. I was unsure how to fix the body on but it is such a snug fit that fixing isn't necessary. Sound is provided by a v4 chip driving a bass enhanced speaker built into the underframe. I did try a sugar cube which would fit without surgery but it just wasn't loud enough.

Thoughts are now turning to what will replace the RR DMU in the sound lab. I have tried some of the Deltic sounds in a test bed loco with a bass reflex speaker and the results were quite pleasing. Then there's the unfinished 40 project, and some great recordings of 37901. Decisions, decisions...

In the photo, an unidentified 86/3 passes Hartshill circa 1979 on a Class 1 express.