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"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life"


Ravenser

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The last few months have been somewhat difficult. At about the time of my last posting, my elderly mother had a fall , and I went up to Lincolnshire on quite a few weekends after she was discharged. Then there was a second fall at the start of December, and then we discovered that her cancer was terminal. I spent a fortnight over Christmas / New Year up in Lincolnshire driving back and forth across the Wolds each afternoon to Lincoln hospital to see her: we finally managed to get her discharged into a care home near my brother, and she died peacefully in mid January. After that came the funeral in Lincolnshire and what was to be done about the house; and then coronavirus descended on us. After initially working from home I was furloughed after Easter - when a majority of your shipments are airfreight and high-end goods, things were always likely to go quiet. (I remarked to several people during March that September 1939 must have felt much like this...)

 

Naturally, very little modelling activity took place during all of this - I've effectively had a 6 month layoff. I managed to get to "Lincoln" show at Newark showground on my way back from one of the early trips, and some things for the prospective OO9 layout were bought - though not the Bofors gun Clive recommended for airfield defence. Thoughts of visits to Spalding and Peterborough shows proved impractical, I managed a day at Warley, and snatched a couple of hours at Stevenage, and that in practice was it until April. Not surprisingly my normal New Year's Resolutions survey on here didn't happen.

 

I now find everything very much up in the air. With some kind of inheritance to come, there was the possibility of moving from my flat (which is rather full) to a modest-sized house. That rather called into question the OO9 scheme I was drawing up here, since that was predicated on decommissioning of the old desktop PC and using the space for shelves and a boxed diorama layout. If I were to move, there might be a different, larger site. But with the ongoing pandemic , and the resulting economic mayhem I cannot be certain whether I will have a job in the medium term, or what the chaos might do to my savings, (or for that matter the value of my late mother's house.) So that project is very much in limbo. I have stock, a few kits, a little track, and some buildings in store for it - but whether I go ahead with the current plans is now a moot point, and under present conditions there's no question of commissioning a baseboard unit from Tim Horn or buying other items. So starting work on it is for the moment out of the question.

 

I have been slowly digging my way out of the piles of admin that built up during the autumn and winter. But the model shops are shut (like nearly all the other shops), there are no exhibitions (and probably won't be until late this year or even 2021), and mail-order now involves decontamination and quarantine. My club is closed for the duration, the Area Group can't meet, it's not exactly safe to go anywhere or to see anyone. While I have an adequate income at present courtesy of the Government, that may only be the case for a few more months so it doesn't seem a good idea to spend any money unnecessarily. 

 

Added to which I have a cupboard full to overflowing with unbuilt stuff, various projects left where they fell last September - and if I'm honest, piles of unread books and various other stuff I really meant to do, watch or sort out . I'm starting to realise that the accumulated backlog - and it's not just railway modelling - is very large indeed. I've tried to be good in the last decade and restrict myself to "one in, one out" but all I seem to have done is slow the progressive accumulation of stuff to a crawl. The size of the modelling pile - and even more, the amount of work it represents - is very sobering. The BBC series on Hornby introduced me to a new acronym from the world of plastic kit modelling: STABLE - Stash Beyond Life Expectancy . I think I know what they mean...

 

So - the only sensible approach seems to be to work steadily through the various unfinished projects currently littering my bookshelves, and finish them. That would be good for my mental health - not an irrelevant consideration when you haven't actually seen anyone except once or twice in the street for 2 months - since it would clear up a series of nagging dangling loose ends, resolve various outstanding problems, and tidy the flat up a bit. It should also not cost me any money - and if I do need to buy anything it will be strictly necessary and not destined further to clog up the modelling cupboard. Furthermore this approach should provide the biggest return in term of modelling results for the least investment of effort by me.

 

And once the decks are clear, I can launch into some new projects from the cupboard. There really isn't any need to go purchasing extra projects. 

 

Added to which, I really ought to run the layouts more often. I don't think anything had been run for at least 6 months.

 

So what do I have lying around outstanding?

 

1. OO9 

I bought - and painted the body parts for - a Parkside brake van kit at Newark. The bits were lying on my table for months , along with a WD open kit. That has been built, with Bemo couplings, and painted, lettered and weathered. Along the way a Bachmann and a Peco open, and two Peco flats were weathered, too, and the WD open kit started. Couplings are an issue with that one so it's not finished... At some point I'll do a posting on OO9, and I still have to finish the larger scale drawing of the intended plan, but this side is more or less tidied up for the moment.

 

2. OO wagons

 

There's rather more outstanding here. I managed to finish weathering the resin PNA kit I bought second-hand at Stevenage last year, and while I was about it, I weathered my Bachmann PNA - and I'm pleased with the results. One of the resin loads I bought at Shenfield last September was eased to fit and painted: unfortunately these don't really fit the resin kit. Flushed with success, I moved onto this , which had been sitting unfinished on the bookcase for a couple of years:

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Handrails were the issue , and how to do them - this is an elderly Parkside kit bought second-hand. I fitted the vertical handrails, slightly simplified, decided to use handrail knobs either side of the ducket to hold the horizontal handrails - and could I find the packet of handrail knobs?? I think I may have put them in with a loco kit - but I haven't found which one. The idea is to use it as a second brake van for the engineers train now I have some 1950s engineering  vehicles to go with my kettles 1950s engineering stock - but the project has stalled again and it's back gathering dust. Mail order for a single packet of handrail knobs it a bit extravagant.

 

The poor resin WD road van has taken a tumble or two from the bookshelves, resulting in serious damage to the upper part of the veranda ends. I'm frightened enough of resin dust at the best of times, so any shaping has to take place outsider. And going outside now means hospital-level sterilisation procedures for me, the kit, and the tools. Added to which I don't actually have a use for the thing at present - so the WD road van is near the bottom of the action list.

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Then there's this - a 5522 Models kit sold by DOGA a good few years ago, and as it would be quite useful on the Boxfile I ought to finish it, once I am confident enough to fire up the soldering iron. I've managed to trap the supports for the brake gear, so the solebar will have to come off...

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And if I'm feeling inspired, while I've got the soldering iron out, I could actually start on the Judith Edge Vanguard Steelman kit I have in the cupboard - which is body-only and would suit the Boxfile...

 

Finally, rooting around in the drying box (which has sadly degenerated into a debris box) I find the bits of an incomplete Connaisseur Models LNER single bolster. It's twin was finished and sits in a storage box along with the rest of the Boxfile fleet, even though it has no actual use on the 'file. As the whitemetal axleguards failed, it needs etched W-irons fitting, couplings, painting, etc. 

 

3. Locos

 

First cab off the rank in this section is the NBL Type 2 diesel-electric I was working on last year: Class 21 . This one needs a full posting to itself, but here it is sufficient to say that although it's been fighting me mechanically all the way (entirely prototypically!) I think we're finally there....

 

This then brings another loco into view. Twenty years ago (gosh!) my first diesel detailing project was a Hornby 29 I can bought cheap, second-hand, for Ravenser mk 1. Early last year I attempted to convert it to DCC. This was part of a whole block of DCC work, most of which failed for mysterious reasons, blowing decoders in the process.  It was a very frustrating episode - all I got out of it was a resurrected Bachmann 08. I came to the conclusion that the whole of the DC wiring for 8 wheel pickup on the 29 had better be ripped out and redone. The loco also needs a damaged grill replacing, and the cab front windows reworking. This - like the Baby Deltic - can be excused as an RTC loco.

 

(And if I get very ambitious I have a blue Hornby 25 sans power bogie and a green Bachmann Rat with slight body damage and a good blue 25 could be produced by combining the two with some Shawplan etches and glazing , which I have in stock)

 

There is also the Airfix Trevithick loco kit in 1/32,  see here At the Dawn of Time 2 which became stuck (literally!) when solvent got in where it shouldn't and a component of the drive train sheered. I really quite want the drive train to work and the wheels to revolve - motorising it , as originally intended for this kit would be excellent. So I need to work out how to pin the relevant components back together.

 

Then there's this: 1332215829_Drewrychassis640x480.JPG.d047e97706961cfd2a784e6a046796e5.JPG

 

This, too, has been gathering dust for at least a decade - a Branchlines chassis for the old Airfix plastic kit for the Drewry 04 shunter. Someone persuaded me it should be made compensated - and I didn't quite understand what I needed to do with beams and pivots. This has always been intended for the Boxfile. I've never actually built a chassis - perhaps when the decks are getting a bit clearer I should try to finish this. 

 

Buried deep in the pile of stock for Blacklade is a Hornby 60 which suffered a little bodyshell damage at one end . I really ought to patch it up and get it back into traffic...

 

And finally there's the problematic 76xxx Standard 4 Mogul with its mysterious short that fried two decoders. I will have to be very confident before I have another go sorting out that one.

 

4. DMUs

 

The first priority here is to finish the DC Kits 128 . I am not happy with the headlights, or the underframe equipment, as I originally did them, so these will need sorting out. As will the remaining handrails and the doorhandles. This will at least give me convenient options for consisting Modernisation Plan DMUs (as opposed to inconvenient ones involving 2 x 2 car short frame units ) . And it will allow me to use the 57' Mk1 parcels vehicles (BG , GUV, and NRX) which have been sitting idle for ages, since the centre platform on Blacklade - the only one which has access to the run-round loop - will only just take a Brush 2 and two 50' vans. It will however take a 128 + 57' vehicle.

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(gratuitous picture of weathered GUV)

 

Spray-painting the body will be "interesting" during lockdown , as the landing outside my flat where it would need to be done isn't exactly a safe sterile area during the epidemic.

 

Then we get to some very long-standing projects, which bristle with problems.

 

There is the Pacer:

 

This is supposed to be getting a Branchlines replacement etched chassis. However I decided I really couldn't tolerate the large black underframe box that replaces the engine block. These have been cut off, replacement weight installed and engines fettled out of plasticard. This lengthy process essentially killed the impetus needed to sort out the new chassis itself. There is also the question of whether it's possible to improve the body - I'd love to flushglaze it but I'm not sure that's practical - and upgrade the interior. Lights are supposed to be fitted, and Kadees, and gangways and DCC...

 

The first push on this one is recorded here - Pacer - and I'm horrified to see the project has been stalled for exactly a decade....

 

This too would be give me more options for multiple unit working on Blacklade and it really needs to be finished off.

 

While I'm about it , I have a second Pacer - actually a Skipper in chocolate and cream - and an Ultrascale rewheeling pack in my DMU box. This would be a less drastic upgrade since the second model is in somewhat better condition, and it would "simply" be a matter of fitting replacement wheels, decoders, lights Kadees and a little detailing. However I am also now committed to doing something about the underframe to match the first Pacer....

 

The West Yorkshire 155 is a case of "so near and yet so far" . At the last stage of the project, the motor bogie failed. Someone diagnosed a seized central motor bearing , oil seemed to fix it - and then the motor bogie failed finally and irretrievably. There are really only two approaches to sorting this out - rob the motor bogie from a second 155 , in Provincial livery, which has been sitting unused in its box for two decades , or else use a Black Beetle. The latter option would remove the large black motor unit visible inside and would involve me putting  more of the interior into the unit.

 

This should provide the best result - but the only way to get a suitable Black Beetle is now to rob one out of the Bratchill 150:

 

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A project which has been stalled a very long time....

 

The killer issue is that I fitted some etched window frames from Jim Smith-Wright . The model took a tumble at Ally Pally one year during breakdown, several came off, I picked them up - and when I got home I was one short. Since Jim no longer does the etches - I'm stymied.

 

I really can't see this making any progress in the foreseeable future - hence the decision to take the its motor bogie for the 155.

 

Getting the second 155 up and running is a possibility, but I'm not sure I can face a second full-dress rework on one of these.....

 

5. Coaches 

 

Nothing to declare, officer... 

 

But if I clear up all the above, starting the MTK Porthole Brake third kit is an obvious option. I could also use the Comet etched Mk1 CK sides and a Lima donor to build a second coach , and break up the scratch set with its mismatched gangways. 

 

(Though on reflection I started upgrading a Hornby Mk2 BFK and gave up because it was looking a lot like hard work. I suppose that could be finished as well...)

 

6. Layouts:

 

Nothing I can see to be done on Blacklade or the Boxfile as layouts, other than to run them more often.

 

But Tramlink (Kent) needs sorting out, and nothing has been done in over a year. It would make a decent DC test track, and there are buildings to be finished. Not to mention light rail units.

 

I really don't need to buy any more models given all this...….

 

Edited by Ravenser

  • Friendly/supportive 3

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