My annual review and New Year's resolutions are a month late this year - which is rather better than I've managed in the last couple of years. Not only that, I can report that that the delay is due to Making Stuff, rather than as in previous years meaning to , but not actually doing it.

 

I'm not saying I'm completely cured of that. Despite my best resolutions, the amount of modelling I've actually done during various lockdowns , furlough and the like has been much  less than I intended , and less than I ought to have managed. I'm probably not the only one in that situation.

 

Early in the pandemic I made what amounts to a Statement of Good Intentions here.   Some things in it have since clarified themselves.

 

I was made redundant at the end of July, and although there has been a resurgence of activity in the jobs market in the last few weeks and a couple of interviews, at this point I'm still looking for work. The legacy will be significant , as the value of things has not collapsed. While I need an income, I'm certainly not broke either in the short or medium term - but it also isn't sensible to spend money without a good reason. Lockdown and furlough have enforced an economical lifestyle on me - and probably on other people. Vaccines are being rolled out, I'm hopeful that I'll find work in the next couple of months; but at present the shops are shut, I'm going nowhere except for my daily walk and it's become blatantly apparent that I have enough projects already in the cupboard to keep me going for a long time - years even - without me spending money to buy any new ones. 

 

Quite a few of my Good Intentions were carried out last year. I tidied up the 009 stuff on hand, and I did a little weathering of it. I ran the 009 stock a few times. The NBL Type 2 was finished and released to traffic: I've even finally written it up. After years of procrastination an article on the Boxfile for the DOGA Journal was finally written and published . The ex LNER Toad B was finished off. I made progress with the 128.

 

It was at this point that I strayed from the straight and narrow....

 

My plan was to work steadily through all my unfinished projects before I started anything new. Unfortunately, once I'd finished off the Toad B I started to reflect on the fact that I hadn't built any wagon kits  for several years. While I was on a roll, perhaps I could build some more, and finish off my purge of the non-runners in the Boxfile fleet, which was discussed here.  That reflection produced a burst of activity, and I replaced a detailed-up Hornby Dublo OHV with a much better Parkside kit that actually stayed on the track, and resurrected and rebuilt  a Slater's rectangular tank wagon from my teens , described here.   

 

And whilst I was hunting through the relevant boxes in the cupboard all sorts of things turned up, which prompted me to see what else could be done in this direction. (As you do..)

 

Discovery of the mortal remains of an Airfix cattle wagon kit from my early teens spurred wild schemes of rebuilding it as a tunnel inspection vehicle, based on a conversion photographed at Rotherham in 1984 I spotted in a Cheona wagon book . The battered bits were treated to some Modelstrip and bagged up for safe-keeping, but it's not actually a priority. An Airfix brake van from the same period, nicely painted but which dropped to bits in short order, was also bagged up for future use. But at present I have no need of another brake van. So that's not being built. (I've got a perfectly decent Airfix brake finished as a piped CAR in a storage box)

 

More constructively , I sorted out the discarded ex Hornby Dublo OHV as an engineers wagon for Blacklade. The chassis was tight, so I loosened it by melting in one bearing a little with the soldering iron to give a spot of rock and slop : "bastard  compensation". It acquired new transfers, along with a load comprising a builders' compressor unit (from a Mendip Models pack that I found in the cupboard) and a spare whitemetal signal cupboard . I should have cleaned up the castings slightly better before I painted them, as rubbing down the paintwork took forever and yellow has rotten covering power to start with.

 

The elderly Hornby refrigerated van has not only been cleaned up, it has also acquired a scratchbuilt wooden underframe , been painted, and been given transfers. Much of the weathering has been done - I simply need to finish the weathering off, and fit couplings. 

 

It was at this point that I wandered off into containers. Vintage 1950s railway containers.

 

Some years ago I bought a Bachmann Conflat A with a rather attractive Speedlink container. Further research discovered that the Conflat A wasn't right for Speedlink operations, and I concocted a more appropriate Conflat V  from a Red Panda clasp braked underframe kit, a spare Parkside wagon floor and a few scraps of plasticard. (It's stretching a point to call this scratchbuilding.)The Bachmann Conflat A then acquired a suitable Parkside BD container.

 

Unfortunately both wagons proved to derail on the Boxfile. Since Conflats count  as vans , and since I'm underweight in vans anyway, Something Had To Be Done. Especially when I found a Parkside kit for an ex LNER Conflat S in the box of wagon kits.

 

So I built the kit, meaning to reuse the Parkside BD container off the Conflat A , which it was to replace. But for various reasons the BD container wouldn't quite fit on the Conflat S. So I ended up buying a new Parkside Conflat A kit, and building the FM meat container out of that, which is slightly smaller and which will fit the Conflat S. In due course the Parkside Conflat A will be built and given a Bachmann AF insulated container froma pack of 4 I found while rummaging in the cupboard. (The AF wouldn't quite fit the Conflat S either. Before you ask.)

 

The unloved BD was eventually found a home in a Dapol ex LMS 5 plank open , which had also shown a strong propensity to derail. I had to file away at the projecting bumpers on the bottom edge to get it in, but after a little work in it went... The container has lead inside it so what was a lightweight open now weighs 50g. And suddenly the LMS open is running reliably, without any need for me to rebuild the chassis . Result!

 

One more wagon credited to the "vans" , a segment where the Boxfile fleet is light on numbers, and off the total of opens (where I was overweight).

Here we have the OHV - showing that Hornby Dublo made the sides too tall - and the BD container jammed in the LMS 5-plank open. High security shipment...

 

 

 

As result of this I now have a spare Bachmann Conflat A knocking around , which I'm thinking of repainting blue  and transferring to Blacklade with a DMU bogie sat on top of it.

 

And while I was sorting these vehicles out  I fitted coupling wires to the little Ruston 48DS I bought at the last Warley show , and finally got it into service. A further product of this burst of enthusiams was the addition of a few scraps of detailing to the Boxfile, which was looking a little sparse, (Better sparse than too busy). The British Railways delivery van (someone's resin kit) that I built some years ago and never glazed has now received side windows courtesy of Glue and Glaze, and I need to cut windscreen glazing out of clear plasticard to finish the job (It's not the Morris Minor van visible in the photo, by the way. That was a more diminutive replacement, in better keeping with the Boxfile . I gave that a coat of matt varnish to dull it down while I was about it)

 

The Ruston needs weathering. Another little job for 2021. It does run very nicely - slowly and controllably , thanks to the low gearing - and it's ideal for the Boxfile.

 

 

After all this progress I succumbed to the urge to buy more wagon kits. The fact that I didn't have any Southern wagons at all in the fleet was starting to nag, and given that the Boxfile is heavily skewed towards vans and the fleet is short of them, there was no doubt that the Southern wagon needed to be one of their distinctive vans.

 

Given the fact that most of the wagons that fall off the Boxfile seem to have RTR chassis, and nearly all the RTR wagons fall off , not to mention the sordid question of money - the Southern van had to be a kit. A Ratio kit for the wartime plywood type was therefore acquired from Dutfields between the second and third lockdowns, and I've actually built it. (I'm at least trying to ensure that any new project I buy is built and doesn't add to the stock in the cupboard) . That too awaits final weathering and couplings. I will paint those buffer heads.... That reminds me that I modified the kit slightly to represent those fitted by BR in the 1950s, some of which received Oleo buffers

 

 

 

Then I got distracted by coaches . BR blue and grey ones. A Lima Mk1 from my teenage layout has been extensively upgraded as a TSO and needs finishing off. I have started work on upgrading a Hornby Mk2 a to a BFK. In a moment of weakness I bought a Triang-Hornby Mk1 BSK as "feedstock" for a NNX courier van conversion, and I've made a reasonable start on the job. To add to the list, a Bachmann Mk1 BSK I bought years ago and have got into traffic is being commissioned and weathered as a short term partner for the TSO. More of all this in a separate posting...

 

 

 

But this does mean that all the three new project purchases (Ratio SR van , Parkside Conflat A, Triang-Hornby BSK) have actually been started and reasonable progress has made on them. My cupboard is at least emptying, and not being refilled....

 

Also in the coach department there's the two Fisons weedkilling coaches I bought from Invicta . These were ordered in 2019 but I let the order stand when Invicta contacted me duringb the year to say they had come in. The coaches need couplings and weathering , and I have to sort out two suitable TTA tankers for use with them. The lack of an actual spray coach is nagging at me slightly, but I can't see an easy solution. No-one bit when I asked on the relevant Invicta thread about a colour match for the Fisons green.

 

 

So that's what I actually built in 2020, despite all the expansive plans and good intensions. As far as running the layouts is concerned, the year was equally mixed.  The Boxfile came out and was used a few times: it's a convenient way to test things do in fact run properly. Blacklade has been up three or four times, but it should have been much more...

 

Now for 2021 - and resolutions aspirations:

 

- First priority is to finish off  the TSO and the Bachmann BSK and get them into traffic. Followed by the Hornby BFK and the NNX courier van when it's warm enough to spray paint with confidence (i e about Easter)

- The various wagons need finishing off and releasing to traffic in the next month or so.

-  The 128 needs to be finished to the point where it too can be painted and released to traffic. Otherwise I have nothing to pull the NNX and my NRX van. Since those vehicles will be/are in Royal Mail / RES red, I'm now leaning to finishing the 128 in Mail red , not BR Blue - this would arguably be slightly more in period for 1985-90. That would mean the 128 would be sprayed at the same time as the NNX van.

 

This then leaves outstanding on my bookcase and elsewhere:

 

- The Airfix Trevithick 1/32 loco kit , which I haven't touched in 2020

- The West Yorks PTE 155 , whose motor bogie seized when it was almost finished - I have a Hornby Javelin motor bogie ready to install

- The Class 29 , which needs rewiring, a decoder installing , and the cab front windows reworking.

- The Pacer , which was started a frightening 11 years ago,  and has been largely stalled for at least 8 years... Finishing that may be the biggest project for 2021, especially as I should try to fit Ultrascale wheels into its chocolate and cream  twin, and fit decoders and Kadees.

 

Not to mention the long-term lurkers:

 

- The etched brass LNER van, which will require some reshuffling of the stockboxes for the Boxfile fleet in order to find a slot for it.

- The somewhat battered ex WD road van resin kit (see "brake vans, no real need of more.." above)

- The  long-stalled Drewry 04 etched chassis, which is a bit daunting

- The long-term stalled Bratchill 150

- DCC conversion of the very troublesome 4MT 2-6-0

 

Beyond the coach projects I'm already committed to, the one that I might well attempt if I get that far is to build up two Kirk kits I have to make a Gresley 2-car push-pull set. Since these are plastic kits they shouldn't be impossibly demanding, I should have everything necessary to upgrade them already in stock, and this would give me an extra two car set for the kettles. The MTK LMS Porthole brake 3rd seems likely to slip into 2022

 

I've got 3 DMU projects that need finishing. I don't think thoughts of building a DC Kits kit are realistic this year.

 

If I got far enough down the list to contemplate a new loco project, then a high-standard Class 25 using the Hornby body on a Bachmann chassis would seem the logical candidate. Doing anything with my stockpile of 31 bodies means sorting out a reasonable mechanism to go into them - which isn't so straightforward.. GBL Jinty body on Hornby 0-6-0T chassis is not urgent either

 

But when it comes to new purchases, I might be a bit more extravagant this year. 

 

The fact is, I've always half-promised myself that if they ever did Hardwicke, that would be the special limited edition I might go for. Seen on the mainline in 1975-80, usually ran with 3 blue/grey Mk1s: that would be a steam special that might look half-way credible on Blacklade. It would certainly be more plausible than an appearance by the Stirling Single.

 

I have also been mildly tempted by both the Bachmann MR 0-4-4T and the Oxford N7. Both are moderate-sized passenger tanks, and would not be out of place in Nottinghamshire /Derbyshire in the 1950s: more so, arguably, than 4MT 2-6-4Ts on 2 coach trains . Colwick not only had N7s, some of them were push-pull fitted. However at present a suitable BR black version of either isn't available. I'm not paying for DCC sound, and the round-top N7 hasn't yet been released.

 

More urgently, I'm half-promising myself the Hattons Genesis 6 wheel full brake in crimson - very close to a GSWR vehicle, and short parcels coaches are always useful. I'm even toying with the idea of a totally unnecessary LNER branch set : Hornby all 3rd 6 wheel, Hattons Brake 3rd + composite. No lights.

 

And I'm very seriously toying with the idea of a Hattons Barclay for the Boxfile. Something I've considered in the past , but given that it wasn't urgent, it had to be a 14" loco, and on discount. The planets are now aligning...

 

And someone does a Gloucester DMU trailer body as a 3D print. Not cheap, but it could be an option for the missing weed-killer train spray coach. If I can match that green.