Pom

Hi all, time for an update: Every heritage line has a good amount of sorry-looking stock lingering in sidings awaiting restoration, or 'surviving' as a parts donor for other locomotives. With this in mind, I've spent the last couple of weeks reworking a cheap model into something along those lines... One of the old Airfix J94s, picked up for under a fiver in a pretty grim state. With a bit of work... Now looks like this, so it's gone from sorry looking to...erm, sorry looking! Detailed to represent a former colliery workhorse, I didn't want it to look like it had been pulled from a scrapyard, more so sold after pit closure as a source of spares after a hard life in industry. Nameplates and builders' plates removed, name chalked on temporarily and decidedly filthy, but still in one piece. I used RT Models' giesl ejector and smokebox dart, the handrails, lamp irons, front buffer beam and railway executive registration plates came from my spares draws so this turned out to be a pretty cheap project. Hopefully you'll agree that 'Comet' looks at home in a quiet siding behind the main shed. I think eventually it'll be quite nice to model the loco in running condition with a fictional livery of some sort, to show the 'before and after' of many former industrials that survive in preservation. For the sake of completion, here's a quick pic of the 'Barry' condition locomotives I've modelled, ex-BR types in a much worse state than the austerity with parts already removed for safekeeping. In the foreground is one of those static models of an 8F that were sold in magazines a few years back, with an older Bachmann Ivatt 2 tank just visible behind it. Hopefully these projects convey an image of a proper working heritage line in its formative years.

That's absolutely fantastic modelling! Captures the presence of the full size ones perfectly.

Part two: Ivatt's 2-6-2 tanks are amongst my favourite locos, none more so than the Worth Valley's 41241. I had the original split chassis model for some years before it started to fail, and I was annoyed by its clunky valve gear and lack of pipe work once Bachmann's newly tooled chassis started to be released. So I bit the bullet a few years back and started modifying the body to take the new type of chassis, whilst also bringing it up to scratch with some additional lining, a proper smokebox dark, works plates and finer lamp irons on the front and rear of the bunker. The new chassis also required its cylinders painting (I think its a railmatch acrylic, it ended up being a pretty close match to the body colour), as well as drain cocks, front steps etc. The upshot of this is that I now own a 41241 in its iconic livery which runs beautifully. Similar story of 41312, I fancied a BR black Ivatt after seeing this on the East Lancs in 2022 (I think? Maybe 2021), so I renumbered one of the latest Bachman releases into 41312. This necessitated the addition of SR lamp irons on the front and rear, transfers were once again from Railtec. Both Ivatts will feature as visitors to the layout, whilst I've modelled a third example in ex-Barry condition to sit in a siding as a long-term restoration project. A bit of an oddity, a Hardys' Howard petrol shunter which will function as a P-way loco for shuttling the odd truck about now and again. Really this was just an excuse to have a go at weathering something and to gain more experience of building kits. It runs well enough on its Hornby 48DS chassis, but is rather light - not that this really matters given the nature of the loco. This photo isn't great but its been given the number 7 and named Peter Ian - perhaps after a foreman at the industrial site it used to work at? In reality, it's a nod towards my Grandad, who got me into so much financial trauma by introducing me to model railways. Now, onto my ongoing projects... This is Railway Mania's Avonside SS2 (I think that's right), depicting 'Dora', which is preserved somewhere - I'm just not entirely sure where! Either way it'll end up as a member of the home fleet in my world, seen as it doesn't seem to have run much in preservation. The shade of blue has come out a bit light in pictures but its a bit deeper in reality, still needs a crew, various bits of pipework and (most notably) a chassis. Aaaaand this is a bit further away from completion! Oakhill Works released these X class Pecketts just before Christmas at a great price (even better in the January sale they ran) and this will eventually become Metropolitan Railway No.102, one of a pair that lasted right through to London Transport days. Their relative longevity is the excuse I needed to save one for preservation and I've already set about modifying this kit to better replicate the prototype by the addition of a hatch on the cab rear, it probably won't be 100% accurate but it'll be good enough for me. Seems to be a lovely kit, it needed a shot of primer and a bit of sanding but most 3D prints do, it'll be finished in plain Metropolitan maroon - watch this space!

Hello everyone, Welcome to the workbench! As the title suggests, I model preserved steam locomotives, as well as preservation 'what might have beens' for an eventual layout based upon a fictional heritage line. I like the idea of trying to stick to reality when it comes to modelling heritage lines, thinking about a believable fleet of 'home' locomotives with visiting engines from lines that exist in the real world. I'll be posting my renumbering/repainting/detailing/building efforts in this thread, but for now I'll post a some completed projects from the last few years. First up is 'Alice' a 14" Bagnall 0-4-0 which I believe is preserved on the Transvap Heritage Railway near Le Mans. This is one of the Hardys' Hobbies kits with a fair amount modified to suit the real locomotive - the cab is fully enclosed these days but I found a photo of it sat in a yard looking rather sorry for itself with an open cab, so I chose to model it like that for something different. I'm much more into steam than anything diesel, however I own three or four of them as every heritage line inevitably needs them. On the left is one of Railway Mania's D2/7 kits, finished as BR No.11116. The thinking behind this is that it was withdrawn earlier than more standard shunting types and thus purchased by the volunteers to function as one of the line's 'jack of all trade' locos for shunting stock etc, hence the quick repaint into plain BR black and overall shabby condition. A similar backstory exists for the HC long bonnet on the right, in a simplified Bristol Harbour livery (I didn't fancy the wasp stripes) - I believe the real thing is at the Whitwell and Reepham, however in my little world it clearly ended up preserved somewhere else. Another Hardys' kit, this time RSH Ugly No.60, 'Jupiter'. This loco is another that's made it to preservation and I'll run it as a visitor to my fictional line once it actually exists. Here's one of the 'home' fleet of steamers, Jinty no.16493 (BR 47410). I fancied this livery as I hadn't seen anyone else attempt it on a Bachmann model, really simple with the numberplates from Railtec and the rest from Fox (builders plates from LRS). I've got a spare body of it as BR 47410 so I'll swap them over on the chassis to depict the same loco in different guises after overhaul. This loco is supposedly the lines' flagship engine (I should mention at this point that it'll be a Scottish-based layout). Ex- CR 782 no.56336 was the last survivor of the class when withdrawn in December 1962, being scrapped a year later. Fortunately, in my world the loco languished in the scrapyard for a while longer before being purchased and restored sometime in the late 1970s to become one of the few pre-grouping Scottish locos to survive. I bought this body as a wreck on eBay for about a tenner, gave it new buffers, rivet detailing, whistle, safety valves, Westinghouse pump, footsteps, works plates etc and mounted it on a Bachmann jinty chassis. Its by no means 100% accurate, but the jinty wheelbase is close enough for me and I now have a model of a loco unlikely to come about in RTR which runs very nicely - the chassis is the reason I have the spare jinty body to swap in and out with 16493. I'm going to have to split this into two separate posts due to max files sizes etc etc, part two to follow!