Ruston

Very nice. I do think that it would look better with the safety valve cover being unpainted brass though.

There's been no progress to speak of but I did run a train and took some snaps after fixing D2049. The Stay Alive that I put in it wasn't working, so has been replaced. These Accurascale MGR hoppers are the bees knees.

The former BR D2049, now in use by the National Coal Board Opencast Executive, leads MGR empties into Blacker Lane D.P.

The Ruston 88DS has its day in the sun LEDs.

They are all ready for service. One crew figure each and a plain decoder and Stay Alive installed in all. All that's needed to complete are name plates.

I made them. 5 thou. Plastikard, cut to width and wrapped around a pencil. Seam of glue to prevent it all from unravelling. Painted with Tamiya Gunmetal (or something like that) and strips of insulation tape added as banding. Markings done using white Graphitint pencil.

A small amount of progress. Some cladding on the shed frame. I cut the supports of the water tank down, but it still doesn't seem right. It doesn't suit the situation at all.

It was working before I unplugged it so I plugged it in to a loco with a 6-pin socket (can't put it back in the one it came out of as that loco has been dismantled). The plan being that if the loco moves the decoder is in the right way around and I only need to note the colours of the wires to the pins. I put it on the program track and all the smoke escaped from the decoder. I guess I put it in the wrong way around, but I thought the worst that could happen if it was the wrong way up is that the loco wouldn't move. There's nothing wrong with the loco that I tried it in and it's working fine again with its own decoder back in it.

It was working just before I unplugged it. If you mean what looks like a chunk cut out, that's me being untidy chopping the photos together. There is no chunk out of it in reality. Do you know which pins go to the motor and which to the pickups? They're all I need.

This was in a second hand loco that I bought. I want to fit it into a loco that doesn't have a 6-pin socket and so need to identify what pin does what before I can solder the appropriate wires on, but I don't even know the make or model of the decoder to be able to look them up anywhere.

Do you not mean that it's something you would NOT inflict on it? Interesting point of view. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say but then I don't ever think of them as being beautiful or elegant and I don't know if their owners would have. I try to model how they were in industry and so all the modifications I make are things that were done to real engines. They were tools for a job, much like any piece of plant machinery is now. If it needed a cut down cab to pass under a coal bunker, or a low bridge, or big block buffers to prevent buffer locking on tight curves it got them regardless of how ugly it may make them seem to our modeller and railway enthusiast eyes.

The Hudswell Clarke came out for a shunt, this evening, with it's growly Gardner engine sound.

One Peckett finished. Almost. It needs to have some frame overlays to hide the gap between the 3D-printed bufferbeam/frame extension and the actual chassis block. It can't be seen from this angle but it is noticeable when viewed from lower down. Name plates are on order for both the Pecketts and Barclays.

This looks to be an interesting project. Is all the extra work involved in fitting CSB really worth it for something with only 4 wheels? What's the advantage over a simple 3-point compensation that would do the same job of keeping the wheels in contact with the rails for traction?

Has this not sold well? I haven't seen any finished ones posted anywhere. One of mine.

Two vans that I've had for a long time without doing anything with them. I had a surplus of milled coupling hooks, so decided to fit them and weather the vans. Both were as new and untouched at lunchtime, yesterday. By tea time they were ready for service. That's why I like to use acrylic paints. The bodies were separated from the underframes and given an overall wash of dirty grey, whilst the underframes were painted with Tamiya No.85, Rubber Black and were also given the same grey wash once the paint was dry. The metalwork on the bodies, and the springs, brake gear and buffer heads on the underframe were picked out in a mix of 85 and 9, Hull Red. The roofs were given another, darker wash and the corrugated ends had dark rust weathering powders applied. I had just enough Lanarkshire Model Supplies vac pipes to finish the pair of vans.

A few pics, found on the interwebs, to get the mood, or whatever you want to call it, of how the layout is intended to be. Maybe not that much dereliction, or a load of dead Thomas Hill locos though. That's the kind of frontage I'm thinking of for the low-relief buildings, to the left of the road. I'll have a railway track running through the portal.

They'll be joining the Barclays on Sevastopol Works, whenever that layout gets built. Because none of these four will have sound, they won't be used on any of my existing layouts.

I'm not sure now. It's been some time since I had it apart and I get confused with what I did to what loco. I don't remember if I posted anything of it in my Industrial loco workshop thread or not. Edit: Here, on page 17.

The Pecketts are well on the way to being finished. Tank front handrails and cab footsteps are about all that's left to add and then there's some finish painting, weathering and detailing. I fitted block buffers of a type that I have seen on Pecketts at a cement works in the south of England. I've used this same type before but made them from brass to add weight for traction. This pair won't be pulling any more than three wagons at a time, so the buffers are made from styrene sheet.

'Fraid not, Cap'n. Not in measuring them anyway. They looked to be 3mm.

Excellent. It's the small details that matter.

What period/years are we talking about them being at Ardsley? I guess they would have worked the line from Wakefield to Dewsbury, via Ossett?