invercloy

Looks good, Steve! It's satisfying when you get one of the Backwoods kits to run freely isn't it??? You'll have it finished for ExpoNG at this rate! What camera do you have? If you find out your minimum focussing distance that could be the problem. If it's an SLR then you could just lengthen the exposure time and decrease the aperture size, that should cure the shallower depth of field.

A few of us thought we'd start a general NG blog together on the new format forum as a bit of fun. A while back I went to Launceston to see the visiting Darjeeling Himalayan Railway B Class which was imported back into the UK by Adrian Shooter a few years ago. The original examples don't have tenders, this was added upon restoration in the UK. Believe it or not, even though they rarely do more than 25 miles an hour, a streamlined tank loco was developed in the 1930s! It seems this was purely an effort to keep up appearances with the locomotives being produced in that era elsewhere. Here are some pics I took of it, some general and some of the details which may well prove useful when I eventually get round to making a model of a DHR spiral! Now the detailed shots... Some of these class are so ornate, this is the smokebox door handle on this particular loco. Others have ornate chimney caps and other items. Re-railing rod bracket. View of the well tank (between the frames) from the front of the loco. View of the well tank from the rear of the loco. Lamp, big and does what it says on the tin! Motion bracket. Coal bunker front, normally very well buried beneath coal and two crew members! Grate and under-footplate gubbins. Cab support bracket. More gubbins. Backhead. It should be noted that these locos have slight differences, this one has had a couple of alterations since moving back to the UK. A model in 09 is available from Backwoods Miniatures in etched brass which includes a chassis. Langley Models also produce a 009 kit designed to fit the now out of production Arnold 0-6-0 tank loco chassis. A 16mm live steam version is available from Roundhouse A list of drawings for this loco and other items from the DHR are available here.

Welcome one and all (well all those in the South! ) I suppose we should all reconvene on the new forum! It's about this time of year that Puds normally mentions a Christmas do isn't it??