Just Playing Trains

 I have today glued down a strip of cork wide enough for the double track siding in the Mill and set at the desired angle. The turnout is ready for the switch rails to be soldered to the tire bar pins. So with the cork down we have a datum and can get on with laying things and making more models!

 It's amazing that the IBG Scammell kit arrives in a huge box, almost A4 in plan, and about an inch deep. Yet, when you commence the build, the parts fit into a small mint tin, even the chassis!  The picture shows progress to date.  While lying these parts out I spotted a glaring issue- the counterweight frame on the end of the chassis is fitted upside down! I can only think that having had it all lined up for glue, I must have dropped it and that I inverted the chassis during the next fitting.  I have now righted this issue and the cab has been started. I'm trying to save the smaller detail parts until as late as possible to avoid loss or damage during the remaining build. Some of the cab interior parts are very flimsy-looking etched pieces that require folding - seat frames and so on. Another stage requiring consideration is whether to hold major components back to be pre-painted, such as the engine and transmission. I still haven't decided what the paint scheme is...

 Not too bad really, but I made my first big mistake on the 4mm scale IBG Scammell Pioneer. I failed to see the spring hangers on the diagram and assumed they were part of the injection pops and chopped them off, leaving them on the sprue. (phew, I might have just trimmed them off and ditched them.) They are perfectly obvious on the diagram, but only if you PAY ATTENTION! I came up with a cunning plan, cut them off the sprue, lost one (deep joy) and glued them into the locating holes. All being well I can hopefully make a new one, then glue the springs to the hangers as they should be. This is a nice kit to build, I have had a minor incident with the rear drive train, but only my clumsiness really, and all is well. So I'm remaining confident so far…

 I've been trying to avoid having the Mill and its sidings placed parallel to the board edges. I feel that an angle gives the scene a slightly more realistic appearance. So I'm aiming at something like this, here the Mill complex is set about 10 degrees off the axis of the board. This makes the design of the off-scene tracks more complex, but to be honest I'm beginning to think that a simple fiddle-stick/cassette might suffice here. The Finetrax point base is evident. This kit went together very well, I made one stupid error, but I think I got away with it, and we should see progress with track-laying very soon. I'm also confident that the 08 may be running in time to allow testing of the new track shortly too. I've also been progressing the aperture layer of the Mill and a couple of other projects.

Seeing as I'm writing this on a Sunday, I thought a portion of prayer might be useful.  In this case, the fragment will kick off a new regular series of items that have caught my eye, but which my wallet cannot afford. We’ll start with this beautiful render from Scottish Wagon Works - its a Great North of Scotland Railway Brake Third, and I think it looks fab. Unfortunately it's also the wrong scale (7mm), I can't be getting into that at this stage, the wrong country (Scotland), I'm modelling further south, and... well its currently priceless. Not yet released. Probably just as well! If you want one they're here —>  https://scottishwagonworks.com/

 Its not really a layout as such, but another diorama with trains… “Johnsons Wharf” as it has been tentatively named, as a tribute to the late Pete Johnson, the modeler who created Canada Street, an EM gauge amalgam of various dockyard railways which delighted me so much.  I'm planning a variation on the Canal Wharf boxfile set that Scalescenes produces which was favorably discounted this last weekend. The basic idea is to build something in EM to shunt stock about on a bit. The variation might be just mirroring the left-hand building to extend slightly to the left and having a sector plate permanently on the right. It won’t be in a box file, but I’ll ensure that it fits into a plastic box, and the baseboard will be the mount-board-foam-core-sandwich construction I’ve been using of late. Also, the 2mm FS Finetrax point kit has arrived after a long wait, nobody’s fault, so work can now proceed on the Mill’s trackwork.