(I think he found Rudd's Shilling slipped into his pint of Purple Moose one night)
The upside of this is that I get very regular research reports on the activities at Boston Lodge.
The latest set of pictures smuggled out of Wales show progress on the conversion of former first class Observation Carr. 101 into a third class, wheelchair accessible saloon which will be marshaled at the Blaenau end of trains and given a new number: 123.
This will be an 'quick win' (as business folk are fond of saying) because I've built 2 models of 101 already and there will only be slight alterations to the external design - an extra pair of windows in what was the guard's van. However, I won't be starting work on my model until the project is a little further on and I can see all the panelling / beading on it.
The carriage team are also busy on converting former WHR semi-open saloon 2020 into a BBB (bog, buffet and brake) Service Carr.
This should also be quite simple to replicate because they've based the conversion around the existing layout of the steel frame as much as possible, so there is a good baseline to work from. The major alteration is the generator compartment which has meant opening up the frame and inserting new uprights on one side. The sliding window frames are also asymmetric, unlike on the first, purpose built service carr, so I'll have to be careful to get those looking right.
My spy also reports on some intriguing, I might go so far as to say Spooneresque, plans for future FR carriage designs, but I shall say no more about that for now. (This is a modelling blog, not Wikileaks!)
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