Monday 6 June 2011

Love Me Tender

Fired with enthusiasm (oil-fired in this case, of course) Himself has set about work on 'Blanche II' with gusto.

We happened to have a spare Parkside Dundas tender - as you do - so that's been knocked up, apparently using some bits from the Backwoods kit too (Himself hasn't said which bits) but still using the whitemetal roof because the brass version was too thin and the rooflines didn't match.




All it needs now is a double line of rivets where the cab bit joins the main part of the tender and the job's a good 'un.



With a Backwoods front half and a Dundas rear - which sounds a bit like a 009 pantomime horse - I suppose it could become known as a Backside kit!



There's been progress on the business end, too.

Himself also happened to have a spare pair of coupling rods - acquired from the ever-helpful Mr McParlin - and these have vastly improved the running of the locomotive.

It's moving smoothly and the compensation on the front axle is working again as it should. Himself believes he had made the holes in the old rods too big and they therefore had too much free play.

Taking all these 'learning points', as educationalists would say - or realising how he buggered up the first one, as Himself would say - he's also recommenced assembly of the Backwoods 'Linda'.

This is a development which begs a very big question - what colour to paint it?

Green like our existing one, or maybe Midnight Blue, or perhaps lined Penhryn Black?

Choices, choices.....

2 comments:

  1. Midnight blue is different, not seen any modelled in that colour. Do you actually have a period that Ddualt is set in, or is it flexible to allow you to run various different eras of stock?

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  2. Ah, now there's a question! We set the layout in 1988, the last year the passing loop was there to be used, and intially we modelling the rolling stock in that year too - hence Earl of Merioneth in it's orignal condition.

    But over the years the FR kept building too many interesting locomotives and carriages that we couldn't help ourselves but to model: Single Farlies, curly roofed vans and push pull trains etc. So now the models are spread over a 20 year period with the layout in a timewarp.

    It's the classic dilema for anyone trying to model modern image - which is what the FR of today is even if the locos still go chuff....

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