Little Blue Engine

It's been waiting for a couple of years but finally our favourite Quarry Hunslet is getting painted.

The loco is built from a Brian Madge kit and it's an absolute beauty with it's accurate outside frames and very smooth running.

Leaving aside the Double Fairlie, I think it is fair to say that these little work horses are the quintessential Welsh narrow gauge locomotives and I know I'm not alone in having a very soft spot for them.

Although it's little more than a toy in terms of the FR locomotive fleet it has got all over the system over recent years giving us plenty of opportunities to bring it out for a play on Bron Hebog.

Ironically, the real locomotive is currently stripped down and the boiler is in the process of having it's 10 year inspection.

Scraping Completed

At last I can put my dental tool away because the final wall of the barn has been scribed and the seven walls are now joined together.

The effort now turns to the roofs.

The higher section, at the rear, is to be represented in a mostly complete state although there will be a number of slates slipped or missing, with some areas of daylight opening up.

The front section will have just the rafters remaining in a suitably distressed state.

Re-wheeling

Much to my delight Himself has got straight on with the task of fitting the replacement wheelsets to our Welsh Pony in the hope of curing it's limp.

To do that he's had to strip the chassis and has removed the brass discs which were glued onto the plastic wheel centres to transplant them onto the new ones.

In the picture you can see that two of them have already been fixed and the others are setting with the aid of some hair clips to hold them in position.

There is no valve gear to deconstruct on an England engine, which is a good thing, but the main difficulty on this chassis is with the slide bars which have had to be bend by 90 degrees to remove the front wheels.

Attempting to remove the cylinder assembly would have risked the whole chassis falling apart, apparently.

One Wall Left

Scribing the barn walls has advanced steadily, although I might have hoped to have got the job finished by now.

I am, however, onto the final section of wall, the gable at the rear which includes the window which I suppose gave access to the hay loft once upon a time.

Once that is fixed in place I can give it a try out in position on the layout before moving onto the roof.

Modelling that in an advanced stage of dilapidation is going to be interesting, but I hope, fun too.

Pony Wheels

For the last couple of years our model of Welsh Pony has been put to one side in a state of semi-completeness.

This is entirely logical in that the locomotive should (hopefully) turn a wheel again for the first time since the 1930's later this year, and once we get to see the completed locomotive we can finish ours to match.

There has been another reason, however, why it's been ignored, and that's because it was born malformed.

Alas, this is a lame pony.

The reason is that one of the wheels on the kit - which I understand has been withdrawn from sale and, somewhat appropriately, is now as rare as rocking horse poo - came with its axle hole drilled off-centre meaning the engine has always with run with a very pronounced lurch.

Fortunately for us, one of my contacts knows the kit producer and has been able to procure a spare set for us.

(Yes, I know they look like Small England wheels, but there is an etched disc which is glued on top to make them look like the Large England's more solid wheels.)

The challenge now for Himself is to see if he can get our little nag galloping along before the FR does.

Farmyard Scenes

There have been more little details added to the farmyard along with the (scale) miles of fencing going on the layout.

Some etched brass gates have been added around the place.

Himself as also cut, fitted and painted the resin breeze block wall I cast for him.

The whole area's still far too tidy, though, but it's getting there.

First Coat

The wild weather of late has kept Himself out of the garage which means he's made a fair amount of progress on painting the new Service Car 125.

The body has had a first coat of red and cream.

He also tells me that getting the black paint on the louvres of the generation compartment doors (and nowhere else) was a bit of a pain.

The interior is done and he's done a terrific job bringing alive the details on the bulkhead in the guard's area.

I hope we'll still be able to see it when it has the body on top again.