esngblog

A little progress with the wagons.  I’ve 10 Peco Lowfits well on the way to completion.  The bodies have had their bolster bases scraped off with a knife blade and fine sandpaper.  They’ve been primed and a first coat of bauxite applied.  I’ve transfers ordered from Cambridge Custom Transfers to finish them off.

Meanwhile, Duncan has kindly printed me off 32 more bubble cars.  The next test will be starting to paint them all.  A little experimentation is needed – do I try and paint around the windows with a steady hand, or do I try and apply Maskol liquid with an equally steady hand?  Or do I just spray the whole bubble car, and then paint the windows with yet another steady hand.  I’ll tell you sometime soon!

Now, here’s an idea for a small railway layout – in the back of an American RV.  Of course, the average USA camper van has more room inside than the average UK house for a layout…..

And if you want an interesting prototype, head for the Florida Everglades….

Back to the loft!

A few days ago, I posted this picture of some Messerschmitt bubble cars on flat wagons parked near Brighton.  I suggested that if one could find a suitable bubble car (not easy), these would make an excellent train, and look a bit unusual at exhibitions (whenever they might be.)

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Duncan, who had found a 3D file of an Isetta bubble car, and offered to print me off a few to see how they came out.  I had soon picked these up, nicely printed in clearish resin.

Purchase of an NGS ‘Lowfit’ wagon kit, and a little work in the loft gave me this result.  As this was a trial run, I just sprayed the bubble cars with a little primer – and missed a bit, as you can see.  The final run will have clear windows and need a lot of careful painting to pick our the window frames, headlights and bumpers.

The pictures also show that I should have dusted off the models before the photo.  The camera is cruel, picking up every little bit of plastic dust!  But this simple exercise has shown that Duncan has printed the bubble cars to the right size, and that a train of them will look impressive.

Of course, they are Isetta’s and not Messerschmitt’s, but if your eyesight is good enough to spot the difference – you’re welcome to complain as much as you want. [Update:  Duncan informs me that, not unusually, I have got it wrong, and they are Isetta’s in the picture.  So it is even more accurate…..]

I now have to wait until the NGS get some more Lowfits into stock, then Duncan will run me off some more cars.  They are not a great investment, as each one only takes a few pence worth of resin.  If no NGS wagons appear, one idea would be to use Peco single bolster wagons.  Unfortunately, these have a 10 ft wheelbase rather than the correct 9 ft, and a little filling will be needed where the bolster goes (hidden by the cars), but this might be acceptable.

It could be a rather colourful train.  There are certainly no shortage of colours to choose from, and I like the mixture of shades on the wagons in the top photograph.

We’ll see how this project goes!

PS. Problem solved.  BR Lowfits were 10 ft wheelbase.  The NGS ones are probably LNER or LMS versions.  I’d better buy some Peco kits….

Has it really been a month since I did a Covid diary entry?  I’m really not sure where the time has gone.  I think that I’ve spent too much time reading and doing odd jobs here and there.  The hot weather has also been a negative influence, as lazing about has been preferable to cutting plywood.

Perhaps I’m just short of mojo?  Most modellers I know have productive periods and down days/weeks/months/years.  I think this is really a product of Covid.  On the one hand, I have lots more time (even in retirement) for modelling, but I am missing the incentives that modelling usually has.

The first of these incentives is being able to meet at ESNG.  The club was a chance to meet good and long term friends.  Our recent Zoom meetings have been great to be able to meet up with a few of them, but I do miss the chance to run some trains – or more often watch other peoples trains run.  And meeting up gives a little peer pressure to keep building things.  I have been thinking, too, that I need to build a small scenic test track/layout so that I can run some trains.  I can shunt my American layout, but it would be good to be able to give a few other items a go.

And the second is the lack of exhibitions.  Not just the chance for a sociable outing to a show with club members, but not being able to take a layout to exhibit.  I have these N-club modules, and a couple of N-mod boards, to complete, but what’s the incentive to complete them when we have cancelled our show, and we’re not going to Stuttgart.  I guess what I need is a deadline!

I have been following the discussions about exhibitions on modelling forums closely.  They include a lot of hot air and red herrings, but are invaluable to work out how people are thinking.  It is clear that a majority of enthusiasts are not expecting exhibitions to be viable till the middle of 2021.  Perhaps two factors that I had missed that prevent any early return to shows are:

1. That quite a few schools and colleges are going to limit hires for a while yet (I thought Reigate College is unusual – maybe not.)
2. Even if we could hold a show in September, no one has had a chance to prepare larger layouts for exhibition – all the normal pre-show maintenance and fettling has been impossible.

No doubt exhibitions will be back, but not for a while yet, I guess.

Or maybe something completely different?  I had wondered whether to explore the back of the loft cupboards.  I have a complete resin and brass kit for and LSWR 0330 class tucked away somewhere, and perhaps a change of scale would help?  Not really, so I’ll save this beauty till my eyes finally give up ‘N’ gauge.

But this week, it had better be onwards and upward.  I sorted all the outstanding projects out in the loft and have some bits of brass to hack around.  And a couple of NGS kits in the post to try something else out.

After this rant, a little inspiration.  Two photos of Torrington in Southern Railway days, from Facebook.  That goods yard is just packed with wagons.  And the station yard is spotless apart from the two vehicles.  No litter here!