Dapol pug

Firstly the explanation: There is, in Ian Allan's Industrial Steam, a lovely photo of a huge rib sided bogie scrap wagon being shunted by a Barclay 0-4-0 ST in Crossley's yard in 1986. Key words here are: scrap,0-4-0 ST and 1986. It dawned on me that this was all the excuse I needed to run a steam loco on Rhiw. And in the loft there just happened to be the Dapol Pug, unloved and unused. And that children is where we started the story; the split footplate and the bouncing motor. 48 hours later... The motor issue was fixed by a) running a tiny amount of solvent under the motor mount, welding it to the footplate, but hopefully not enough not to be able to break it again and b) making up a T section from scrap sprue welding it horizontally to the inside of the cab so that it just touches the back of the motor and stops it leaning backward. That seems to have fixed it.

The paint job was a joy. There was an unused tin of Humbrol enamel in the junk...perfect. NER apple green; spot on for an industrial. A couple of coats of that followed by all the usual reds and greys in acrylic. I planked both sides of the cab cut-outs with timber from a PECO kit although you can't really see it here. The nameplates are I think Golden Arrow, Kingston is from the Hampton Waterworks range. No idea why I had them. I left the whole loco largely un-weathered. Most industrials unless steel or coal tend to be quite well cared for. A quick project and cheap. the loco was free for a few hours in a model shop pulling ginger hairs from Hornby Dublo locos, the paint was just about to be binned and the nameplates and other bits were from the scrapbox. I'm tempted to do another, but this loco now retails for fifty quid! I fancy chopping the dumb buffers and fitting 23" discs and a few cab variations with open backs, weather sheets etc.