O gauge wagon

 The first of the completed wagons for Oake. Fairly mundane, but that's what's nice about wagons. Peco - ex-Websters GW 4-plank built as per the instructions if not in quite the same order. Perched on Dury's Gap for speed. I reckon I need about eight in total plus the brake with a couple of Slaters 4-wheelers. If you say that quickly it doesn't sound too much, until that is you compare with the same in 4mm mostly bought from club stands at exhibitions for £2-4 a pop. 

Booky

 This has just started appearing on the websites of the floggers of books. End of January, which is a lot later than was originally agreed. Still I suppose that it might one of the good things that we've been promised when we all enter the sunlit uplands after January 1st.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/modelling-the-welsh-narrow-gauge-railways/chris-ford/9781785008009

Saturday Ramble

 Remember when I used to post almost daily? Things change and the ebb and flow of life affects this more than most things. There is however a general shift in the modelling direction. Hopwood has now, like Elvis, left the building. This is good on one level in that I don't have to dance around it all the time. There is now though a small hole in the mental aspect of all this. The short term is that I'll probably concentrate on small projects for the time being - mostly rolling stock. I took a decision that if and when exhibitions re-start, taking Oake out would be logical as it's about to hit the Dec/Jan/Feb RMs. There is also Dury's Gap sitting to my right for which I could build stock forever for, and there are plenty of kits in the cupboard that would suit. Even though it is nominally set late 1950s, there is nothing which really indicates this and it could just as easily drop back twenty years if needed. So to summarise: stock for two different small layouts in two different scales... easy.

What complicates this very slightly, and as I hinted a week ago, there is a teatime vacuum, in that now that I sit looking at toy-trains all day to earn money, the desire to continue that in the evening is less desirable. This has slowed things somewhat and the approach is naturally changed - what I would do just for the hell of it, now in part has to have a reason. I worked though this conundrum 40-odd years ago, I just need to do that again.

Saturday Ramble

 

With Hopwood almost out of the door it's time to move back to bigger things for a while. There are two O gauge wagons to deal with. Both of these are from the ex-Websters kits now in the Peco range. The first is the AA3 brake which at first glance is a more or less standard van, but is actually in the AA3 diagram group and therefore a tad shorter at 13' wb. This makes it highly suitable for a compact layout and better in this respect than the Parkside offering which is the much later - and longer - AA19. Compensation is plastic based which I'm always slightly wary of, but then it's not taking any great load and it purrs through the pointwork on Oake.

This is very much a period of transition for me at the moment in that I have been completely shut down by a combination of Boris and Covid. However new opportunities have presented themselves at least temporarily; literally via envelopes in car parks. How this will all pan out is anyone's guess at the moment.

Southern CCT

 

Second kit off the bench. Parkside 1938 SR CCT. Pretty much as the instructions, with added brake bits.

The LMS mineral wagon finished

Yesterday I eventually sat down and finished the LMS mineral wagon. While away I'd just built it as per the instruction sheet, but on checking photos in the Bob Essery book I noticed the end door grabs. These aren't mentioned in the instructions, but there are pop marks on the part. A rake around in the box for some wire and a jolly hour fitting into blind holes sorted it. A pair of Smiths couplings finished, though it'll get tension locks for use on Dury's Gap. Modelmaster decals topped it off though I must remember to slim the stripes down next time. Finally out with the trusty airbrush for some colour.

As Stig points out below, Cambrian's bent for the more left field items is refreshing, even though most will assume that it's RTR, Airfix or Parkside.

It's been a busy week on way or another, but possibly more on that as things become clearer.