An afternoon's woodwork

Finally got James' piece of 8'x4' down from upstairs, with much cursing and wondering how we ever got it up there in the first place.

It now has some 3/4" x 1 1/2" underframing, from which I have learned several things:

• the problem with 8'x4' baseboards is they're 8'x4' :D
• 8' lengths of 1 1/2" x 3/4" have a lot of flex about the thinner axis
• Liquid Nails is no substitute for a drill and a bunch of woodscrews
• that baseboard is never going back upstairs

On the good side, it's now sitting on two B&Q trestles in the playroom, where I suspect it'll stay for a while, and has been given a coat of spray mud-brown.

In other news, scored an Airfix autocoach on eBay. Rarer than I realised.

New arrivals and a track plan

Today’s post brought James’ Bachmann 4575 small Prairie, which went straight to Trains4U for chipping - nice purchase, seems to be pretty much brand new except for a missing set of cabside steps, which doesn’t look as if it should be beyond me to knock up in plasticard. It also brought a couple of books from Transport Diversions, specifically the Country Railway Routes book on the Wenlock branch and the District Controller’s View series book on the Severn Valley Railway (also covering the Wenlock branch in passing).

I’m now even more desperate to find my Wenlock Branch book! Some very nice photos of several of the stations on the Wenlock branch, especially Longville (which benefits from the station building being still intact and well photographed).

Starting to be very tempted by Longville on a 6’x18” or so board with a pair of 3’ fiddle yards either end - it’d be pretty simple to build and allow me to concentrate on scenery etc.

My only wonder is whether James would object to something that’s not a roundy-roundy and has a very simple track plan.

A brief aside on eBay

To James' great delight, we managed to score a Bachman 4575 Prairie in Great Western livery yesterday morning. For £15 or so less than the average eBay price.

Why? I strongly suspect because no-one's up and actively using eBay at 11am on a Sunday. Sunday evening is generally held to be the best time to sell stuff, as most folks are active. Sunday morning? Bit daft if you ask me.

And as to how I won that auction while sat behind a sound desk in church? AuctionSniper.com :D Well recommended, and your first three snipes are free* - after that it's 1% of the final value with a minimum of $0.25. Well worth it in my book for nabbing things you'd otherwise miss.

Me? I have a couple of old computers to eBay - I foresee more stock in the near future.

* in the interests of full disclosure: I get three free snipes if you sign up from that link.

All quiet on the (Great) Western front

Walked back into work on Jan 6th to find I'd been promoted. Along with a music convention and a church panto to organize, life has been a bit busy.

Still:

Scored a Hornby Collet restaurant car on eBay. James has £65 burning a hole in his pocket and lamenting the lack of GWR RTR Prairies and similar - we're watching eBay like a pair of hawks.

As for the master plan? It's too cold to do anything out in the outbuildings, and I've been kind of busy. Toying with a couple of ideas at present:

One is to move Onnybrook Junction to be a fictitious station actually at Marshbrook Junction on the Marches Line. On the plus side, the track plan would a lot less ambitious and we'd still get to see the same variety of stock. Moreover, it'd not be impossible to make this portable, which probably has WAF. (Wife Acceptance Factor).

The other, that I'm seriously considering, is to have a shot at the RMWeb 2010 challenge with somewhere on the Much Wenlock branch, or perhaps a bit of the Clee Hill line. It would help if I could find the Wenlock Branch book which is somewhere in this house, honest!

Time to stop spending money :D

Picked up a second-hand Dapol/Airfix B-set from Trains4U along with a pack of Bachmann couplings+pockets. just in case I have any more accidents (while James' unofficial Aunty R was buying him some more track).

Also scored a Slaters' Toplight brake 3rd kit on eBay.

Tonight I'll be eBaying a few Wrenn wagons, some Super 4 /and/ HornbyDublo track, and assorted tatty Triang/Hornby stuff, and seriously considering listing the slightly-out-of-period Jubilee to see if I can raise the readies for an unrebuilt Patriot or Royal Scot.

Arrivals and purchases over Xmas

• Hornby Jinty in LMS black (not arrived yet)
• Two Hornby LMS 20T brake vans (ditto)
• Replacement body for 57xx (Great Western lettering)

This evening's job, once I've acquired the necessary small tweezers to get the NEM couplings out so I can get at the body screw (being married to a vet may help here!), is to re-body the 57xx.

More arrivals

Keeping the postman busy this week :D

• The Mogul, and the rest of the Hornby clerestory and Mainline LMS coaches arrived
• A bulk lot of a Mainline Patriot in red, some wagons and a couple more coaches (as well as a rebuilt Royal Scot in ugly lined black, which is going back on eBay)
• Several wagons
• Bachman Coaler set (57xx, couple of wagons, oval of track) - nice cheap way of getting a pannier tank, though it does need re-liverying to pre-'35 from "GWR"
• Copper cap to replace the missing one on my 2721
• RA Cooke GWR track plans section 63 (covering Craven Arms)
• one set HMRS GWR Pressfix transfers.

Still to come are a few more wagons, and I have my eyes on an LMS Jinty (probably the Hornby Railroad one rather than the Bachmann) and a small Prairie.

Picking up the pieces...

So today was a trip up to Lincoln to rendezvous with the parents and pick up three boxes of old model railway stuff. Man was that a trip down memory lane. Most of it dates from the early 70s.

Of note:

• 1 Hornby 08 shunter with original box
• 1 green Hornby Dublo EMU (with knuckle couplers) - still recovering from discovering it's actually quite valuable!
• 1 Hornby BR livery Jinty
• 1 Triang/Hornby BR livery Deeley 3F 0-6-0 tender. I never found this in a catalogue anywhere back then, and I'm not at all sure where it came from - it dates back to 1966, apparently.
• 21 assorted wagons, of which half a dozen or more look as though they're worth keeping, and at the very least are good for detailing/weathering practice.
• 3 very short Triang BR maroon coaches
• Several Peco Streamline code 100 short radius points
• Lots of Triang Super 4 track

Still to come is of the order of 20 yards of code 100 wooden sleeper Streamline.

A fair bit of that will be going on eBay - I very much doubt the Jinty and 3F are worth keeping, even repainted and detailed, since the odds on finding space next to that bulky (all the way into the cab!) Triang motor for a DCC chip man enough to handle the power is about zero!

Time to hit eBay

This is, of course, entirely separate from James' shopping :D

Aviva very kindly dropped a rebate cheque in my lap last week, so I've been trawling eBay for stuff to add to my collection, which can (of course) magically appear later (good job James' doesn't read my blog).

First arrivals today:

• one DCC-fitted Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T in LMS lined black. Lovely model, marred only by the plastic holder on the underside of the coal bunker for the bush for the body-fixing screw having cracked, and thus the body being loose. After five minutes or so of figuring out which bit was supposed to be connected to which, some careful application of superglue seems to have fixed the problem. Note to self - need to check my LMS livery history to see if this requires a repaint.
• a pair of Hornby GWR clerestory coaches (one composite, one brake). Yes, I know they're not entirely prototypical, but they're so damn pretty.
• one DCC-fitted Bachman 56xx 0-6-2T (obligingly reset to the default 03 DCC id by the seller). This is in post-'42 unlined green with the G W R lettering, so I foresee a quick repaint and some HMRS transfers in the offing.

Coming soon:

• one Mainline 43xx Mogul in lovely pre-'35 unlined Brunswick Green with Great Western lettering. This'll need a trip to Trains4U for chipping, along with my 2721 once I've found it a new chimney cap.
• another pair of Hornby clerestory composites.
• a pair of Mainline panelled LMS coaches.

There's a bunch of stuff still on watch, so we'll see what ensues - I have my eye on a Bachmann Jinty or 57xx, possibly both, as well as a bunch of wagons. Further down the line I'm after a Bachmnan LMS G2, a Fowler 4F and 2P, a 28xx 2-8-0 and maybe a Patriot or a parellel-boiler Scot, along with some Colllett GWR coaches and a B-set. Oh, and LOTS of vans and coal wagons.