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.

A Happy New Year...

I'm sure there's a reader or two out there :D

Last couple of days small achievements:

• Body swap on the Bachmann Pannier - amusing how all the guides just assume you can get the couplings off. In fact, the mounts have to come off with, and it's surprisingly easy to break one, which I did. Trip to Trains4U tomorrow - Gareth reckons he has one in his spares box.
• Finished the weathering on the Lancashire Coke Co wagon.
• Had a very interesting read of a GWR steam in the 30s book - fascinating to discover just what a mess the average rake of coaches was - things like local passenger trains made up of a clerestory, a B set, two Siphon G's and a NE perishables van, and semi-fasts a huge mix of Colletts, toplights, clerestories... None of these perfect rakes of uniform, pristine coaches!
  
  

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.