LocoWorks: A new diesel (2) - tidy up and fit bits

Covered up the footplate holes with plasticard and also the cab front and back...to cover up the gaps .....

Easy fit, the bits for the side of the chassis go back on

missing coupling replaced....

LocoWorks: A new diesel...

 The track cleaning loco...

has finally stopped working. Fed up with trying to repair it I decided to break it up and make small diesel loco from it, the fun bit, taking it apart......

decided on which bits to keep and what bits to cut up..... a brief workout sawing with a small hacksaw followed....

trial assembly done, with a box of useful bits that may come in useful...

a quick run test on the garage layout....

plenty left to do, filling holes etc then deciding on a colour to paint it.... perhaps some nameplates for it - "Phoenix" ?

Sunny Friday ...

Single Fairlie has a run round my friend's garden railway layout on a sunny friday afternoon....

New rolling stock shelf....

Now I've moved all my overflow wargaming storage back into the house, there is more room for railway stuff.   Two shelves were freed up, these are now used as follows...

• the top one has my garden railway spares and two large boxes for carrying rolling stock round to run trains elsewhere.
• the bottom one will store rolling stock, two 3ft pieces of cheap second hand track arrived today so these are now in place.

Nice to have things tidied and room for some more wagons/coaches....

Wagon Works - Coal Wagons and Van...

Coal Wagons

Removed the couplings and the drop-in coal wagon loads...

Swapped out the wheels, with some new ones...

Trial fit of the new couplings with some low tack glue to get the positioning right.....

Fixing up the coal loads... broken edge fixed and glueing some loose coal bits back on ( some black paint to add when the glue is dry...)

All finished with the new couplings, ready to run ....

The Van ...

this is a LGB post van, which had been 'weathered',  but the weathering didn't look right.  I thought a clean-up and a repaint would suit it.... taken apart....

repaint in progress - olive green and pale brown/earth interior...

For the roof I added two ventilators and gave it a coat of mid-grey.. and then re-assembled

This van will be part of my maintenance train.

Wagon Works - Flat Wagon...

 The newly arrived flat wagon form a recent cheap job lot was first into the wagon works...

The cable reel and covered oil drums were only lightly stuck on, so they were easily removed

The bogeys removed, these are nice and will go in the spares box...

I was going to replace the bogey's with some spare LGB ones I have, however when I inspected the flat wagon deck carefully I found it was warped and twisted slightly and uneven by about 10 degrees between the ends. - Its wooden construction had obviously got damp some time in the past - not worth saving - so into the scrap box it goes.

At least the bogey's were saved to use on something else and I've got myself two wagon loads as well.

Incoming to the wagon works...

 A couple of Ebay purchases, an Accucraft brake van

plus a good cheap priced job lot of 5 weathered wagons  - ore wagon, two coal wagons, a bogey flat and van..

For now I've put the van out on the garden layout to sit in the bay platform of the station.

All the newbs will pass through the wagon works for repair/repaint/couplings as needed in due course.

Sunny Sunday (13) - the Bagnall gets a run.... ....

After a month or so of having muscle problems with my left shoulder, I'm finally able to move properly so some light duties today cleaning the garden railway track.

The track cleaning loco finally gave up the ghost today - its is defunct etc.... 😢  Well it is the 13th Sunny Sunday post, so I'll accept some bad luck 😕 So it was back to using my trusty track rubber on a broom handle and a light workout for 20 minutes to get the track clean.

So with the track clean I hooked up the track power controller and got the Bagnall 2-8-2 out for a run....

pulling a bogey van and 3 carriages.

A nice long run for the loco and its train; I enjoyed sitting on the garden bench and watching it run round. On picking up the loco to put it away, the '13 effect' struck again 😡  The smoke box assembly at the front of the boiler came away... an emergency visit to the loco repair shop resulted.  The glue had dried out and a thin bit of plasticard had snapped - thankfully some contact adhesive and superglue had things back in place. 

Sunny Sunday (12) - Tram loco and goods train ... ....

 The run of sunny weather is great for train-time; another spell in the garden enjoying running a train.....

Sunny Sunday (11) - tipper wagons ... ....

I made best use of the nice weather this afternoon to run a goods train with my tipper wagons (old Hartland Loco Wagons, with new wheels).

Sunny Sunday (10) - short mixed train ....

 After a week or so with a nasty summer could/virus; finally caught up with the gardening; so today I enjoyed the summer sunshine, sitting on the garden bench watching a train going round .....

Train time.......

 Visiting a friend today, a chance to run one of my trains on his garden layout....

Sunny Sunday (9) - works train ....

This time, the breakdown train gets a run in the sun ....