Sunny Thursday ..

Yesterday I went round to a friends house for a garden railway running session, lovely late afternoon and early evening and a nice selection of trains...

My Bagnall 2-8-2 with L&B stock train had a good long run round .....

While trains were running, a live steam loco was being tinkered with and left to run-in for a while.

A long train, USA style,  snaked its way around .....

LocoWorks: Bagnall Refurbishment (2) --- ready for service

Just before heading to the paint shop I did one more test run on the garage layout - a mysterious squeaking noise occurred while going round curves. The problem was traced to the cow-catcher; the bottom bar was rubbing on the rail top. I removed it and replaced it with a wire bar a bit further up - no more 'Mr Squeaky'

While doing the painting I mixed some green colours to get a near match to the loco's body colour. I used this to paint the wheels and the sand boxes which has greatly improved the look.

Sunny Sunday (5) - Tram loco with goods trains... .....

After doing some gardening jobs, it was nice to sit on the garden bench and relax watching the train running round the layout...

LocoWorks: Bagnall Refurbishment (1) --- the changes

 The Bagnall 2-8-2 tender loco..

Looks good from far, but up close there are lots of things that aren't quite right, so I thought it was time to get these sorted out with a little refurbishment; while doing that I am going to make any changes that are needed so that I could fit it with battery powered remote control.

The Tender

The back of the tender top was not well fitted, so I removed it and put some extra supports - plenty of room inside for the batteries and RC electronics...

The top part cleaned, repaired and sanded to remove some old paint lumps... (the original maker made use of some 'to hand' bits for parts, on the back of the tender - the two upright 'post's are the tops of knitting needles and the small dome the plastic top from a tube of carpet tacks)

a splash of paint and a bit of satin varnish; the top fits in nicely and stays in - lifting out if needed (no need for any fixings).

The Loco

Taken apart; the main part of the loco body is fine; just the underframe section being a bodge up and the way the chassis is fitted to the body is to flimsy. The lead and trailing bogeys need some work too.

Somehow the hand-rail wire got out of the holder, holder carefully removed and easy to fix...

Cosmetic cover up at the front for a repair done previously to hold the boiler/smokebox on properly...

a repair to the cow-catcher...

When I first acquired the loco, to get it running I had to hack the underframe leaving a bit of an uneven mess, so cover-up added to give a nice straight edge.

New profile done for the front bogey surround...

New profile done for the trailing rear bogey surround...

The lead and trailing bogies, some repairs done (well made by the original builder out of plasticard and a couple of bogey wheel sets)

I fixed up the outer facing parts to give a better profile and have them looking similar....

I've removed the scratchbuilt spring detail and added some axle box castings to give them a more chunky look...

Two small uprights added to the centre of the under frame to help hold the chassis in position

the cosmetic upgrade to the sides of the under frames finished...

The cab end needed tidying up...

a single piece of thin plasticard added with a gap for the coupling ... thats better ....

The prototype had a visible spring above the front lead bogey, so I've added one to each side

Some sand boxes to be painted an stuck on...

Out in the garage for a run test....

The lead bogey catches on curves, in my tinkering I've reduced the clearance - so a small shim has been  added to provide suitable clearance.

The loco is off to the paint shop...

Sunny Sunday (4) - L&B Bogey coaches train .....

Well almost sunny, warm and a bit of cloud with an occasional hint of blue sky; good enough weather to give the L&B bogey coaches an inaugural run on the garden layout...

Before giving the coaches a run I altered one of my bogey brown vans to have an LGB coupling at one end, so I could pull the coaches...

Out on the garden layout...

CoachWorks - L&B Bogey Coaches (2) - finishing off..

All Third
Removing the old door handles, most of which were broken and replacing them with some new brass ones

With that done, glazing put back in and the roof put back on - the person who made the coach had secured the roof using screws which went in two of the ventilators - a neat solution

looking rather nice after its refurbishment - decals needed...(on order)

The Brake Composite

Replacing a couple of broken door handles,  fortunately I was able to save some I removed from the All Third coach and use them so I had matching handles...

After some careful paint matching some touching in done on the roof and coach body it now looks better

CoachWorks - L&B Bogey Coaches (1) - getting started...

 the bright green coach roof removed and the glazing removed....

Onto the modelling desk and the coach body gets it new darker green colour...

the green colour is a shade darker than the other coach, but it will do (the other coach is in good condition and I don't want to repaint it)

started refurbishing the roof....

plenty left to do

• roof to finish
• replace broken door handles
• varnish
• re-assemble 
• get some suitable transfers for the coach compartments -  all Third

after that do a cosmetic 'lift' on the other coach