January Update

Another year begins and the run up to the Spring begins with some kit construction and a clearout of the workshop.

The build of the Engine Shed has continued

The completed shell was tried out on the railway to see how much room I had to site it.

No clearance...bugger... might need to revise the track layout.

Looks nice though.

The roof was added after a bit of fettling.

The hinges are glued in place on the doors

Next job is add the roof vent.

The sides and ends are glued on.

The doors go on.

Looking good.

The final roof sections are in place. Car filler is used to fill the gaps.

Ridge tiles are added

Unfortunately because of an error I made in building the smoke vent I had to add a bit more from some scrap plasticard.

The last job is to get it in the paint booth but I have to build that first.

I made a start on the Swift Sixteen kits.

The open wagon body parts

The end is glued and clamped in place.

1 body completed and ready for its wheels

The wheels are mounted on a steel axle which runs in a brass tube that is glued into the mounting turrets

On its wheels. The second kit quickly followed.

Before I started the coach kit I made a start on tidying the workshop. My work area is nice and tidy.

Still some work to be done on the rest!

The coach is a nice neat kit

The wheels fit in the same way as the trucks

The castings are good but need a bit of cleaning up

Once cleaned up and with the handle and grab rail in place the body looks great. Time for paint.

The Railcar was the last of my Christmas kits to build. Its a card kit that requires cutting out.

The sides are the first thing to be cut out

The Chief Engineer keeps an eye on progress as the windows are cut out.

Most important thing in the workshop

The windows all cut out, the other side followed after many blade changes as card really blunts blades quick.

Bracing wooden struts are glued in place

One side is ready, the other one will get its bracing next.

The rear panel is cut out along with its edge reinforcement strips

The floor components are cut out. They will be glued back to back to form a double thickness laminate

The cab sections are cut out

The body sides are glued in place

As is the front of the cab

The end panel is glued in place, just the cab to add.

The tidy up of the shed continued and I can finally get to the back of the shed

The winter bought us the first snow of the year although it was simply a light dusting I took the opportunity to get a picture or two.

No. 1 on snow clearing duty

The view from the workshop window.

Thats it for now except for one bit of late news is that I just won a second Swift Sixteen coach kit from E-Bay. It has had a coat of paint and has the brake coach duckets. More pictures in the February update.