Wittenberg Schafer Loco

This little box cab locomotive is a nicely detailed kit from the Houston Gate Locomotives Works and is one of their usual laser cut wood kits. It features some nice extra detail and a neat 4 wheel drive chassis.

Kit contents

The kit also includes some vac formed windows which will make the glazing much easier.

I started by making the chassis which has extra detail for the drive shaft access panels and some nice axle boxes plus some nice chassis framing that is added to the sides and could be painted and added after the rest of the chassis is painted if you wanted to make them a different colour.

The chassis under construction

Once the frame is dry the axles boxes, wheels and motor are then added.

The buffer beams are completed with overlays which have rivet detail etched in although I decided to add some plastic rivet heads to them and some bolt heads to the drive shaft covers.

The chassis nearing completion

Once this had all dried I added the buffer beams and then I could get on with the body

The body under construction

This is a simple box structure with an engine compartment at the front which has a removable lid which has an air filter and control panel on it.

The engine bay is reasonably large and took 4 AA nicad's and the remote control board. An on/off switch and charger socket were added to the cab engine bay wall. Once complete the body was glued to the chassis.

The roof was now built. This is a removable roof to allow access to the batteries and consists of a frame covered with plywood sheet.

With all sections complete paint was then added and the model is slowly taking shape in a nice yellow and orange livery with framing in black.

The model is not yet finished, the final picture shows it's current condition.

The roof is removable and the frame is seen here drying

The model with the external painting almost complete.

Probably need to update more!

A very busy summer has lead to me not being able to update the site as I would have liked to so another big update is in order.

The railway is in the middle of a big rebuild in the station area. The platform will be relocated between the running lines in an island format and all the buildings will be repainted as they have begun to look rather shabby. The engine shed is also relocated to the opposite end of the station area.

I hope to get the track laying done this week and then the platform will be built before the weather really gets cold.

I have had some good time in the workshop where new wagons, coaches and locos have been built, all of which will be detailed in following posts.

Into 2018

A belated Happy New Year to you all now that we are all back to normality with the Christmas Decorations down and the last of the goodies being consumed.

It is usually during these long, cold, wet and dark days of winter that the garden railway modeler starts to plan the tasks for the coming spring and I am no different.

Firstly the steam up area needs to be connected to the main railway and this will be no.1 task when the weather improves plus a general tidy up.

Next the station area needs to be redone as it is currently not working. A new platform and moving the engine shed to a new area will be the main tasks plus I want to add fencing and some general clutter to the yard area.

The factory area will, hopefully, be started in 2018 although it might not be finished until next year, depends on time and money.

The kits I received at Christmas are waiting on the bench for me to get the time to start putting them together and I am planning on making a couple of videos of the process.

Lots to do, better get on with it!