Loxley Barton Falls

Recently I purchased an unusual HOe locomotive from Japan. This stunning little locomotive has outside frames and a working couping rod and comes either as a kit or ready to run having been put together from the kit by a 70 year old craftsman in Japan. It is a HOe scale 9mm gauge.

Here I have the loco running on the famous Henk Wursts German logging layout ''H Bach' and it looks right at home.

Currently I have no plans to run this on Loxley Barton as it is too modern, probably...

And a certain John Jacobs had a little drive...

Posted by Simon at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I spent some time over the weekend getting my old SimAir compressor out of storage, been meaning to do this for quite a while, and rescuing my airbrushes from the loft. I spilt a little oil from the compressor and it absolutley reeked and I got told off. Having tested everythingto make sure it was OK I mixed up some acrylics to the shade of green I wanted for the Ruston and thinned it with cellulose thinners, dropped it into the airbrush with a pipette and spent the next hour spraying and masking out. It was great fun. A bit of hand brushing for details and the intial wethering on the loco was followed by painting the driver. I covered the lot in clear acrylic spray varnish which is hard enough to prevent the knocks chipping the paint but it is glossy so I need to run a quick matt varnish over it but I will probably wait until I have finished the weathering.
I will get a photo up soon. The engine will be on Loxley Barton this weekend at the Croydon MRC show.

Posted by Simon at 1:07 PM | Permalink

Yesterday I completed the Meridian Models MM3 kit of a Ruston Hornsby 27-32. I have not painted it yet as you can see in the photo but what a great little kit. A bit tricky in parts - soldering the roof on was tricky and getting the engine cover exactly square tested my patience! The one thing that stands out on this locomotive is the short wheelbase. It could probably go around a 10mm radius curve. The most difficult part in construction was cutting the chassis down to size and I used a cutting disk in the end. There is a fair bit of white metal in the engine housing so I may not need to add any extra weight. I did not even contemplate putting DCC in this, not because of the diminutive size but because the Trix chassis looked to difficult to modify, though I have not actually run it yet so don't know if it even works!

I see Dave Brewer and Pete Wilson (Meridian Models) most Fridays at the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society meetings and will be asking then what the 27-32 in the name of the kit means exactly - could be year of design, horsepower, works design number or chest size of driver - I have no idea!

Posted by Simon at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Classic Roco 060 diesel dark green with black roof. This engine was purchased in 1985 at a small model shop in Faversham. This was the first engine to test the Loxley Barton Falls track and it only just made the sharp curve. No.5 is a very reliable engine and an excellent runner.

Posted by Simon at 2:09 PM | Permalink