Large Logo Class 50 weathered

Weathered class 50 with the detailing pipes added

I have just returned home from a fantastic half term week with my son and managed to finish off my class 50 weathering project. The locomotive in question is the BR blue large logo hoover, Centurion. After looking on the web for quite a while at pictures of these locomotives in service I have tried to recreate an 'in-service' look, albeit towards the dirtier end of the spectrum of how these locomotives were in the 1980s.

Dirt streaks running off the roof

First of all I added the various pipes to the front of the locomotive and cut away the NEM coupler socket at the front, replacing it with a 3 link coupling. After this, try as I might, I could not successfully remove the bogie sides from the locomotive and fearing I was about to damage the locomotive I went with the option of masking of the wheels and then weathering the chassis as a whole, with the body done separately. The roof was treated to some weathered black and the chassis/body sides were weathered with a mixture of weathered black, frame-dirt and sleeper grime, each applied as a separate coat. In total the weathering probably took around 20 different air-brush applications, including sealing with acclad varnish. I attempted to produce some dirt streaks running from the roof down the body sides as well as varying the weathering on the chassis in a way which is sympathetic to the moulded relief of the underframe.

This locomotive is now finished and is trundling up and down the first section of laid track on Pottington Quay. With a bit of luck I might even get the next sections of track laid down on Pottington today as well.

Pottington Quay DCC micro shunting layout

Class 50 running an engineers train

A couple of pictures of the developing scene at Pottington Quay. Over the last few nights the track has been glued down on part of the micro-layout. This has allowed the 'mainline' running past the yet to be constructed platform to become operational. The fiddleyards have also been extended and can now hold a diesel with a 3 coach train or a rake of 7/8 open wagons with a locomotive. The track laying was soldered up last night to a powerbus (soldering is not my strong point) via dropper wires. And tonight I have been testing the end to end running of the layout with the recently finished class 50 and also the class 45 I recently fitted with a Howes sound decoder. So far, so good. It is great to have somewhere to start running the locomotives again, especially with the sound on!


Class 45 with the sound running!

SR Tunny wagon

Another little project I finished this week is a Chivers Tunny wagon. After adding the decals a layer of sleeper grime and framedirt were blasted over the wagon before sealing with a matt varnish. The transfer application is not quite right, but for now I will live with it. It is another wagon for use in the engineering department. These are lovely kits to build and I have a GWR tunny nearing the transfers stage now as well. Incidentally the photograph was taken on the recently laid track on Pottington Quay. Hopefully I will get at least some of this layout operational this week and it will see its first trains running....


SR lamprey now in the engineering department

Hornby class 50 near completion

Just a quick update on a long standing project - a large logo class 50 which is now almost finished. Today I reassembled the chassis and the body and had a general look over the state of weathering and detailing. The locomotive is close to being completed now, but there is a little bit of touching up to do with the weathering, although it has already been sealed with varnish. Also after reassembly I just could not get the ETH pipes to behave and this are protruding at a funny angle at the ends of locomotive; I am not sure how to cure this one - if anyone knows please get in touch. Otherwise an enjoyable little project and another locomotive ready for service on Pottington Quay - speaking of which I really need to get my soldering iron out this weekend....

The next project - Bachmann class 37

Class 37 stopped at Georgeham halt

At the moment I am not getting much modelling done. A combination of working outdoors most days coupled with some severe weather has meant that energy to do any modelling has been low in the evenings. However, I did get a decoder fitted to an intercity liveried class 37 this week and this is the basis of an upcoming project. The model looks great running along my little Georgeham layout. I am wondering how to weather this one....a spay of colour on the chassis and lower body side/grilles is all this one will need I think....hopefully some progress on this one soon....