I have made some more headway on various O gauge projects over the last few weeks, although modelling time is at a premium (why do I always end up saying this!). The layout continues to edge forwards, with the quay wall all scribed and the dry brushing started. I have made some platforms for the hand operated point levers and with the track painted, I am going to start ballasting this week, once the point levers are installed.
The trackwork has all been tested over the last couple of weeks, trundling a class 08 up and down the layout and it all seems to work pretty well. I am going to get the Heljan class 03 sound chipped this weekend for a test run. The 0-6-0 wheel arrangements are relatively inflexible and some of the curves on the layout are pretty tight. So I just need to check that everything works OK before committing to the ballasting. I am certainly looking forwards to having a sound chipped locomotive to play with - having got rid of my OO gauge layout, where all the diesels were sound chipped, running trains without sounds now feels a little one dimensional.
I have also managed to finish off adding a bit of life to a rtr Dapol 12T plywood box van. This van had some details picked out on the underframe alongside some body weathering, via the airbrush and railmatch enamels. It is quite a good model and I am pleased with the finish on it. So now I have four whole wagons ready to use on the layout! I also have a slaters 12t van nearly finished, it just needs a solebar to be replaced and the painting finished, whilst a vanwide has sat on the modelling desk for about 3 months waiting to be finished. In my opinion, this is the most pleasing aspect about modelling in O gauge; each piece of rolling stock takes quite a long time to build and detail, and they are reasonably expensive. Therefore, I do not have masses of stock, but I am slowly taking my time to build everything. This is proving to be a lot of fun and I am now settled on this way of modelling, certainly for the near future. I am keeping all the OO gauge stuff I have detailed, but I selling off a lot of the OO gauge stock I acquired but never got around to using; which has provided some funds for my O gauge adventures. In some ways it feels like a relief to get rid of clutter and old models that I never got around to using.
