And The Doors Fell Off (2)

Kit Bashing OR Kit Bodging?

But the new doors needed a new wall and hinges. And the new plastic front end was smaller than the shed onto which it was all to be glued.

So take a slice of one of the side walls of the kit ...

... and glue it to the front wall.

The huge ventilators on the roof were too big, so the fan had to go and a triangle of brickwork from the "bits box" put in its place,

All of this Kit Bodging needs an extensive tool kit and fbb' is illustrated herewith.

The yellow tube is polystyrene cement, the green tube is plastic filler; the other two items should be obvious. Sadly, however, fbb has never been able to find a saw that cuts in straight lines (hence the filler!) and he finds the old kitchen scissors far more efficacious!

One other tool is very useful indeed, namely the fbb residence (!) seen in use here.

The walls are clad with some very durable rough cast which makes an excellent file for cleaning up badly cut bits of plastic.

So we get to the first stage of the new front wall to replace the doors that fell off.

It looks a bit rough (a lot rough) at the moment but with the doors and a bit more bodging it will look reasonable.

But it sill needs more work.

After an hour or so, it could be that local builders D A Pole have successfully built the new front to the shed after an enthusiastic fireman was too athletic as he hurled the embers from the firebox of his tank loco before both man and machine retired for the night.

By comparison, assembling the remainder of he shed is simple.

The roof of the clerestory ventilator was filed down (as above) to merge with the main roof ...

... and a new smaller vent was made out of bits of the old. The first coats of paint cover a multitude of sins (more filler) ...

... and things are beginning to come together.

It is fun to imagine a back story for these projects which chart the progress of the Peterville Quarry Railway (PQR).

Lord Peter Hoober-Blynd sold most of his his extensive quarry business to Foster Yeoman but retained the disused Peterville site and provided adequate funds to establish a community project. As Sir Peter was a railway enthusiast, the obvious candidate was a working railway museum; and an early decision was taken to collect and preserve as many types of railway coach as possible.

The engine shed project received match-funded lottery money to create a Thomas the Tank Engine museum. The PQR already owns a Toby the Tram Engine and has rebuilt a 1930s German Railways coach as Henrietta.

Thomas arrived safely a fortnight ago ...

... and work has started on making historically correct two-bogie Annie and Clarabel carriages.

As this involves rebuilding bogies and sawing bits off full length carriages, don't hold your breath for a quick result - or any result at all.

Additionally, fbb is on the lookout for a reasonably priced N2 tank which will become Ryan.

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The purple colour looks delicious! One of the earliest Hornby Dublo locos was the N2, available for many years for the 3-rail system.

The body casting was crude by today's standards but it was a good solid metal loco and many of them seemed to go on for ever. When Dublo started with 2 rail, the N2 was produced for the new system but in a red box.

Hornby capitulted to Triang but the ubiquitous N2 remained as part of the Wrenn label which used the Dublo tooling.

But the truth was that Wrenn was only Triang's way of keeping the cast metal models in production ...

Far less well-known, however, is Triang's clockwork N2 manufactured in 1953.

But these crude models were soon to vanish in favour of he universal plastic. In 2000 a new (Triang) Hornby model appeared with a much higher quality plastic body.

Spot the difference? That large pipe running from smokebox (under the funnel) to the water tank. This loco is modelled as fitted with condensing apparatus.

This equipment condensed the steam exhaust back into water which went back to the tanks giving the locos  longer range without a fill-up. Not all variants of the class were so fitted.

Ryan was brought to help run Thomas' Branch Line while Thomas was sent to help out at the construction yard during the building of the Harwick Branch Line. He later helped stop Captain Calles' Pirate Ship, which was being used by Sailor John to escape with the treasure.

The original Rev Wilbert Awdry stories were never as bloodthirsty!

Hey ho! Back to the painting.

Progress! But with unfinished front end, still a lot more to do; and fbb forgot to stick the ventilator on!

But the engine shed extension project has been a couple of days of relaxation from the rigours of Church stuff, writing blogs and providing support services for Jacko the cat; affronted and furious as a result of prolonged heavy rain.

Tailpiece.

Here is an illustration of two Airfix/Dapol engine sheds re-imagined as a rather nice goods shed.

Goods shed! fbb hasn't got one of those - yet!

 Next bus news blog : Monday 6th February