‘O’ how I’ve missed you!

With all the hard work put into Winkle’s Yard, you would be forgiven for thinking I was changing scale yet again and returning to my OO gauge roots. However, that is not the case and my O gauge layout is still in the garage with lots to do. I have not lost interest in it!

A number of months ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to purchase 6 bogie bolster wagons from the good folks that have made and run Dubmill Sidings. This is really a very special layout and it has been quite inspirational to me as I was contemplating what to do in O gauge. I love it’s selection of wagons, diesel engines and a healthy dose of grime.

The bogie bolster feature in the above picture. When they arrived with me, it was evident that they had worked hard on the exhibition circuit over the years and they looked a bit tired. One of the wagons almost fell apart in the post. Given their condition, I decided to strip them down, re-paint them and weather them again in the style used by our collection of exhibition layouts.

So far, I have stripped 4 wagons of their loads and bolsters as these were glued on and they have been primed ready for new paint and transfers from Railtec.

Here is one of the wagons ready for bauxite and black paint, transfers and the all-important weathering.

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Ready for the World (almost!)

With an appearance at Great Eastern Models looming closer by the day, I was trying to make sure that all my stock looked decent and that the layout looked OK and ran smoothly.

In order to do this, I brought the layout and the fiddle yard into the house with practice running sessions taking place whenever I could.

The above picture shows the area behind the signal box and the detritus of the railway such as pallets, drums and even an old signal head in the grass.

One of the jobs I needed to complete was the small coal point that supplied cold to the area’s heating and water boiler. I used some real crushed coal and fixed this in place with Ballast Bond. Once this was dry, I placed the coal depot cover in place and cleaned the track.

So here are a few pictures of various items of stock that have been weathered ready for the public’s scrutiny.

There are still jobs to do on the layout but they are now much smaller and subtle. I think by the time it appears in Bressingham it will be finished and the stock will all have the level of detail I require.