I can't remember how old The Melbridge Box Company is, but it must be at least 25 years. However, I'd said I'd take it along to Ally Pally to act as a display stand for the World of Railways exclusive locos, so it was time to pull the model off the shelf, and make sure it was exhibition-ready.
First - dust. Lots of it. While the boxfile might close up, there are holes in the ends to let trains out, and it seems, dust in. Much work was needed with a soft paintbrush to clean the model up.
Then the main problem was the chimney. It has four stays holding it up, and as the tube splits for transport, these are made out of thin rubber thread. After all this time, this had perished and needed replacement.
Once the old thread had been cleaned away, and the superglued knots where it attaches to the buildings (it's too smooth just to tie a knot) I was faced with trying to rethread the thing. Not as easy as you might think. The holes in the sides of the chimney are just big enough for the thread, and the rubber doesn't stay straight, so getting it into the chimney is fine, but finding the exit hole isn't.
In the end, I passed a length of wire through the chimney, and superglued the thread onto the end, then pulled it back through. This worked a lot better than I expected it to!
After that, a bit of knot tying, some superglue and a kicker, and the job was done.
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