The Wardrobe on wheels is finished

 

The HGLW kit for a Wittenberg Schafer loco is complete, and I've really enjoyed building it. As you'll see, I have picked an ugly livery for this less than beautiful loco - all the brightly coloured versions I've seen look a bit too VW campervan to me. This is an industrial machine after all. 

A full build will appear in September's issue of Garden Rail, out on on the 8th August.

Loco driver

 

 

My loco needs a driver, and digging through my stash of large scale bits, I found this Model Earth Design "Shorter Staff" figure. Cast in resin, from a master by Chris Johnson, it's supplied in two parts - torso and head. 

Painting is simple enough with enamels, followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade to add some shadows. The effect is over-emphasised in the photo, but it looks great. I even painted the cap in a check pattern, although you can't see it from this angle. 

Since I prefer my large-scale people to be caractures, rather than scale models, this little man is ideal for the job, and was a pleasure to paint.

Wittenberg Schafer Loco, body beautiful?

 

I think this loco is really attractive, in an ugly sort of way. Always particial to the more "unusual" prototypes, it was always going to feature on my rolling stock wishlist. My freind Andy thinks it looks like a wardrobe on wheels, but I'll ignore him. 

The body is a simple to assemble MDF item. The only tricky area is the roof, the wood for this needs to pre-curved and the piece in the kit proved stubborn, so I substituted it with a spare bit from our stock. Same thinkness, but much more flexible. 

How did I form the wood? In a set of metal rollers!

I don't understand why, but this technique works pretty well. Every so often there is a cracking noise from the wood, but it survives, and keeps the bend. I'm going to need to tidy the background up before using that photo in print though.

HGLW Wittenberg Schafer Loco - chassis

 

When a blog project morphs into a magazine one...

I've had a Houstoun Gate Locomotive Works kit for the Wittenberg Schafer Loco sitting on the shelf for a few years. Looking for a fun blog project that didn't involve soldering in the heat of the summer, I dragged it to the workbench and started building. 

Then someone dropped out of September's Garden Rail, and I realised that this would fill the space very nicely. Of course, that limits its use on the blog, but I can provide a few tasters, the full step-by-step build (complete with cock-ups) appearing in the magazine. 

Starting with the chassis, this is far more impressive than I had expected. the steel wheels and axles run in proper metal bearings. A pulley and rubber band system give the model four-wheel drive, which should make it very handy for the next "Layout in a day". Those wheels also provide plenty of low-down weight which I hope will help with the wobbly plastic track.