Warehouse Wednesday: A view from the USA

A friend is on a trip to New York, and among the pictures of the view, and Statue of Liberty, there was this cracking shot. 

At first glance, there is nothing special about it, but that's what makes it so interesting, to me at least. Everything in this photo is American. The building with exposed fire escape on the front. The USPS van - I tried to identify the make, but can't work it out. 

My point is that you can't take an American building kit and plonk it on the UK layout. You'll need to do a fair bit of work first, but then that's all part of the fun isn't it? 

Brian gets his loco

 

Now I've fitted the radio control, there was only one job left to do on this loco - fit the correct nameplates. 

As far as I can work out, this was the last loco kit, and possibly the last kit, my father, Brian, ever bought. As expected, I built it, and even managed to show him some photos, which he liked, a few days before he passed away. Obviously, there was only one name it could have. 

Boot Lane Works provided the new plates. Dad always liked them, and their products, probably why he bought this odd-looking loco. 

Anyway, knowing who they were for, Andrew added a little extra detail to the 3D printed design, and handed them over at a show. 

All I had to do was paint. No problem. Whack some brass colour enamel on. Let it dry. Splosh red over it, and wipe the faces clean. 

Which is what I did. But metalics don't behave like normal paint, they don't dry hard in the same way. So, when I wiped, most of the brass came off as well. I let the red dry, and touched in the brass. And then touched in the red. And the brass. And the red. Until I was happy. 

The old plates, which had been attached with Glue'n'glaze peeled off easily enough, but left glue marks. I got these off, mostly, with damp cotton buds and bits of wood to scrape with. I wasn't happy though. To cut a long story short, the sides of the tanks have been resprayed. 

But, the new plates are on, and look great. Little Brian has been installed on the footplate, read to pull the coaches big Brian built a few years ago.  

Radio control for Musketeer

 

Time for a little catch-up job. A couple of months ago, I wrote up my build of the Boot Lane Works kit of "Musketeer" in Garden Rail, but left the job with power controlled by an on/off switch. My aim had always been to fit some radio, I just didn't have any to hand. Besides, the kit was off the market, and I'd run out of space in the magazine. 

"Musketeer" has been rereleased due to demand, for which I take some of the credit. I still needed power and control, so I turned to RC Trains for a simple solution. Their drop-in unit for the Timpdon Railmotor worked well, so a similar setup here appealed. 

A quick email discussion about space for batteries later, and I received a small Jiffy bag containing all I would need.  As promised, it doesn't take much work to fit. The unit it connected to the motor with a chocolate block, and the battery pack just plugs in. A few seconds binding the transmitter to the receiver, and my loco works perfectly. 

The biggest job was making the switch fit into the toolbox on top of the loco. This is designed to fit over a slightly smaller switch, but a few minutes hacking away at the 3D printed part saw it fit snuggly. 

Now, the loco just needs a driver... 

Saturday Film Club: 1979: The Model World of Robert Symes

Off to SWAG

Sunday sees the latest meeting of the South West Area Group (SWAG) of RMweb. It's a fun little event that is open to all, and normally features some really good small layouts, plenty of chat, pasties and cake. 

You can read about last year's event here. 

It's a little bit of a mystery exactly what will be there, but dig through the thread on RMweb, and you'll have a better idea. I've already arranged one layout shoot, and strongly suspect that it won't be the only one. I find SWAG a great source of micro layouts for BRM. 

If you enjoy quality modelmaking, and cake, head to Taunton, and all being well, I'll see you there.  

10AM- 4PM , Sunday 19th April 2026 

Staplegrove Village Hall, 214 Staplegrove Road, Taunton. TA2 6AL