It’s raining outside. Not the torrents of water hurling themselves from the sky that we’ve seen recently but enough for the KMBC barbecue to be cancelled. I don’t think anyone fancied yet another wet days sailing. The food wouldn’t be much to look at either if the charcoal got wet.
Anyway, once I tidied away the boats I had prepared there was an empty afternoon to fill. This time next week I should be on the Isle of Man so the moment seemed to have arrived for me to finish the locomotive I started months ago.
When I packed it away the chassis had been built and tested but nothing else was done. Today I cracked on with the whitemetal body. Despite being a aged GEM kit this goes together OK. Quite a bit of work was required with the mini-drill and dental bits to remove metal that gets in the way of the mechanical parts. Much of the floor has vanished to clear the wheels and the boiler metal is quite a bit thinner too.
Despite being tested the chassis also took some tinkering. If I’d spotted that there were a few under-gauge sections on the test track I’d have saved myself some work but not much. Both sets of driving wheels moved outward on their axles and the gears had tightened up (how does thins happen ?!) but all was solvable in a couple of hours. The loco now runs up and down the track reasonably nicely.
Of course however steep the learning curve is on this model, I have no choice but to go through it. If I want to build and IOM layout, and I do, then I’ll need to do at least three more of these…
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