Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Back in the box


1861parts
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
This was supposed to run on the layout last weekend. I had a vision that the locomotive would cruise around the model smoothly and silently. People would marvel at the quality of the modelling and ask if it was an etched kit. When I identified it as an old K’s model they would gasp in admiration at the wonders I had performed with 40-year-old material.

Instead it’s going back in the cupboard. There it will stay for the foreseeable future.

Why ? Because I can’t get any wheels for it. Currently I have an order in with Mainly Trains (4 weeks old) and Markits (2.5 weeks old) and at present all I have in my hand is a single pair of Gibsons. That’s four wheels too few for a reliable chassis.

At present I’m not sure how or indeed if this situation can be resolved. In the meantime the model sits in its box, packed up with all the other goodies I bought to improve the body awaiting the day when the essential round parts arrive.

I know you are saying, “Why don’t you just get on with the body ?”,well I don’t want to. There’s no point it doing the top bits if the bottom bits don’t work, so my heart just wouldn’t be in it. Besides, to be practical for a moment, I’m not sure how the two halves fit together. I think some of that whitemetal will have to succumb to the attention of a dental burr and so there’s no point putting things on that are only going to get knocked of with clumsy handling.

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