I'm terrible for thinking that some time in the future, I'll pull it all together, and become a powerhouse at getting things done. No more looking at projects, and deadlines, and seeing them rush towards me. No, I'll not only get ahead, there will be time to dig in to the pile of kits and ideas that seems to grow all the time.
Truth is this "Future Phil" is going to be just as useless as current day Phil. I'll still aquire projects with the vain hope that I'll crack on with them quickly. And those dealines will still catch me out. Sadly, I don't have the unique talent of Douglas Adams, who could say, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Normal people can't get away with that...
Anyway, the "Future Phil" project that is in my head right now is building a 32mm gauge steam engine, for next weekend's NGRS. As in other years, I should be building a small garden railway with 32 and 45mm gauge tracks. Every year, I decide it would be nice to have a battery-powered steam engine intead of just the diesels in my fleet.
And every year, for many years, I've failed to find the time to build one. So, we'll be using the diesels, including the mobile wardrobe I built during the year. A loco as far as you can get from pretty.
However, I have found time to investigate the brake coach in my IP Enigineeering set. A few years ago, it ran perfectly. Then it took to leaping off every few circuits. I've added weight to it, checked the B2B's, but never taken a proper look. No time.
But, this year, I've extracted the train from storage early, and had a look. Almost imediatly, I spotted that the axles weren't at right angles to the sides. Measuring, it's less than a couple of mm out, but I can't see any other problem.
Weird this, as the axleboxes are integral to the solebars. Maybe the wagon isn't perfectly square.
Removing an entire solebar wasn't easy, but a sharp knife and some waggling with pliers did it. I took a bit off one end, and fixed it back. The axleboxes are now square. The chassis sits flat, and I'll reset the B2B's.
Fingers crossed I've found it, as this is an attractive train that runs for a long while on one set of batteries - making it very useful.
2 comments:
Don't despair. You have to believe in future Phil. If we didn't all believe we were capable of greater things in our future we would spiral into depression. We all buy lot of things to do in the future that often get left. You do this blog daily for years which is a massive thing, so well done on that.
Future Phil sounds like Future Paul but without the deadlines. I have too many ideas, a reasonable amount of time to work but often not enough motivation. Future Paul would use more of his available time and get more done, finish more models, realise more ideas.
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