Its been while since I’ve updated Bawdsey’s blog, and thats because nothing much has been going on. Earlier this year I obtained one of the Bachmann Derby lightweight units and that has been sitting waiting for some attention in coupling the units closer. Recently whilst going through the ‘one day that’ll be useful’ pile I found some Slaters scissor corridor connection kits that were originally destined to tart up a Lima 117 unit back in the late 80’s …
Anyway a quick look at them reveals a simple soldered construction which should look far better than the supplied version. The units have been brought closer together using a shortened Bachmann BR Mk1 ‘hose coupling’, so fitting the bellows unit above will massively improve the appearance. It has now been EM’ed swapping out the Branchlines wheeset from my 108, meaning the 108 is now back to OO and that suits another project for Railway Modeller just fine.
The other kit in the image is one of the Craftsman 02 Diesel kits. Its early 80’s vintage in terms of design, but is an excellent starter kit for those who want to try making something. I have changed the drive system on mine to accomodate a ‘High Level’ drive, but have yet to decide OO or EM gauge. The prototype is the sort of thing that could have been used by an industrial line but introduced in 1960 they may be a bit too modern for plausibility, so it’s looking more OO at the moment.
Theres curently no shows for Bawdsey this year, however I have a provisional booking for next year of which more closer to the date. By that time I may have an entirely diesel fleet for the show sequence, all appropriate to the region and era. Steam however isn’t forgotton, with a J15 and J69 kits in the workshop, with a Bachmann Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 under conversion to EM, which I’ll return to in the future.
http://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/
http://branchlines.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/bachmann-108-wheels.html
I’ll be interested to see your take on EM-ing the Ivatt, Paul.
It’s what’s known as a ‘Really Useful Engine’ in these parts!
Dave.
Its not as straightforward as I’d like it to be Dave, currently on the back burner but will return to it in the Autumn. I got a Gibson conversion which I think will look the dogs when its done. :0)