I did my "traditional" end of year shopping yesterday and came away with two bags of stuff for the layout, plus a couple of CDs for Dad as his New Year prezzies, I knew I needed quite a bit and still didn't get everything I wanted but came back with plenty to keep me occupied over the remainder of the Winter.
One of the new purchases was the recently released Cl.37/5 model from Bachmann, which I intend to redo as 37519, a personal favourite from the late nineties.
This particular tiny Tractor boasts the latest tooling from Bachmann, in reality the nose-end and bogie mouldings appear to be the only changes from my other, centre headcode box 37/5, both having identical bodyshells. On fitting the (now single piece) snowploughs and multi-working cables "new" doesn't appear to mean better though as the two items foul each other, handicapping bogie swing, something I shall need to rectify before the loco can be let loose on rails.
The next obvious thing to do was to place the two 37s side-by-side to show and compare the pair...Hmmm.
The first thing I was looking for was the improved tail-light moulding but it didn't take long to see the difference in height of the body. 683 is structurally unmodified so it's plain to see the new loco sits too high on its bogies, more work! Fortunately other modellers have reported this is a comparatively simple fix so no drama, I also have plenty of spare three-piece snowplough sets in the spares box with which I can replace the rather more chunky looking mono-plough.
Also on the workbench are a pair of the updated Hornby Cl.56 models, I did at least have some idea of the work required to turn them into 4mm versions of their intended real-life counterparts.
First up is 56003, which Hornby have depicted (more or less) in her preservation days.
The major work on this model will be fitting buffer-beam cowling, etched fan grilles, engine room fan covers and removing the Load Haul logo on one side only. Then it's a case of a renumber, fit oval buffers, a touch of paint here and there plus weathering. The hoped for result is 56027, which our man Rob Reedman kindly sent me a reference picture for:
Requiring rather more effort will be an attempt to recreate 56038 'Western Mail' in triple-grey Transrail livery, the base model being a cheaply picked up weathered 56049.
This also requires attention to the roof plus a full repaint but the biggest job is that I want to improve the performance of, of all things, the radiator fans.
Hornby fit a working fan set to the model but to me this doesn't function as per the prototype so I intend to fit a motor to drive only the fans, I'm hoping there could be a possibility to integrate the DCC chip to alter the speed of the fans, ideally some arrangement to have the fans turning at a slow constant speed even if the locomotive is stationary. Cool!
