Letting the passengers sit down

I've had a WLLR coach partially built for a while. It's one of Worsley Works scratch aids. It's certainly caused me to do some scratching of my head as I worked out what I needed to do. I've had the basic shell built for a while but have kept putting it off going to th enext stage. There were definietly a mixture of reasons in there from being unclear on the next stage, unclear how the roof was going to be done and also the soldering wasn't going that well.

I decided I needed to fix my soldering first and invested in a new temperature controlled iron. I suspect that all I needed was a new bit in my 25 year old Weller iron but new bits are a similar price to a new iron these days! I also decided to stop using multi-core solder and started using some Carr's solder I had in stock. I've always used Carr's green flux. It made a huge difference or else I was just more confident.

The first job was to take off the false flooring on the verandas as it was making the railings too high. then I was able to fix the railings relatively easily, if you ignore the burnt finger. At least it was only one finger. I still have memories of 40 years ago catching a falling soldering iron by the hot end. That hurt and necessiated a trip to the school nurse - do they still have those?

I also soldered in some brass nuts to hold the fixing screws for the bogies. Now I need to work out what height the coaches should be and whether there is enough space for the steps on the end.

Burgundy instead?

That's better. Matt came up trumps, again, with a can of Ford Burgundy Red. The engine did require stripping back to bare metal but the effect was worth it. Thankfully Christmas, for me, is one of those times when I can settle down to some modelling so I have cracked on and got Joan repainted. the photo is cruel and shows where the brass banding on the domes has not come out as well as I would like but in normal use it gives the necessary level of colour.

I had ordered soem nameplates from Narrow Planet but they are too large. I was surprised when I ordered them that plates for this loco weren't available as a set. Guess what I found today when reviewing their site. Ordered and will hopefully be delivered before the first outing of the layout this year.

If you are interested in what shows I will be attending then head over to my website or Facebook page.