Playing Catch Up

Doesn't the time flash by when you're enjoying yourself ? It's been well over a year since I last posted, hence the Catch Up.

Over the last twelve months I've been trying to partially finish with the later locomotives hence the appearance of No 10000, St Mawes Castle, The Princess Royal, etc.
This led to the creation of one or two much earlier locomotives right back to the 1850's with Sturrock's GNR Single and also his steam tender adventure. (Incidentally, the MS & LR had some steam tender locomotives as well). There will be more early types as time goes by. These can't be bought off the shelf, of course, so, for the adventerous, it's scratch building !!

My first attempt at scratch building went against the advice common at the time which was to start with an 0-6-0. Not me - I went straight for an LMS Jubilee. From time to time (which was most of the time) I rather regretted my decision but I learned a hell of a lot about bending and annealing brass sheet, soldering, sprung drivers and how to attach side springs to a front bogie. All in all, a good time was had by all - well, not all, my wife did have a few words to say about men with obsessional hobbies !!

My current project is a Midland 800 Class 2-4-0 in the pre 1882 green livery. The colour is a bit of a problem in that it appears the it could have been a lightish Brunswick Green or, on some locomotives, a shade or two lighter. Anyway I've gone for a sort of Brunswick Green.

I've been buying books lately. Well, I buy books all the time mainly via Abe Books who have a great service. I always pay by Paypal and have never had a problem. Recent buys have been:
- LNER Carriages - Michael Harris. This is a reprint of his earlier (1973)book on the subject but in a bigger format and with added material. Pity that the error regarding the size of the coach letters on the side of the Silver Jubilee coaches was included. (It states that they were 4ins high when, in fact, they were 12in letters.). For all that, it's a good book and worth buying if you're into LNER.
- Midland Locomotives - Essery & Jenkinson. This follows the style of many of the books by these two authors and it's a cracker. These two guys were real experts in the field (and other fields) and if you're into the Midland this is for you. I'm always fascinated at the high quality of the photos taken from about 1880 - huge cameras with plate glass slides being humped around the place. Thank goodness they did or we (the enthusiasts) would be much poorer.

That's enough Catch Up - the sun is shining !!