Projects Back on Track

A quick model railway update before we get back to the business of schlocky films and associated pop culture next week.  As I've still not made any progress on clearing stuff from the spare room, my layout expansion plans are still at a standstill.  In the interim, I've been busy pushing forward on a couple of other projects, namely finally getting two locomotives that have been 'works in progress' for several years now finished.  Unhappy with my previous repainting efforts, I stripped the Wrenn rebuilt West Country I bought painted in a fictitious blue livery back to bare metal and started again, this time with spray paints.  To the left of it is an unrebuilt West Country/Battle of Britain cobbled together from various Triang and Hornby components.  The body was in Southern Railway livery and the tender was unfinished black plastic.  These also have been given the spray paint treatment:

Parts of the black on both locos needs retouching with a brush, then both will be ready to receive lining transfers, new numbers and nameplates before being reunited with their chassis and entering service.  (The rebuilt West Country will also need to have its smoke deflectors and hand rails re-fitted, of course).  In the meantime, I've several other projects in hand: there is another Wrenn rebuilt West Country having a tender built for it, (the components are nearly ready for painting and assembly), an unrebuilt West Country built from various Hornby parts is almost ready to take paint and a couple of Hornby Maunsell coaches are currently going through the paint shop.  

A while ago I bought a box of Triang Hornby Mk1 coach components cheaply from eBay.  The main bits I was interested in were these coach sides, comprising three brake seconds and a full brake.  All badly repainted.  

 

They are of interest to me as I have a shortage of brake coaches and a surplus of old Triang Hornby composite coaches.  So I'll be using these sides (after they've been stripped and repainted green) and using them to convert four of the composite coaches into brakes.  The box also contained a lot of other stuff, including two complete brake seconds, which will, without modification, form part of an inter-regional train.  There are also a variety of coach interiors (which will be used in the conversions), several roofs and a complete chassis which requires a bit of work, but will eventually be used as the basis for another coach built from spare components.  

 

 

All-in-all, a pretty good buy.  These, along with the aforementioned locomotive projects, (not to mention an Ian Kirk CCT kit to be assembled and several wagons to be repainted), should keep me occupied for the foreseeable future.  At some point, though, I really do have to get around to clearing more stuff out of that spare room...