The replacement castings for the N15 have arrived, the smokebox door needed some work so it sat centrally and was glued on yesterday with the dart added today. The rest will go on over the weekend, for which the weather forecast suggests indoors will be the place to be. The brakevan has gone into temporary hibernation while I summon some enthusiasm to move it forward.
Therefore what to do next, no shortage of options and I decided on something relatively easy, at least at first appearance. I'm rather fond of this, can't put my finger on why, perhaps it's the colour.
This is yet another coarse wheeled model with outside third pickups, and the principal tasks are, rewheel with finescale wheels, two rail it so pickups, a diet to remove the excess ballast, and some titivation to the bodywork. Taking the body off reveals,
a Crailcrest motor with twin drive to all axles, we've been here before with flexible couplings and it was painful then, though to be fair this is reasonably put together. It's a bit noisy, one bogie has gears that grate but it does run well enough. The lead pieces were what came out of the cabs, along with the glazing which is yellow with age. As can be seen its well coated with old oil, general muck fluff and what have you from the last 30 or more years.
Since I've now got the ultrasonic kit and mindful of the previous experience I was judicious in application and a bogie was cleaned,
A lot cleaner and with quite a bit of paint removed as well, it was already planned that the "chassis" would need repainted. The other one and the basic frame was also done, certainly a lot quicker than by hand. I am going to resist the temptation to strip it all down, one bogie at a time seems sensible. The next job will be the B end bogie strip to see whats worn and can sensibly be sorted, and also see whether anything needs ordered, I have wheels and axles so there shouldn't bee much, two sets of horns at the moment.
Best wishes
Martin