Progress Report 60

A few things have developed since my last report at the end of May. On the motive power front, he most significant has been the completion of the railway's twelfth locomotive, a Simplex diesel (Emma). Further, on the motive power front, various locos have been through the workshops for routine maintenance and, in the case of Manning Wardle Loco No. 6 (Harthill), some modification. In addition, Hunslet loco No. 3 (Bickerton) is in the process of being converted from track to battery power

There have been some developments with rolling stock - four new wagons have entered service and a couple of these, plus another two wagons, have been weathered.

The track has received some attention with, in particular, ballasting in and around the Copper Mine. There has also been ongoing track maintenance around the railway though this year, having gone over completely to battery power, the maintenance has been less onerous - there being no need now to worry about electrical continuity through the whole network.

Some lineside work has also been carried out, though on a limited scale compared with other developments. The staithes in the coal yard have now been completed, as has the plate girder bridge carrying the feeder line over the sidings at the Copper Mine. I have also, at long last, replaced the fencing separating the Copper Mine sidings from the main line.

History has been made - a live steam locomotive has run on Peckforton Light Railway metals for the first time - and finally, I have also managed to run some trains.

Motive Power

As indicated above, the PLR now has twelve locomotives, eight of which are battery powered and run on the 45mm gauge main line, two are presently track-powered and awaiting conversion to battery power and two are primarily 32mm gauge to run on the feeder railway for the Copper Mine. The most recently completed loco is a plate frame Simplex which was built from an IP Engineering kit. This is actually dual gauge as I have two chassis which will slot in - one 32mm gauge and the other 45mm gauge.

IP Engineering Simplex

After completing the kit according to the instructions, ...

... I decided to modify it by adding more detail to the engine compartment and adding a cab.

Paint-finish
I experimented with a different type of paint-finish on this loco. After applying the primer, I applied rust colour to those areas which I thought would be most susceptible and then sprinkled crushed sea salt crystals on. After a couple of coats of the final colour, the rusty areas were abraded slightly to remove the paint and then rinsed in warm water, exposing the rust colour beneath apparently peeling paint. Some of the salt is still present under the top coat, but this gives the impression of rust bubbling up beneath. I'm not certain I have perfected the technique as yet, but to my mind it does seem to give a reasonable impression of corrosion.

Power and control
She has been equipped with two 14500 (AA sized) li-ion batteries wired in parallel to give extended running time. She also has a Deltang Rx65b receiver/controller which is hidden in the double wall of the cab side (nearest the camera in the above photo). I felt the receiver would be more reliable if placed in a plasticard cab than under the whitemetal bonnet of the engine compartment.

Sound system
I have also provided her with a very basic sound system, using a small module intended for use inside musical greetings cards.(see How I modified a greetings card sound module). The unit was cut down to remove the on-board batteries so it would fit inside the engine compartment, and then wired into the batteries of the loco. Whilst the sound is not remarkable, it does add an little something extra - and for under £1.50 (UKP) it certainly seems good value for money.

Chain drive
For a while, I ran the 45mm gauge chassis unaltered and was not overly impressed with the loco's hauling capabilities (3 or four skips on the level and down hill) -

However, after adding chain drive to turn her into a 4x4.....

..... the difference was, to my mind, quite amazing.

For more detailed information on the construction of this loco see - How I constructed a plate frame Simplex from an IP Engineering kit 

Battery conversion

As indicated above, two of my former track-powered locos are awaiting conversion to battery power.

Loco No. 3 Hunslet 0-4-0 - Bickerton
This is presently in the process of being converted. Her saddle tank was crammed full of lead weights to make her a whacking 2.2kg and I have been putting off tackling her conversion as I knew I would have to remove these weights to create space for the batteries. As she was constructed from a Garden Railway Specialists (GRS) resin kit, I was very concerned about dismantling her in case I damaged the fragile castings and yet the only way of removing the weights was to dismantle her into her various cast components.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I started prising apart the epoxied boiler assembly from the running plate and cab with a flat-bladed screwdriver, the two main components came apart quite easily with no irreparable damage. Furthermore, the clear Bostik adhesive holding the lead weights also parted with a little persuasion and so the loco is now ready for the next stage of conversion.

I found there was room in the saddle tank for three 3Ah 18650 tagged li-ion batteries with room to spare for some sheets of lead flashing. The battery protection board will fit into to lower half of the boiler and when funds permit, I will install the Deltang rx65b receiver/ controller into the firebox.

When she has been reconstructed an opportunity will be taken to give her a respray; her paintwork was beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

My other battery loco (No. 7 - Fowler 0-4-0DM - Tollemache) will be converted later in the year as funds permit.

General loco maintenance

Maintenance, of course, is an ongoing task but I thought I'd just give an insight into the types of jobs which crop up when running a garden railway for those who are considering participating in this fascinating albeit somewhat time-consuming hobby.

Loco No. 6 - Harthill
 This loco was scratchbuilt by me on a Piko 0-6-0 motor block (see How I constructed a Manning Wardle 0-6-0T). She is based on one of the Manning Wardle locos which ran briefly on the Davington Light Railway during the First World War before being shipped to Brazil.

 She is one of my favourite locos as she runs very smoothly and is very responsive to her Deltang rx65b receiver/controller. A month or so ago, her MyLocoSound soundcard stopped working quite abruptly and, as it was still covered by warranty, was sent back to Peter Spoerer (the UK supplier) for a check-up. It turned out that the card itself was faultless and so we traced its problem to the small speaker which I had installed in the loco's cab. This was replaced with one of Peter's speakers (which I should have used in the first place), and the soundcard re-installed. Of course, it now works perfectly! Lesson learned - use the speakers which are recommended for use with the soundcard rather than trying to find a cheaper alternative (not that Peter's speakers are costly).

While she was in the workshop I decided to correct a constructional detail which was pointed out to me by a fellow garden railway modeller. I had pitched the cylinders and motion at too steep an angle rather than aligning the piston rod with the centre of the wheel to which the connecting rod was connected.

Fortunately, the re-positioning was not too onerous - the ends of the slide bars were desoldered from their hangers and then re-soldered higher up. As the cylinders were each fixed in place with a single bolt, they simply swivelled to their new orientation.

To improve the appearance of the crosshead, a plasticard overlay was shaped and superglued to the original plain brass crosshead and given a coat of silver acrylic before being lightly weathered.

Loco No. 1 - Peckforton
Loco No. 1 was recently converted to battery power (see How I converted a track powered loco to battery power).  She was the first UK outline loco to join the fleet (see How I constructed a Peckett loco from a GRS kit) and was equipped with a 'driver' converted (very loosely) from an underscale LGB station guard figure.

I felt it was time to install a more appropriate figure, so a ModelTown driver was painted and glued in place of the LGB figure.

The rather garish pink batteries which were installed in the cab we also given a coat of matt black acrylic paint while the roof of the cab was removed.


Loco No. 8 - Wynford
During one of the operating sessions, I discovered that the Deltang Rx102 receiver in Loco No.8 had lost its Selecta function. When used with the Deltang Tx22 transmitter, twelve locos can be assigned to different 'channels' on the transmitter and controlled independently - similar to DCC decoder equipped locos on track-powered railways. It seemed that when the original Rx102 had been re-programmed for 'Cruise' control (ie it would hold its speed setting on the loss of the transmitter signal), it had lost its Selecta setting. The most recent version of Rx102 comes with Cruise mode as default and can easily be re-programmed for Selecta through the use of a bind plug. The old receiver was removed, and replaced with the newer version which was programmed to operate the DigiSounds soundcard using the Deltang Prog4 programming module (see How I reprogrammed a Deltang Rx102 receiver).

At some time in the future, I will replace the Brian Jones Mac5 ESC and Deltang Rx102 with a Deltang Rx65b for standardisation of equipment across the loco stud.

Rolling stock

New wagons
Four new wagons have now entered service; a flat wagon, a gunpowder van, a cattle wagon and an open wagon. The flat wagon is a simple conversion of a Hartland wagon chassis (see How I constructed some flat wagons).

 The gunpowder wagon was constructed from a cheap wooden trinket box mounted on a Hartland wagon chassis (see How I constructed a gunpowder van).

The wagon still requires some lettering (I am exploring options for white on black lettering) and also some subtle weathering.

An Accucraft cattle wagon, which has been sitting on the shelf for a while awaiting the installation of LGB hook and loop couplings has also been weathered and added to the roster..

The open wagon was constructed from my own resin castings (see How I constructed my third batch of open wagons). Once the paintwork has fully hardened off, she will be weathered and details such as latch chains and brake gear will be added.

Weathering
Two further wagons have been weathered, having spent too long in their pristine state; an LGB stake wagon ...

 ... and an Atropos Admiralty flat wagon which is used to convey milk churns.

All these wagons have now been added to the wagon database (see Computerised freight handling on the PLR) and have already been included in freight trains.

 Permanent Way

Copper Mine ballasting

After reconfiguring the track layout at the Copper Mine (see Progress Report 58), the track was badly in need of re-ballasting. After tracking down and acquiring some coarse-grained sand, the copper mine sidings have now been re-ballasted in a similar way to Beeston Market Station yard (see How I ballasted Beeston Market yard).

The mainline running alongside the sidings was also ballasted with a mix of grey tile grout and 5mm alpine grit. You can see one of my resident robins giving it his careful scrutiny.

The approach to the sidings was also ballasted with a mix of local red sand, alpine grit and soil - all held in place with builders' SBR adhesive.

General track maintenance

Inevitably, as with a real railway, the track needs constant attention. The approach to the swing bridge needed the brass tubing for the alignment pins re-soldering and the curve on the track improved with the jim crow (see How I ironed out some kinks in my track) - it was having a tendency to straighten-out.

Most of the point-blades around the layout needed to be cleared of debris to ensure they sat more closely to the stock rails which is a constant battle. The Picaxe controlled remote point switching system was also checked and slight inconsistencies in the connections to the point motors ironed out (see How I constructed a remote control system for operating LGB point motors)

Lineside

Beeston Market Coal Yard

A start has been made on the coal yard at Beeston Market Station. The staithes holding the coal have been constructed from stripwood and balsa (see How I made some coal staithes).

Eventually, a coal office building will be added together with additional detailing such as weighing scales, sacks, figures and a delivery wagon.

Fencing beside the Copper Mine

This had been on the to-do list for quite a while. Stripwood posts had been in places for some time but I had never got around to adding the wires. As some of the posts had become broken, I decided to replace them all (with 8mm square stripwood), suitably drilled ........

..... to take thin copper wire.

The posts were then given a couple of liberal coats of wood preservative.

Copper Mine plate girder bridge

Three bridges are needed to carry the 32mm feeder line (see Progress Report 59) and so far just one has been constructed. This was made from a couple of 00 scale Wills vari-girder kits (see How I constructed a girder bridge for the mine feeder railway - pending).

There are still two more bridges to construct. One will be another plate girder but the other will be a short wooden trestle.

Operating sessions

Despite all this construction work, I have managed to fit in some operating sessions. I have not yet managed to work a complete timetable through, but I have run a couple of freight handling sessions and also been able to run some passenger services and the occasional copper ore train.

This video shows extracts from the most complete operating session

While this shows the running of a freight service, one evening when the air was warm and I had an hour or so to spare before settling in the evening.

For me, this is one of the joys of garden railway modelling. I can run full prototypical timetabled sessions or just put a fairly random selection of stock and a loco on the track as the fancy takes me.

Visitation

Finally, I was fortunate enough to host a visit from a fellow garden railway modeller who runs the Deben Valley Light Railway. It seems we have quite a lot in common - we both use 45mm track, our railways depict hypothetical railways in real locations, we both enjoy running goods and passenger services and we both admire the Southwold Railway. One major difference between us is that he greatly enjoys operating with live steam, whereas I am (at present) fully committed to battery electric. Zach brought some of the DVLR stock with him, including one of his live steam locos - an early Merlin 'Little Wonder' loco - River Tang

So, for the first time in the Peckforton Light Railway's history, a live steam loco ran on her metals.

It made me realise that my railway was not constructed with live steam running in mind. I have too many gradients and undulations which I hardly notice when running battery locos (or their forerunners, track-powered locos), but which require very careful driving when operating a live steam loco.

I was also delighted to have a former Compton Down loco constructed by the sadly missed Peter Jones running on my railway.

What on earth is there not to like about this hobby?

How I constructed a plate frame Simplex loco from an IP Engineering kit

Having recently decided to replace the Gn15 feeder line from the Copper Mines to the crusher and loading hoppers on the main railway with a 32mm gauge railway (see Progress Report 59), I realised I needed some rolling stock to operate it. I'd previously purchased a small freelance design battery powered diesel from eBay, which I modified to operate under radio control and it autoshuttle mode using a Deltang Rx65b receiver (see How I converted a small diesel to radio control and How I reprogrammed a Deltang Rx65b receiver to operate in shuttle mode). But I have always been attracted by the diminutive Simplex and Lister internal combustion engines. I figured that, as my railway is set in the early 1930s, it would be entirely feasible for the Bickerton Copper Mining Company to have invested in at least one Simplex loco following World War I. As a consequence, Santa brought me an IP Engineering Plate Frame Simplex kit which, for various reasons, had been sitting on my shelf for the past five months.

Contents

• The motor unit
• The body
• Modifications and detailing
• Preparing for the electrics
• Painting and weathering
• Wiring up the electrics
• The driver
• Conclusion

The motor unit

I decided to start with the motor unit, as I figured this might be the fiddliest component to construct - and if that didn't work properly then there would be no point in continuing the rest of the build.

The various components were checked ......

.... and then the worm gear was forced on to the motor shaft in the vice. I have found in the past this to be the most reliable way of fitting worm gears.

After checking that the motor still spun freely .......

.... the layshaft was threaded into the sub-chassis and one of the gear wheels was push-fitted on to it, so it was more or less central on the shaft.

 Two brass bushes were then threaded on to the ends of the shaft and superglued in place.

Wheels were then pushed on to one end of each axle and the axles inserted into their relevant holes. A gear wheel was threaded on to the rear axle and positioned to mesh with that on the layshaft. The other wheels were then pushed on to the ends of the axles and the motor was fixed in place with the two self tapping screws which were provided.

 At this point, I remembered the sprockets and Delrin chain which I had purchased and so, the wheels and axles were removed to enable the sprockets to be threaded on. The chassis was then reassembled.

The chain was then shortened to the length needed, by prising apart the links and then, the links were joined to make a chain loop around the sprockets.

The chassis bearers were then bolted to the ends of the chassis.

The body

I decided I would use 70 degree low-melt solder and a heat-adjustable soldering iron for the construction of the kit; something I have never used before. I am very glad I bit the bullet and ventured into this previously unknown territory, as the advantage of solder over glue is that the bond is almost instantaneous, and joints can be unstuck and rejoined with the re-application of the iron.

Following the detailed instructions, the four chassis members for the body were joined together. At the same time the fouling bar supports were soldered into the corners. This proved to be quite tricky and I almost reverted to epoxy resin, but I persevered and in the end discovered that 'tacking' worked well. The components were initially lightly tacked together with small blobs of solder which allowed for some fine adjustment. When everything was in the right place, the joints were flooded with solder.

Two brass plates were then lightly tacked into place and the axle supports fixed behind the apertures on each side.

The brass plates were then more permanently soldered.

The fouling bars were then fixed to the supports and their ends filed flat.

 The motor unit was then put into place and its two supports soldered to the underside of the body ......

 ..... making sure the wheels lined up with the axle supports.

The driver's seat was tackled next. The sides were attached to the seat-back.

And then the seat slats were fixed to the sides. I had to take great care with these as too much heat caused the very thin whitemetal material to melt. I turned the thermostat on the iron down as far as I could, and applied the solder-laden iron to the joints very quickly to the flux-painted slats. The spacing between the slats is not entirely even, but I think trying to re-solder these joints would be counter productive - anyway, a driver will be sitting on them and so they will probably not be seen anyway.

 The two mapping pins which are provided for the driver controls were trimmed and inserted into two 0.5mm diameter holes drilled one of the engine bearers. They were then fixed in place with some solder.

The clutch pedal was then soldered to the side of the engine bearer.

 A 1.5mm diameter hole was drilled vertically through the multi-height couplings.....

..... to take the coupling pins.

The couplings were then fixed to the buffer beams .......

 .... and the buffer plates soldered below them.

The four sand boxes were then attached to the corners of the chassis.

The brake standard and the seat were then attached to the rear of the chassis ......

.... and the brake wheel attached to the standard (again with the minimum of heat applied).

 The two end-pieces were then attached to the engine support beams...

..... and the engine covers first tacked and then soldered together.

 The outsides were then filed to ensure the match was as accurate as possible, though as these plates were supposed to be hinged at the centre to allow access to the engine, I felt the alignment did not have to be absolutely precise.

The ends of the engine covers were then attached....

..... followed by the lower sections of the covers. It looked like there would be a need for some judicious filling and sanding in these areas.

The engine cover assembly was then attached to the engine bearer assembly ......

.... and the engine cover was then attached to the chassis .......

 .... and the silencer/exhaust pipe attached ......

...... followed by the radiator and its associated pipework.

The sub-chassis was then attached and the switches bolted into their respective positions for a quick photo-shoot.

At this stage I did a re-appraisal. Comparing the 'finished' model with photos of the prototype (see below), I realised that a few compromises had been made and so, I decided to make some modifications to improve the model's appearance. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have considered these before embarking on the build as the modifications could have been made more easily during construction. However, not to be daunted, I pressed on.

Modifications and detailing

 In my travels (see my narrow gauge railways blog), I had the opportunity to get some pictures of some plate frame Simplex locos to help guide my detailing efforts. A visit to the Moseley Industrial Museum in Cornwall ........

..... and the Devon Railway Centre ......

..... provided me with some images which I could use to guide my detailing.

 One of the first things I noticed was that I had installed the pipework for the radiator and indeed the radiator itself the wrong way round. These items were re-positioned. I also removed the two slide-switch mountings from either side of the engine compartment.

Using my site photos, I fashioned representations of the engine as viewed through the sides of the engine compartment from various off-cuts of plasticard and Cambrian bolt heads.

 First one side .......

...... and then the other, were fixed into place.

A similar panel was fixed to the front of the engine compartment bonnet.

I then decided that the blacksmith at Bickerton Copper Mine would probably have created a cab for his fellow workers' protection. I researched various images on the internet and decided that some cabs fitted to various Simplex locos seemed to be freelance affairs. Using the dimensions of the driver's 'compartment', I cut out a front .......

..... and a back for the cab from 1.5mm thick plasticard and joined them together with some strips of plasticard.

 A roof was then fixed in place to hold everything together.

Cambrian rivet heads were then applied where seemed appropriate.

And then the cab was superglued to the engine compartment bonnet.

This was test-fitted to the chassis and a few minor amendments made. For example, at the front of the cab, the sides were extended down to the running plate as, although some pictures I found on the internet showed otherwise, I felt it looked better this way.

A small toolbox added to the front of the loco. Here you can also see the reversed radiator and revised pipework.

She now seemed a lot more complete and so attention was turned to sorting out the electrics.

Preparing for the electrics

After exploring various locations for the Deltang rx65b receiver/controller, I eventually decided it would be best placed inside the cab, rather than under the engine bonnet where the aerial would be shielded by the whitemetal casing. Rather than fixing it to the underside of the cab roof, I decided to make a side wall to the cab behind the driver's seat (as was the case with a lot of Simplex locos).

10mm wide 'planks' were cut from 1.5mm thick plasticard, sufficiently long to sit inside the cab framework. The edges of each plank were bevelled slightly with a craft knife and the faces scored with the teeth of a razor saw to simulate wood grain.

 The 'planks' were then glued into place behind the framework.

I wanted to add some bolt heads for apparently fixing the planks into place but nothing on the Cambrian sprues I had to hand looked small enough, and so I decided to produce my own. I made a strip of 1mm x 1mm plasticard (see How I Make my own microstrip) and then cut approximate 1mm cubes from this:

These were then carefully fixed into place with liquid poly solvent.

 The Deltang Rx65b was then test-fitted ........

..... and a scribed panel glued into place above it, making a double-walled cavity.

 Only at this point did I think about how the wires would be fed into the engine compartment. A couple of 3mm diameter holes were drilled through from the engine compartment to the cavity, and opened out to form a slot. With much effort the wires were then fed through. Of course, in hindsight, it would have been easier to have done this before the second wall was added.

A 15mm wide brass plate, with 30mm and 80mm diameter holes was soldered between the two flooring plates of the chassis - these would later accommodate the on/off switch and the charging socket.

Painting and weathering

At this point, I decided to paint the model. As I was intending to try a more sophisticated approach to weathering on this model, I gave the two halves a couple of coats of Halford's red primer from an aerosol rattle can.

While waiting 24 hours for the primer to harden off, I took a few photos .......

..... and tried to identify where some additional filling and rubbing down would be required.

 Filler (Squadron white putty) was applied to those areas which needed some attention, and then gently rubbed down with fine grit (1200 grade) wet and dry emery paper.

 It was at this point, I decided the flooring of the model didn't look quite right. On the Simplexes I had seen this was some form of chequerplate steel, and so some 1:25 scale double 'treadplate' embossed plasticard was purchased from Slaters. This was trimmed to size and glued to the floor plates front and rear.

 The model was then given another couple of light coats of primer......

 ..... and I felt vindicated in adding the extra detail to the flooring.

Probably doesn't make an enormous difference but I feel it looks better than the plain floor.

Having done some background research, I thought I'd try a different approach to simulating rust on this model. Humbrol rust colour was applied to areas which I felt would be more susceptible to rusting and, while the paint was still wet, I sprinkled crushed sea salt crystals on these areas.

Once the 'rust' paint had dried, the model was given a couple of coats of Halford's Rover Brooklands Green, my livery for locomotive stock on the railway.

Here we see the chassis after its first light coat of green livery.

The sub-chassis was given a couple of coats of grey primer and then a couple of coats of satin black.

Once the paint had been given around 24 hours to harden off, the salt granules were scrubbed off with warm water using an old toothbrush. The two halves of the model were then reassembled for another appraisal. At this point I decided to add a short length of heatshrink sleeving held in place with some copper wire to the top-hose of the radiator. The radiator and flooring plates were given coats of matt black acrylic and mucky brown/black acrylics were smeared into nooks, crannies and crevices before being wiped off.

I felt that my attempts to represent peeling paint had not been fully effective - ie the upper coat is supposed to peel away revealing the 'rust' beneath, the combination of peeling paint and what looks like rust bubbling underneath actually looked quite realistic.

Weathering powders were added to enhance the effect in places.

Hopefully, the outcome gives an impression of carefully nurtured decay.

There are still areas in which I feel I could have added more detailing, but for the time being, I am quite pleased with the effect.

Wiring-up the electrics

 Now came the most exciting part of the build - seeing if my efforts would actually be productive - whether or not I would have a functioning model.

Because I wanted the two halves of the model to be separable, I wired in the smallest plugs and sockets I could lay my hands on - servo plugs. These were soldered to the leads from to/from the Rx65b receiver/controller - ie the power leads and those going to the motor.

The two-way one pole switch and the 2.1mm power socket for charging were bolted into the mounting plate ....

 .... and then wired up. A 1.6 amp auto-reset circuit breaker from Maplin (the blue thing in the background) was wired into the power lead to the batteries.

 Two tagged 14500 AA sized li-ion batteries were purchased through eBay and these were then soldered into the circuit in parallel.

  The batteries were then secreted behind the buffer beams - a tight squeeze. Rather than the two AAA alkaline batteries in battery boxes which were recommended for use with the kit, I was anxious to have rechargeable li-ions. As each of these delivers 3.7v, I wired them in parallel so they would be able to provide 3.7v, but twice the running time (2 x 2.3Ah = 4.6Ah). As the motor will probably only draw around 0.5 amps when running, I anticipate I will be able to get around 9 hours continuous running from one charge - I will test this later.

 Fitting the wiring under the bonnet was a tight squeeze, but with some careful packing it was achievable.

The Deltang Rx65b receiver/ESC was mounted vertically inside the back of the cab, behind a false partition. Fortunately, although I couldn't see the LED on the receiver to check its status, I was able to bind the receiver to the transmitter and a trial running session proved to be very successful.

The Driver

However, as some of my fellow modellers pointed out - she looked a bit odd running without a driver and so I turned my attention to providing one. My initial efforts with modelling one in Fimo proved to be somewhat less than successful and my stock of possible candidates from commercially produced drivers seemed unpromising until I looked more closely at the driver which came with my other 32mm gauge diesel loco (see How I converted a small battery diesel to radio control).

He had already been replaced and when scrutinising him more closely, looked a possible candidate - though his limbs were all at the wrong angles. Some surgery with a craft-knife separated him into several component parts.

Wire pegs were inserted into strategic joints .....

.... and he was reassembled into a more appropriate pose for the driver of the Simplex.

His limbs were then fixed more permanently into place using epoxy putty.

Once this has set, he was given a repaint and a coat of (supposedly) matt varnish.

 He was then fixed into place with a blob of BluTak under is posterior.

Although his lower legs seem a bit long, he now seems very much at home in his new environment.

Conclusion

I appreciate that my modelling efforts are by no means perfect - as revealed by some of the close-up photos. However, I feel quite pleased with the outcome of this project. I now have a reasonably realistic looking loco of the right period trundling up and down the feeder line to the Copper Mine.

I am intending to make this loco dual gauge. I have sent off to IP Engineering for a 45mm gauge sub-chassis which can be exchanged for the 32mm gauge chassis by removing a couple of nuts (see photo above). This means 'Emma', as she has now been officially named, will be able to run the full length of the main line as the fancy takes me.

Update - 4/7/15
 I have now completed the 45mm gauge chassis and so Emma can now run on the main line as well as the mine feeder. Before I added the chain drive, her hauling capabilities were quite limited (3-4 LGB skips on the level), bit now she is 4wd, she is remarkably powerful for her size:

I am also considering using the auto-shuttle feature of the Rx65b (see How I re-programmed a Deltang Rx65b for auto-shuttle control) and adding some basic form of sound card - possibly by adapting a board which is used inside greetings cards. However, this is some way down my lengthy to-do list and may not be effected until much later in the year.

Update - 25/6/15
 She now has been given a very basic sound system based on a greetings card sound module (see How I modified a greetings card sound module to provide a basic sound system ).

 The advantage of this approach is the price (less than £1.50), whilst the disadvantage is the low fidelity of the sound and at present it has a half second pause every ten seconds. However, it is something I can live with until I find an alternative:

In them meantime, she has now become a much-loved addition to the loco stud on the railway.