A recent Heljan purchase finished off today. The nameplates are Proto Neo and transfers by HMRS, It is modelled after its time in Scotland, and was found roaming the country. I saw this loco between 1989 and 94 several times around East Anglia and thought how great it looked. By the way this Loco retained round buffers all its life, and I replaced the ovals with the correct paten.

It will be weathered, but that is going to be a while as yet!

Due to the heat in my garage over the last few days, I sought slightly cooler temperatures in the house. I have ended up numbering and detailing some of my recent O gauge purchases from the new Heljan website by Accurascale. The prices are really keen and their delivery is brilliant.

Class 27 – D5402 – 1966-68 – ScR

Class 24 – D5038 – 1963-67 – ER

Class 27 – 27029 – ScR 1984 – 86

I have been prepping a small batch of items for weathering over the next week or two. I am going to move over to my four unfinished layouts now the better weather is here. I only have about a 12- 14 week window for my layout work using our bench picnic table, sorry- my workbench!!!! I have no inside areas available at present, although I hope that will change eventually. Please come back to see them after weathering.

Class 31 x 2

Class 56 and 58

Class 02

After research – I found one of the 02 engines that moved from the NW to the NE.

Two Sand Wagons – one ready to run and one kit built.

Here are the four locos I prepped a couple of days ago, they have had various levels of weathering.

J15 – light weathering 0-6-0

N 7/3 – Medium 0-6-2T

F5 – Medium 2-4-2T

K3 – Medium 2-6-0

I am getting ready for a weathering session on O Gauge Steam Locos, this will be the last one for quite a while as I have a backlog of wagons to finish next, then lots and lots of Diesels!

Below are photos of the Locos, although they are not quite ready yet, another couple of days should see the weathering start.

All are BR(E) based locos and all kit built – they are a N7/3, a K3, a F5 and a J15. All have been re-numbered and had extra detail added.

Here are two locos I deemed finished a couple of weeks ago. but after more researching I decided to add more detailing!

Firstly the O Gauge B1, I was happy with the results of my last attempt, but, as they say ‘an improvement is always possible’. I have added fire irons to the tender holders, added a shovel and some more coal, I have added extra weathering to the cylinders and draincocks and finally, further weathering to the smokebox and door.

The other loco was the recently completed Q6, I have added more weathering, to the cylinders, the smokebox and door after seeing a photo, I have tried to copy it! The tender has had more water (Gloss Varnish) added.

Before going any further, I have to admit that the B1 has turned out weathered a bit more than I actually wanted! This is the last loco of the recent batch of detailing and upgrading certain items with better quality products.

So here we are with a medium weathering created by airbrushing, dry brushing and a few powders. During taking the photos of the loco, I realised that there was a couple of other things that would improve things a bit, adding some overspilt coal in the back of the tender and adding some tools on the tender rack.

After several attempts to make my Bachmann Brass 4F more realistic, I declare it finished! This has been a long project over a couple of years that had to fit in amongst lots of other jobs. It is now crewed, lamps fitted and final weathering blended to match original medium coating.

My Q6 is now weathered after an extensive rebuilding program as stated in a previous post. I have given it a medium standard that reflects a really hard worked engine. A crew has now been added, but oil lamps still needed.

There seems to be several Q6’s for sale at the moment in O Gauge. They all seem very expensive and have been lettered and numbered as BR, which does not look right as they do not have the upgraded type 300A boiler amendment done!

Was it worth doing all those amendment? Yes, I am not a rivet counter, but the amendments are very obvious!

This is another Loco recently updated with a better chimney and fitting of drain cock piping. This was followed by patch painting and lining touch up.

The loco has now been lightly weathered with airbrushing only to a state I would say was about a month after a works visit! Any overspray on the tanks and lower bunker has been wiped away.

Oil lamps and crew need to be added.