Before I continue with todays locoyard developments, I’d just like to say thank you for all the positive comments I received from my last entry on the Watercress Line’s steam gala and of the pictures published on steam tube.  They’re all very much appreciated!

Today was a working from home day for me, which means that at 4PM I could leave work and be home in an instant!  I decided to have a locomotive sort out this afternoon that will eventually lead to…

Q1 class C8 becoming the National Collection’s C1…

8750 Pannier tank 6757 becoming Bodmin & Wenford Railway’s 4612…

Fairburn 4MT tank 42096 becoming Lakeside & Haverwaite’s 42073…

And rebuilt West Country class 34026 Yes Tor becoming the Swanage Railway’s 34028 Eddystone

As a result, Q1 class C8 has been removed to enter the spray shop (aka the top of the display cabinet!)  I also did a massive shunt, pulling four mark 1 carriages into a rake and pulling them from the fiddle yard and then moving many loco’s into the fiddle yard, giving a good opportunity to check the yard’s track.

Meanwhile Lord Nelson pulled the 4 Bachmann mk1 carriages with ease.  Lord Nelson (or Nellie, as it’s known affectionately ) is a great performer; being both smooth and powerful.  A small oval is actually pretty tough for models with the relatively long train of 4 carriages and many other models are unable to cope with such a load.  Nellie is pictured below; running past the castle ruins with a cow watching!

Finally, todays loco movements gave a chance for my two Bachmann N classes to meet.  Both are in different liveries and therefore represent different time periods, although both suffer from tender derailments from time to time!  My layout is a shameless mix of locomotives and eras.  As much as I appreciate and respect the time and effort that many railway modellers put into recreating a specific era, it isn’t for me for the time being.  But who knows what the future might hold!

Happy modelling folks!  My next post will be a review of Hornby’s N15 King Arthur class…