Give that old diesel a good wash in soapy water & when thoroughly dry give it a coat of acrylic satin varnish which might give it a nice sheen.
Ah Tony, I`m afraid there will be no Aussie conversion at this stage of my railway career. I must admit it would be easier to replicate scenery and buildings , given that they are just outside the door, but my heart is with the Brits when it comes to trains. Thanks for the heads up on the back to backs. I`ll keep them set up for modern track and radii. They still need some tweaking. The grandsons will gradually get the hang of whatever system we use, but the Kadees sounds good.!! Gormo
Thanks Amdaley, That type of suggestion has popped up a couple of times now ( YouTube ) so I`ll lock that into the grey matter as well. Gormo
Some good finds in the box Gormo. Quite exciting when you get handed a " mystery box " you never know what you'll find. Toto
Yes Toto, Better than expected I must say........the little Barclay shunter was worth it for me and the rest is a pleasant bonus. Gormo
Great little collection Gormo, is there enough track etc to knock up a small portable layout perhaps? Maybe a historic model railway demo for exhibitions. I like the little shunter, lots of character there. Cheer's, Pete.
I would say so Pete.........there`s plenty of track to knock up a plank. It certainly would be historic......the track has that ancient look about it..... Gormo
G`day Folks, Long time no do stuff to GCJ Mojo has well and truly struck me good `dis time..!!!!!!! Well not to worry......it`ll be back some time......in the meantime I managed to fit my home made signal to the layout. It`s functioning more or less as a platform starter........not one for the purists......but it works. I have connected it to my isolating section switch for the main road through the station. I added a resistor to the common wire and some extended wires for the whole thing so that I could run a feed to the control panel. There is a small hole drilled in the baseboard under the signal base plate for the wires. After they were fed through the hole, the signal was glued down with PVA RED GREEN So there we are folks.......a brief spurt of progress. Gormo
Ah yes Toto.....it`s been a while...???? I had to get out in the shed and just run some trains. That seemed to kick start the work once more. But I have other things to do that will take priority, so my work on the railway will be measured for a good while yet. Gormo
Maybe Gormo could come over to my home and put together a few O gauge kits for me... Nah, that would turn you off... Never mind, we all need a break from the hobby at times. Cheers, Gary.
Gary I sense you are trying to draw me up into the larger gauges..?????.....( the dark side )......... Gormo PS ........had the two little Grandsons over yesterday for a sleep over.......as soon as they got in the door they wanted to go to "Gormo`s Shed ".....that`s what they call it....they are my number one fans on YouTube.........so quite a few hours spent derailing trains and trying to watch little hands flicking switches.......all quite a bit hairy but fun nonetheless.
No mate, I wouldn't want you to switch scales as you have plenty on your hands with GCJ. Sounds like you had a hair raising time with the grand kids. Now that should have lifted the lack of mojo ! Cheers, Gary.
Control of the grandkids is not possible. Instruction to GK "Now you do not press anything unless you know exactly what it will do and if you dont, then ask grandpa" CRASH.. Now who did press that one? The temptation is just too big. Cheers Richard
Of course Toto........but we never get to that stage.......just the odd derailment after mysterious little hands have reset a point. Now this raises an interesting point ( excuse the pun )......most of my stock is older stock......lacking the detail and fragility of some of the new crop of offerings, but in saying that, my old stock is probably more robust for the use of little kids. It`s difficult to get youngsters interested in model trains if they can`t touch them and hold them and knock them around a bit. Care in handling comes later on when these little folk can appreciate what they are dealing with. We can`t put old heads on young shoulders ,but we need to encourage the little ones in the hobby. Hornby`s Railroad road range is a good step in the right direction, but possibly something more basic and robust could be aimed toward the little guys...??? Gormo
A very good point Gormo. The experience of being able to handle the stuff without the constant reminding to take care or not to touch at all and just be content with running them. Something basic but still with a reasonable degree of realism. Toto