Eyes Wide Open

The birth of baby Amelia on Sunday 25th March has created a new regime in the Peake household, and seeing her with eyes wide open made me open my own...

I had started to wonder some time ago whether my more recent O9 industrial models, such as the Drewery-bash loco and some open wagons on Black Dog Mining chassis, were a journey in the wrong direction.  Although that project including a replacement flat wagon (on Hudson chassis) for the 'Shifting Sands' fleet, that didn't work out as planned, and I was perhaps a bit too hasty in whipping chassis away from the 'Shifting Sands' works fleet.  What was required were new miniature railway style wagons.

At Narrow Gauge North I had picked up an old example of the Black Dog Mining WA01 chassis frame to fit over a Peco 10ft wheelbase wagon chassis.  With the odd half hour to spare each day during my first week of  paternity leave I used this as a basis to create a body based on the ex-Sutton Miniature Railway 'Loco Coal' wagon that lives in the Griffin Hall museum at Cleethorpes.

(L) Sutton style 'Loco Coal' wagon (R) Cleethorpes style general-purpose wagon

This is a fairly faithful recreation of the original, down to a set of N-Brass buffers on the headstocks!

The other wagon illustrated is a revival of the 'Shifting Sands' wagon that used to carry two oil drums.  Shorn of it's newer industrial drop-side body this has received a new, simpler body based upon two of the Cleethorpes works fleet.  The eagle eyed will see that the body is slightly short of the chassis length - this is deliberate in order to make it look different from the normal Black Dog products.

These little projects have kept me occupied at a time when starting something new is all to daunting, I must get around to painting them!

Secrets of the Railway Cupboard Part 2 - The Big Secret!

Two months ago I let readers of the blog into my railway cupboard, which quite frankly, despite all my hard work painting it, looked more than a little untidy once refilled.  However, two months ago now seems like a very long time ago... Life has changed.

A fortnight ago my wife announced that there will be a new arrival in the Peake household in the first quarter of 2012 (and no, not from Hornby).  Yes, we are expecting a baby!  Due to this there has to be a major re-organisation of our "living quarters" and the original, mark 1 plans for a railway room/study have been dusted off, typex applied and 'Nursery' added instead.  Of course this has a major impact on my intended scheme for an alcove based desk and possible test track above.  Indeed, the alcove itself will be no more as the chimney breast will have give way to make more space in the bedroom.

And it will be a bedroom only, no space really for model trains.  Or will there...?

Plans are afoot to re-organise the Railway Cupboard to provide some additional shelving (white) and a built-in but lift-out workbench (yellow).  Granted, there will have to be some ruthless clearing out of the "someday and maybe" projects, and all those things on the shelves that shouldn't be will have to go elsewhere, but there is a chance it could work.  Things have to change whatever happens, time and pennies will be in short supply in the months/years to come so a carefully planned approach is required.  I'm still working on that...