Main focus is still the J4 - refitted the motor, added pickups, tested with the rods back aboard, another session fettling then a test run on the layout. There's supposed to be a 50/50 chance of wiring these things backwards, so how do I manage it every time? Anyway, with that sorted, added the tender pickups and plug connection and she's good to go.
There's also a short video of it running along the fiddle yard here.
Much of the other work has been making sure locos are staffed and equipped with fire irons. I usually do this as I go along but some recent ones needed catching up and others had simply been missed. It's a small thing overall but it adds to the general impression when you view a layout. I think most of not all of the following have appeared in these pages before:
LRM J21. Built by Ron Goult, bought from Tony Wright and i built a new set of frames and mechanism for it last year. I use the Springside fire irons, which I paint as far as I can while they're still stuck to the card then glue in place and touch in the paint afterwards. You can see that this one needs some touching in (which I have since done).
One of Ron Goult's products - D11, bought via Tony Wright (is there a theme here?) at Doncaster Show and not much touched other than adding tender pickups. The loco/tender connection had been broken at Fareham so while that was attended to the other details were added.
Ks J3. This loco has worked on Grantham since the start, which more or less coincided with me buying it. Because it's never been any trouble it's been largely left to get on with it, but after I spotted it in a couple of photos it's had lamp irons and now a whistle as well as crew and tools.
This is the Hitchin C2. Neither loco had a crew. This has also had tender pickups fitted as when tested on Grantham it was a bit unreliable when moving round the shed. Hopefully it's now fit for general service as opposed to main line only.
The other Hitchin atlantic, 3272, has had the motor removed and awaits a High Level mechanism. The frames are battleship quality, but a SlimLiner will fit between them fairly easily. It remains to be seen whether this one makes Harrogate as we have a few C1s and I understand there's a guest one coming along.
Crew need painting, of course and there's another batch on the way along with some ModelU guards for the brake vans I built after Warley.
Lastly an Ebay buy last summer which I'll be taking along to try out. NuCast K2 with a Portescap, but when it arrived it's been really well built. Beam compensation on loco and tender, fully lined (with transfers, must have taken hours) and now it's been cleaned up runs really well. It looks to me as though whoever built it was a much better - or more careful - modeller than whoever owned it latterly as it's had a few bashes and scrapes. It's also going to be a bit of a challenge putting tender pickups onto it, it's all very crowded underneath. For the moment it'll do coal train duty at Harrogate so I can keep an eye on it and we'll try it round the shed if there's an opportunity.
