Locomotive #6

Its time for a new loco! Maria is another Liliput shunter, this time in blue. Running in went fine and now Maria can join Percy and the others working on Mäusestadt. Having the new loco means Falcon can have a break as i'm only going to run 2 mainline engines and 2 shunters at any one time. Yes its time for fleet rotation...

Adding load

Two of Mäusestadt's open wagons are currently in the workshop having loads fitted and also i'm trying a bit of weathering. It doesn't look too bad, its always very easy to go a bit OTT but i think i've just managed to avoid that. They'll return to the layout soon.

First completed model of 2017!

Project #074 a Jet Provost has been completed (bar the varnishing). Its the first aeroplane i've done "wheels up" for a change (i have done another Jet Provost before wheels down). I might hang it from the ceiling as shelf space is at such a premium now!

New wagon

Mäusestadt received a new wagon today and its a beauty (in wagon terms anyway!) A Roco DR stake wagon.

Major Falcon surgery

Last night i had to open up the Falcon after the LED headlights stopped working in one direction. I found the reason was a wire from the main PCB to the lights PCB had become detached (maybe poorly soldered in the first place). So an easy thing to fix... Apart from the fact to get where i needed to re-solder the wire on the PCB was only possible by taking most of Falcon's internals apart!

I've never done this amount of disassembly of a locomotive's internals before so was nervous about it and hoping i wouldn't turn my flagship loco into a pretty paperweight... Luckily it all came back together and runs fine... and the lights are fixed of course!

Well the Falcon is the Falcon, thats why i love that loco so much. It can even survive me and a soldering iron... Lets just hope i never need to do this again.

Starting Mäusestadt station

I've made a start on the station, just a platform for now. Its made out of foamboard over which some grey paper has been wrapped. It doesn't look much right now but will have buildings and people added later.

The wall

The track arrangement has now been finalised (and fixed down), now i know exactly where the track is i can build the permanent back scene wall. This is a solid wooden frame and card has been used for the actual wall. Later on some brick and stone block effect panels will be put over the card.