The Third Rail

So, I am slowly working through the plumbing on the CG1 class 35GM. Tedious work. A LOT of stuff needs to be made. Physically cutting, shaping, drilling and fitting. It sounds like I am complaining but I am not. It is helluva satisfying. Will post pics when I am done.

Whilst rummaging through my 35GM reference archive I found the pics below. This was the third loco I ever built in my life. I can still remember how apprehensive I was. How new everything was. How much tools and sundries I bought back then. Brass and plastic rods and pipes. ABS profiles by the thousands. How difficult the sanding was.

How vastly different it was from every other model I had built in my life up to then. I could build a ship. Or a military vehicle. Or buildings. Or a layout….. but this thing was a different ballgame. My reference point was ridiculously detailed models from KISS, KM1, Hubner and Dingler.

I could never get close to those models but I never stopped trying. And I can still remember all the little mishaps I had.

I wonder if she ever ran? She went to Stefan who was a huge train collector back in the day.

Lekker julle!!!!

I moved ass yesterday. Stuck the long bonnet together and that is always a clench moment. Got the speaker in and did the plumbing on the diesel tank. Filler caps and breather valves and tanks as well as the start of the chassis plumbing.

Got the chassis siderails in. Got both motorblocks plumbed. Made the brackets and fitted the diesel tank.

Today I do the stays for the pilots, which I hate doing, and start the chassis plumbing. By next week I want to start on the body. Sticking the doors down is a hairy affair.

Lekker julle!!!!

I had an interesting conversation with Tim and Fiona, my 3d printers, over the weekend.

They were patiently listening to another one of my rants about scale and correctness. I think it might get a bit boring at times lol.

Then Fiona said something that hit me like hammer between the eyes.

She works at a bank and have done so for most of her adult life. She mentioned that when handling money, they were never once shown a counterfeit note. Ever. Instead they were forced to handle only real money. Learn its texture, colouring, variants and general feel. Over and over and over again. Hammered into their brains so that when you do encounter a counterfeit note, you know immediately.

Now that makes sense. I know the stuff I build is right. I know that most of you love it and judging by the amount of followers this page gains daily, there is a lot of us out there. People that look AND see. People that notice a surge arrestor. People that appreciate a pretty miniature version of the real thing.

If I show you enough pretty models, people will eventually recognise the other ones.

And the clincher for me is, that way nobody forces anybody into a camp. You choose where you want to be.

Lekker julle!!!!

So the 5E…… this is why I work with Frank at SARMODEL. And why I have friends like Richard Bevan.

Because that way we can evolve stuff. So Frank has been a busy boy away from the roller scates..😂😂

He added the airpipes on the roof, added the missing insulators so that I don’t have to make them. He also designed the cylindrical surge arrestor so that we can add another version to the portfolio. Thanx uncle Vernon for pointing it out. These won’t have marker lights front or rear. One will only have a rear one and the rest will be normal.

Lekker julle!!!!!