Ennui fighting.

 Oh my. 

July. 

July 11th. That was when I last posted to this blog. Now seven months later, I'm posting again.

Ennui is a terrible thing. I started off this project with such great enthusiasm. The excitement was palpable. Things were really going to move on this project. The scheme was going to set the O scale world  alight. 

Then nothing.

The problem was I needed a locomotive to drive the project, (excuse the pun). I needed something small and quirky. Something to grab viewers attention at a show, and I couldn't find anything. Things stalled and I sought inspiration elsewhere in other projects.

Then quite by accident. Whilst searching for something else entirely. I discovered a conjectural drawing and photographs of the Southern Railway (England) Lansing Works shunter DS499. Small and most decidedly quirky. I got the feeling this was exactly what was needed for the layout.

Another consideration for any projects of mine here on the left hand side of the Atlantic Ocean. Is that they need to use materials predominantly from the USA. Shipping charges can sometimes be quite exorbitant, and often I've asked myself. "How much more than the cost of the item are you prepared to pay  to get the items here?"

That meant using one of these. The AHM Rivarossi Plymouth 4 wheel switcher to power it.

It's a very nice unit. Quiet and smooth running. There is also a six wheel version that I think was made by Roco. It is nowhere near as good as this one, much noisier and with a much bigger weight inside that takes up all the cab space.

Being a US O scale model, it's built to a smaller scale and larger loading gauge than the British prototype. The wheelbase of the unit scales out to about 8' 10", compared to the approximately eight feet of the actual loco. I was willing to live with that. Though the overall dimensions of the footplate are way in excess of my subject and needed to be trimmed down. So I set to with my trusty razor saw to bring it more into line. A very enjoyable task.

When finished, I was left with a motor bogie. I kept some of the footplate so I'd have somewhere to fix the new one to.

So far, so good then. Those two vertical lumps on the weight block really need to go. The central one sits in the space occupied by the cab, so it could be obscured by a loco crew. The other, that held the donor loco headlight has to go. 

Removing the weight is not an option as in addition to helping with current collection and adhesion, also appears to hold the axles and gears in place.

A good start then. All I will probably need to order from the UK will be Axlebox/W-irons, couplers ad buffers. Though dumb buffers could also be used for such a quirky locomotive I think.

Is this the end of the fight with ennui?

We'll see. It's a good start.