The next shunter I made was powered by another Athearn switcher chassis that I had been given.

Again it is a purely freelance design and was built out of plasticard on the base Athearn switcher basic footplate that had had the body removed.

I removed one of the flywheels and a drive shaft to give more room at the back end for the cab and this allowed a seated driver figure to be fitted in.

The body is the usual bodge with a couple of doors to allow access into the engine compartment. The radiator was from an Athearn Hustler body and it is open to allow air in to keep the five pole motor cool. It’s got the usual handrails and bits of rope and chain hanging from them. It has link and pin couplers at both ends.

The body is slightly weighted, the Athearn chassis on its own is quite heavy so it is a nice slow runner.

It is painted in a faded industrial green colour with a little wear and tear weathering.

The last conventional shunter to emerge from the works is a bit of a Rustonesque affair.

I found a side view drawing in a book called “Diesel Rail Traction” showing a Ruston and Hornsby narrow gauge tractor. It gave a few dimensions and so I was able to roughly scale the drawing up to 1/32 scale. The wheelbase was fixed at the Bachmann 44 ton bogie I was going to use to power it.

The body is my mix of plasticard and wire, working on the principle that if it looks right, it is right. It is well weighted with lead and runs rather well.

To my mind at least I think it captures the look of a little Ruston if not that dimensionally accurate.

When this bogie wears out I shall have to find something to replace it as I’m rather fond of it. A Tenshodo or Black Beetle being favourite I suppose.

You will all be relieved to know that this is the last locomotive I have built.

It is an ex-army Canadian Ford quad gun tractor. It runs on an early Bachmann Brill trolley with a ringfield type motor. I bought the model at a local market for £5 on a stall selling all sorts of toys. The chassis had to be butchered to fit the short wheelbase body by cutting a length out and butt joining it and then adding some more weight in the un powered front truck that also collects current to improve its tracking.
The model is photographed on the joining section of the HO switching layout.

One of the biggest problems I’ve found working in 1/32-1/35 is finding suitable figures. There seem to be two basic sources. The first are 1/32 scale figures intended for the tractor collecting community. There are serious collectors of the more detailed and delicate models, the rest of course are sold as children’s toys. Mostly these depict seated figures with one or two from the Britain’s range being standing figures. They are made of a hard flexible plastic that is not easy to modify. These are all 1/32 scale.

The other source are military figures who in the main are wearing a uniform of some sort. These can be modified with a scalpel and files but it isn’t easy. These are all 1/35 scale.

The photos show a couple of examples of the modified military figures. The first shows a dairy man driving cows over the bridge for afternoon milking. The hat he is wearing is a circle of ten thou plasticard with a hole cut in it to fit over his head and thus form the brim of his hat. I think more people wore hats in the 1950’s, the period of the model than do nowadays. Incidentally the scale cow pats are blobs of solder painted a greenish black.

A view of the yard foreman’s hut and his cold frame he uses to grow vegetables.

All of the photographs up to this point were taken a while ago.

During this Summer while things have been fairly quiet on the exhibition front a few more have been taken.

Things have been quiet on the exhibition front during the summer but with the next show just a month away I thought checking the layout was a good idea.

It is stored in the same spare bedroom as the HO switching layout under a cover made from black plastic. It is odd but despite being completely covered it always manages to get a bit dusty.

I set the layout up and ran the Quad gun tractor for the first time to check clearances before going public with it. It was fine as I thought it would be, although the clearance under the bridge is a little bit tight.