Searching for some Mojo via some brass IA wagons

DB returns.

It's been a while since I last allowed my poor typing skills to wander over these increasingly fallow blogfields, and although I am occasionally accused of bouncing between scales and prototypes, I haven't really done any modelling for six months or more. Every attempt to do something in NZ120 until recently has run into a demoralising buffer stop.

Case in point:

It occurred to me that I didn't have anything 'prototypical' to tow behind the Stadler DM at the Christchurch show last October, so it was fortunate indeed that Aaron Wall had a hicube container on one of his lovely wagons, because the DM is a lot taller than the 'normal' containers on my (now all withdrawn!) UK wagons.

A very long time ago, I purchased a pair of Mark's Model Works IA etches. So why not build these up to give me a pair of modern wagons?

Well, one of the reasons they have sat untouched for a dozen years or more include my aversion to soldering. The etches themselves are also quite complex-looking. The instructions are similarly scary at first, although are relatively straightforward after reading them a dozen times and finally getting my head round the basic processes.

OK, the IAs might be a quick win, so why not give them a crack?!

It turns out that when you cut the IA kit off the 'sprue', all that visible complexity is distilled into only two pieces: a straightforward deck, and the underframe. At first glance the latter looks like a squashed 20-legged brass tarantula, but, as long as you read the instructions properly, it all folds up very neatly within a few minutes to the accompaniment of a few "well, that's incredibly well designed" mutterings. 

The two pieces then clamp together very nicely under their own steam but it is suggested that you drop a little solder between the deck and underframe in the middle of the wagon to hold everything in place permanently. 

Of course that's when things went off the rails. 

I got my first bit of solder to stick almost immediately, but over the next fifteen minutes, I couldn't get any more solder to attach itself to the underside of the deck, despite pouring flux all over everything (including my jeans) and nearly melting the now-discoloured etches under a sustained carpet bombing of intense heat delivered by my soldering cannon. 

The solder stuck as expected to the folded underframe piece but blobbed up when meeting the under-deck and wouldn't stick to it with any consistency.

I was then left with a real mess. The over-heated deck warped away from the underframe, the solder blobbed between these growing gaps and cooled, making things worse. 

The deck and frame are now stuck 'apart' rather than 'together' and I didn't know whether to go back and risk applying more heat and compression to squeeze the two parts together, or just hide the mess under a container.

I headed upstairs, once again disillusioned by failing to complete what should have been a quick and easy task. Modelling seemed so much easier 40 years ago when it was just plastic, balsawood, a knife and some glue. All of which were easy to understand and control back when I had functioning close-up eyesight and I didn't drink far-too-much-coffee. 

A few months later I returned downstairs, to attempt the second wagon. 

Some lessons that had been learned: 

• The semi-industrial bottle of flux I have been using for some time lists a few metals that it is formulated for on the bottle.... but not brass. 
• I should have lightly sanded the mating surfaces first and would try tinning the deck first next time before mating the deck and frame. 
• I held the deck to the frame with wooden pegs, but could have used stronger clamps or pliers (it is indeed a recurring design deficiency that modellers are not born with three hands)
• The etch (or my folding process) results in some inevitable gapping between the side sills and the deck. This could be mitigated somewhat with a file.

That all happened a few months ago, and I have since resolved these (my) issues and built the two wagons, but for now, let us make a slight detour, as I want to construct some containers to go on them.

Hold this thought though, as we will return to the two brass IAs in a week or three. 

A decision

 

 

Today, I have brought down the curtain on Paekakariki. The track has been lifted and I'm planning to palm the baseboards off to another local modeler so that we can start building him a layout.

So what lead me to this point in time?

The first one is that I have not done any serious work on the layout since we moved into this house 12 years ago. I even set it up to see if that would spark anything. The only thing that achieved was to take up more space in the garage. 

And I'm comfortable with my decision. When I started the layout in 2009, I was in a different headspace. The layouts I was designing back then revolved around engine swaps with the trains remaining unchanged. Hence plans for Authurs Pass, Cross Creek and Paekakariki. In the intervening period I've developed an interest in shunting, bush trams and smaller layouts. Paekakariki was 12' long without reversing loops at each end. This is much larger than my current thinking. 

The clincher was my podcast listening over the last few months. American modelers not only build large layouts, but also seem to accept moving to a new prototype or layout. Hearing Lance Mindheim talk about getting rid of his Brooklyn Terminal layout "I saved the buildings and the rest went in the dumpster" gave me some clarity.

Sometimes I think we regard a layout as the endpoint of modeling where I am now of the opinion that we should regard it as a waypoint moving forward as part of a learning exerience.

Lifting the track today I have learned a few things. Double sided tape lasts an awful long time. My dropper soldering was awsomely good. I learned how to make track formations to the point that I can now do it on the fly.

So, it looks like is now time for the bush tramway I have always wanted to make....

More history.

 A few months ago I took a day trip over to the annual train show in Whanganui (and a look to see what was left of the castlecliff branch). Again a typical small show, with slim pickings layouts wise. I did get to watch the age old battle at the second hand stalls ie"I know whats thats worth but I don't want to look too keen or you will know too...".

The one thing of interest was an NZ120 layout with some of my old models from the early 1990's. Unlike Mr Bond, I had a sale which cleared almost everything out to fund a wargaming addiction (which still continues to this day). I havn't seen any of these in almost 30 years.

Yc wagons. I cast everything on these models, only using Peco wheelsets and couplers.

Cast Lc's (I think these were a mk2 version) on the good old Peco underframes.

Dc's 4778 and 4790 (sans handrails). I can't believe that the real thing ever got that dirty and wonder what I was thinking at the time. I think these were my final versions of the Dc's with multiple castings.

Wb 3 - A splash of paint and grot

DB comes out of stasis:

And just to let you know where the Wb got to. This post was actually drafted in July but I don't think this was posted .. I've added the last picture and a few paragraphs at the end.

I decided to spray a top coat. Mainly flat black but a drop or two of that weathered black included to take the edge off. 

Looks better from the mandated viewing distance and under less-yellow lights. There is still a bit of faceting on the domes, but the black hides it a little. Z scale couplers were also added fore and aft after the coupler slots were somehow opened out with files, without either breaking something or dropping the top onto the floor.

The chassis remains a stumbling block. I tested it today (December) and it runs fairly well - even in this state without the additional tender pickups, without the original cast boiler (for weight) and with rubber traction tires on the front wheels (these could be removed). 

I can probably cut off the fancy valve gear (the Wb had internal valve gear). And I'd extend the cylinders in a forward direction.

The stock attached decoder, which used to be in the tender, is too big unfortunately.  My original plan was to have it up above the loco (inside the top of the side tanks) but there isn't enough vertical room. 

There is room to put a Digitrax DZ143 or similar into one of the side tanks. The rest of the tank and bunker space could be filled with weight. Or maybe a 'stay alive' chip/capacitor depending on how big those are. 

I wonder if its feasible to put pickup wipers on the truck wheels? 

So overall, not much progress on this in the past few months. And there may not be for a while as I'm embarking on some improvements to the train room. 

An Ab. Or not. - 1

DB has had a busy lately, but has recently been down to the trainroom for the first time since the Christchurch Show...  

You may recall that I purchased a sound equipped Broadway Limited Light Pacific 4-6-2 earlier in the year, thinking that it 'looked about right' for an Ab.

So a week ago I decided to look more seriously for the first time at the Ab shell that 3-6 models delivered several months back.  

The Ab itself is a decent print. Things look in proportion. The boiler bands are a bit prominent and the diameters of the smokebox and boiler cladding look quite different, but that might be authentic, and anyway, it will all fade away when everything is painted black and a few bits of piping are put on top.

As can be seen, when I pulled apart the Broadway Limited tender, and there was a far bit of stuff in it. All wheels pickup power (as do the drivers on the loco). This is good. There is a multi-wire connector between the loco and tender. The sound decoder and a speaker also live in the tender. All nicely plugged-and-socketed for disassembly.

On seeing this. I decided that an A class might be a better choice, as I might be able to to fit all this back into a scratchbuilt 'box' A tender, but it won't go into a 3D printed Vanderbilt Ab one. The Ab tender print can be turned into a dummy, and hang around inside the Elmer Lane roundhouse.

A few visits to the Dremel in the garage had the underside of the boiler widened out to fit over the motor. It didn't take much effort actually. 

The problem was that even with that done, the whole body sits very high (of course!). A few more visits outside had me thinning out the inside roof of the boiler. 

Now that is minimalism. The main problem was that the chassis has a tiny white square socket above the middle driver (a socket for the headlight wiring) and a cast 'tray' that carries wires above the brass flywheel. I didn't want to risk disaster by removing these. So I thinned the shell further. 

All was going swimmingly until I decided to cut out out a small section of the top of the boiler roof completely, fore and aft of the steam dome, to let the white box and tray sit up into these holes. I'd cover the small holes with paper. 

Of course something snapped when I was reshaping the headstock and then the whole thing ended up on the concrete floor! The dome came off, as did the headstock, and the boiler cracked a bit. Bah. At least the little white socket and cast tray can sit up into all those holes in the boiler now, lowering the body onto the chassis to an acceptable height!

The holes have since been patched up. But not that well, mind you. 

The A doesn't have the Ab's prominent curvy steam pipes to the cylinders, so these were removed, plus the other details (makers plate etc) on the smokebox beside these. 

I think I'll leave the loco here for me to calm my nerves!

 --------------

Instead, lets take a serious look at the tender. Maybe that will be easier. And its really important because of all its guts. Being an American prototype, it's a lot longer than ours. With our much lighter axle loads, we couldn't carry nearly as much water and coal around.

The cast floor has bogie mounts and a coupler, plus the attachment clip for the loco drawbar, so I thought I'd preserve these features by simply shortening the floor. After unpluging the speaker and decoder, a few semi-careful slashes with a Dremel cut-off wheel had the black chassis ready to be snapped into three, with the centre bit then discarded.   

There are three 'levels' of stuff inside the tender. On the bottom are wires from the bogie pickups and the attachment for the loco drawbar. I've had to add some supporting steel rods as well, to hold my two chassis halves together. 

In the middle is the DCC/Sound chip. 

The speaker is on top. All these pieces are nicely plugged-and-socketed for easy detachment. The speaker is nicely shaped to fit inside the tender, creating a snug soundbox.

I wanted to preserve this clever design work, as well as the idea of a removable tender-top so that everything can be easily disassembled if there are any issues in future. 

After more pondering, I figured that the supplied tender top isn't a million miles off the shape of an A tender anyway, so I'm adapting it by lopping a bit off the back to shorten it, and building the coal box on top. Yes, the 'curved top wings' are a little high and should extend further back, but nothing a galloping horse would notice.

So the challenge is now, how to fit the guts back into the shortened tender (I subsequently decided to  extend the tender chassis by about 2mm from what I had cut it down to). It's going to be a very tight squeeze.

Top fits on the shortened chassis. Speaker to be shortened:

The speaker was relatively easy. I prised off the PCB with the socket, cut the PCB down, and relocated it on a shortened base. In doing this, it wouldn't fit easily, and I eventually broke the solder join between one wire and the PCB, so attempted to solder the tiny wires to the back of the tiny socket, then glue the remainder of the PCB onto the shortened speaker tray.

I then thought I'd better see if all this work has damaged anything by plugging things back together and giving them a run:

Good heavens. Its still runs and makes noises.

Playing Trains with Trackgang at the Christchurch Show

The BOP Trackgang NZ120 layout from Tauranga ventured south for the Christchurch train show held over the weekend (4-5 October). DB thought it would be rude not to go up and help out Russell J and John E from Tauranga, and Aaron W from Hamilton.

The milk train on the Trackgang layout, with highsiders on the inner mainline. Note the sidings for display.

The show: its a pretty impressive show. I don't have any actual 'facts' for you, but we were told that the marshals had to pause the entry door a few times on Saturday as the hall can only accommodate 2000 people at once. That seems like an exaggeration, but there were a ton of people in, especially on Saturday. Many faces reappeared on the Sunday too. Rainy weather all weekend helped.

The Layouts: I'd guess there were 15 or so there, but I didn't allow myself enough time to browse properly. I'd also planned to buy knife blades, styrene, some of Brian R's Scenic Textures stuff, a DM coffee mug and rummage through the N Scale offerings, but large chunks of time pass surprisingly quickly at exhibitions until I turn to a zombie towards the end of the day.

The hall at the end of the second day, when pizza was put on for exhibitors, which was a nice touch.

There were a few impressive Lego trains running back and forth using colour sensitive photo detection to change direction using different coloured blocks between the lines at each end.  There was a small London Underground station which was a neat 'slice through the earth' concept. I'd love to see a way of having more tracks in this (a pair of lines at 45 degrees on a lower level with passengers changing lines and levels).

There was a cute wee British N scale offering that had four trains running on two tracks, and an American N modular one had a nice wharf and cargo ship scene.

Half of Twin Peaks

I've always liked the German/Swiss 'Twin Peaks' layout with its multiple levels of action, loads of lights and animated skiers, cars, chairlifts, skaters etc. There is plenty to look at in every little nook and cranny, and the automation is very impressive. A wee Z scale layout was super smooth and quiet. 

I would liked to have had a closer look at Lawrence B's Rewanui when it was running, with the tablet-controlled points and remote uncoupling for shunting. The scenery at the south end under the bridges is coming along nicely, and its sector table is a work of engineered art. As are the overhead lighting supports.

Big little Swiss Tigerli.

A few other NZ scenic beauties were present. Grant M's Three Mile Bush is a lovely bush tramway with Climaxes and other Heath Robinson-like contraptions hauling logs around. There was a vertical boiler that could emit puffs of smoke on demand, and plenty of bird sounds emanated from the bush. This was a real crowd pleaser and I believe it won best in show. 

3 Mile Bush with a log train chasing a light loco

Local group One Track Minds had their big 1:64th modular layout there. The scenery is really well done on this, but I never noticed too much action on it. Perhaps I was looking over at the wrong times, or maybe its just too difficult to efficiently run bidirectionally and cross trains at the stations. 'Sometimes-NZ120-modeller' Victor G had some superbly weathered Sn3.5 locos here, including this gorgeously rusty DXC 5293 modelled before its repaint. I've been meaning to try something like this for a long time. Inspiring. 

Sn 3.5 rustbucket weathering by Victor. Marvellous.

Ian P had his neat little NZ120 Kaikoura layout which is another crowd favourite that was mentioned in the blog two years ago. Small, reliable, plenty of action, and its easy for him to interact with the attendees from within the donut. While not 1000% prototypical (it is a model after all), it captures the locale perfectly, and this is what draws the crowds. The two circuits of track and the moving cars and trucks keep people amused as they look for 'Oaro' and 'Nins Bin' and other recognisable features along the coast.

Coal train on the Trackgang layout.

Trackgang BOP:  I didn't know much about the layout before this weekend, but can now report that it's a brilliant exhibition layout. 

• It is double tracked all around, so again, while not a million percent representative of most of NZ's lines, the reason people are attracted over to layouts, and then stay, is to see action. Having two tracks makes this much easier, and for the majority of the two days we had five mainline trains running at once, some of them quite long.  
• One track was powered with DC, the other DCC, which is entirely practical. For a few minutes early on the Saturday we had to diagnose a short in the DCC, but the DC trains could keep running. On Sunday, the reverse happened and there was a brief short in the DC - this time the DCC trains kept running, so nothing was lost.
• There are three long (about three metres) staging tracks behind the backscene. Brilliant. This allowed (primarily DCC) trains to be set up behind the scenes, and then swapped in and out and then be stored to give locos a rest and provide some variety in what was out on the mainline.
• There were two or three passing loop sidings on each circuit at the 'urban end' of the layout. This allowed medium or shorter trains to also be stored and swapped out on the 'visible' side of the layout - more for people to look at. 
• There are also some industrial sidings at the urban end of the layout, and one clump became the loco depot, where we could display a bunch of locos that were not in use on trains. We also sat wagons in the sidings for show, whether they ran well or not. Another popular spot was a log unloading area, with long wagons, a log truck, piles of logs, and log handling payloaders. 

The urban end, with loco display and log yard beyond the footbridge.

• Turnouts are remote controlled from behind the low backscenes using rods, and switches that power the frogs. 
• Above a tunnel there is an 'airport' where a collection of Air NZ, RNZAF and Safe Air 1:144 planes were displayed. This was a popular spot with many folks who also have an interest in aircraft.
• There were lots of little scenes that kept the kids (and many adults!) amused. Deer in a gully, people walking, sunbathing. Sheep, a nearby dog kennel, a hedge trimmer. A few people spotted the Tardis, a DeLorean, or cars from the Fast and the Furious. These little cameos kept people looking and walking around the layout. 
• The 'non-urban' three quarters of the layout has winding curves, bridges and road overbridges. These areas were nice and long, showing NZ120 at its best, with long trains running through scenery. The highsider coal train had more than 40 wagons.

DM in action. Note the clever crowd barrier - the sticks plug into holes in the layout fascia, which is robust enough to take any mild shoving. Note the wee dude - counting wagons was a popular pastime for the youngsters, especially with the highsiders!

• The modules themselves contained some nice ideas in their construction. Robust and foolproof circular electrical connectors connected all the wires between modules, and the plugs were clipped in place under the modules when disconnected. Loose leg pairs simply plugged into holes under each end of a module. Hinge joints at each side of a the join with L shaped pins made assembly easy and means you don't need fiddly adjustable feet, as any one set of legs in the pair can take the load. The modules made the commute from Tauranga in a small box trailer equipped with racking. Modules have a fascia with holes to plug a rope crows barrier into (see pic above).

Inter-module wiring. Legs are all numbered, making setup easy, with the black painted end on the crowd-facing side.

Clipped up when unplugged.

Such features enabled the layout to be up and working within 50 minutes. This included unloading modules from the trailer, walking them into the hall, laying them out in order, putting in the legs, making the physical hinge joins, laying an extension cord and plugging in the electrics, attaching the black cloth skirt, and installing the integral rope crowd barriers. Then (some!) buildings and vehicles were placed. Getting out of the hall after the show ended was just as quick. Getting the layout up quickly gave us a change to set up and test a few trains so we would be ready to roll on Saturday morning.

Assembled and almost ready to plug in. Nice fascia. The airport is above the tunnel at the far end, and is yet to be populated with planes.

This was an enjoyable and stress-free layout to operate. Plenty of action, ample staging, loads of places to display non-operating stock, plenty to keep people amused, and most important, it was utterly reliable. There's nothing worse than operating an erratic or untested layout at an exhibition when you are holding your breath on every circuit, or any time someone attempts to run through a turnout. 

The one or two glitches we had were quickly fixed. Pretty good for a modular layout that has come almost 1000km in a trailer, that was set up on a subtly un-flat hall floor, and of course the temperature and humidity changes significantly during a very wet day with a hall full of breathing people. 

Some of my Digitrax locos didn't behave as expected on the NCE system, so were sidelined or placed elsewhere. Sometimes a disobedient wagon might behave better when spun end-for end, or  moved in the train if its coupler height was out, otherwise it was removed. The odd repair was able to be made. We ended up with eight or nine reliable trains on deck at once, and these could pretty much circle the layout for hours with out any issues.

Locos and a railcar on standby.

With the NCE's recall button, it was fairly easy to control three trains following each other around the DCC circuit - running one at a steady pace, and slowing or speeding the other two trains occasionally by one or two clicks to have them keep their distance. But you had to pay attention. Being distracted for a minute or two by some sideline chat with a punter might see two trains try to merge into one. 

On the DC line, faster trains had to be stopped periodically in an isolated section to let the slower one pull ahead. And having most of the loops and sidings able to be isolated as blocks has other benefits, for example, switching off one of the staging tracks to avoid upsetting the rest of the layout while putting on a new train.  I should do this on my modules. It seemed to me that the NCE dealt with shorts well. Of course the 'loco depot' area was switched out so we could put a mix of DC and DCC engines there.

Da with livestock. Note the fine power poles made from brass.

Trains and rolling stock on the BOP Trackgang layout over the weekend included: 

• A very cool milk train made from MMW etched ends and frames combined with sections of 'slightly un-polished' handrail tube. 
• A striking 3D printed Standard railcar fettled by Russell. There's nothing like a red railcar to catch the eye of the passing punter. 
• A Murupara log train behind a pair of old Dgs
• Tasman Forestry and Kiwi Lager locos.
• Two TranzScenic trains, including one pulled by a Tranz Rail bumblebee recabbed DG! There was also a KiwiRail Scenic Journeys white twinset railcar in attendance.
• A nice red Da hauling livestock wagons provided something a little older to look at. In hindsight I should have tried that Da or a grubby Dg pulling my three red passenger cars around to see if they ran.
• A few other 'mixed freight' trains ran over the weekend, including one DBR-hauled, and local man Jonty B had his DXR in on Saturday. This had an impressive LED ditchlight setup. 
• And the 'old' and 'new' coal trains were pretty reliable (and relatable to most of the local audience). A couple of the hoppers would derail when they dropping into the staging area. This was away from the public eye, but I'm kicking myself for not swapping those wagons around to see if that could have been cured. Not that we swapped that train out often. The highsider train reached 44 wagons at one stage, with Aaron's LCs being absolute works of art - brake hoses, etched side chains, handbrake levers, and... little loops on the side to tie your tarpaulin ropes to!  Wow.  He also had a couple of intricate etched container wagons that were very impressive. 

Note the side chains, handbrake levers, brake hose, and the rope tiedowns on the sides on Aaron's Trackgang LCs!

Almost prototypical - a  bumblebee recabbed DG on the Tranz passes a milk train that has been pulled over. Over on the DCC tracks, another Tranz passes going the other way.

A quick check of the NCE manual. I've never used this system before, so was of no help! Visible is the highsider train looking good on the reverse curves at 33 wagons, before Aaron's LCs were added.

Tranz Rail freight through the S curves on the Sunday.

DM again. Signals, relay boxes and crossing bells are fine details. The containers are Aaron's twin-layer etches.

NZ120 in full flight.

NIMT viaduct.

The DBR's freight train (Aaron Wall pic)

Popsicle DX (Aaron Wall pic)

Most of the stuff that I operated has never been used before in anger because this is the first exhibition I've run NZ120 on since 1995. And I loved it! Thanks to Russell, John and Aaron for coming down, putting up with me, and making this possible. Now to finish off my modules....

¡Hola! The 3-Foot 6 DM Class - 4

 In which DB says, "about time". 

On Thursday, I found the courage to return to the DM project, just in time for it to head north to the train show on Friday. 

The DM provokes mixed feelings all around. Its nice to have something clean and new to photograph, but it will mean the end of the DX and DC class that we have loved for for five decades or more.

The model is also a mixed bag, so I both love it and hate it. The 3D print is very nice in places (especially the cab and headstocks), but its a bit off in the long hood detailing, not that mattered, as I printed up sides and moved the roof around. My shell has a slight bow in one of its sides. I've also found this a very challenging build, although some of that is my own fault.

Some nice etched handrails arrived from Lewis (made by Aaron Wall) a few weeks back. As known, these are gorgeous, yet a bit long in the x-axis. I believe there are new re-scaled ones available now or coming soon. This set is one of the early ones, so you have to dispense with a segment from each corner if you want to have enough of a gap for the crew to board via the side steps. You'd have to be staring at both the model and a prototype picture closely at the same time to notice. 

You also have a decision on to make on how to mount them. This may affect at what angle, and even for how long, they remain mounted. Ideally the lower ends of the pointy bits would be longer, and fit into slots pre-made in the side sill, or even better, a leaf could be taken from the Z scale playbook, and the yellow side sill itself could be an integral part of the etch. This would make mounting dead easy and provide the best chance of them being straight and resistant to being bent when knocked.

It may not be immediately apparent as the black GP above is not shown in a large photo, but the sidesill edge, the handrails (long and short hood), and the battery boxes under the cab are all part of the same etched strip here. Easy to assemble, always lines up, always stands at 90 degrees, and resistant to breaking.

But be that as it may. 

Back to NZ120land. I added some brake hoses, put in some MV Lens 'lights', and finally got around to glazing the front window. I did a much better job than I did on the back end window, including a strip between the window segments. Looks ugly, but viewing from this close is prohibido anyway.  That blue builder's plate is a bit '3d' from this angle!

I trimmed the handrails and superglued them on using some stripwood to hold them a constant distance out from the long hood until things had set. As mentioned, I'd like to have put the mounting pins into slots in the sills, but getting slots in the right places would have been a messy and time consuming job, so here they are out proud. A bit ugly, but a some yellow over the top makes them look a little better.  

The chassis is an old SD90 with a hardwired decoder. It seems to run nicely enough. A fuel tank and bogie sides come with the print, but I decided not to use them. The tank is a bit of a squeeze on the chassis, so it broke (and it was bowed anyway). I may use the bogie sides in future. 

My fuel tank is from an Atlas Dash 8 out of the spares bin, with the 'near end' being a part from a Japanese shunter top, chosen because it had a decent sized square grille that looks a bit like the aluminium cooling radiators on these. Now that I think about it, I don't think the prototype has these on both sides...!

A million other little detail things were done. Blue Stadler makers plates (under the cab on the LE's side) were added, as were silver tips to the brake hoses and taps, the four side steps, and various roof antenna. I also added a bit more detail on the cabtop air conditioning units. The inside rear of the 'good' cab wall had some 'smoke' applied, as it was a bit bright with its white styrene and yellow overspray.

I was going to tart up the bogies using the supplied sides, or even improving these SD90 ones with some sandboxes on the inner ends and parking brake units on the outboard ends, but time is short, they are dark black, and you don't really notice. 

The model could do with some numbers on the front and also the white KiwiRail logos on the Stadler design trademark black chevron, but this will do for now. 

So now that it's done (about time too, (told you I'd say that)), do I love it or hate it? I certainly like it a lot more than I did on Thursday morning.