Friends of the Rail Forum

Howzit.

It's a little bit amateur hour here, but over the last few months I have been collecting items together, in order to emulate the SAR locos and rolling stock of 1982, when I did a few months as a unit assistant on 5E's and 6E's.

I last did any type of modelling about 30 years back, when fingers were more nimble, and eyes could actually see well enough to thread a needle. ( Maybe N gauge wasn't the best choice. )
Anyhow, hit and miss, I have enough rolling stock to keep me happy modelling for the next few years, so I can only get better. ( There is a lot of room for that. )

The first thing I did was get hold of a Bachmann diesel Bo-Bo, in Santa Fe livery. Just as an experiment, I dressed it up a bit, and painted it, and almost thought of it as 'Class 34'. ( yes, yes, I know it doesn't even have the wheel count, let alone a million other things wrong with. I wanted to know if I would enjoy this. )
Then a dining car :
A very weathered baggage car, with guard standing at the open door.
And, what I really wanted to make :
A pair of 6E's. one is a 6E1, they are both powered ( Lima engines ), they have a driver and assistant in one cab, they have directional lighting on each end, and common pickups, by means of the control cables between them. I made every mistake in the book, and the stripes alone took me 6 weekends to find the best way.
Next project :
I can see a Red Devil inside that 4-8-4.........

You must keep an eye open for the Del Prado static models of the 6E and 4E, I believe somebody has managed to convert them to running. They occasionally pop up at Bidorbuy. Good luck in your quest. N Gauge is awesome, but my eyes are too weary to see on that scale. I am going to PM you a website to visit that may help in your searches for goodies.

Fidel,

Well done!

I think they all look great........

The important thing I think (especially in this scale) is not to end up rivet counting. If they look and feel good/right, then indeed they are..................

Kevin, thank you !!

I'm having fun with this, and I'll naturally get better at it.
In a month or two, I'll do another pair of 6E's in blue, and do a comparison.

Look forward to seeing them!

Hi Fidel, congrats, it looks very good! No one who has not attempted this before will know what it is really about. I quickly gave up on the Blue 6E I attempted to convert. Do you have a layout that you run these on, or do you only build the models? Regards Stasiemeester

Anyway, several months down the line, I want to post some photos relating to the last picture I posted above - the non-descript grey steam engine, that I was planning on making into the Class 26 Red Devil.

Plenty of work still to do.....

Nice to see you are still busy.

Keep it up!

I struggled last night to get these other photos on.....

It goes forward ......
My photography skills are far less than my modelling skills, so the model looks worse in photos than real life ...... but, still, whatever...