I know I ought to be concentrating on repairing locomotives in the order I acquired them, but since the Duke of Gloucester runs so well without its repairs I feel bad touching it when others in my collection are suffering more. Take the Peppercorn A1 “Tornado” for example. I acquired this locomotive and it arrived in poor cosmetic state due to being partially crushed in the post, as well as being a slightly inconsistent runner when going backward. Here’s a quick look at the locomotive’s current state.

It’s a pretty striking locomotive, side on — if you ignore the fact the tender is in two parts. That said, this should be an easy fix. What isn’t so obvious in this photo, however, is the damage this locomotive has had to each end.

Neither coupling exists any more — both appear to have shattered in transit. This means that it can’t pull or push rakes of carriages at all. The front buffer beam has been pushed into the main body, causing one side to buckle slightly and both the buffers have snapped internally. Neither smoke deflector stays attached while running although this can easily be fixed with some glue. In fact, due to the amount of repairs it requires, I’ve actually created a repairs and accessories group for my parts list which is already pushing the estimated price up somewhat.

There’s a lot going for this locomotive — it runs pretty smoothly when it does run — but the task of restoring it to its righteous glory is daunting and, asides from one other locomotive I’ve yet to mention on the site, feels like it will be one of the hardest challenges for me going forwards.

The model of the Gresley A4 Bittern holds a very special place in my heart. This is because the locomotive was the first one I owned, back in the mid 1990s as part of starter set R581. As I put in the model’s notes page, this train has essentially been part of my childhood and has always been on the layouts I made. So when I removed it from storage in February 2020 and found that it wasnt working, I was quite upset. The locomotive wheels were completely seized up and wouldn’t turn, meaning that no matter how hard it tried, the motor could not move the train at all.

One of the first things to realise about this locomotive is that it is made of two separate components: the tender, which houses the main ringfield motor; and the front of the locomotive which houses the electrical pickups. Separating the tender and attaching it to another, similarly-styled locomotive showed that the motor still worked fine. In fact, it was interesting to see the Flying Scotsman zooming around using the Bittern’s motor tender. This narrowed down the main problems to the front of the locomotive.

The front of the locomotive could move short distances before the wheels locked up, so I first tried oiling the axles. This helped a bit, so I tried oiling the valve gear mechanism movement points. This helped quite a lot and the wheels appeared free to move again. Setting the locomotive back on the rails, it ran pretty well around the test loop. However, after a few loops of the layout, the wheels siezed up again. Further work was required!

Carefully removing the bottom of the locomotive, I found that the lubricant in the bearings had gone completely solid. The little oil I’d added to the axles had been unable to get into the bearings at all. Using a cotton bud and some isopropyl alcohol, I spent several hours over the next few days removing the remaining solidified lubricant. I also took some time cleaning out the valve gear movement points, just to be on the safe side.

Once the last trace of the old lubricant was removed, I doused the bearings and movement points in 3-in-1 oil and put the locomotive back together. I placed it back on the layout and ran it at a consistent slow speed for approximately thirty minutes with no issue — pretty much confirming it was fixed. I’m keeping an eye on it, but I think it’s behaving itself now!

Almost all of the models I have acquired recently have been second-hand and from these there have been a portion that were acquired at a significant discount due to them being damaged. For the ones that need work, I’ve already started looking at getting them repaired: either professionally or by myself. Additionally, for all the locomotives that have been in storage for a significant amount of time, I’m giving them an oil and a motor service before running them again.

There have been several locomotives that have required major servicing, of which some are ongoing. Each of these has had a different set of challenges to get back into running state and will eventually receive a full post for each problem, but at a high level:

Locomotives I have recently added to my collection:

• The Duchess had parts falling off and the motor removed from its housing,
• The Duke has a problem with its wheel mechanism (and I’m still working out the best way to fix it!),
• Tornado has been damaged cosmetically during postage but I believe I can fix it.

…and models that have been in storage for eighteen years:

• The Bittern’s mechanical bearings had gone dry in storage and the wheels had seized up,
• Class 43 and Class 90 with motor gears falling off in storage,
• Robert the Devil not running well (diagnostics ongoing).

There are a few model locomotives I have not removed from their boxes yet, and so this list may change as time goes on.

Sometimes you have to admit you can’t do something. Admittedly, I do this a lot nowadays, but I’ve noticed that in the last year and a bit, I’ve only touched the code for the Vestige game project a few times since I posted about reviving it.

Perhaps it was the urge to keep it alive when I asked myself whether I should delete it or not that caused me to think I’d complete it, but the truth is that after spending a day at work writing code on a professional level, I cannot bring myself to write any code on any level when I get home.

I think I’ll archive the code so that others can grab a copy and build upon it, but it’s really over now. I’ve learnt a lot over the last sixteen-or-so years and bits of the codebase still live on in other projects. It’s probably a fitting end.

I’ll try and blog about some other non-work projects here from now on, but they’re not always that interesting or relevant for a portfolio.

The year is drawing to a close. People are tidying away their Christmas decorations and slowly remembering they have to return to work. This year is a special one as it also marks the end of the decade as well.

A lot has happened over this last year, and even more so this last decade. As I lay here in bed, recovering from a recent operation, I’ve had plenty of time to think back on the past, as well as look to the future. At the beginning of this decade, I was still at university worrying about how well I was doing… now I’m at work worrying about pretty much the same thing 😆 . This past decade I completed my university degree, became a professional software developer and expanded my skillset into user experience design. I’ve finally managed to learn to drive — several years too late, much to the amusement of my friends — and climbed onto the property ladder. It’s been a wild ride and despite it being hard at times, it’s one that’s worth being on.

Truthfully though, I don’t think I’ve felt happier about life as I do now. This year has been one where I’ve really been able to make myself a better person than I have been, with the support of my friends and family. 2017 and 2018 were quite rough for me, both emotionally and mentally; 2019 has been the first year I’ve felt I’ve actually been able to change things for the better — even if the changes are quite small. I’m extremely lucky to have my friends, most of which have gone above and beyond to provide support and just be there when I’ve needed them (you know who you are; I cannot thank you all enough). There’s some things I’d have never have done if it weren’t for all these people cheering me on, and I honestly wouldn’t be here (both literally and metaphorically) if it weren’t for them.

Despite reducing my online presence in 2018, I’ve managed to build a small, close-knit community around some of the things I’ve done this last year. Silly office projects, 3D printed gadgets, artworks containing in-jokes or epic scale projects in games: to an outsider, these may seem ridiculous, but these are some of the things that I’ve looked forward to sharing with these groups — either to make people laugh, or to encourage collaboration and ideas. I don’t think I’ll ever quite realise that these little things mean this much to more than just myself so I just want to thank everyone involved for being so awesome, open and understanding.

I’ve got plenty more things I want to do coming up, and the start of the new decade is definitely looking a promising place to start off. Here’s to 2020!

A quick recap

As I mentioned above, I’ve had some health issues that culminated with an operation just before Christmas. I am currently recovering from that, but will be out of action for at least a few months.

The day of my operation marked a year’s anniversary for me getting the keys to my new place. Most of the year has been spent making the place more homely or creating a garden that I can be proud of. I’ve been able to grow my own vegetables this year, and August brought with it an excess of tomatoes that I had to donate to others!

2019’s resolutions

One of my goals over the last few years has been trying to reduce my impact on the environment. I know that talking about this is comparable to a tiny drop in an ocean, but it’s a start and even the smallest things help.

At the end of 2017 I purchased a 3D printer. 2018 was very much the year of repairing things with stuff I printed and I continued to build upon that in 2019 by actually creating my own things instead of going out and buying new items. Scattered around my house are small things that I’ve made to solve problems; examples include soap dishes, pen holders and storage containers. The printer uses plant-based PLA which I’m trying to source from responsible sources.

I’ve also worked exceedingly hard to reduce waste in 2019, and have got to the state where I don’t need to empty the non-recyclable waste bin every collection day. Since I’m in the IT sector, I’ve also helped reduce the amount of electronic waste in the world by prioritising purchases of second-hand technologies when needed. I can confidently say that all but one of my technological purchases this year were preowned.

Progression at work has gone better this year as I finally was given the green light to go for a hybrid User Experience and Front End Developer role. It’s been a significant challenge, but there are clearly positive results coming out of it — both for myself and the company I work for. Moving into 2020 I will continue furthering my career with this in mind.

I am rapidly becoming the HTML and CSS “go to” person in my project, which is both a blessing and a curse. The added visibility is great, however there are several people on the team who would much rather give their work to me and then claim the credit for it after.

My other resolutions didn’t fare as well: the annual statement of “I’ll lose weight” will continue into next year, and the plan to cycle most days to work have been scuppered somewhat by health issues and general lack of motivation.