Lee Moor, 2nd of her name

Tawe TMD's Shapeways Page.  Looks pretty barren, does it not? I reckon it's about time I did something to rectify that.

For whom it concerns, yes, the SLA 3D Printer Project is still underway, painting is taking a lot longer than expected, even with the convenience of aerosols.  The good news is that allows me to take on a new, shorter project while this one pans out. Looking over the Hornby L&Y Pug I reviewed last time, I began to have an epiphany – the harder I looked at it, and the Lee Moor Tank Engines, the more convinced I became that I had a perfect beginner's kitbash on my hands!

Behold!

Hope comes to me in the form of The Lee Moor Tramway: A Pictorial Record by Roy E. Taylor. This is a collection of photographs, mostly from 1900 onwards, of the tramway in operation; diagrams of the Lee Moor Locomotives, perchance? Sadly not. I'll probably find more use for this material when I get round to building a layout on the subject, for in terms of the line itself, it's an unbeatable resource. It's also an invaluable authority on the details present on the Locomotives themselves – I now know that they carried screw jacks aboard the running plate for re-railing, as well as an excellent way to hide the motor in the form of tarpaulin sheets around the open cabs.

Of course, in spite of this, there is a distinct dearth of research material relating to the Lee Moor Tramway, even at the time the locomotives were around from 1899 onwards. The thing is, though, that it doesn't seem to stop most modellers, particularly the S Scale brigade, from modelling historically obscure and fascinating subjects. Is there a method of designing a working drawing from a plethora of photographs, or do you go by instinct? That alone will probably make a fascinating learning curve.

My trip to the South Devon Railway last Saturday, on which I intended to obtain research images of Lee Moor No.2 and the last surviving Lee Moor Tramway Wagon, didn't go nearly as well as I'd imagined. Think of what you do for fun, does it involve being stuck on a train for a solid hour, due to some retard who crashed his lorry under the line into Bath Spa, delaying your already late train just enough to make you miss the first train? Of the only three running that day? Of course not. I did manage to get to Buckfastleigh by bus, so that was the day saved, but unfortunately the SDR had been keeping Lee Moor No.2 “under lock-and-key” as they put it – for the right reasons, winter protection and all, but still a downer upon an otherwise fine day.

Damn you Lee Moor No.2, you escape this time!

Having grown up in firm Southern Region territory, it's always nice to escape to another region. The stylistic prowess of GWR Stations, regardless of how many times the “Western Branch Line Terminus” layout has reared it's clichéd head, make it plain to see why they are so keenly modelled by so many. The creamy orange of GWR No.2 "Light Stone", contrasting so neatly with the comparatively leaden No.3 "Dark Stone", blends so well with the cottage stone, as well as the red soil so often found in Devon, particularly around the Dawlish Sea Wall (which by itself made the trip worthwhile!); best of all, this is all achieved without lazily copying the soil colour verbatim. Even the toilets looked better appointed than my bedroom!

Tiny House Inspiration? I reckon so.

Confession time. I've always dreamed of following in the footsteps of Stanier, Churchward, Bulleid and the like in model form, my ultimate goal in the hobby is to design Live Steam locomotives. Okay, perhaps I'm cheating at this point, taking a chassis from an existing model, but you've got to begin somewhere, eh?