LOCO 21

Loco 21 is a Roundhouse Darj, which was collected from the Works on 17th May 2012 (after they'd fitted the Indian Railways plates).

After running light, I added the first test weight.....................

.................. to be followed with the HEAVY weight to make up the standard test train weight of 22 1/2 pounds.

After cooling off (Did you know that the Works have a special electric fan, just for that purpose?) I packed the loco in its new box for the run home.

............... and here's some video:

Unfortunately, Youtube have "stabilised" what they thought was a "wobbly" video, with the result that the captions now wobble!

Even a loco as gorgeous as this is capable of some modest improvements. The first thing to go was the re-railing bar - the cast white metal one just didn't hack it for me! A chunk of "miscellaneous wood" from the firewood pile was whittled and sanded to shape (note the "thick end" is actually square) and once stained with very dilute Indian ink, it looked a whole lot better! The hanging hooks for the fire irons are made from floristry wire.

If you were to look cloesely at the preceding picture, you would perhaps have noticed a wire from the front headlight...............

...................... leading to a battery box butchered from a pound shop battery tee light, concealed under the coal load.

This was to make the front headlight actually light up. Fortunately, those NICE people at Roundhouse do provide holes for all of this to happen: unfortunately the holes in the headlamp mounting bracket and the cab roof are not qhuite large enough to pass a 3mm LED and they can't be altered as they're part of the etch, so it's neccesary to take a drill to your brand new loco to open them out a little.

For the rear light, I decided not to have wires running all over the cab to get the power from the battery box for the front headlight - besides, having a "lift off" cab roof and loose wires was a disaster in the making, so I stuck another one (painted black) inside the cab roof with a double-sided sticky pad (like the ones that hold car number plates in place) ............

............ with a very short cable run to the headlight.All wires (or LED "tails") were insulated with black heatshrink where they passed through holes, to conceal the soldered joints and prevent short circuits.

The loco (and train) looking very much "at home" on the Indian Hills exhibition layout at the Exeter Garden Railway Show in October 2014.

Christmas 2017 saw a crew arrive for the Darj.....................

...................... courtesy of IP Engineering........................

............... and my dear wife!