Max Stafford's Kennel

This post is my 100th on the blog and in all probability, the last of 2013; a year I’m frankly happy to see the back of for various personal reasons and I hope that I can leave that baggage behind as we venture into a new year that holds potential for good things.
I’ve been around here too long to succumb to blind optimism but maybe, just maybe my cynicism may be proved wrong. For once it would be great to be wrong! 😉

Anyway, I’m tying up all the scrag-end jobs that have been lurking on the bench in the interests of starting with a clean sheet in the New Year, so some incomplete wagons have been getting the treatment.
The hopper and LowMac have been skulking in the background throughout the Era of Stagnation from 2010!
I’m putting that right just now as you can see in this instance.
I’m not truly happy with the finish but as it was largely the result of accident and unlikely to be improved upon I’ll accept it as is.

Meantime, the relatively recent arrival of the Hornby ex-LMS type CCT has been receiving treatment such as re-wheeling to EM, replacement of the massively underwhelming buffers and the addition of another 35 grams of weight!
The base for the finish here was the basic livery as supplied which apparently is merely the bare plastic.
I also replaced the rain strips which just looked odd. Mine are still crap but significantly more natural look ing than the supplied offering.

So things are moving along slowly here; I have twelve days off from Thursday in which to gather some steam and hopefully get 2014 off to a useful start.
Looking back, it’s surprising how quickly we have reached 100 posts but I hope we’ll be marking 200 before long.
I’m hoping that the new year will bring new hope, energy and purpose for all my friends but until then, Jack and Victor would like to pass on this special message to the year just gone…