Morts Dock Turret Tender Pt.1

 I started on the tender of 5096 with the intention of a rebuild into A Morts Dock & Engineering turret tender. These tenders interested me as they seemed to be a progression from the 'as delivered' 3650 gallon tender into something more utilitarian for goods working. Both types of tenders were 3650 gallons & 9 1/2 tons of coal so the only advantage was visibility when running tender first.

A search yielded a HO scale plan in the August 1988 AMRM so a copy was duly ordered. As suspected, the lower part of the tender was an almost exact match, the tank exactly and just the step handrail looking a scale 3" longer on the model

The first step was to remove all the added on detail parts and store them away for reuse. Fortunately, the coal was a separate part that just popped out. Next, the flairing along the upper sides and end were carefully sawn off, fortunately preserving the top row of rivets. 2 strips of .30 thou styrene were glued along the top to close in the gap and form the tank top walkways. Another pair of styrene strips were cut for the full height of the coal bunker, the rear portion over the tank was measured and trimmed down and the curve in the side pieces carefully filed to shape. The front and rear of the coal bunker was cut, shaped and fitted as was the piece at the rear of the tank. One final check that everything was square and a piece glued in as bracing and it was all glued to the tender body. 

And that's where I'm up to and a couple of photos to show progress so far.

 Been a few weeks but the postman delivered my new locomotives, a pair of saturated 50 class goods engines, 5069 & 5096, both Eureka models. One, 5069 is DCC sound equipped while 5096 is DC weathered. 

While looking through boxes of old N scale stuff, I found a Soundtraxx 1100 Tsunami 2 so that's now going into the second loco.

 Well, seems the flu bug hasn't finished with me yet so today will just be a short post, a couple of pics of my recently completed Walker Models Bombala signal box

And a couple of photos of the station construction I've just started (but came to a scretching, coughing, spluttering halt)