Even less activity than last month in the workshop: I have been very busy helping to revive the Littlehampton Miniature Railway, guess who created the website?
​ I did paint some loco head and tail lamps; they are a mixture of Roundhouse and GRS cast white metal lamps. 
 The lamp bodies were painted with matt acrylic white, the headlamp lenses were polished with a fine brass wire brush attachment fitted in a Rotacraft drill, and then given a thick coat of gloss varnish. The tail lamp lenses were painted with BR Maroon enamel paint - just happened to be the maroon I had in stock - and then coated with the gloss varnish. Initially I was going to paint the tail lamp lenses in a brighter signal red; you may have noticed however, that the lenses of the full size lamps are actually quite dark in colour and only appear to be bright red when they are lit. These are my daytime lamps - I have some working lamps for night use - so I opted for the darker shade of red.  

There has not been much activity in the workshop this month as I have been unwell. I did manage to fit lamp irons to the remaining four cattle wagons: all rolling stock is now equipped with the means of carrying a tail lamp, and can therefore run at the rear of a train - handy when dropping wagons off at intermediate stations.
 The plan for March was to build an Atropos kit of a Schull and Skibbereen van, but all I have managed to do so far is to check the parts off against the parts list!

In the period between Christmas and New Year, I have retro fitted lamp irons to most of the rolling stock; any vehicle so fitted can now be marshalled at the end of a train and there is no need to ensure that a brake van is the last vehicle. A mixture of GRS and Roundhouse lamp irons were used, once bent to shape, they received a coat of self etching primer followed by a top coat of enamel or acrylic paint. The lamp irons were held in place with cyano adhesive, rivets were then used to ensure a secure fixing. Due to a shortage of lamp irons, the four T&D cattle wagons have not yet been equipped, these will be done once further supplies arrive; all future new build rolling stock will be fitted with lamp irons during construction.