Scrapheap challenge - part eleven

The finish is in sight!

The handrail was polished using the bench grinder and before fitting, the body was sprayed with matt lacquer to tone down the shine. Normally the castles have a matt finish.

After checking everything fits properly, the body was removed, motor refitted and then rewired. This one had a brush missing and no wiring inside but it's not a difficult job. 

After a light oiling, and a quick test on the bench, time for a trip around the loft track.

 A little sticky and hesitant to begin with but that was to be expected. After a couple more loops the current had dropped to way below 0.5 amps and it was running sweetly.

Some final poses before I pack away ready for exhibiting:

And that concludes the scrapheap challenge!

I was never intending to buy more locos (apart from the more desirable ones) but when this box of locos and track turned up on the doorstep, I couldn't scrap them and it was very clear that if they weren't of interest to me then they would have been on the way to a landfill the next day.

I'd hoped to get three of the four running but in the end I've managed to fix them all. Two have already made public appearances and the rest will follow. 

The Castle is by far the most challenging of the four due to the amount of linings etc. It also turned out the be the most expensive, however I've worked out that the cost of restoring all four locos combined comes in at around £80.00. An average spend of £20.00 per loco would still generate a profit if I were to sell them, which I won't!

There are still two more complete Castle locos on the desk and another Castle body & tender. The original intention was to remove the names & numbers leaving the paint. Having done this (and quite enjoyed it!) I will probably apply the same level of attention to the other two. This will give me a fleet of five Castles but who cares?

Just need to save up again...