Duff Love

My loss of modelling mojo has many factors, I believe. One of which is the absolute bonkers way that
prices in the hobby have gone up. Recently I've downsized my stock, selling lots of items that were just
gathering dust on a shelf. One of the items included a prized class  47 locomotive that I own. Why was
it prized? Well, I 'cabbed' the loco when I worked on the railway. However, just sat in a box, I decided to
sell it on rather than let it go to waste... which, ironically, the real version of the loco did!

So with my stock list at a low ebb, I decided to add a loco to it. However, I knew what I wanted but
couldn't bring myself to pay the - to my mind - extortionate prices asked for it. Therefore the decision
was made; go low-tech. Or retro, whichever you prefer. Going retro meant buying a Lima 47. I love
them and already have a chassis (and a good runner at that) which I could have used for this project,
having bought a body shell for it. Despite that, I found myself a bit of a bargain, getting a full loco for
a little more than the cost of a spare body.

The Lima 47 is low-tech, particularly by today's standards. Very low tech in fact, however the tooling
on the shell is really rather lovely. I've seen many examples of people 'up-cycling' them and they
always look pretty swish. I'm not going to do too much to it really but it should make a difference.
The plan is to add the front end details on the buffer beams - pipes, etc - and then file away the
moulded details on the front of the cabs, fitting proper grab rails. Finally, I want to renumber the
loco to 47489 'Crewe Diesel Depot Quality Assured' before adding some weathering to it. I want it to
look 'lived in.'

Old school? Yes. A 'Duff' on a budget? Very much so. Excited? Yes, more than I have been by
the thought of modelling for a long time.