You have done a cracking job with this build, the detail and weathering are fantastic and really bring it to life. V. Impressed and inspired by both this and the Hymek.
On a slightly different tack, watching progress with this build has got me thinking more about the real locos, almost all of which were scrapped and gone long before I was born. Clearly I have no direct experience of them but they have to be one of the worst aesthetic (and engineering) designs ever to have graced the UK network. Someone made the comment on here about the design looking like the loco was dropped on its end during build, but you have to wonder whether the NBL design team, rather than knocking off the job to go to the pub half way through the design process, actually didn't bother starting it until they'd got back from the pub, bearing the back of a fag packet with some drawings on it, and then headed back on the pub before finishing. It's hard to imagine anyone being presented with the final drawings for approval saying "
yes, that's exactly what a loco should look like, strong, fast, purposeful and attractive, let's build it"*. It's even harder to imagine anyone at BR responding with "
Wow, now that is the very essence of a modernisation plan loco, reliable, strong, an amazing advert for British Rail, let's buy it".
Still, I guess it can be said that they have a charm of their own and beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all... Places tongue in cheek, puts coat on, legs it for the door.
*coincidentally, these are the very words that eminated from the Vulcan Foundry in late 1966 after the DP2 redesign team had finished their work...
