The Third Rail

31/08/2026

Young dude walks in here this morning. He is a model builder. Star Wars and stuff like that. About 24 years old. Now, I was not overly friendly because I am busy catching up. Loose ends everywhere.

So I just carried on while he was explaining what he wanted. And then he kept quiet and waited for me to finish and put together the handbrake assembly in the cab of the CG1 class 35GM.

“Maar oom, hoekom sit oom die ketting in as jy dit nie gaan sien nie?” he asked.

“Want netnou fokken kyk iemand” I replied.

And with the wisdom of youth he said to me that if 100 people looked at this model, only two or three will see it. “And those two are normally the judges” I replied.

He looked at me and said that there was a cabin in the Millenium Falcon he is building currently that he wanted to fit a light but he could not reach unless he broke it out and rebuilt it.

“Oom” sê hy “ek gaan nou huis toe en ek gaan daai liggie daar in bou. Dankie oom.”

And he left.

And just like that……. insanity was born. It can only be a good thing…..

Right?

28/08/2026

Well well well, I was man-down for the best part of a week. Shingles, gordelroos…… call it what you want. I do not wish it on my worst enemy.

I only started assembling stuff again yesterday. This loco was supposed to be done tomorrow. 4 weeks. It’s not even close yet. Problem being that the medication I am on gives me the shakes.

Ek bewe soos ‘n ou man. Today was a bit better as I stopped taking the pain killers. So I could mask and paint the stripes on the nose. Tomorrow I will do the long bonnet. I have cut the windows. Painted the interior and printed the decals. I reckon by Friday I should be done.

Lekker julle!!!!!

22/08/2026

Can you guys maybe help me here? If anybody has pictures or schematics on how these things operate, I would appreciate it.

Google and Chat Gtp have no idea what I am on about. Its called an Inter-bogie connection. Let me know. Thanx in advance.

Lekker julle!

22/08/2026

Dudes! I had some health issues. So things were going way too slow. But inbetween I ordered a couple of tubs worth of Artesania brass rivets and I pinned the whole train.

I have better drawings now and much more photo reference than ever before. Redid the roof oil cooler too as it was way too small.

Today, I am making the inter-bogie connections and then it is paint time.

Lekker julle!!!!

09/08/2026

08/08/2026

Crapload of work.

08/08/2026

So, I am slowly working through the plumbing on the CG1 class 35GM. Tedious work. A LOT of stuff needs to be made. Physically cutting, shaping, drilling and fitting. It sounds like I am complaining but I am not. It is helluva satisfying. Will post pics when I am done.

Whilst rummaging through my 35GM reference archive I found the pics below. This was the third loco I ever built in my life. I can still remember how apprehensive I was. How new everything was. How much tools and sundries I bought back then. Brass and plastic rods and pipes. ABS profiles by the thousands. How difficult the sanding was.

How vastly different it was from every other model I had built in my life up to then. I could build a ship. Or a military vehicle. Or buildings. Or a layout….. but this thing was a different ballgame. My reference point was ridiculously detailed models from KISS, KM1, Hubner and Dingler.

I could never get close to those models but I never stopped trying. And I can still remember all the little mishaps I had.

I wonder if she ever ran? She went to Stefan who was a huge train collector back in the day.

Lekker julle!!!!

05/08/2026

I moved ass yesterday. Stuck the long bonnet together and that is always a clench moment. Got the speaker in and did the plumbing on the diesel tank. Filler caps and breather valves and tanks as well as the start of the chassis plumbing.

Got the chassis siderails in. Got both motorblocks plumbed. Made the brackets and fitted the diesel tank.

Today I do the stays for the pilots, which I hate doing, and start the chassis plumbing. By next week I want to start on the body. Sticking the doors down is a hairy affair.

Lekker julle!!!!

04/08/2026

I had an interesting conversation with Tim and Fiona, my 3d printers, over the weekend.

They were patiently listening to another one of my rants about scale and correctness. I think it might get a bit boring at times lol.

Then Fiona said something that hit me like hammer between the eyes.

She works at a bank and have done so for most of her adult life. She mentioned that when handling money, they were never once shown a counterfeit note. Ever. Instead they were forced to handle only real money. Learn its texture, colouring, variants and general feel. Over and over and over again. Hammered into their brains so that when you do encounter a counterfeit note, you know immediately.

Now that makes sense. I know the stuff I build is right. I know that most of you love it and judging by the amount of followers this page gains daily, there is a lot of us out there. People that look AND see. People that notice a surge arrestor. People that appreciate a pretty miniature version of the real thing.

If I show you enough pretty models, people will eventually recognise the other ones.

And the clincher for me is, that way nobody forces anybody into a camp. You choose where you want to be.

Lekker julle!!!!