Review Of The Year - Part 1

I've established a tradition on this blog in the last days of December of taking stock of everything that Himself and I have achieved over the year.

I usually find there are things that I've forgotten about, and I'm always surprised by how much we've got done.

So here's a look back at what we were up to in the first quarter of 2018.

January

Looking back now I see that there was a lot of carriage building going on at this time.

FR 'superbarn' 118, which I'd built up from resin castings, had been painted, assembled, had its transfers applied and, finally, varnished.

Himself was also starting work on a very long-term project indeed - the completion of a Worsley Works bowsider 19 which had been sitting in a drawer in its naked state for years.

I was also busy trying to keep up with the expanding WHR carriage fleet and had started work on saloon 2047 which was being scratch built in styrene - as opposed to the resin parts I use for the latest FR stock.

February

This was the big reveal of our finished Robex 3D printed Lilla.

I thought at the time - and still do - that it looks absolutely stunning!

We'd decided to finish it in its current, highly ornate, plum livery with oodles of gold leaf lining.

It was taking up all Himself's reserves of patience and concentration but it was already clear the results were going to be worth it.

He'd also restarted work to plug the last remining scenic gap on the layout, landscaping around the last two houses I'd built.

March

There was yet more carriage work going on with me kit-bashing a Dundas 'Bro Madog' carriage to make it look like it's current condition on the WHHR.

As to why I was doing it, that was about to be revealed...

I'd also been putting together the castings for the second of the latest FR observation carrs 152 ready for Himself to add a brass roof and the window pillars at the front.

The reason I was making a WHHR carriage became clear when I handed over Himself's birthday present - a Robex print for the Bagnall Gelert.

I had confidence that he'd make a fine job of the body, after what he'd done with Lilla

The challenge for him was going to be doing the outside frame adaptation on a Fleischman chassis to go under it.

I had a feeling he wasn't going to thank me for that...

One One Eight

Our latest Superbarn is passed for traffic.

(I'll be in trouble for writing that - officially we're supposed to call them Super Saloons.)

As the kids used to say, whatever!

So we now have a fleet of six of them - three of the original style and three of the later style with the big windows - to go along with the service car and the Obs 150.

I'm looking forward to being able to run all of them together as one rake when we show Bron Hebog at Bressingham in June.

It won't be long before I'll have to start work on the 7th of them because Boston Lodge are busy building number 120.

Ready For Varnish

Our sixth 'super saloon' is almost ready to join the fleet.

Himself has finished applying the top coat colours on 118 and the transfers have been put in place.

All that remains is for the body shell and the chassis - which is also on the shelf out of shot - to be given a coat of satin varnish with the airbrush, but I suspect he'll wait until Lilla is also ready and do them both at the same time.

Trying to keep up with the FR's modern carriage fleet is rather like chasing an empty crisp packet in a gale.

Although we're currently up to date the railway is about to overtake us again with the seventh in the Super Barn series, 120, under construction and the second of the new observation cars 152 essentially complete.

Both of those will be on my 'to do' list for 2018 but first I've got to get back to work on the WHR saloon 2047 which has been untouched since before Christmas.

Review Of The Year - Part 3

July

The early part of the summer was taken up with work on the housing estate scene.

The conservatory which I had to build for the back of the latest house was one of the more challenging bits of the estate I've had to make.

Himself had been doing some work on the gardens of the houses which are already in place on Bron Hebog.

He'd also been busy creating the cemetery above the crossing on the far left hand side of the layout.

August

I decided to take a break from house building and put together the castings for Superbarn 118 which I'd cast the previous year but kept stored.

Himself was also giving some attention to the scenery on the top of Goat Tunnel, planting a copse of trees.

We also made a start on the last major scenic challenge on Bron Hebog which is lining the Cutting Mawr at the back of the layout with rock.

Instead of using slabs of real rock, which is what we did on Dduallt, we've decided to try casting copies of sections in resin which will be lighter and make the layout slightly less heavy.

September

By this time I'd started work on the last two houses to complete the Oberon Woods estate scene, both of them are detached (mostly) bungalows.

Himself had a few models which needed priming and decided it was time to give our Welsh Pony a coat.

The photo was taken in black and white - if it was in colour you would see that the primer is actually red oxide.

We did use grey primer as the base coat of the new Superbarn 118 which was ready to start being painted.

It's seen here on the shelf in front of some of the Superbarn fleet including the service car 125 and the observation car 150.

Carriage Progress

No visit to Himself's place is complete without popping into the study to inspect progress on the workbench.

Last time I observed further coats of red and ivory have been applied to the latest superbarn 118.

There's not much more painting required now but Himself has still to face his least favourite job which is fabricating and fitting the large handrails either side of the doors.

The pleasure at getting this carriage almost ready to join the fleet is tempered by the knowledge the carriage builders in Wales are already putting the next one - 120 - together.

The Bunny Hutch

An obscure FR reference as a title for a blog post about a carriage, but I shall explain.

Himself's usually prodigious productivity has been curbed slightly in recent weeks, first by a sunshine holiday and then starting work on a luxury apartment for his granddaughter's guinea pigs.

He has been doing a little modelling, though, applying the first coats of paint to the latest Superbarn, 118.

(In case you were wondering, the Bunny Hutch title is a nod to the legendary sales kiosk on the FR - you can read more about it here.)

Sprayed Superbarn

118 has got to the stage were Himself is ready to start painting it, which begins with a coat of primer.

In recent years he's been using red primer but he seems to have switched back to grey - I have no idea why.

(In fact the bogies appear to have been sprayed red. Maybe the can just ran out?)

It'll probably be a couple of weeks before he's able to put some of the top coat on so for the moment he's put it up on the display shelf in the study along with a few of our other superbarns including the service car and 150.

They look rather nice, don't you think?

Brass Roof

Himself has being doing a lot of scenery work recently so he was probably secretly pleased when I handed over the latest Superbarn (118) for him to finish off - although he disguised his excitement well.

He's begun by cutting, shaping and fixing the brass roof skin into position which makes the bodyshell become very rigid.

Annoyingly, he also spotted something that I've forgotten.

There are supposed to be a couple of blocks that hang down from the frame in line with the centres of the bogies - I've no idea what they are for but I expect some of the Boston Lodge staff who read this blog may leave a comment to enlighten me.

What was annoying about it was that I also forgot to put these on the previous carriage I made, 117.

I'm obviously losing the plot.

Done My Bit

The new 118 is ready to pass over to Himself for all the finishing off and the painting.

I usually leave it to him to do all the tricky metalwork such as bending the brass roof skin and fitting the brake pipe which runs all along the carriage, weaving this way and that.

There's also the devilish handrails to fabricate to go either side of the doors (he hates doing those) and the vacuum pipes to fit.

I've made up a pair of our brass and resin bogies but they'll need some precision violence to make sure they can swing enough for the tightest curves on Dduallt and they also need to be fitted with Greenwich couplers.

So actually it's quite a long way from being finished.

The Seats Are In

I'd saved up one of the most satisfying jobs of the carriage-building process to a moment where I had the time to enjoy it.

So with a the prospect of an undisturbed evening at the workbench ahead of me I sat down and fitted the seat and table units to 118.

These are my own modular design which I cast in resin and - with just a little bit of filing here and there - fit like a dream with the seat backs all lining up with the window pillars.

It's a very nice feeling to see something you designed and produced working so well in practice and it really takes the bind out of producing carriage interiors from scratch, which could be very time consuming.

The Pips

After the trauma of fitting the truss rods (every time!) making up the boxes which represent the various things hung under a modern FR carriage - such as the diesel-burning heating unit and the associated fuel - is child's play.

Of course, no model of the FR Superbarn carriages would look quite right if it didn't have something to represent the distinctive blocks along the side of the underframe.

In fact these are brackets which support the sightly wider wooden body which you can see on this shot taken earlier this week of the under frame of what will be 120 in the welding bay at Boston Lodge.

In my case I don't bother to try to make scaled-drown brackets, instead I just glue small cuts of styrene strip in the right places.

It looks effective as far as I'm concerned and that matters as much as rivet-counting accuracy in my book.

Doing The Chores

Everyone has tasks on a model project that have to be endured rather more than enjoyed.

As I wrote last time, for Himself it is making trees, and for me its always been making up the corridor connections.

It's not that they're particularly difficult to make, just slightly fiddly and drawn out with lots of bits of styrene to be cut, glued together and then shaped to make up the six finished pieces needed.

But they do look good, so it's worth it in the end.

The other job which I never look forward to is making up and fitting the truss rods which is just down to my pure incompetence when it comes to bending metal.

No matter how much care I try to take I can never get the angle of the bends correct at the first attempt, nor the holes in the floor which the ends are inserted into, which results in much tiresome faffing about.

It's just one of those necessary evils which has to be tackled as part of making a carriage but I'm always glad when it's done.

Slow Progress

Getting your mojo back when you return from a holiday is always hard.

I've been doing some short sessions on the superbarn 118.

The chassis has had the skirt - which is pretending to be the main frames - added to the bottom.

I've also marked and drilled the holes for the bogie pivot bolts, which seems a more challenging operation now after discovering I'd drilled then off-centre on 150 initially.

I've also created the false roof which will keep the body rigid and retain the glazing.

 Himself will fit a brass roof skin in due course.

The other thing I've done is clean up the interior castings.

I made these before we went away but I will wait until the underside of the chassis is finished before I glue them into place.

Displacement Activity

To make use of an empty workbench, now that Himself has taken the half-built house off me, I've started work on the latest Superbarn.

I cast the parts for 118 quite a while ago at the same time as 117 but they have been stored in an old photo album to keep them flat.

The six main pieces of the bodyshell have been glued together and since this picture was taken I've also cut out the floor which can rest inside to help keep it all square.

I'm not too far behind the railway in the keeping up with the carriage building.

There is a new WHR saloon still to make, and the new observation car 152 when it appears, but the situation is not as dire as it has been in the past.

The List Grows

I'm in danger of developing serious backlog of carriages to be built - not for the first time, I might add.

The FR and the WHR have new carriages joining the fleet this summer and I will have to play catch-up later this year after I have made the missing house for the Oberon Wood scheme.

Himself took some snaps of 2047, the new WHR-sized saloon, stored in the new heritage shed last weekend.

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The look of the carriages is synchronising so the the main difference between the WHR stock and the FR Superbarns is their size, and that they sit much higher on their bogies than FR carriages ever have.

I notice, of course, because I'm a self-confessed carriage spotter but I suspect the average passenger would not notice much difference between 2047 and 118 which is now in traffic on the FR.

Which is what those in charge intended all along, I suspect.

118 is probably what I will work on first because I have some castings for it sitting in a photo album on the shelf above my desk,

Why a photo album, you may be wondering?

It's the best way to make sure you keep them flat and don't lose them.