Pay Attention!

I'm kicking myself for falling for the oldest one in the book.

There I was merrily making bits for 2047, using our model of 2046 as a guide, without stopping to check that they are completely identical.

Talk about a beginner's error!

The difference I discovered was at the top of the doors.

Every other WHR up to and including 2046 had a solid panel, with beading, above the window.

What I hadn't clocked was that on 2047 this has been changed to a small glazed panel, the same as the FR Super Barn design.

Fortunately I noticed this while I was still working on detailing the sub-assemblies, so it was reasonable straightforward to chop the panels out and add in a bar at the top of each of the windows.

If hadn't noticed until I had glued the bits of the body shell together, or even worse finished the whole carriage, I would have been fuming.

Oh well, we live and learn, Or not, as the case may be....

Same Again, Please

I have to confess that I haven't started work on 2047 yet, so you'll have to make do with a picture of what it's hopefully going to look something like.

This is 2046 posed at the very back of the layout where the line plunges into Beddgelert Forest.

These WHR saloons have always been scratch built out of styrene, rather than cast in resin, mainly because their construction has been rather sporadic and I've never been sure that it's worth the time and expense of making a master and moulds.

I also am going to have to dig back through my file of drawings to find the one I used to make the last one, otherwise it will be a literal case of back to the drawing board!

Test Run Through The Forest

Our newest carriage 2046 was officially signed off as finished at the weekend and Himself sent me a couple of pictures of it posed in our forest scene at the back of the layout.

He also tells me that he's being doing a spot of tree surgery to remove some of the lower branches so that more of the trunks are visible.

Having stood and watched the real trains at this crossing I have to say I'm really pleased with how convincingly 'forresty' it looks.

Ready To Spray

I've been sent some pictures of carriage 2046 for final approval before it receives a coat of varnish.

Looks pretty good to me. Another neat and careful job by Himself.

These pictures really show off the WHR crests we had produced for us by Precision Decals, they certainly finish off the models beautifully.

2046 will be running in the carriage sets when we take the layout out next month to the Crawley show (which is in Fareham, actually).

All the details are on the exhibition page so come along and see us!

Oh, and Happy St David's Day to our Welsh readers too.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant hapus

More Carriage Painting

We still have one more WHR carriage yet to enter service and it is the latest one, 2046.

I scratch built this model out of styrene and now Himself is busy painting it.

2046 is very different visually from the other WHR carriages with its big, wide windows with the thin, sliding toplights above.

Now that the FR has its revised Super Barn 119, has joined it on the railway then there is a little more of a family appearance developing, but it still takes a little getting used to to my eyes.

Himself has added a little extra detail which I hadn't thought of - he's fixed some handrail knobs onto the seat backs to represent the brass knobs on the real carriage.

With luck 2046 will be ready in time for the Crawley show in April so we have have our WHR carriage rakes up to full strength for the first time.

Review of 2014: Part 2

July

The second half of the year began with Himself starting work on the very final scenic board of the layout which leads into the fiddle yard at the southern (Aberglaslyn) end of the layout.

In a matter of a few days it had progressed from bare Mod Roc to the top coat of plaster and walls and grass being added.

While that was going on I was working on a 5th SAR / WHR wagon kit, this time for the V-16 brake van.

This shot shows one of the masters for the sides made out of styrene with the waterslide rivet transfers being added.

August

Although we had now built all the scenic boards which make up the complete layout the fiddle yards at the back were still outstanding.

With just a few weeks to go until the exhibition in Woking Himself got down to work designing and constructing them.

He was also starting to add some of the finer details on the other parts of the layout like these complex gates around one of the farm crossings.

They were all made up from styrene strips.

I was also making up more of my resin wagon kits for clients who wanted them ready to run.

This is a pair of NGY ballast wagons.

September

For the first time in a while I was able to start work on a model for the layout, having spent a number of months fulfilling an agreement with a client for a rake of wagon kits.

The subject was the WHR's latest carriage produced at Boston Lodge, 2046.

Here are the major component parts fabricated from styrene before it was assembled into a body shell.

On the layout, Himself had painted the two new houses I made earlier in the year and fixed them in position in the estate scene just south of the station.

As you can see there are many more houses still til be designed and made...

And so finally, towards the end of the month, the big reveal!

Bron Hebog made its debut as a complete (but not finished!) layout at the exhibtion in Woking.

Take a look back through the blog to find more pictures from that weekend.
 

October

I didn't get to join the team at the exhibition and would have to wait until Hull in November for my first glimpse of the completed layout.

By this time I'd more or less finished my model of 2046.

My next project was something which had been on the To Do list for many years - the Match Wagon which carries the tools for the KMX Tamper.

The basis for the model was a OO9 Society kit for ex RNAD wagons which had a new superstructure built out of styrene on top of the chassis from the kit.

It took it with me on a visit home to set the height of the coupling against those on the Tamper.

I also carried with me a 2nd model of the KMX which I'd been slowly building over the last couple for years for a client who was involved in re-engineering the machine for the WHR.

I couldn't resit the chance to photograph the two of them together.

November

The main focus on the layout was completing some of the finer scenic details such as the livestock grids which protect the many level crossings around the layout.

Unable to find some styrene sections of the right profile for the job I ended up casting many dozens of lengths of section out of resin.

This is just one half of one crossing - there are many more to go...

By this time I had also completed and painted the Tamper match wagon

And so to the exhibition in Hull...

Once again there are lots more pictures elsewhere on the blog if you want to go looking for them.

December

So in the last few weeks of the year I've been working on another carriage, this time the brand new updated design of Super Barn 119 which has recently entered service on the FR.

The word is there will be more of these emerging from the carriage works at Boston Lodge very soon so I've taken the precaution of making masters and casting this one in resin in the expectation it will be easier to make subsequent ones.

If the FR alters the design in the meantime there will be trouble!

The shape and arrangement of the windows are the major change from the original 3 Super Barns so I was able to use my castings for the seats and tables from the earlier carriages with no problems.

And currently Himself has started work on the backlog of incomplete carriages which has built up over the last couple of years while he's been concentrating on locomotives and the layout.

 

So there are the highlights of our modelling during 2014. Many thanks for visiting the blog and taking a look at what we're up to, we hope you'll stick with us and maybe come along and see us out on the road in 2015.

Happy New Year.

2046

A few days ago I wrote a post about making the master for the new bogie design for 2046.

At the time I was just about to pour the RTV mix into the casting box. I left it for a day to set, then removed the mould and filled it with resin for the first time.

The first casts can sometimes be a disappointment but this one was perfect. Very soon I had another three cast, cleaned up, and ready to fit to a brass bogie frame.

And here they are at home under the carriage.

So that's 2046 just about complete - or as much as I'm going to be doing to it.

I shall now pass it onto Himself to paint and finish off - he'll have to cut and fit the glazing and solder up a set of the handrails which go each side of the entrance doors. (He won't thank me for that)

Don't hold your breath to see it in traffic on Bron Hebog, though, because Himself has a whole rake of virgin white carriages waiting to be painted.

More on that soon....

Rolling Along

The last big challenge of building the new WHR carriage 2046 is producing a new design of bogie.

Boston Lodge turned the carriage out with heavily modified SAR diamond frame bogies with roller bearings and altered suspension.

I already have the brass frets for the bogie frames, because I use those in my wagon kits, but I need to make a new master for the axle box / bearing and suspension details to cast in resin.

On the version for the wagon kits I cast the axle boxes and the springs as separate parts to be glued on individually.

When it came to producing the other variant, the Bettendorf bogie, I ended up casting the whole bogie side as one piece and I've decided to do the same again this time.

One of the reasons I've chosen to do it this way is because of the difficulty I'd have cleaning up the axle boxes if I cast them on their own. It would be rather fiddly.

As you can see the master is ready in its casting box for a covering of moulding rubber and in a couple of days we'll be able to try it out with resin,

Floor Filling

The interior of 2046, the new Welsh Highland carriage, has taken a big jump forward in the last few days.

I cast 7 sets of the seats and tables and glued them into position.

I was pretty pleased with the way the design worked. Some of them required a little filing to ensure the seat backs lined up with the window pillars but the table heights are perfect with the waist line on the carriage.

A final job was to make up the tipping / swivelling seat at one end out of a couple of bits of styrene.

Then I turned it over and tackled the underfloor area which calls for a lot more modelling.

The WHR carriages have become a little more complicated down there over the years.

The first batch of Winson-built carriages in the late 1990's had everything hidden behind a long, boxy skirt, as you can see at the top edge.

Now, however, Boston Lodge install fancy things like diesel powered heating and so there are various tanks and drawers and others such things visible which have to be modelled.

Those of you who have built any of my Boston Largs Works SAR wagon kits might spot how I've employed some of the brass brake parts under there and cut down some others to fit.

I also hacked off the resin brake cylinder from a scrap wagon chassis to glue into place on this carriage.

It has the same fins around the edge as the SAR ones (Boston Lodge may even have used a spare SAR one for all I know)  so waste-not, want-not, eh?

Seat Master

In the end I decided to sort out the interior for the new carriage rather than tackle the stuff under the floor.

And as I have a feeling that there will be more of these design of WHR carriages rolling out of Boston Lodge in the years ahead I've decided to cast the seats this time so I can easily them out as required in future.

I used the same tactic with the FR superbarns last year when I had to make a big batch of the carriages.

However I couldn't use the same master for this one because the WHR carriage seats are slightly bigger and with a simpler seat back design as you can see above.

The way the design of this casting works is to have the table tops cast separately and then glued onto a base which doubles as a spacer to help me position each seat / table combo in place in the carriage.

Carriage Update

While you've been entertained by such fripperies as decorated mugs in the last few days I've been busy getting the bodyshell of our latest carriage put together.

The roof is still a 'rough cut' at the moment.

The skin is oversize and needs to be trimmed and shaped at the sides and the ends and, of course, fixed into position but that won't happen for a while yet - certainly not until the interior is in place.

I am considering casting some seat and table units again like I did with the last back of all-resin Superbarns I produced.

It won't be possible to use the same seat casting because the seat backs are a different shape and I suspect they may be set slightly further apart in the more generously proportioned WHR carriages.

Making a new master may be the next move, or possibly the boxes and bits which hang down from the floor.  I haven't made my mind up yet.