Model Rail Scotland Debuts

Excitement is building ahead of us taking Bron Hebog to Model Rail Scotland in Glasgow in a month's time, which will be our first show in more than two years.

While I was thinking about that the other day it occurred to me that there must be a number of models we built in that time which have not been seen in public yet (aside from on this blog and our social media).

I stopped counting when I got to 15.

So I thought you might like a reminder of what's among the new stuff.

The steam engines include NGG/16 130, which is all new, and in the last two years Himself has got round to painting Lyn and Welsh Pony.

The diesel fleet has been bolstered by the recent arrival of our green Vale of Ffestiniog, and the duplicate of Conway Castle in the livery in which it served with distinction on WHR construction trains and as the Dinas shunter for many years.

Now, we also have the locomotive which replaced it, the big yellow Baguley number 9, and at the other end of the spectrum the former Boston Lodge gofer Harold.

New carriages include 2048 and the fourth of the opulent observation cars Gwyrfai, as well the much less salubrious Ashbury replica 21 and the Pickering brake for the WHHR excursions / incursions. 

If Rule One is enacted at any point over the three days at the SEC you might also be lucky to see some of our new tow-along amusements including a derelict Livingston Thompson on ambulance bogies, and a freshly un-plinthed Princess.

Both are completely out of era - being 1980s representations - and completely out of place on the Welsh Highland section, but you never know...

More prototypical is a deconstructed NGG/16 loaded onto DZ flat wagons for transfer between Boston Lodge and Dinas.

This little tableau is a consequence of us being offered the chance to buy the remains of a Backwoods kit which someone made such a Horlicks of building that the best thing to be done with it was recover any parts which could be used as spares and turn what was left into a conversion piece.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

And so to the final three months of 2021 as we look back on what Himself and I got up to...

October

In the first of these review posts I remarked on how there had been little progress with my prototype for a model of the FR's infrastructure well wagon.

I decided not to wait any longer for a bespoke etched brass part for the durbar plate deck and had a go at seeing if I could cast it in resin instead. 

First, I cast copies of the small piece of brass I had in stock, then placed them side by side to make a large cast sheet which I cut and shaped into pieces to fit onto the wagon, and used them as masters for a final set of castings.

Round about this time Himself was adding more finishing details to the Dinas shunter.

And in a surprise development, he announced the purchase of another Worsley Works body kit for Vale of Ffestiniog, because he'd decided to make a model in its current two-tone green livery, which will look more at home on Bron Hebog than the original National Power livery on our first model.

November

A few weeks later, and number 9 had been painted and was posed for its first pictures on the layout.
 

By this time painting was underway on the Hudson toast rack carriages which featured prominently in the previous blog post covering the summer months.

And the building and painting of Ashbury 21 was completed, too.

December

By the year end, along with apparently the majority of 009 modellers (and a lot of OO ones, too) we were taking delivery of the exquisite Bachmann Double Fairlie models, the existence of which had only just been revealed to a shocked ready-to-run market.

Our choice of a 1960s Earl of Merioneth was completely out of keeping for either Dduallt or Bron Hebog, but the way the model railway market operates these days with limited production runs it's a case of 'you snooze, you lose', so we knew this was going to be our best opportunity to get one at a 'reasonable' price, and I've always had a fascination with this engine, having never had the chance to see it running.

My childhood memories of the FR also revolve around green engines and red carriages, so it's a nice piece of nostalgia for me.

We were intrigued to find out how the a plastic RTR model - complete with coreless motor, flywheels, DCC chip and sound would compare against our kit-built, Mashima-powered, brass Backwoods Fairlies, and filmed the trials for your entertainment.

A pretty conclusive result......so don't expect to see our Backwoods models being retired any time soon.

I rounded off the year by laying the narrow gauge side of the 'test track' project at home.

The early weeks of 2022 will, hopefully, see us getting this wired up and ready to start, ahem, 'testing' things on....

Best wishes to everyone who drops by this blog for the new modelling year. 

Venting

As well as the Vale of Ffestiniog II, Himself has been doing some work on replica carriage 21 this week.

Now all the detailing work has been done it has been sprayed with primer ready for the application of its green / ivory livery with red ends.

It's adding the small details which really lift these Worsley Works kits, such as the ornate door grab handles, and the vents at the top of the doors.

These were made from a single strip of styrene which was scored with parallel lines and propped up with a smaller strip behind.

This was shaped subtly and chopped into the small lengths and glued in place.

Covid Safe Carriage

I'll never get tired of making the argument on the treatment of the FR's modern relics - such as Earl of Merioneth and the tin cars - that things which happened yesterday will one day become tomorrow's heritage.

This is probably what lies behind my decision that our model of the replica carriage 21 should be made with the temporary plywood 'covid safe' compartment dividers in place, rather than its 'historic' - and future? - condition with fresh air between the seat backs.

Horrible and traumatic as it has been, I think it's important that in our relief at getting back to 'normal' life we do not discard the memories of what we've all been through.

The FR's response at the height of the crisis, and the operating model which was adopted, will, I believe, become seen as a very significant moment in the railway's history.

I'm not privy to the thoughts of the railway's management beyond what is shared in public communications, but I can see the sense in retaining many of the aspects of the way the business has been forced to operate for the last two seasons, such as the use of pre-booking tickets to match operating capacity (and costs) to demand.

Who knows if public sensibilities will change permanently, and whether from now on passengers will prefer to have a solid physical divide when sitting back-to-back with strangers in a narrow gauge carriage?

But presuming that these temporary panels will eventually be removed, I think it's only fitting that we have a reminder, in model form, that represents just one of the many changes we all had to accept as a society to get through this.

Unforgiving Benches

I always consider the return of Strictly on the telly as the start of modelling season.

Especially during the early rounds of the series it keeps the ladies of the house entertained for long enough on a Saturday night for me to sneak off to the study and get a decent amount of work done - more than two hours worth in this case.

While Adam Peaty and the other celebs were wiggling their hips I was merrily chopping and bonding styrene to make a start on the interior for carriage 21, starting with the bench seats.

This carriage is unusual because the compartments above the bogies have the floor raised up, which is different to the Ashbury carriages inherited from the NWNGR / WHR.

The one thing I'd forgotten - until Himself pointed it out - is that it will have have to be split up in order to get it into place.

I've been building it from above, with the roof off.

But once that's soldered in place the only way in is from underneath, and I haven't accounted for the 1cm wide plates at the end of the carriage which the floor bolts onto.

It should be an easy fix.

Key To The Door

Himself's jaunt to Wales last week resulted in him getting that chance to see two of the FR's newest toys in use, which is more than I can expect to do in the foreseeable future.

One of them was Welsh Pony and the other was the replica of carriage 21.

I confess to still being slightly puzzled by this rebuild, given this design's notoriety for not being the most comfortable of conveyances.

I only sat in it for a minute or so while it was in the carriage works at Boston Lodge and could feel the rail of the seat digging awkwardly into my lower back, and on those end benches perched up over the bogies my knees were uncomfortably high.

That was with it sitting still, so I hate to think what it's like 'Bakerlooing' up the line - to steal a phrase from the doyen of FR magazine editors, Dan Wilson.

However, I can imagine it's just the job for the Covid-safe compartment service to Tan y Bwlch, and if heritage means anything it should be an authentic experience, I suppose.

Even so, it still seems a little odd to sell off the tin cars, which although far from the standards of the current saloons were still a vast improvement on compartment stock, and be recreating what is surely their heritage equivalent? (A one-time cheap and cheerful solution to boost the carriage fleet.)

We still don't have a 21 in our fleet, but hopefully that will be corrected soon as I have one of the Worsley body kits on back order.

Just Guttering To Go

I'm getting very close to being able to declare number 21 finished - at least as far as construction is concerned.

The task for the last couple of days was to add on the foundations set it at the correct height against the two others which are joined on.

And here's the evidence with a sequence of pictures taken from all around them.

What do you think?

Nearly Done

That's the roof ready on number 21 now.

The only major structural piece which is still missing is the chimney which is positioned on the North wall of the house, just above the left hand side of the gallery window as you look from the back.

Once again this view from the front shows how this house had to be made with a large chunk taken out of the front right hand corner so it would overlap with number 22, which is one of the reasons that it has been the trickiest one to build so far.

Before I get on with adding the guttering I need to add on the 'foundations' so that it sits at the correct height relative to the other two houses.

This is not entirely straightforward because before that I've got to cut down number 22 by around 10mm to reset it against number 23 which was butchered by Himself to fit in with his existing woodwork.

It's getting all rather complicated.

Gallery Window

Before I get too much of the roof done there's a very tricky, and very important, bit of the house to add on - the long gallery window at the back.

A couple of the houses along the row in front of Goat Cutting have this very distinctive feature.

The way I tackle it is to fabricate what is basically a ladder from styrene strip which I glue into position before fixing the slab of roofing slates on top.

Because these window are tucked up under the slates like this the overhang gives the impression that the panes are almost a square shape, but of course they're not.

Now that this bit's done I can really begin to see the finishing line of this project.

Starting On The Roof

Another one of those great leaps forward on the house build today - getting the first bit of the roof on.

This wasn't something I was looking forward to very much because number 21 has one of the most complicated bits of roof I've had to build on the estate so far.

I've decided to tackle it head one, though, and begun with the piece that forms the garage roof.

The tricky bit is that it has to include the small, thin, tongue which fills the little gully between the two halves of the house and an area which extends to the right hand side.

It took some careful and methodical measuring, and a lot of fine trimming, to get it to fit but the vital thing was to ensure that it was not cut short anywhere with resultant gaps - not just because of waste of time but also because I've only got just enough Wills slate sheets into stock to complete the roof on this house!

I'm quite satisfied with how it's turned out.

Two Steps Back

I've had one of those moments when you realise there's something very wrong with a model and there's no alternative but to rip it apart, fix it, and put it back together.

The bit in question was the southern gable wall of the new house and it was the windows I was unhappy with.

When I looked at one our research pictures up close it seemed to me that they were simply far too small.

Fortunately it was relatively easy to slice down the joints and detach the gable wall to fix it.

The first stage was to remove the existing window details and widen the holes.

In the case of the small windows in the garage they needed to be square shaped rather than rectangular and one of them had to be filled in and a new opening made.

Then the frame detail was renewed..

And it was fixed back into position.

I also took the opportunity to greatly increase the depth of the window on the side of the extension - I had underestimated its size as well when I made it.

The whole process took about two days but it's worth it because otherwise it would have become one of those niggles that gnaws away at you.

Extensions Front & Rear

It hasn't taken too long to add the extension at the back of the house and complete the garage at the front.

From studying the pictures I have of the house very closely I'm coming to the conclusion that the patio door is a later addition to the house and perhaps originally this was another of the designs where the front entrance was tucked away beneath an over-hanging upper floor.

What's for sure is that the door on the side of the garage leads only to a bin storage area so the only way in from the driveway is in through the patio doors or to go around to the back.

There was a lot of magnification of grainy pictures required here as well to establish for sure whether the extension was completely flush at the back with the original part of the house.

Eventually I decided that I could see it sat back ever so slightly and that the roof sat a fraction lower which is why I added this on as a separate unit.

It's beginning to come together - slowly.

On The Other Side

I've been cracking on with the 'south wing' of the new house (number 21) which includes the built-in garage which juts out at the front of the building.

Unlike most of the other houses in Oberon Wood this one does not appear to have an offset between the two halves so I only have to make three pieces, although one of the, the side, is typically challenging in terms of getting the slopes cut accurately.

The other two pieces look a little rough and all becomes clear when they are joined onto the rest of the house.

At the rear number 21 has had an extension added at some point.

Originally the wall would have continued all the way down, I guess, and there would have been a window and door there.

The extension will be built separately and added on later so for now I've just left a big hole so that there isn't an obvious blank wall to be seen when it's finished.

At the front I've extended the wall on the upper bedroom much further down into the garage space to provide more support for that long side wall and to help to keep the structure square.

I think the next step will be to complete the front piece of the garage and the other wall which joins at 90 degrees just to the side of the patio door.

Hanging In There

After a week of very intense, and yet slow, work there are some encouraging signs of progress with house number 21

The basic box shape of the northern half of the building is together.

Now you can see very clearly how the step in the side wall works and relates to the attachment to number 22.

In this view the line, in Goat Cutting, is running along the bottom of the picture.

And here from the front you can see that the wall on the new house is set very much further back and how the ground level has risen.

The 'south wing' which has yet to be built, includes a single garage which extends a long way forward creating a kind of courtyard in front of the two houses.

These are not models that you can bang out quickly, they're far too complex for that, but it is very rewarding when you see them come together.