Review Of The Year - Part 3

Here we are into the second half of our annual review, and the pace of projects slowed down a little over the summer months, as I suspect it does for most of us.

July

We were fortunate to be able to get hold of one of the last of the batch of 009 Society Hudson toast rack kits, which we made up to represent number 42 on the WHHR.
 

In this picture it is positioned between one of our Dundas 37 / 38 pair and my original scratch built 39 which I must have made in the mid-90s.

Himself got on very fast with the RT models Baguley Drewry shunter kit prototype we obtained from RT Models, having swapped the etch brass fly cranks for some cast brass ones we had spare.

August

I was working away at my version of the toast rack to represent the FR's replica 39, which I was making using a basic resin casting for the body side and then using styrene angle and brass wire to complete.

 

Himself had the idea of using a spare Lynton and Barnstaple bogie van kit to make a freelance FR-style track cleaning wagon.

This has a sprung pad beneath it which wipes the rail heads, and the whole wagon is weighed down with lead, to the extent that it needs to have a locomotive at each end of it to be pushed around the layout.

At my house the 'test track' project had reached the track laying stage.

September

By now now the toast rack 39 carriage had reached the stage where it was almost ready to have a roof added and be sent for painting.

In order to better represent the Dinas shunter, number 9, I produced a styrene master for some alternative bonnet doors and grills which I turned into a casting.

And after a saga which went on for more than a year we finally got hold of etches to make a model of the Ashbury replica 21, which Himself soldered together in short order.

I'll bring the story up to date with a final instalment to be posted on Hogmanay.

Replicas Running

Now the varnish has set, and the bogies been fixed on,  Himself has sent me a couple of pictures of our new replicas - Ashbury 21 and Hudson toast rack 39 - on a test run on the layout.

21 is from a Worsley brass body kit and 39 was scratch built with most of the body cast in resin by myself,

This gives us a very respectable length of a 'Garraway' vintage set strengthens our 'Col Stephens' options as well, although we are a few green bug boxes short in that department.

They look very good posed in the platform at Beddgelert station on Bron Hebog.

It shouldn't be too much longer before our Bachmann Double Fairlies arrive and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the green Earl of Merioneth looks like hauling some of our green and ivory and all-over red stock.

Totally out of period for us, of course, but it's nearly Christmas so we're allowed, aren't we?

The Carriage That Had The Last Laugh

At long last we've got our hands on a set of etches for FR carriage 21, which we'll be doing up to represent the volunteer-built replica which entered traffic a couple of years ago.

This pair of Asbury carriages were rather basic compared to what Victorian passengers had become accustomed to with the 'bowsiders', and although apparently intended for tourist traffic other accounts say they were bought to be nothing more than bogie quarrymans carriages.

Sitting in one of the end compartments of the replica for just a few minutes while it was under construction at Boston Lodge, I soon appreciated how they developed this reputation for not being the most spacious and comfortable carriages, and I know I wasn't alone in wondering quite why some people were so keen to recreate one it its original form?

That was before Covid-19 came along, and suddenly compartment stock roared back into fashion!

Along with the other 'lock ups' 21 has become a mainstay of the FR fleet for the past two seasons and those who built it - while others looked on with a sceptical look - have had the last laugh.

As built there were never any dividers between the compartments, but these were hastily added as a Covid precaution before the start of the 2020 service.  

Now it's been handed over to me to make the interior,  and I'm wondering whether I should make it with the plywood walls in place as our little miniature memorial to the pandemic?

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?