Short Circuits = Short Fuses

Digital Command Control - or DCC as we have all come to call it - is a wonderful thing, but let's not pretend it doesn't have a lot a downsides.

Many might regard the cost of the chips as the biggest drawback, which is especially the case when you're going for sound as well, because it can sometimes double the price of a new locomotive.

Then there's the complexity of the control handsets themselves.  

A couple of times during the Glasgow show I looked across at some of my fellow operators and saw only furious button pressing and furrowed brows, and no trains moving.....

And at exhibitions I would argue that perhaps the biggest issue is the way that everything on the layout comes to a stop as soon as anything creates a short circuit.

Mostly this is because of simple human error - a failure to check the route has been set before moving off and the loco runs towards point which are set against it.

The problem is affects everything on the system, not just the single train involved.

But as the weekend in Glasgow wore on we began noticing an increasing number of mysterious occasions where a train made up of our set of 'Barn' carriages would come to a stop in the middle of plain track for no apparent reason.

The instinctive reaction each time would be to assume a short had occurred somewhere else on the narrow gauge side of the layout.

(Minffordd is divided into two separate circuits for 009 and 00)

The fiddle yard operators, and the person on shunting duty on the remote controller at the front, would face increasingly irritable accusations and interrogation.  "Was that you, again??!"

By the Sunday afternoon it had happened so often - and there had been so many false accusations bandied about - that the finger of blame started to be pointed at the train itself.

But how?

It was Himself who did the detective work and found the culprit.

It was carriage 14 what did it!

Here's the explanation.

The wheelsets we're using on these carriages are insulated on one side only, which means that on a bogie you need to have both orientated the same way if you are not going to risk creating a short circuit,

This is especially the case when the bogie frames are brass, and the axles fit into brass bearings, because the whole bogie becomes live.

We'd taken care to ensure each bogie on the set had the wheelsets matching.   

What we hadn't done was check that every bogie on every carriage matched.

On carriage 14 we had the wheelsets in the bogies the opposite way round to the rest of the rake.

With us also using brass couplings soldered to a brass bogie, the last line of insulation defence is the paint on the couplings.

As that begins to wear and chip after 3 days of intense running at a show, snaking over crossings and into fiddle yard sidings hundreds of times, it opens up the potential for the different polarities of bogies on adjoining carriages to briefly come into contact with each other, creating the short circuit.

It's simple fix to rotate the wheelsets on the bogies on 14 to they all match now, but it shows how careful you have to be.

Teak Freak

I'm very unusual, I freely admit it. 

I've always liked the original 'teak' livery on the FR's 'Barn' carriages, although, of course, it was nothing of the sort - more like 'Ronsealed Plywood'.

This affection probably stems from not being old enough to have actually seen one with my own eyes in this condition.

It's something you rarely see depicted in model form, so I hope it's something which will make Minffordd stand out as 009 modelling becomes ever more mainstream.

Carrying on as I did with Dduallt and Bron Hebog this set of four carriages were all scratch built in styrene.

I think my favourite of the set is the buffet car 14, which ran for a few years in this stripped back livery after initially entering FR service in the attractive green an ivory livery.

There is a lot of depth to the panelling on this carriage, and interesting details such as the ventilator hoods and the curves at the top of the main window frames.

Himself did a terrific job in his first goes at teak paint effect on these carriages, I love the way the doors look so much more weathered.

I would like to think that one day the FR heritage movement will reach the point where carriage 100 is recreated.

To me it seems just as much of a landmark moment in FR history as the appearance of the bug boxes or the first bogie carriages.

Minffordd Update - Carriages In Context

A weekly inspection visit to view progress on the Minffordd project gave me an opportunity to pass over the newly-completed body shells of the Barn carriages to Himself to keep safe until he has the time - and the courage - to attempt the 'teak' paint job.

It also allowed us to pose what is going to be one of our standard carriage rakes in position along the embankment where the FR trains run, which gives a little more visual context to the scene.

With just the bare plywood track beds in place it's hard to get a proper impression of how big - or small - the layout will look.

We have the advantage with the way Minffordd is laid out, with the smaller, narrow gauge trains at the back of the scene, that it creates a natural optical illusion, in the same way that some modellers put reduced-scale buildings towards the rear of their layouts to give a perception of greater depth.

It's also pleasing that there will be almost no straight track anywhere on the layout, with the FR line forming a subtle crescent shape.

Most of what Himself has been doing for the past week is finalising the FR branch down into the exchange yard with the Cambrian, which he's worked out is a precipitous 1:19 gradient into the 'coal hole'.

What I think is quite impressive - and explains why it took most of the week - is that most of it was cut from a single sheet of plywood resting on a network of risers.

Now, Where Was I?

The commission for a model of FR ‘Barn’ 105 is complete and ready to send to its new home.

The buyer will be painting it themselves and the blue colour in the windows is the protective film which I’ve left on the glazing to reduce any chance of scratches.

Now I can pick up where I left off on my own projects.

First I will carry on the built of the latest WHR saloon 2048.

At the moment I’ve got the first base layer of the sides made, and now they need to have beading added and the four recessed door sections at each end made up.

I’ll probably also find the challenge of that Maenofferen tank waggon impossible to resist.

A String Of Barns

The two new carriages have had their brass bits and pieces added and given a coat of varnish.

The shot above shows 105 (the one with the bog in the middle) and below is 106.

Barn aficionados will be able to spot many differences between these carriages which were built more than 35 years apart.

(The real ones, not the models)

Even more variety can be seen in these snaps of the new carriages posed with another couple of carriages from our collection of Barns posed on the spiral.

For those who are interested the other models you can see here are 104 and 107, all the Barn saloons in one train.

Beautiful Barns

Four years after they were built our latest pair of Barns are almost ready to join the fleet.

For those who are not dedicated FR carriage-spotters - and we are a select bunch - I should explain that what we have here are models of 105 and 106 in their current condition.

105 is the last of the truly original 1960's Barns, although it is seen here after a very comprehensive rebuild with a toilet in place of its 1st class compartment in the centre and new style half windows replacing the orginal louvres - it was the last of the carriages to retain these I believe.

It still bears witness to its original, and somewhat pioneering condition, when it had a chemical bog at the bottom end of the carriage - there is still an extra window pillar to be seen on the seaward (or engine)side of the carriage.

106 is a total rebuild of the original carriage with a completely new body but to the same outline.

It was followed by another new Barn, 107, before the advent of the super-sized, Super Barn design.

Both these carriages are running on my new brass / resin FR bogies (available to buy from Narrow Planet, by the way) and they just require the fitting of brass grab rails and a coat of varnish to be declared fully finished.

Getting My Way

The battle of the colour brown appears to have been resolved in my favour.

Himself has sent me a snap of the current state of progress with painting 105 & 106 to see if I approve.

I understand he borrowed another pair of eyes to choose the colour and picked something described as 'German camouflage red brown'.

Frankly I don't care what it's called, I'm just relieved that this time it looks like something made of wood rather than the distinctly pink hue that ended up on 11 & 12.

Speaking of which, I have employed some gentle persuasion and he says he's going to go over the offending areas on those carriages with this colour.

So I've got my way in the end.

Barn Backlog

Himself is cracking on with the Barns which have been waiting for years in the queue for painting.

He tells me that he's forgotten how simple and straightforward these are to paint without the inset doors or the fancy handrails that adorn the Super Barns.

They're looking good so far I reckon.

Bigger Bogies

Rather than simply watching paint dry Himself had been working on completing another long-term project which involves some of my new FR carriage bogies.

What they're going under is this pair:

They are replacements for 105 in its cuurrent condition with a toilet compartment in the centre where the 1st class used to be and the reborn 106.

Both our existing models of these two are in 1980s all-over red livery so obviously of no use at all on Bron Hebog.