Convertable Garratt

The great thing about the blog is that I don't have to issue orders, I simply hint at something here and it happens!

Himself has provided a few pictures of the dismantled Backwoods NGG16 on its DZ transporter wagons marshalled into a train.

We have options with the boiler.

It can be towed around the layout in its cradle mounted on ambulance bogies.

Or it could be mounted on a flat wagon propped up by sleepers.

Himself tells me he has fitted some discreet pins in the bottom of the boiler to locate it securely on the wagon, but won't prevent it sitting on its own chassis either.

It's going to make a very unusual feature, whenever the day comes that we can take the Bron Hebog out on the road again.

Transporter Wagons

You might recall a few weeks ago I cast a few of my flat DZ wagon kits for Himself to use for the 'dismantled Garratt' feature. 

 

He's made them up, painted them, and the various parts salvaged from a ruined Backwoods NGG16 are now in place. 

I think the bogie is particularly effective with those massive fly cranks fully on show.

   

The boiler is a bit of a compromise.

It's still got all its cladding on because otherwise we might as well scratch build it because the barrel would be thinner and the dome is much less pretty beneath.

It's not usual to see them painted in red oxide like this, but is does break up all the black.

As he's got most of the layout up in the garage for tree planting I'll suggest he sets up a picture of the complete train so you can see the full effect.

Flattery

Himself has so many projects on the go that I never quite know what’s going to be pinged across when I request a photo update - today it turns out he’s begun building the flat DZ wagon parts I supplied him with a couple of weeks ago.

These are required for our disassembled Garratt transfer train to carry the boiler, bunkers, cab and power bogie.

There’s some nice brass work being added such as the unusual vac pipe arrangements.

One problem he’s come across is that many of the flat wagons have been rebuilt into other kinds of wagon over the years and it’s very hard to know what to number them, so it will probably be the case that these will run unnumbered.

New Year (Same As The Last)

I find myself beginning 2019 much the same as I ended the previous year - casting another batch of wagon kits.

Sales of my SAR range at Narrow Planet have been brisk again leading to a request to produce more stock to be sold on the website.

The turn of the year is traditionally a time to make resolutions and my intentions for the next few months are that I would definitely like to build up my stock of WHHR carriages to have a more representative rake to hang behind Russell and the Baldwin.

Himself is coming towards the end of his project to build Garratt 143 and when that's done I'll be giving him plenty of encouragement to start on 130, which I fully expect to see entering service in Wales this year.

I know that he's also keen to make progress on the second FR Observation Car 152 which has been in abeyance for a number of months now.

I cast and assembled the majority of the body but I'm waiting for him to make up the brass roof and the solder the front pillars into position before I take it back and add the interior.

He's also been mentioning to me that he'd like to build some models of bowsiders 17 and 20 in their current liveries to bring our vintage sets up to date.

So, all in all, there's plenty to be getting on with.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

For the last post of 2017 I'll bring our modelling review of the year up to date.

October

Himself was steadily getting on with the top coats on the Superbarn 118 between other jobs.

He had many tasks on the go including fixing the last two bungalows in place and beginning the task of landscaping around them.

It was such a relief to have finally got all the houses built - a project which had taken many years to bring to fruition.

We also got round to purchasing a chassis to put our 3D printed Lilla body on.

At this stage it still needed some material cleared away from beneath the saddle tank which explains why it is sitting at a very racy angle.

November

There was still the need to paint the bungalows before they could be fixed in place on the layout.

The last of them was the most challenging of the lot because one wall has stone cladding which was very well represented by Himself.

The only shame was that this effect is mostly hidden from the viewing public at exhibitions because this is the side which faces the operators.

There was more work on Lilla.

The Minitrains chassis was improved with some new slidebars from RT Models and Himself also carefully filed down the fly cranks to remove the very large balance weights.

While he was doing all that I was busy earning a little money fulfilling a promise to build some of my resin SAR wagon kits for a customer.

December

As we moved into the final month of the year Himself set to with the task of painting Lilla which we're going to finish in its Penrhyn Quarry Railway lined black livery.

Currently he is engaged in the very careful and patient task of lining it out.

The project on my workbench at the moment is to bring our WHR carriage fleet up to date with the latest of the saloons 2047 which I am building from scratch in styrene.

So all that remains is for us to wish you all the best for 2018 and thank you for visiting the blog or keeping up with what we're up to by following us on Facebook or Twitter,

We'll be taking both Bron Hebog and Dduallt out on the rode during the year ahead and we look forward to seeing you there - full details are on the Exhibition Diary page.

Primed But Not Ready To Go

The weather conditions have, at last, materialised to allow me to spray the SAR wagons I'm building for a client; dry, mild, calm and low humidity.

Being calm and dry is most important because the models have to survive the journey to and from the nice warm house to the garage, to be sprayed, and back into the house again to dry.

If it is windy at all then there is a serious risk of them being blown off the tray that I'm carrying them on.

The problem with the rain is obvious.

There are some details to be picked out in yellow, such as the brake wheels and the handrails as well as the stripes on each end of the guards van, but that's about all I can do at the moment until the new supplies of wheels turn up.

In the meantime I need to get casting again because I've received a request to replenish the stocks of kits at Narrow Planet.

Waiting For Wheels

Nearly all the construction is done now on the batch of SAR wagons I've been making for a customer.

Since I last posted I have made up the roofs for the two brake vans, added the handrails, all the brake gear below and the footsteps.

At this stage the roofs are just resting in positon because they will need to be painted inside and have the glazing fitted before they can be fixed on.

There's nothing to stop me spraying them their red oxide colour, but I have not done so yet because I was waiting for slightly milder weather as I usually do it out in the garage, and this week has been rather cold up here.

I am also waiting on the delivery of the Romford wheels to fit to the bogies which the reconstituted Dundas Models (our preferred supplier) are expecting to get back into stock imminently.

Brake Bits

You have to look hard at most narrow gauge wagons to see whether or not they have continuous brakes.

In most cases the main giveaway will be the vacuum or air pipes at each end.

The monster wagons of the SAR two feet system are very different, however sitting high on their bogies with all the gubbins on show underneath for all the world to see.

That's why when I was designing the kits - with more than a little help from the clever chaps at Narrow Planet - we came up with an etched brass fret which includes the bogies and all the hangers and other bits and pieces which can be cut out, glued into place on the body and the chassis to look something like the brake gear.

It's not an exact mechanical representation, but it looks good enough when the wagons are running on a layout I reckon.

The best bits, in my opinion, are the handbrake wheels, with their distinctive dented rims.

Two of those get soldered onto a bit of wire and fixed onto each end of the wagon.

You can just see them if you look carefully at the left hand side of the picture.

They'll stand out a treat when they're painted yellow against the red oxide colour of the wagon body.

Lumps And Bumps

The basic wagon bodies have been glued together now.

One of the distinctive features of the SAR wagons is the pressed panels in the doors which have the big dent on the outside and the bulge on the inside face.

When designing the kits I represented this by casting the inner bumps as small detail pieces to be glued onto the flat back of the wagon sides.

I've found it's best to do this before fixing the sides together so you can make sure they line up with the indentations on the outside and, in the case of the DZ wagon, that they're aligned properly.

Then it's a very quick and simple job to glue the parts in place on the floor / chassis and the shape of the wagon emerges.

Best Of Both

The list of future projects has grown now I've finally got some pictures of the unique BZ wagon.

This is a hybrid that's been dreamed up at Boston Lodge combining the most desirable aspects of a B Wagon (the fixed sides) with the best bits of a DZ (its more user-friendy height).

There's just the one been made so far and it's currently sitting in the new heritage storage shed being used as a place to leave bits of Blanche.

You can see in these pictures that it has been designed with the fold-down, drive-through ramps at each end which are also being retro-fitted to some of the DZ fleet to assist which delivering small diggers and various other pieces of self-propelled equipment to work sites on the lines.

So I think I shall inevitably have to build one.

The question is whether I scratch build it as a complete model or create masters of a kit of parts I can cast?

Will they be making any more?

If they do, will they be identcal? (Stop sniggering at the back!)

And would there be any demand from other modellers for a kit?

What I will do will depend on the answers to these questions.

Houses On Hold

Plans have changed slightly.

I did indicate in the previous post that I was going to start making a couple of the missing houses from the Oberon Wood scene, but commercial interests have intervened.

It appears that my wagon kits have been flying off the virtual shelf of the Narrow Planet webshop in recent weeks and so I am answering a call for a re-stocking of the DZs and NGYs.

I can't deny that it's a nice problem to have.

It's also a procrastinator's dream because it gives me the perfect excuse to once again delay having to sit down and draw out plans for one of the missing houses.

A Hard Life

The 'scrapped' wagons are ready to be sent off of their new owner.

They obviously look far too clean and well presented right now but I'm sure he'll have fun weathering and further distressing them.

Any Old Iron

Generally I'm pretty satisfied with the success rate with the castings for the wagon kits but there are always a few which for various reasons emerge from the mould with flaws.

Fortunately they don't all go to waste.

I have a customer who is also happy to decorate his South African-themed layout with scrappers as well as runners, and all those rejected bits are perfect for the job.

So far I've made up a battle-weary B wagon and a DZ that's seen better days.

Waste not - want not, and all that.

Mass Production

The wagon kits have been selling so fast I've had to set aside a week to cast another batch.

I suppose it's a nice problem to have.

Narrow Planet has shifted a load in recent weeks with the lion's share being sent abroad which must be doing wonders for the UK's balance of trade deficit.

I expect my Queen's Award For Export is in the post...

Winter Work Programme

The pace has slowed a little after our return from Dinas and the flurry of activity in the weeks leading up to it.

Himself will be taking an extended break from modelling and right now I've got my commercial hat on to meet an order for more SAR wagon kits to restock the FR shop.

I have decided to make a strategic reinvestment and have cast a fresh set of moulds for all the components of the four kits, expect the main chassis pieces which get 50% less use.

These are just a small selection with the rubber curing in the moulding boxes...

Casting a couple of dozen kits is going to keep me busy for a couple of weeks.

There's the Cwm Cloch farmhouse to finish as well

Then I'm going to push the boat out - and break my biggest golden rule - and cast another couple of MkII Super Barn carriage bodies.

Photo courtesy of FR

That's carriage 117 which is fast approaching completion at Boston Lodge and work on a replacement 118 is already underway.

The insiders who whisper information into my ears are utterly insistent that these two carriages will be identical - note the word, identical - to 119 which was rolled out last year.

When I made a model of that last year you'll remember I very optimistically made styrene masters and cast the body sides in the hope that I would be able to use them for the following carriages.

The moment of truth is nearly here and if I should subsequently discover any significant difference between the three carriages.......

Following on from those, and something that I'm really going to have to be in the mood for, is the fancy new Observation Carriage 150.

It was on display in the bay platform at Dinas during Super Power: Great & Small II so I had a good chance to poke around it and take lots of research pictures.

I've got a fair idea how I'm going to go about making it.

That's my mid-winter project I reckon.

And finally, more houses...

After the carriages I shall crack on with the end row of properties in Oberon Wood.

As you can see they are as idiosyncratic as the rest,

Lucky me!

Finishing Touches On The Tanker

A couple of weeks ago I handed over my new WHR water tank wagon for Himself to have a tinker with.

He's stuck on the transfers.

There's lots of other tiny wee technical blurb on the real one but quite frankly life's too short!

I also left it for him to make and attach the footstep which you can see at the right hand end of the frame.

These are hangers-on (excuse the pun) from the chassis' days as a DZ wagon but strangely it only still has one at one end.

He'll give it a protective spray of varnish before it join the fleet for the show at Dinas next weekend.

There may be some squabbling about what we do with it.

His idea is that we'll leave it parked in the siding at Beddgelert where the real one spends a lot of its time as an mobile emergency source of water in the event of a major lineside fire.

I , on the other hand, would prefer to see it hung behind one of the NGG16's at the head of a full rake of SAR freight stock.

I wonder who will get their way?

Water Tanker Finished

Well almost. It's as near as damn it completed.

It still needs to get a spray varnish and some transfer lettering as the finishing touches, plus a couple of footsteps to be attached to the frame at the ends.

Here you can compare how my version compares to the real thing photographed at Beddgelert last week.

Its one of those models which has spent a long time on my to do list and I'm so looking forward to see it running on Bron Hebog next month.

Access Ladders

I reckon on any model there are always some details that you can get away without fitting but also some that are absolutely essential if you're going to capture the feel of the real thing, and on the WHR water tank wagon I reckon that feature is the ladders.

I'd given these a bit of thought all through the build process.

I looked at seeing whether I had anything in stock which would do the job.

I had a spare section of Plastruct ladder but it was way too thick, with too many rungs and not quite wide enough.

Even so I experimented with filing it down and chopping out every other rung to see if I could get away with it but in the end I decided it was too much of a compromise.

Similarly for a while I toyed with the idea of using the plastic ladders which come with the standard gauge Dapol oil tanker kit - which I'd robbed to make the masters for the ends and the tank filler on top - but it was a similar scenario.

So in the end I pushed the boat out - really quite far out in fact - and ordered a fret of Scalelink etched brass ladders.

I think they're pretty much bang-on for width and not too far off the correct rung spacing either but, jeezo, it's pricey for two measly bits of ladder!

With them cut to length and bent at the top they were given a coat of red oxide primer.

My youngest's Play-Doh came in rather handy for holding them in place while I sprayed!

So here they are ready to be fitted, but I shall tease you for another couple of days before showing you the finished wagon...

Tanked Up

The moment has come to fix the tank permanently on the wagon now most of the painting is complete.

Until now the pictures I've posted have only had the tank resting on its supports and I knew I was only going to get one chance to get it right - if the filler and platform a the the top ended up slightly tipped to one side or the other it would be indescribably irritating.

To give myself the maximum amount of fiddling time I used epoxy resin and squinted and stared at it from all angles.

I'm as certain as I can be that it's straight.

I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out,  I think it's certainly got the look of the real wagon.

Perhaps the ends aren't quite as bulbous as on the full sized one but I don't think it notices too much.

The real test will be to see it attached behind one of the NGG16's with a train of SAR wagons hung on the back on the layout in a few weeks time.

There is still one major job to do, however, bend, paint and fit the ladders.

Black Magic

it quite often feels as if painting a model takes longer than building it!

It took me most of a week to get this far with the water tank wagon.

The one picture does not do justice to the number of processes which have to be gone through.

First the sections were sprayed with a primer. In this case it was red oxide because I didn't have any grey or white to hand.

This was fine for the tank body which received its all-over black from an aerosol can, but the grey on the frame, which was hand painted, required two coats.

Then the saddles had to be picked out in black, as well as underneath the frame.

Then the grey had to be touched up where there were any stray bits of black, then the black re-touched......and so it goes on until you're satisfied it's as neat as it's ever going to be.

The finish line is in sight, however, and I can say with confidence that it will be appearing at Dinas next month.