The Secret Can Be Told

If you've been reading this blog over the last couple of months you may recall I have started work on building a second model of the NWNGR replica carriage 24.

I never did say why, and that was quite deliberate. Because I was keeping a secret.

A few months ago Himself and I were approached by a director of the FR Company - the world's oldest independent railway company, as I'm sure you know - and told about a plan to present a gift to the outgoing chairman, Dr John Prideaux, featuring 4mm / 009 models of some of the heritage rolling stock he has played a major role in restoring / recreating.

The snag was while it was simple to buy models of Welsh Pony and the 'Curly Roofed Van' there was no readily available model of 24.

Could we make another to be part of the presentation?

We said we'd be delighted to help, of course, but there was no way we'd be able to turn it round in a matter of a few weeks.

However, as lifetime supporters of the railway, we felt we should assist in any way we could, so I suggested that as it was such a special request, for someone who's given so much to the FR for many years, we could donate our own model of 24 as part of the gift.

It's not as if we're likely to need it to run on Bron Hebog again, and the Dinas project is likely to be a couple of years away.

Dr Prideaux was presented with the models, in a lovely display box, at a dinner in his honour earlier this week, and I gather he was delighted with them.

So that's lovely.

And I suppose it shows that volunteering for the railway can come in many forms.

In the meantime I've made a wee bit more progress on the replacement which I've cast in resin from my own styrene masters.

The sides and ends have been bonded into a box and I've cut out the pieces for the chassis and the false ceiling.

Spoony McSpoonface

We had an unexpected new item of rolling stock to play with - The Boat!

For those who are not familiar with Festiniog Railway heritage this is, indeed, a genuine vehicle, and at special events you can still see it being used - or at least a modern replica.

The original 'Boat' was a whimsical inspection car designed by, and for, the Spooner family's use.

Mostly it gravitated down the FR line in the same was as its famous slate trains, but it also had a sail and a mast so it could travel independently along the flat 1-mile embankment known as 'The Cob' at the bottom end of the line.

This model is a 3D print which was gifted to us last week by one of our operating team at the Porthmadog show.

Himself has replaced the printed axles and wheels with metal ones so it is able to run, and fitted a coupling at the back - or should I say aft? - so it can be attached to the end of trains, which is how the real one is taken up the FR line on its rare outings.

The original vehicle met is end - the the owner damn-near did, too!- when it free-wheeled into a collision with an Up train in 1886 south of Dduallt, when Mr Spooner decided to set off down the line without the train staff which would guarantee he wasn't going to meet something coming the other way.

And, inevitably, he did!

Opportunities for 'sailing' the Boat ourselves appear to be limited, at least in public,

The replica was not built until 2005 so it has no place on Minffordd, and there's no likelihood of it ever venturing onto the Welsh Highland for it to be used on Bron Hebog.

(Aside from the fact that Bron Hebog is unlikely to appear again at an exhibition, anyway.)

But if the mood takes us to unpack Dduallt for a nostalgic running session at home it is possible the Boat may be taken for a spin.

Open For Business

I've got more action to report from the paint shop.

Himself has been busy with the multi-coloured Hudson semi-open carriages - one the replica for the FR and the other for the WHHR fleet, which have different origins.

The red (WHHR) one is from the very neat 009 Society injection moulded kit, and has had a few enhancements such as brake pipes and the safety chains across the passenger access openings.

The green (FR) version is one I cast in resin from a scratch built master I made in styrene, and has a number of differences, including the positions of the right angle uprights and the number of slats on the end panels.

The mesh doors - a mid-life upgrade which offer significantly more protection than the chains on number 42 - are 3D prints which were kindly donated to the project.

For a few minutes Himself thought he had caught me out by noticing that number 39 currently has fewer, and thicker, planks on the ends, but he forgot the golden rule of FR modelling, which is that things change so frequently you have to choose the day you are modelling your locomotive, carriage or waggon and stick to it.

Thus, this 39 shows the carriage before its most recently, and thorough, overhaul.

Departmental Dilemma

The vexed question of the FR's modern heritage has reared its head again in recent days and forced me to rethink my long-term carriage replacement plan.

The vehicle in question is Observation / Driving Car 111.

I try to avoid having too many project on the go at the same time - I like to get a model finished before starting on something new - but that doesn't stop me carrying around an extensive wish list in my head.

One of those 'must get around to' projects is a replacement for our model of 111.

As you can see ours depicts the carriage in its original condition when it doubled up as the First Class Observation Car (with toilet facilities) at the bottom end of C Set and also as the driving trailer of the 6 car push pull set which, at least in the early '90's, saw a lot of use on the first and last trains of the day in summer and for winter running.

Here is it doing just that rounding Boston Lodge curve on the return of a high summer 'Early Bird' service with Conway Castle propelling at the uphill end.

Yes, kids, that manky, malfunctioning diesel you see dumped at the end of the headshunt at Dinas was once front line motive power and here's the proof!

To get back to the situation today, with the entry into traffic of the new, and rather posh, Obs 150 next year 111 will be surplus to requirements and the plan is to reallocate it to departmental stock as additional mess accommodation on works trains.

(We are to presume that the armchairs and the carpets will be removed but that marquetry will still make it quite the plushest P-Way vehicle on any railway ever I would suggest?)

The FR has form in this, of course, because the pioneering Barn Obs 100 saw out its days as a mess car on the WHR rebuilding before it was broken up for firewood.

I've always believed that was a mistake.

Its construction was a very significant moment in the modern FR story coming just a little over 10 years after the reopening.

Yes, the body was utterly life expired, but it could easily have been replaced.

Vintage engines and carriages are like Grandad's proverbial broom - by way of evidence I point to the current 'restoration' of Welsh Pony or indeed the HLF rebuilds of carriages 15 and 16 where the woodwork was almost entirely replaced.

EDIT *Breaking News* And I have just received this photographic evidence that  the underframe of 100 is still in existence at Dinas so maybe it could still rise from the ashes one day?

So coming back to 111, whilst I cannot disagree with the commercial logic of removing it from front line service - despite the valiant efforts to tart it up inside it can never compare to the new 100, 102 or 150 for customer appeal - and accepting the need for better facilities for the workforce on engineering trains, I hope it does not undergo too much alteration to equip it for its new role so that in a few decades time, if attitudes to modern heritage were to change, it may be possible to restore it to its original condition.

While understanding that a railway cannot keep all former items of rolling stock as museum pieces I do wonder whether enough attention is being paid to the FR's modern heritage?

The 'Tin Cars' are a significant part of the story of the period when the railway was trying to cope with the challenges of booming traffic and the task of getting back to Blaenau.

Yes, they were utilitarian and passengers' expectations of comfort have moved on, but it was a big thing at the time to build these vehicles at Boston Lodge and 111, although coming a decade later, was the ultimate expression of the tin car design philosophy.

It also marked the end of the FR's drive for modernity in its front line operation before a change in direction towards more traditional looking stock, something that you might detect in the new wooden bodied Barns and Super Barns or the semaphore signals and associated buildings at Porthmadog. (A moot point, perhaps.)

It has been stated that the prototype, 110, will be preserved but I would have liked to have seen an example of each retained - the production version 117/118, the toilet car 119/120 and the sliding window 121 - and then in years to come it would be possible to present an authentic 1970's / 80's trains. (In cherry red with The Square at the head, naturally.)

It does also beg the question about why the railway continues to use 'lock up' carriages, including the magnificent Victorian ones, as high summer spares rather than keep the corridor Tin Cars which would arguably be more customer friendly?  (Although the current disposal strategy does free up bogies and brake gear for redeployment.)

This is all rather getting away from the original point of the post which is that I'm in a dilemma about what to do about a new 111.

I was intending to make a 2nd model in its current livery with the smarter interior but now I'm wondering whether it would be better to 'future proof' our stock by doing it as the departmental 111?

There is a tantalising second option. though.

It has recently been repainted and it has been said that it will continue to wear these colours in its new life.

Assuming there were to be no exterior alterations perhaps it would even be possible to have a model with removable alternative interiors?

Now there's a thought...