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 1

And so we come to the end of another year of lockdown and exhibition-less modelling - for us at least.

It's ironic that the reason I began this blog nearly a million page views ago, was to have a way of showing off what we were doing while we were in the long process of building Bron Hebog, and while Dduallt was retired from shows.

Never could I have imagined we'd face such a sustained period where modelling, once again, became an almost exclusively private activity in your home, with no communal outlet.

It's one reason to be thankful for the opportunities the online world gives us.

Now, as I always do at the end of December, I'm going to take a look back - three months at a time - at some of the highlights of our modelling .

January

I'm afraid to say that there's been little progress since the start of the year on my prototype for the FR infrastructure well wagon,

Since this picture was taken I have found a way to cast the deck pieces in styrene, but it still doesn't have any couplings so has yet to be given any sort of test run.

Himself was busy adding the final pipe runs onto to the boiler unit of the Backwoods NG G16 kit for our model of the freshly restored 130.

And he was also well on the way to lining out a set of three 3mm Hawksworth carriage kits he'd been making as a favour to the Engineering Consultant - a man who was destined for higher things before the year was out!

February

This was the year my son reached an age where he was ready for his first OO layout, and I found my moulding and resin casting skills came in handy fixing a second hand Mainline wagon which had lost one of its sliding doors on one side.

Once the pipe runs were finished on the real locomotive, Himself wasted no time in getting our 130 painted, lined, and sent on a test run on Bron Hebog.

It really looked quite the part!

Another locomotive which was finished off - after many years - was our Mercian Welsh Pony, which looks absolutely stunning matched with the Victorian set.

March

Our James Spooner II project was in danger of running perilously far ahead of the real build as Himself had a play around with the etches to see how the half cab arrangement would work,

This is a model I hope we can expect more updates on in 2022.

Many years after our first model was stolen at an exhibition, Himself finished off his long-term project to make a replacement of the works shunter Harold. (aka, Shitty the Shunter)

At this time I was busy working on a commission for a scratch built model of Carnforth buffet car 114 in styrene.

To be continued...

Ten Sixty-Six

Harold the Second is making his debut on Bron Hebog.

The paint job was very simple, although the shade is a little too much towards the grey end of the spectrum, but it was a very strange Hammerite hue that the shunter was turned out in.

Himself has done a neat job with some DIY transfers using photographs and some tiny letters to spell out Hunslet on the front of the bonnet.

It really is very wee and would look quite ridiculous next to one of the giant Garratts on the layout.

X-Rated Thomas Character

The Rev. Awdry book you won't find on anyone's shelves is the one titled 'Shitty the Shunter'. 

Himself has been cracking on with Harold II, competing all the alterations and additions to the basic white metal body.

Thanks to the tiny coreless motor installed in the Arnold Kof chassis the cab area is open and there's space to put a driver.

The rear of the engine cover and the roof supports are made out of brass, as are the chassis frame pieces at the sides.

The axle boxes have been repurposed from a set of Dundas VoR carriage bogies.

It's a shame we don't have a Boston Lodge diorama on which to run it.

What excuse can we come up with for the occasional foray to Dduallt or Beddgelert??

A Week Off

Having run low on projects I suggested to Himself that he should pick up with the build of a replacement Harold -  aka 'Shitty the Shunter - which was at one time the stalwart of Boston Lodge.

Long term readers of this blog may recall our original model was apparently stolen at an exhibition many years ago. 

(I am still hopping mad about this.)

We obtained another Chivers white metal body to kit-bash but didn't have a working Farish DMU power bogie for it, so it sort of stalled.

Discussing this during a walk on Mother's Day I wondered aloud whether one of our strategic reserves of Arnold Kof diesel chassis would do the job instead?

Himself took a look. The wheelbase was ok - albeit a little smaller diameter than would be ideal - but the original motor was too fat to fit inside the body.

After a little research online Himself invested in a very wee 12v Tramfabriek coreless motor to replace it.

It fits snugly inside the bonnet with just the worm poking out into the cab area - much less obtrusive than the Farish motor would have been.

Review Of The Year - Part 3

July

And so to the second half of 2018 where there was much excitement at the arrival of our first ready-to-run model, the Bachmann 590 Baldwin.

I've never made any secret of my enthusiasm for the mainstream manufacturers discovering 009.

The intensity of the debate online around this has been second only to Brexit, but unlike the latter subject I can see only positives in this development for our scale.

I'm hugely excited about the next project in the pipeline, the small quarry Hunslets (especially the cab-less versions) and for what this innovative firm might decide to do next.

In this month I began work on a project which had been on the back burner for a while, to make models of the hybrid BZ wagons made at Boston Lodge for infrastructure trains on the FR.

I decided to make masters and cast them in resin, even though only two have been produced so far and they are far from identical.

July was also the month where, quite by chance, I discovered that the last two Backwoods NGG16 kits produced were available to buy.

We had to dig deep to avert the possibility of them being offered for sale in an online auction, but we'd been looking for a number of years for the opportunity to complete our Garratt fleet and it was too good an opportunity to miss.

August

The first of the BZ wagons had been cast and was being put together.

The fold-flat end doors are a right pain because I had to scratch build the triangular support brackets in styrene, which was a very fiddly job.

Himself had been putting together a Chivers kit of a tiny Hunslet diesel to replace our model of Harold, the Boston Lodge shunter, which had been stolen when we were exhibiting Dduallt in Leeds a number of years ago.

And to have a bit of fun for when we took Bron Hebog to show at the Welsh Highland 'Super Power' weekend I decided to add a very contemporary scenic feature - a reminder of the day when a driver tried his luck racing a Garratt to Bron Hebog crossing - and the Garratt won!

September

Himself had taken an executive decision to invest in panoramic photographic backscenes for the show at Dinas.

The result was very effective indeed!

We had a fabulous time - as we always do - showing Bron Hebog in the goods shed, this time in its finished state.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Baldwin Lyn was the star attraction on the railway and Himself pulled out the stops to get the Backwoods kit we had been given running.

Once again we couldn't resist being cheeky and double-heading it with Lyd knowing that the real locomotives were not being allowed anywhere near each other that weekend.

Back home the production line of superbarns continued with a start being made on assembling number 120.

Harold The Second

We have a number of duplicates in our fleet, mostly this is because we've made an improved version as our techniques have improved, or because a better kit has come onto the market.

In the case of the Boston Lodge works shunter Harold (better known by it's nickname 'Shitty the shunter') we're having to make another one because our original one was stolen.

That's right, it was nicked - and I still feel very angry about it.

It was taken, many years ago now, while we were exhibiting Dduallt at a specialist Narrow Gauge exhibition in Leeds - most probably by an 'insider', because it was parked in a headshunt in the middle of the layout so it was not as if a member of the public visiting the show could lean over and swipe it while the layout was running.

That suspicion that it was a fellow 'modeller' - I use the term advisedly - has always cheesed me off more than the fact it was pinched.

Anyway, it's always been a long term ambition to replace it, and recently Himself started putting together the body which we adapted from a Chivers kit.

Our first version ran on a Farish DMU power bogie but it was a little bit of a squeeze, so for this incarnation I suggested to Himself that we use one of the spare Arnold 'Kof' chassis I had tucked away for a rainy day.

As I say, it's a long term project, so don't expect to see it appearing anytime soon.

And when it does rest assured that I will be keeping a very close eye on it!