In The Paint Shop

After a long pause there's some progress to report on our project to build a modern day James Spooner from a Backwoods kit.

As you can see above, Himself has started the process of painting the superstructure.

It's had a coat of grey primer and the black has started to be applied.

This model has taken many years to build.

In fact it has been test running on the layouts since before we started the Minffordd project, getting a run on Bron Hebog at the final Warley show at the NEC.

It's also seen some use on Dduallt.

Some of the delay on  finishing the loco can be attributed to the long time it took to obtain some custom lining transfers.

We also spent quite a while wondering how to replicate the bells which sit between the chimneys and the domes, before eventually butchering one of the 3D printed static models (in a slightly smaller scale) which were being sold in the FR shop.

When it will actually get used is an open question.

It's the wrong era for Minffordd  (and dc-only) and there isn't any prospect of either Dduallt or Bron Hebog going out again, so it may have to wait for the Dinas project to get off the ground.

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...

Fantasy Fairlie

Himself is slightly short on projects so has been flirting with a danger and second-guessing Boston Lodge. 

More specifically, he's been jumping a few steps ahead of the FR with the construction of James Spooner (II).

Don't worry!  

None of it is glued down - or soldered down, to be technically correct.

This mock up with the tanks and the half cab is only held in place with Blu Tack and fresh air - and the cab roof which has been sliced up is just a spare etch we had in a drawer.

I gather his main concern at the moment is finding the best way to remove the etched ribs.

2020 Review - Part 3

July 

 

As we moved into the second half of the year Livingston Thompson had been painted, lined and weathered and taken for its first test runs on Bron Hebog with the formation recreating the train when it was first towed from Minffordd to Blaenau Ffestiniog to try and kick start the restoration.

 

After a false start that ended up with the locomotive on display at the NRM in York where it remains.

 

The Double Fairlie story continued with Himself trying to keep pace with Boston Lodge on progress with James Spooner.

 

 

 

We're doing out best to adapt a Backwoods brass kit - although there will have to be the inevitable compromise on scale. 

On my workbench I was getting to grips with a new project in resin....

 

August 

Those Hula Hoop shapes were turned into the body of Maenofferen water tank wagon which sits on an extended 3 ton slate waggon chassis.

 

 

Almost immediate I was inundated with requests to produce a kit version....

 

And Himself used the first lockdown to reach the finishing line on another long term project, finally completing the painting and lining of our Backwoods Lyn.

 

 

 

The latest of our WHR saloons rolled off the production line, too.

 

 

September

 

Trying our best, once again, to stay synchronised with real world developments, Himself began painting our 130, starting with the bunkers and tanks which received their lovely crimson/plum colour and straw lining. 

 

 

After completing work on the tank waggon I was engaged on a request to produce a kit for the FR's small ex-MOD bogie wagons.

 

The first task was to find a way to produce the bogies.

 

The solution I hit on was to cast a piece which could slip over the very free-running Hudson bogie sold by Dundas.    

 

 

 

In fact, Dundas was doing very good business out of us with Himself deciding it was time to replace a lot of our slate waggon fleet as the 30 year old bodies became brittle.

 

This time instead of a uniform grey he decided to make them a little more colourful.

 

Tentative Tanks

James Spooner is definitely a back burner project just now - there’s no point trying to get ahead of the boys and girls at Blodge - but Himself was keen to see how much adaptation the tanks from the Backwoods kit would require?

His concern was mainly about length but comparisons with the plans for JS which have been published so far suggest all will be well.

Of course, like all our Fairlies, this is going to be a comprised model, trading true scale for something that looks like it has the right proprotions, because the Backwoods kit is based on Livintgston Thompson and the modern machines have rather bulked up. 

(Haven't we all?)

Not being brave enough to scratchbuild entire bodies - or mechanisms - it looks like this is a compromise we're going to have to live with for some time because I suspect the promised RTR Fairlie model from Kato / PECO will end up being Victorian size - and perhaps of no particular prototype like we're told the England will be.

2019 - Part 3

The summer saw us taking Dduallt for its third showing in nine months, after receiving an invitation to represent the Greenock club at the show in Perth.

This was is up there among one of the best in the country and we're very much looking forward to returning with Bron Hebog in 2020.

June also saw an unexpected opportunity to purchase another Backwoods double fairlie, which Himself duly snapped up and straight away began starting work on a James Spooner, being careful not to get ahead of the real one under construction at Boston Lodge.

The Gladstone Car was also finished with transfers and the illusion of curtains in the central saloon now in place.

August

We didn't waste any time starting on the next of our WHHR carriages.

Himself soldered up a Worsley Works kit for the buffet car and I was given the job of knocking up an interior in styrene.

James Spooner now had its bogies and firebox (motorbox) complete.

Hot on the heels of the Buffet Car was another brass body shell for the Ashbury corridor carriage in its original form, which we're doing up as the replica built for the WHHR.

September

There was a little more scenic work done on Bron Hebog ready for its next outing in Greenock in the autumn, with more trees being planted.

By now the WHHR carriages were already being painted.

And Gelert was in the final stages of painting and lining with a lot of extra details being added to the 3D body to really set it off.

Shafted!

A small piece of progress to report on James Spooner.

Himself has fitted the drive shafts which connect the motor - hidden in the firebox - with the power bogies.

They don’t have pick ups, or an electrical connection to the motor yet, but it has operated in a test with an umbilical link to a power source.

These solid shafts are a development of the Backwoods kit which originally used long, thin springs to take the drive, but the extra flexibility was unnecessary, and from the Single Fairlie kit onwards this is what was adopted.

Bull Bars

It can be the little details which really make a model and one of the things I like most about our Fairlies are the bars at the front of the bogies which Himself adds on.

These are the thing that instantly differentiate the modern Fairlie from days gone by.

I call them bull bars because they remind me of the bling which people put on the front of their cars to make them look more rugged.

Himself tells me these are quite tricky to fit.

Not only do you have to get them sitting level and equally spaced, but over do it with the soldering iron and you could have bits falling off, or in the worst case scenario, the plastic gears on the front axle (which are not a million miles away) could deform.

Fortunately this has never happened on any of the nine bogies he’s made.

Hiatus

Himself's probably gone as far as he dare's with our James Spooner for now.

Our model has reached pretty much the state of construction on the real locomotive.

Both the bogies have been completed to the point where they can be test run on a rig with an old motor and a spring driveshaft.



I've included the slow motion sequences on the video so that you can appreciate the really tight clearances on the motion.

Himself says the key to building these Backwoods power bogies is to have a really good set of small files!

It's crucial to ensure the bearings in the frame are as flush as they can be.

You will also have to carry out surgery on the motion bracket in order to make space for the coupling rod to rotate, and some elongation of the hole into the cylinder block is needed to give the piston room to waggle about a bit.

Himself recalls that when he built the first one, for Merddin Emrys over 20 years go, the trial and error was so frustrating he got close to hurling it down the garden path.

Now on his ninth Fairlie bogie it's all become somewhat routine....

Fairlie Quick Progress

Since the weekend the bogies for James Spooner have advanced with the first almost ready to be connected to a motor for a test under power.

These bogies are deceptively hard work.

You might suppose that a simple four wheel chassis with no valve gear would go together quite easily, but much like with the real things the problem is that there’s very little room to squeeze everything in.

In the case of the models the problem area is behind the crosshead which has a fag-paper clearance to the coupling rod behind.

It’s doable - but only just!

The second bogie is also coming along.

Three wheels are fitted but the crank pins have yet to be cut to length.

Despite the difficulties of making them they are lovely works of art.

Chop off the box holding the worm gear - and strip the gears off the leading axles - and you’ve got beautiful miniature models of real Fairlie power bogies.

Bogie Businesses

Checking in on Himself’s workbench this weekend I notice there’s been some progress on the chassis front.

The second of 130’s power units has had the motion completed.

A start has also been made on the first of the Fairlie bogies for James Spooner.

At this rate he’ll have to be careful he’s not overtaking Boston Lodge, except, of course, they aren’t building any bogies for the new double engine, they’ve just nicked the ones which were under the Earl.

Double Dealing

It's a strange coincide, but for the last couple of years, just as I am about to go on my summer holiday, another rare and much-needed Backwoods kit lands in our lap.

A couple of weeks we were delighted (and very grateful) to be offered the chance to buy - at a sensible price! - a fourth Double Fairlie in order to make a model of the forthcoming James Spooner.

Himself has been unable to resist the urge to start building it, although I have cautioned him most earnestly not to get ahead of Boston Lodge Works as they build the real one.

So far just the boiler cradle has been completed, and mounted on the bogies formerly running under the Earl, and that's probably as far as we'll be able to go with the model for the moment, too.

In the light of recent experience with our eldest Fairlie, Merddin Emrys - which needed a brush transplant -  Himself has decided to follow the adaptation suggest by Nick Welch in his book Ffestiniog Odyssey, to allow the motor to be removed from the locomotive, rather than trapped forever inside the firebox as the kit was designed to be put together.

This involves making a small bracket and drilling, tapping and inserting screws into the fronts of what, on the real engine, would be the ash pans.

You also have to cut an additional slot in the cradle frame which holds the motor.

Now in future, once the firebox wrapper and the cab roof are lifted clear, you will be able to undo the screws and either lift the motor out from above, or drop the whole cradle out from below the engine.

The next move will probably be to build up the power bogies, and you will, of course, be able to follow the progress here on the blog.

Bells And Whistles

The latest FR magazine arrived through the letter box the other day which is always a good thing.

I was pleased to see it came with a new leaflet making an appeal for the funding to finish the restoration of Welsh Pony, which is something I called for on this blog a couple of months ago.

(Not that I'm taking any credit, I'm sure the wheels were in motion anyway.)

It was also making the case for cash to pay for all the bits to build the new James  Spooner, complete with ornate bells, without robbing the mortal remains of Earl of Merioneth as it goes into its enforced hibernation.

There was a statement in the leaflet that struck me as a little odd, though.

It explains, in not so many words, that the Earl is knackered and needs a new boiler, new tanks and new carrier frame.

Therefore, it says, it makes sense to use these new parts as the basis for a brand new locomotive.

How so?

I get that these parts are the basic ingredients of a Fairlie superstructure, but why does it 'make sense' to designate it as a new locomotive?

Why not consider it a rebuilding of the Earl, (in its existing shape, of course) in the best FR tradition?

It is the precise opposite of the logic of the Welsh Pony project.

With that engine requiring a new boiler and new frames critics have asked why not have left the original alone and called the new one Little Giant?

I can't help thinking that the James Spooner project only 'makes sense' if you start from the assumption that all Fairlies should be curvy and not angular like the dear old 'Square'.

That said, what does make sense about the appeal, and is the reason I endorse it, is that it will ensure that my favourite Fairlie will be kept intact and not suffer the indignity of Livingston Thompson, which was unceremoniously dumped, denuded of all its ancillaries, resting on a pair of slate wagons for a decade and a half before it was done up for display.

I know there are many of us who are determined 'the mighty square' will return to action one day, and your support of this appeal will make that more likely.