Moelwyn Returns!

I'm delighted to be able to report that Moelwyn has returned unscathed from its 800-mile round trip in the post.

Our vintage Meridian-kit model of the FR's venerable Baldwin Tractor has undergone a surgical operation for a motor transplant and a digital 'pacemaker'.

In other words it's now DCC sound fitted.

The operation was carried out by our respected surgeon, Sven, at Tramfabriek, and I cannot speak highly enough about the speed and quality of service we've received.

The Mashima motor which it was fitted with, and which filled all the space under the bonnet, has been replaced with a very small coreless motor, which has left room for the Zimo sound chip and a stay alive pack.

This has historical precedent in that the real Moelwyn had its original petrol engine replaced with a Gardner diesel when the FR was being revived to make it a more economical and useful machine.

The speaker has been lodged underneath the cab roof and is only really visible if you look at the model from below, which few people at an exhibition are likely to do.

The Royal Mail should also get a shout out for safely and swiftly getting Moelwyn there and back.

I did fork out for their premium Special Delivery service but in my view it was worth every penny when dealing with a genuinely priceless model.

Keep an eye on our social media channels and I'll soon be posting a clip of it in action so you can see and hear it in action.

Your first opportunity to see it live will be at the Ayr MRG exhibition in Troon (Ayrshire, Scotland) on 19th / 20th September.

Mute Moelwyn No More - Hopefully

I am not one of life's gamblers.  

If you needed to stick a label on me it would definitely be the one marked 'Risk Averse'.

So you can probably imagine it was a 'moment' to entrust our precious Moelwyn to the care of our elite posties for a 400 mile trip across the UK to see a man who's kindly offered to help convert it for DCC operation with sound for use on Minffordd.

Were it a model one could buy off-the-shelf then if anything unfortunate happened one could simply curse one's luck and dip into the piggy bank for a replacement.

Sadly, it's not the case with a kit built loco such as our trusty Baldwin Gas Mechanical.

This excellent kit has been in production from time to time over the years, but I reckon I've seen more Backwoods Garratts come up for sale that one of these - and that's saying something!

So it really was a leap of faith to hand that parcel over!

I'm pleased to say it has arrived, safety, and on time  (well done, Royal Mail!) and I'm told it will be going into the workshop imminently.

The challenge with this model is not simply wiring in a chip and speaker - first it will be necessary to make room for them.

At the moment all that space under the bonnet is taken up with a (superb) Mashima motor.

The idea is to replace that with something much, much smaller.  Probably in the shape of a shiny coreless cylinder, which will buy some space for the digital gubbins.

How much space is the question which will only be answered when work starts.

It may be that other places will have to be found to hide the speaker or stay alive as much out of sight as is possible.

However, for now, it's just good to know that we're taking action on something we've wanted to make happen for quite a while now.

I look forward to being able to post progress updates soon.

Waiting Its Turn

Moelwyn spent the weekend in Glasgow as a static exhibit, once again, lurking at the doorway into the goods shed.

This vintage Baldwin 'tractor ' - a veteran of the First World War - is a loco we have yet to adapt for DCC control, but I'm hoping that can change in time for the next time we have the layout running in Porthmadog in May.

The difficulty is there is nowhere immediately obvious to stuff all the gubbins - the chip, stay-alive capacitor, and speaker - with it hidden from view.

At the moment most of the space inside the bonnet is taken up by the Mashima motor.

I am told that it is possible to retro-fit a very small coreless motor which will create just enough space to hide all the kit and I am seeking advice from those in the know.

The other question is what to use for a sound file.  

As well as its vintage Gardner diesel engine Moelwyn has a very distinctive, rhythmic whine from its gearbox at speed.  

Again, I have hopes that one of our friends with all the right kit will be able to assist us with this.

How useful Moelwyn will prove to be is an open question.

It's built from a Meridian etched brass kit, so it's not featherweight like a 3D print would be, but it still doesn't have the heft of a white metal casting.

What we do know is that on Dduallt it is capable of hauling a couple of carriages up the hill, which is similar to what Britomart can do, so hopefully on Minffordd it will be able to drag a couple of wagons at a time up the ramp from the depths of the yard.

Hopefully, before to long, we will be able to find out.

Tall Slim Aussie

While I was away Himself was making progress on the test etches from RT Models for the Dinas shunter number 9.

At this stage the bonnet and cab are just resting on the footplate, and in the case of the bonnet it's just a basic former which will need some thin door and grill pieces scratch built on top.

What surprised me was how comparatively thin it appears, probably on account of the cab being so tall.

The most important developments have been down below where the chassis has had its Farish fly cranks replaced with brass ones from Meridian Models and the jackshaft drive has been grafted on.

Himself has decided not to use the replacement keeper plate supplied with the kit but to insert a brass tube through the rear of the chassis to hold the unpowered axle.

Its been reassembled and test run on the layout.

The next stage will be for me to do something with the bonnet.

Australian Adaptations

Himself has begun making the alterations to the Farish 08 chassis which will power our model of No. 9 - the large, yellow, ex-Australian shunting diesel at Dinas.

In the search for a more authentic look, with chunky fly cranks, he's replacing the plastic extensions which create the false outside frame effect on the 08 with a couple of packets of brass cranks we had in our strategic reserve of bits and pieces.

These were once produced by Meridian Models (item MP24) but so far as we can tell are not available at the moment - which is a shame because they're very handy to have.

They are fitted over the stubs of the overlong axles on the wheel sets on the chassis.

Quartering is as simple as it can ever be because you can line up the crank with the inset in the wheel where the original plastic cranks were positioned.

The jackshaft drive will be created using the clever replacement chassis keeper plate supplied by RT Models and employing a fourth set of these cranks.

Re-wheeling

Much to my delight Himself has got straight on with the task of fitting the replacement wheelsets to our Welsh Pony in the hope of curing it's limp.

To do that he's had to strip the chassis and has removed the brass discs which were glued onto the plastic wheel centres to transplant them onto the new ones.

In the picture you can see that two of them have already been fixed and the others are setting with the aid of some hair clips to hold them in position.

There is no valve gear to deconstruct on an England engine, which is a good thing, but the main difficulty on this chassis is with the slide bars which have had to be bend by 90 degrees to remove the front wheels.

Attempting to remove the cylinder assembly would have risked the whole chassis falling apart, apparently.

MOTW - Mary Ann

This is one of my favourite ugly ducklings.

In many ways you could argue the story of Mary Ann - or 'The Simplex' if you prefer - is a microcosm of the journey the FR itself has made over the last half decade.

Now considered a heritage artifact our model shows Mary Ann in its workaday condition of the 70's and early 80's.

When the new administration took over in 1954 the Simplex tractor - a veteran of the Great War narrow gauge system in France - was the first thing they got working.

In the years that followed as traffic boomed and the railway struggled to expand it was rebuilt and modified to meet changing needs, receiving a transplanted diesel engine and growing a semi-enclosed cab, which certainly gave it back something of the 'tin turtle' look of its armoured sisters on the Western Front.

Those whose only experience of Mary Ann has been as a working museum piece in the last 20 years or so, when it has been stripped back to 1950's condition, and had its original gallons-per-mile petrol engine reinstalled, may perhaps be appalled to see such mutation. But it's important to remember that during this time Mary Ann was one of the mainstays of the p-way department who inevitably ended up doing most of their work in the winter months of the year or early in the mornings. It would have been unreasonable, to say the least, to deny them even this modicum of comfort in the name of heritage, surely?

Our model is one of those box of bits machines. It came about when as a teenager I was given a random selection of old 009 stuff including the remains of a Meridian Models kit for an armoured Simplex and couple of very crude old French 0-4-0 chassis which had been used for a scratch built Garratt.

As it happened, one of these chassis fitted neatly beneath the Simplex body which was opened up at the sides and Himself  created the cab from styrene and added some etched brass grills, nameplates and vac bags.

Back them I considered this a marvel of miniaturisation, never for a moment imagining that in years to come there would be kits of the market for a fully open Simplex with the tiniest, rubber band powered mechanisms such as those produced by Nigel Lawton.

That's progress for you.