Identical Twin

I've been neglecting the blog a little while I was away on holiday in Wales with Himself and The Trainee.

If you follow the Bron Hebog and Minffordd page on Facebook then you'll have been able to follow the narrow gauge adventures we were getting up to, with many photos and video snippets.

One of the missions to be accomplished during our stay in Porthmadog was the collection of a model from the shop at Harbour Station which I hinted about a few weeks ago on these pages.

Many of our readers guessed the intention with the Lowmac wagon is to replicate the arrival of Linda on the FR in 1962, on hire, to help with an acute motive power shortage.

A notable part of the story is that she made the journey by rail from Port Penrhyn, via Afon Wen, and was transhipped from standard to narrow gauge in Minffordd Yard exactly as Spooner would have intended.

There's a chance you're already one step ahead of me here and thinking; 'Hang on!  Haven't they already got a Linda?'

Yes, you're quite correct.

Linda in FR green with her 'fat England tender' is part of our core loco fleet for the mainline passenger services along the back of the scene.

So what's the excuse?

There's none.  

It's just a pure indulgence. 

And we're not apologising for it. 

A model railway is supposed to be fun!

There are some adaptations which need to be made before it goes into service (sort of).

Linda was propped up on the Lowmac with sleepers, and secured with chains, so we're doing our best to replicate that with some chunky styrene strips.

These have got some extra bits which will connect with the underside of the Bachmann loco to help ensure it doesn't topple off the wagon while being transported around the layout.

And we also need to find something for that most vital PQR embellishment - a bucket to sit in front of the smokebox!

The Lonely Lowmac

I'm not the only one who's been having ideas about some one-off conversation pieces as part of the trains we run on Minffordd at exhibitions. 

As the towable Princess project has progressed so Himself has been casting wistful glances in the direction of our Lowmac wagon.

It looks rather at home in the siding against the 'quay' where the FR tracks run next to the goods shed, doesn't it.

For what historical recreation purpose could we employ one of these wagons at Minffordd in the period we model??

Because Minffordd was yard was always as much about transfers from standard to narrow gauge as about the exporting of slate on the 'big railway'.

Many of you will be ahead of me already, or course...

No, we won't be attempting to animate the scene.

And to get around the awkward questions about duplication we shall simply declare Rule 1 is in force!

Because what is the point in spending years building a layout - even an exhibition layout - if at the end of the day it's not your 'train set'?

Battered Bagnal

I've not hung around getting Kidbrooke ready to be permanently abandoned on a length of track in Minffordd Yard.

I don't have enough tiny alphabet transfers in stock to attempt to replicate all the graffiti which was painted onto the hulk of the loco during its time in the yard, but I've had a go at representing some of the other whitewash embelishments.

The 3d print was given a spray with red oxide primer before applying a succession of diluted acrylic washes of various shades of brown and then dry brushing with some orange hues and darker colours to get what I hope looks like a suitably rusty effect.

Being a print it is absolutely featherweight so we'll have no problem permanently gluing it onto the length of track in front of the slate sheds.

It should make an interesting conversation piece in Porthmadog in a two week's time.

I wonder what the ratio will be between those who give a knowing smile and those who point and say 'What's that doing there?'

Yet Another Siding

Just as the scenic part of a layout is never finished it would appear that a fiddle yard certainly never is!

During the three-day show in Glasgow last month it became clear there was something lacking in the siding department on the narrow gauge side of Minffordd.

Spare freight stock for the yard shunting is kept on a standalone siding at the bottom end fiddle yard, which works in much the same way as the extension to the Mineral Line where you will often see a selection of FR wagons.

The trouble with just having a single siding is that if you wanted to get at the wagons at the far end you needed to lift off either them or everything else in the way in front of them.

We really should have given that more thought when we laid out the fiddle yard....

For the next show in Porthmadog Himself has invested in another set of points and laid a second siding, along with some uncoupling magnets.

Missing Pieces

Having exhibited layouts of real locations for the last 30 years and more we've got used to people pointing out the bits we've missed - in fact we've come to welcome it.

I mean, why wouldn't you, if you're trying to faithfully recreate somewhere in miniature you want to do the best you can to make it as accurate as possible, don't you?

On Dduallt, for example, we had a couple of occasions where former 'Deviationists' brought some oversights to our attention, such as the 'sheep creep' which was missing in the area just beyond Barn Cutting at the back of the layout.

And then there was the former volunteer who told us the story about how on one occasion he was drilling into a rock and the drill bit broke and could not be removed.

So we asked him to point to the spot and at the next opportunity inserted a small bit of wire at the appropriate place.

With the development of the Minffordd project being shared so widely on social media I've been surprised we haven't received more "you've missed that" messages.

Something which was mentioned the other day, and which I never came across in our research, was the presence of the rusting hulk of Bagnall 0-4-0 tank Kidbrooke in Minffordd Yard in the 1960s.

Image taken from Festipedia

This loco, dating from 1917, was bought from the Oakeley Slate Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog by Richard Hilton and was stored in the yard until 1970, when it was moved to his home in Oxfordshire.

It was eventually restored to steam and can be found at the Yaxham Light Railway in Norfolk.

Now that we know about it we'll obviously have to have our own tiny Kidbrooke rusting quietly in the yard.

The immediately obvious solution seems to be a generic 3D print for these Bagnall locos which is available from Fourdees.

The bigger question is where to place it on the layout?

In the photo above it is sitting on the rails on the long siding which runs in front of the Maenofferen slate sheds and along the wharf beside the Cambrian headshunt.

But that's a very useful section of track for shunting waggons about in our yard, so we hardly want to place what amounts to a buffer stop halfway along it.

So instead I expect we will place it on the ground in the area in front of the smaller shed, with a respectable amount of vegetation growing around its wheels, like in the picture above.

I'm expecting there will be quite a few more oversights brought to our attention when we show the layout in Porthmadog in a few weeks time....

A Sense Of Purpose

The structures which probably most draw the eye on our layout, and anyone looking at the real Minffordd Yard are the two very large slate sheds.

You can't miss them whether you are passing on an FR or Cambrian train, or even driving past on the road.

It wasn't until after the period in which our layout is set that they ever became railway property.

However, they were always crucial to the purpose of the exchange yard, built as an outpost of the Maenofferen slate mining company for exporting their products by rail.

In our period they were being used by the Davies Brothers slate merchants who still stacked their slates on the wharf opposite the Cambrian station platform, although nearly everything came in and out by road.

To add operational interest we shunt narrow gauge waggons on the long sidings which run in front and in between the sheds even though at this time the FR respected its tenant's privacy at that end of the yard. 

A vital part of setting the scene is the large stack of slates behind the shed.

To represent this I was fortunate to be gifted some spare 3D printed blocks which I was able to cast dozens of copies from to complete the effect.

The sheds were built on a styrene skeleton with brick-effect pillars also cast in resin from a single master.

Much as with the real sheds most of the structure is the roof.

With such an expanse of slate I thought it was vital it the slates were in three dimensions so I made use of the thick Wills sheets.

Two of them needed to be bonded together on each elevation, doing my best to disguise the join.

Some people do wonder why we don't have tracks leading into the sheds, but this is actually a modern feature - well, 50+ years old now - after the FR took ownership and raised the roofs to make use of them to store rolling stock over the winter months.

Crinkly Tin All Round

One of the buildings on the layout which I'm surprised doesn't get more comments - or at least hasn't so far - is the Nissen hut perched above the 'coal hole'.

It's a rather incongruous structure to be found amid the decaying remains of an intricate Victorian freight transfer system, you might have thought, but no one at the exhibitions we've taken Minffordd to so far appears to have questioned its presence in the scene.

You might have thought it was a 'preservation era' addition - because, let's be honest, the FR has a pretty poor record for augmenting it's estate with inappropriate structures..... - but, in fact, it is an Old Company relic.

It was placed at the rear of the Goods Shed  around about 1940 to act as undercover storage for the sawmill which was being operated by the tenants of the Goods Shed - the railway by this stage trying to earn every penny it could by any means.

When the tenants moved out, and the railway moved back in, it was put to use by the Infrastructure Department and lasted until the mid-2010's when it was demolished to make way for the most excellent Waggon Tracks shed.

This archive picture from the 1960s shows the scene during the period we have modelled.

It was a late decision include the hut on our layout.

I'd initially left it out believing it might crowd the scene and give away how much we had compressed the yard.

But as so often I happened across something which made me think 'I wonder...'  and that something was discovering the Ratio plastic Nissen Hut kit.

Researching the dimensions, and making a mock up in cardboard, it transpired that it would be a perfect fit for the scene despite our Goods Shed being considerably under-scale, and the design of the kit allowed for you make it as long, or short, as you wished.

Making the kit up was very straightforward, although I have adapted it a little to represent the dwarf walls the real one sat on.

What was more challenging was replicating the paint - or was it even some sort of bitumen? - that the real one seemed to be covered in during the period.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and it seems to sit in the scene quite naturally.

Minffordd Update: A Little Realignment

Himself hasn't had so much time available to make great leaps forward on the layout in the last few weeks, but there is a little bit of progress to report this time.

Having first had to obtain a couple of replacement points - the originals being damaged during removal - he has relaid the wee run round loop at the back of the yard in order to re-route the siding which runs between the two Maenofferen slate sheds.

All being well, this should be the last bit of trackwork required on the layout.

The next job is most likely going to be wiring it up, but after that there will be a bit of a lull as we enter exhibition season.

The old warhouse Dduallt has a couple of trips out this winter - more comebacks than Sinatra! - so that will have to be set up and tested, and of course we have Bron Hebog's big appearance at the Warley show in December.

At my end I've been making a start on the Cambrian station building.

This building I am having to design using only educated guesswork and a rather slim selection of archive photographs, but I was pleased when we went to check out the original Minffordd layout on display at the WHHR's Gelert's Farm museum to see that the dimensions of that model are more or less the same as mine.

(With the caveat that the only way I could measure it, as it was in a perspex case, was using the fiendishly clever measuring app on my iPhone.)

Much of the construction time so far has been swallowed up fabricating the sash windows from  styrene strip.

Minffordd Update: Chute Gallery

The most obvious progress to report on the layout this week has been going on deep in the 'Coal Hole'.

Himself has been working on recreating the chutes used to transfer bulk loads, such as coal and ballast, from standard gauge wagons into the FR narrow gauge waggons on the tracks below.

This has been done using styrene to represent the concrete support structure, with brass used for the chutes themselves.

I think this has the potential to be one of the most unusual and appealing cameos on the layout - although we're not going to be silly enough to attempt to transfer any substances from the big wagons into the small, you'll have to imagine that bit.

It will, however, be one of those things which makes it unmistakeably Minffordd Yard.

The one thing that will be authentic about it is that the chutes encroach well into the FR loading gauge, ready to catch out the unwary who forget, or allow gravity to drag their engine or vans further down into the coal hole than they can venture.

Hopefully we won't have to straighten out bodywork or attend to dents the way Boston Lodge Works has had to over the years.....

Minffordd Update: Landscaping

We've been back just over a week but already the bulk of the destructive alterations to the layout we decided were needed after our research visits are in hand.

The 'extra' scenery between the FR mainline and the bottom of the exchange yard, has been hacked away to make room for both of the Maenofferen sheds.

The point work at the end of the upper run-round loop has been lifted so the turnouts can be repositioned to allow a connection to the siding which squeezes between the large and small shed.

At the other end, the original square bridge beams have been hacked out and I spend the weekend designing and casting some replacements to the correct bow-string profile and it looks like they're going to fit very sweetly in the gap.

It just goes to show what you can achieve quickly when you're sufficiently motivated.

Minffordd Update: Excavations Required

It's not often you return from a research site visit happy that you're going to have to tear things apart, but that's the unusual situation we find ourselves in after our week in Wales.

One of the objectives was to have a good poke around Minffordd Yard, and run the tape measure over some of the buildings, and also to plagerise from the beautiful diorama of Minffordd which is now kept in the museum at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway.

Our number one concern was about the Maeofferen slate sheds which are a prominent feature at the bottom of the FR's yard.

We'd reached the reluctant conclusion that we only had room to include the larger of the pair on our layout.

Peering through the perspex cover at the museum exhibit (which I believe was built by Dave Perrin) we were confounded to see that he'd managed to find room for both!

The difference, we discovered as we stood and compared with photos on our phones, was that we'd made the slope of the land down from the FR mainline far too generous, which you can see from the photos above.

In fact, when later inspecting the sheds, it become clear that the smaller Maenofferen Bach is slightly cut into the hill.

With a bit of remedial landscaping, and some repositioning of the sidings, we should be able to get both in.

Other errors came to light during our visit.

We had puzzled about the bridge over the lane which forms the scenic break for the Cambrian at the Porthmadog end, and decided that we probably wouldn't be too far wrong with a bog-standard square girder.

But flicking through a book on the shelves in the Harbour station shop, just on the off-chance that it might contain some pictures of Minffordd, I finally discovered the answer!

This bridge, before it was rebuilt in more modern times, had a bow string girder with a wooden palisade on top.

So another bit of re-engineering beckons.

And I also solved another mystery that had been puzzling me about the weigh house building which I am making.

I knew that at some point the original windows at the Porthmadog end were replaced by something a lot more domestic-looking, but I had no idea when that was.

A chance conversation in the pub with a long-standing FR figure revealed that he had scanned a collection of photographs from the 1960s, one of which was a rare picture of this end of the building.

© J Owen

This also revealed a small extra building which I never knew existed, as well as confirming the original, ornate, bargeboards were still in place.

Who said no good ever comes from going to the pub?

Minffordd Update: Round The Bend

Last week I posted a picture of Himself's first attempt in the best part of 20 years at making 009 points by hand.

These are required for the sidings which peel off as the line plunges down the steep 180 curve into Minffordd exchange yard.

As I wrote, after finishing the first one he realised he'd soldered the frog to the wrong sleeper, leaving too much of a gap, so another pair have been produced and pinned into position.

They really are works of art, aren't they!  I am impressed beyond words.

This time the alignment is spot-on, and has been proven by the ultimate test.

The line is on such a gradient here that slate waggons will hurtle down by gravity, and they pass quite happily through both of these points before ending up in a heap at the end of the 'coal hole'.

Yes.....accurate coupling heights to prevent runaways are going to be crucial on this layout!

Minffordd Update: Down The Hole

A week on from my last visit to observe progress on the Minffordd project and more track is in place, down in the depths of the yard.

This is the infamous 'Coal Hole' - the sunken roads where coal, ballast and anything else granular could be poured directly from standard gauge wagons into narrow gauge waggons using a pair of chutes, positioned just above where the waggons are sitting in the picture above.

Because our layout will be a compressed representation - as opposed to a scale model - of Minffordd Yard, the distance between the points is much shorter than at the actual location, but I think you'll still get a good flavour of the fun to be had down there.

One thing worth mentioning is that, despite appearances, it doesn't really function as a run-round loop.

The chutes are positioned such that it's not possible for a locomotive or van pass beneath them, and many items of FR rolling stock bear the battle scars of accidental (or perhaps even deliberate?) attempts to do so.

What I think I will really like about this part of the layout is the juxtaposition of the SG and NG tracks as well as the differences in the track levels.

I hope it'll draw the eye, making an additional focal point to the bridge where the FR main line crosses over the Cambrian at the station.

Minffordd Update: The Handmade Point Tale

 As much as we can we're trying to do the Minffordd project the easy way, with ready-to-run stock in both OO and OO9, DCC sound and all the rest.

That's why we've mixed 'n' matched on the standard gauge Cambrian loop using Peco code 75 Bullhead track on the scenic section, code 100 'streamline' in the fiddle yard and even a few 'settrack' curved points to help us cram it all in.

On the FR narrow gauge we're using both the 'mainline' track and points with the neat, straight sleepers and the larger radius turnouts, but also the original 'crazy track' product for the rougher trackwork in the yard.

However, Himself has come to the realisation that there really is not an alternative to constructing some handmade points for where sidings peel off from the tightly curving descent into the yard.

We've needed to use handmade points in places on all three of our layouts.

On Ddaullt they were the only option for the curved points into the passing loop and bay platform at the Blaenau end.

And on Bron Hebog he felt we could only do justice to the large radius points in the station by making them from scratch.

This was the first point he's made for at least 15 years, if not longer, and he's not completely happy with it.

The frog is slightly out of position and the tiny OO9 waggon wheels drop into the gap a little more than he would like, so he'll probably have another go.

Apparently it's only a full afternoon's work....

Minffordd Update: Tracklaying

It's very tempting when building a model railway to get as much of the track laid as soon as you can.

Not only is it a comforting illusion of progress, you can also begin to imagine properly what it's going to be like to run the layout.

This was a something Himself has had to resist as much as possible on the Minffordd project because the levels, gradients a curve - and the interplay between them - are so complex.

Now, though, he's judged this is the time to fix the position of the points for the standard gauge sidings in the exchange yard.

He's also laid bullhead track on the Cambrian line west of the station as it curls around the front of the layout and disappears beneath our cunningly relocated road bridge.

From this higher angle you're starting to get a good impression of how the whole scheme fits together, and how much of a run a standard Cambrian 2-car DMU gets within the scene.

Minfford Update: The Coal Hole And Other Apertures

 The process of forming the complex, and compact, trackbed and levels on the Minffordd project is continuing.

The shape of the former goods exchange yard with the Cambrian is becoming clearer, with the sunken 'coal hole' roads now bordered by the wooden formers for the walls.

This narrow gauge lines here will be straddled by standard gauge sidings on either side.

Swinging the camera to face in the opposite direction we can see Himself has formed the bridge where the Cambrian line exits again.

We've played with the geography of the area here to move the lane which crosses the line near the quarry a little nearer the station (with a very sharp bend in the road!)

Here the standard gauge goes into an effective tunnel along the right hand edge of the layout until it emerges into the fiddle yard.

In this covered section the storage lines of the fiddle yard begin to fan out, so to guard against catastrophic derailments on points Himself has created an emergency access flap.

At the other side, just beyond bridge where the FR passes over the Cambrian platform, we already have the start of the fiddle yard roads in place.

This view also shows the transition from the code 75 Bullhead track into the standard code 100 product for the hidden section - the difference in the sleeper size and spacings is very obvious!

Minffordd Update - Carriages In Context

A weekly inspection visit to view progress on the Minffordd project gave me an opportunity to pass over the newly-completed body shells of the Barn carriages to Himself to keep safe until he has the time - and the courage - to attempt the 'teak' paint job.

It also allowed us to pose what is going to be one of our standard carriage rakes in position along the embankment where the FR trains run, which gives a little more visual context to the scene.

With just the bare plywood track beds in place it's hard to get a proper impression of how big - or small - the layout will look.

We have the advantage with the way Minffordd is laid out, with the smaller, narrow gauge trains at the back of the scene, that it creates a natural optical illusion, in the same way that some modellers put reduced-scale buildings towards the rear of their layouts to give a perception of greater depth.

It's also pleasing that there will be almost no straight track anywhere on the layout, with the FR line forming a subtle crescent shape.

Most of what Himself has been doing for the past week is finalising the FR branch down into the exchange yard with the Cambrian, which he's worked out is a precipitous 1:19 gradient into the 'coal hole'.

What I think is quite impressive - and explains why it took most of the week - is that most of it was cut from a single sheet of plywood resting on a network of risers.

Down In The Yard

You reach a moment with every layout build where you start to get a glimpse (with a bit of help from your imagination) of what it is going to look like when it is complete.

The Minffordd project seems to have taken a bit step forward in the last week or so.

The FR overbridge has been given a coat of primer which I think demonstrates that it's definitely going to look the part, and the standard gauge track has begun to be fixed down.

The photo of a 24 nosing its way into the exchange yard gives a hint of what's to come, I hope.

Now Himself has turned his attention to forming the trackbed on the other side of the layout which involves some very complex changes of level and gradient as the FR track spirals down to meet the Cambrian.

Even at this stage you can step back and get a sense of how the whole scene is going to work.

I hope those who know the location will be able to squint a little and recognise this as the view from the window of an FR train crossing the bridge.