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.

The Green Vale

Apart from a few etched brass finishing touches - such as windscreen wipers and nameplates - our second Vale of Ffestiniog is ready for action.

The body has been given a coat of varnish and the glazing fitted.

Tests runs on the upper part of Bron Hebog show this Funkey is able to haul a reasonably prototypical 6 carriage rake up the hill without doing its transmission a mischief.

Given the lead times on custom etched plates I doubt it will be named in time for the Glasgow show at the end of next month but it will certainly be getting a run on the layout.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

And so to the final three months of 2021 as we look back on what Himself and I got up to...

October

In the first of these review posts I remarked on how there had been little progress with my prototype for a model of the FR's infrastructure well wagon.

I decided not to wait any longer for a bespoke etched brass part for the durbar plate deck and had a go at seeing if I could cast it in resin instead. 

First, I cast copies of the small piece of brass I had in stock, then placed them side by side to make a large cast sheet which I cut and shaped into pieces to fit onto the wagon, and used them as masters for a final set of castings.

Round about this time Himself was adding more finishing details to the Dinas shunter.

And in a surprise development, he announced the purchase of another Worsley Works body kit for Vale of Ffestiniog, because he'd decided to make a model in its current two-tone green livery, which will look more at home on Bron Hebog than the original National Power livery on our first model.

November

A few weeks later, and number 9 had been painted and was posed for its first pictures on the layout.
 

By this time painting was underway on the Hudson toast rack carriages which featured prominently in the previous blog post covering the summer months.

And the building and painting of Ashbury 21 was completed, too.

December

By the year end, along with apparently the majority of 009 modellers (and a lot of OO ones, too) we were taking delivery of the exquisite Bachmann Double Fairlie models, the existence of which had only just been revealed to a shocked ready-to-run market.

Our choice of a 1960s Earl of Merioneth was completely out of keeping for either Dduallt or Bron Hebog, but the way the model railway market operates these days with limited production runs it's a case of 'you snooze, you lose', so we knew this was going to be our best opportunity to get one at a 'reasonable' price, and I've always had a fascination with this engine, having never had the chance to see it running.

My childhood memories of the FR also revolve around green engines and red carriages, so it's a nice piece of nostalgia for me.

We were intrigued to find out how the a plastic RTR model - complete with coreless motor, flywheels, DCC chip and sound would compare against our kit-built, Mashima-powered, brass Backwoods Fairlies, and filmed the trials for your entertainment.

A pretty conclusive result......so don't expect to see our Backwoods models being retired any time soon.

I rounded off the year by laying the narrow gauge side of the 'test track' project at home.

The early weeks of 2022 will, hopefully, see us getting this wired up and ready to start, ahem, 'testing' things on....

Best wishes to everyone who drops by this blog for the new modelling year. 

Funkey Colours

Himself has embarked on what could be a prolonged process of painting the new Vale of Ffestiniog.

Not only does the locomotive have quite a few colours on it but the places where they join are awkward.

For example, there is a very obvious fold line on the cab sides, but that is not where the dark green changes to the mid green.

Also, there's that long central body section full of access doors which is not conducive to a simple masking operation, either.

So instead Himself is planning to use his go-to workaround solution for situations such as these and use waterslide lining transfers to give him a target to aim at.

The reason the paint in the picture above looks so rough is that the shot was taken before the transfer was applied to mark the lower edge of the dark green upper section.

Still, it was his idea to build this second one, so.....

Dissatisfied Customer

A complaint has flooded in!

Last week I cast a set of bogie frames for Vale of Ffestiniog (II) for Himself, but I am informed they are not up to scratch.

The problem seems to be the bottom half, which attaches to the swivelling bogie of the Farish chassis, is shorter than it should have been.

As a result, Himself has decided to use the upper casting, which is fixed to the chassis block, and scratch build a set of the lower parts.

These pictures give a good illustration of how we solved the problem of the bogie frames on the Funkeys being much taller than those on your typical 2mm scale diesel, and I think its quite an effective illusion.

You can also see how he attaches other extra details like the air tanks to the chassis block.

So there you go, that's customers for you. No pleasing them sometimes.

Honestly, who'd be a model manufacturer?

Too Funkey

This week Himself's been doing a bit more work on version 2 of Vale of Ffestiniog.

Most of it is stuff you don't immediately see, such as making sure the body is sitting level and square on the Farish diesel chassis, and matching it up against its clone to make sure the ride height is set correctly.

In this front view you get a good look at some of the extra details Himself adds to these Worsley Works body kits.

The most obvious is the light clusters down near the buffer beam abd in the centre above the cab windows.

He's also fashioned the lip around the hole for the coupling shaft as well as the handrails, vac pipe and - new on this version - the lamp bracket in the centre between the lights.

Unfortunately - I think - this version won't have the lovely big twin headlamps because in the form he's chosen, it now has a rather less impressive set of square LED lights, much the same as those on the recently restored Garratt 130.

At my end I have cast the large fake bogie side frames and I'll hand those onto him the next time I'm passing.

The Vale Again

Himself has decided we need another model of the FR's Funkey Vale of Ffestiniog.

We've had a model for years, built from the Worsley Works scratch aid kit, and finished in the National Power livery it first appeared in after the magnificent rebuild by our much-missed friend, Steve Coulson.

In recent years, though, the loco has sported a two-tone green livery looking just like a 1960's class 47, and it appears Himself would like one for us too.

Unfortunately it's not a case of just building a new body to swap onto the existing chassis, because the 'blue brick' had a light grey underframe and bogies and the repainted one has those bits painted black.

I thought this might be an issue, because the Farish 91 chassis is like hens teeth to get hold of these days, selling for silly money on eBay whenever they appear, but I had forgotten that many years ago Himself invested in a spare, so that's what will go under this one.

He's been working on putting together the body, with it's very tricky angles, and correcting the errors in the kit such as the over-long roof.

My contribution will be to cast the new side frames for the bogies.

 

Bright Copper Kettles

I suppose, by rights, it should be steam engines we're featuring today, but I'm posting these photographs in the order I took them so you've got a pair of diesels instead.

Both of our Funkey locomotives are made from Worsley Works kits sitting on Farish class 90 chassis, but we've added quite a few extra details to improve them.

Most obviously, we've added false pieces on the chassis block to create the effect of the very tall bogies on these engines.

Himself has also cut back the front of the roof on the Vale of Ffestiniog, which is too long as supplied, and they both have some headlight jewels, handrails and extra bits like horns on the bonnet.

Our Caernarfon Castle is currently confined to light traffic, suffering from some transmission issues.

How prototypical!

A Very Special Special

A couple of weeks ago the Bron Hebog team lost a dear friend - designer extraordinaire and raconteur Steve 'Stefco' Coulson.

At the Hull show last week we paid our tribute to him by running a special train formed of the rolling stock he had a special connection with.

For those who aren't aware, Steve was a part owner of Britomart, a Quarry Hunslet locomotive bought from the Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry in the 1960's and brought to the FR where he helped care for it.

Britomart was a 'toy' on the FR in the days when the railway wasn't so open to such indulgences.

This model is our 2nd Britomart, which has been built up from a Brian Madge kit. The exquisite outside frame chassis is connected to the motor not by gears but by a miniature rubber band, just the sort of practical engineering solution Stefco would have approved of, and I'm sure he wouldn't have minded that it's still running around in primer.

The second locomotive is the Funkey diesel Vale of Ffestiniog which he was responsible for redesigning to fit the FR.

It wasn't merely a case of hacking the body about, he had to completely re-engineer the machine, moving many of the components and adapting it to have a cab at each end rather than just in the middle.

That he managed to achieve all this and for the result to be so aesthetically pleasing speaks volumes for his talent as a very intuitive engineer.

The last vehicle is carriage 122, a radical prototype he designed and helped to build in the early 2000's applying modern road coach-building technology to a narrow gauge carriage and making maximum use of the railway's' kinematic envelope.

It looks destined to remain a one-off but that's no criticism of the design which has proved very popular with passengers.

I recall that Stefco was very chuffed when we produced this first model of his carriage and, as ever, offered all the assistance he could.

When I asked for a drawing to help make the model he didn't just hand me a basic outline but instead a complete set of the design documents.

All of us on the Bron Hebog team will always treasure the hours we spent listening to his stories as he held court with a pint in his hand and another lined up ready on the bar.

Until our paths cross again some day,  perhaps in 'the embassy', we hope you appreciated our tribute train, Steve.