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. 

Review Of The Year - Part 3

Here we are into the second half of our annual review, and the pace of projects slowed down a little over the summer months, as I suspect it does for most of us.

July

We were fortunate to be able to get hold of one of the last of the batch of 009 Society Hudson toast rack kits, which we made up to represent number 42 on the WHHR.
 

In this picture it is positioned between one of our Dundas 37 / 38 pair and my original scratch built 39 which I must have made in the mid-90s.

Himself got on very fast with the RT models Baguley Drewry shunter kit prototype we obtained from RT Models, having swapped the etch brass fly cranks for some cast brass ones we had spare.

August

I was working away at my version of the toast rack to represent the FR's replica 39, which I was making using a basic resin casting for the body side and then using styrene angle and brass wire to complete.

 

Himself had the idea of using a spare Lynton and Barnstaple bogie van kit to make a freelance FR-style track cleaning wagon.

This has a sprung pad beneath it which wipes the rail heads, and the whole wagon is weighed down with lead, to the extent that it needs to have a locomotive at each end of it to be pushed around the layout.

At my house the 'test track' project had reached the track laying stage.

September

By now now the toast rack 39 carriage had reached the stage where it was almost ready to have a roof added and be sent for painting.

In order to better represent the Dinas shunter, number 9, I produced a styrene master for some alternative bonnet doors and grills which I turned into a casting.

And after a saga which went on for more than a year we finally got hold of etches to make a model of the Ashbury replica 21, which Himself soldered together in short order.

I'll bring the story up to date with a final instalment to be posted on Hogmanay.

Replicas Running

Now the varnish has set, and the bogies been fixed on,  Himself has sent me a couple of pictures of our new replicas - Ashbury 21 and Hudson toast rack 39 - on a test run on the layout.

21 is from a Worsley brass body kit and 39 was scratch built with most of the body cast in resin by myself,

This gives us a very respectable length of a 'Garraway' vintage set strengthens our 'Col Stephens' options as well, although we are a few green bug boxes short in that department.

They look very good posed in the platform at Beddgelert station on Bron Hebog.

It shouldn't be too much longer before our Bachmann Double Fairlies arrive and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the green Earl of Merioneth looks like hauling some of our green and ivory and all-over red stock.

Totally out of period for us, of course, but it's nearly Christmas so we're allowed, aren't we?

Venting

As well as the Vale of Ffestiniog II, Himself has been doing some work on replica carriage 21 this week.

Now all the detailing work has been done it has been sprayed with primer ready for the application of its green / ivory livery with red ends.

It's adding the small details which really lift these Worsley Works kits, such as the ornate door grab handles, and the vents at the top of the doors.

These were made from a single strip of styrene which was scored with parallel lines and propped up with a smaller strip behind.

This was shaped subtly and chopped into the small lengths and glued in place.

Covid Safe Carriage

I'll never get tired of making the argument on the treatment of the FR's modern relics - such as Earl of Merioneth and the tin cars - that things which happened yesterday will one day become tomorrow's heritage.

This is probably what lies behind my decision that our model of the replica carriage 21 should be made with the temporary plywood 'covid safe' compartment dividers in place, rather than its 'historic' - and future? - condition with fresh air between the seat backs.

Horrible and traumatic as it has been, I think it's important that in our relief at getting back to 'normal' life we do not discard the memories of what we've all been through.

The FR's response at the height of the crisis, and the operating model which was adopted, will, I believe, become seen as a very significant moment in the railway's history.

I'm not privy to the thoughts of the railway's management beyond what is shared in public communications, but I can see the sense in retaining many of the aspects of the way the business has been forced to operate for the last two seasons, such as the use of pre-booking tickets to match operating capacity (and costs) to demand.

Who knows if public sensibilities will change permanently, and whether from now on passengers will prefer to have a solid physical divide when sitting back-to-back with strangers in a narrow gauge carriage?

But presuming that these temporary panels will eventually be removed, I think it's only fitting that we have a reminder, in model form, that represents just one of the many changes we all had to accept as a society to get through this.

The Carriage That Had The Last Laugh

At long last we've got our hands on a set of etches for FR carriage 21, which we'll be doing up to represent the volunteer-built replica which entered traffic a couple of years ago.

This pair of Asbury carriages were rather basic compared to what Victorian passengers had become accustomed to with the 'bowsiders', and although apparently intended for tourist traffic other accounts say they were bought to be nothing more than bogie quarrymans carriages.

Sitting in one of the end compartments of the replica for just a few minutes while it was under construction at Boston Lodge, I soon appreciated how they developed this reputation for not being the most spacious and comfortable carriages, and I know I wasn't alone in wondering quite why some people were so keen to recreate one it its original form?

That was before Covid-19 came along, and suddenly compartment stock roared back into fashion!

Along with the other 'lock ups' 21 has become a mainstay of the FR fleet for the past two seasons and those who built it - while others looked on with a sceptical look - have had the last laugh.

As built there were never any dividers between the compartments, but these were hastily added as a Covid precaution before the start of the 2020 service.  

Now it's been handed over to me to make the interior,  and I'm wondering whether I should make it with the plywood walls in place as our little miniature memorial to the pandemic?