Laying The Foundations

I've started building the first of the second pair of houses for the Oberon Wood estate at the southern end of Beddgelert station.

I'm tackling number 25 first and have begun with the south end of the house, mainly on account of the fact it's the only blank wall which doesn't need any windows hacked out of 60 thou styrene sheet, which is never easy but necessary to give make the structure solid enough and prevent it warping.

One of the first things you'll notice is how deep the 'foundations' which is a consequence of the house sitting on a distinct slope.

Above you can see the large patio door at the back which faces Goat Cutting which will be a view that only the layout operators are going to get but it demonstrates our commitment to getting Bron Hebog right.

Below is the start of the front aspect.

The door will be hidden behind a wall forming a porch. The upper floor will overhang it and there'll be a garage jutting out on the right in due course.

At the moment it all looks a bit random, but I have faith in the Artistic Directors plans.

Fleet Of Flats

The other batch of DZ flat wagons are now finished and ready to be dispatched to their new owner who will set about transforming them into various types of SAR NG freight stock.

These seven have been given a blast of red oxide primer and the brake hand wheels picked out in yellow. They are mounted on my diamond frame bogie design.

Now its time to turn my attention back to making a model for myself again and get started on more of the houses for Oberon Wood.

Man With A Plan

I'm pleased to report the Artistic Director arrived on Friday bearing another set of his exquisitely drawn plans for the houses at Oberon Wood as promised.

I had anticipated he would have drawn the full row of properties which back onto the railway line as it runs in the cutting between the station throat and Goat Tunnel but it turns out he has only managed two, for numbers 24 and 25.

I had not realised just how complex the design of these houses is with bits jutting out here and here, overlapping and overhanging sections and a change in level from the back to the front too.

So it has undoubtedly taken a lot of time to get it all worked out from the photographs we have taken over the years and get it down on paper.

I shall get cracking with these as soon as I can.

P.S. The more observant may have noticed that this property is currently for sale if anyone fancies having NG/G16's running behind their back garden??

Border Raiders

I'm being treated to a visit by the other two thirds of the Bron Hebog team who are making their annual trip across the border this weekend.

The pretext, as usual, is visit to Model Rail Scotland at the SECC, which is one of the largest shows in the UK.

The reality, however, is that it is merely an excuse to indulge in a lot of rail travel, beer drinking and - in the case of the Artistic Director - baiting Scotsmen.

(He has consistently disregarded my earnest counselling that this is not a recommended course of action in Glasgow on a Friday or Saturday night!)

The good news for me is that he comes bearing a set of his exquisite hand-drawn plans for the next phase of the modern - that is 1960's - housing development at Oberon Wood which we need to include at the front left of the layout.

He delivered designs for the first pair 12 months ago and if you search through the blog archive you'll find lots of posts detailing the construction of them.

I'm looking forward to cracking on with these new ones which, from what I recall, will be even more complex than the first lot.

Satisfaction

It probably says something unflattering about my personality type but when batch building I like to try to bring all the models up to the same point at the end of each session rather than having some more advanced and others lagging behind.

That's why the other day I made up and fitted 14 of these handbrake wheels (etched for me by Narrow Planet)to the 7 flat wagons I've got on the go

I find there is a point in every model build that stands out as the most satisfying moment and with the ex-SAR wagons it's most definitely adding these brake wheels.

With their decagon shape they are so distinctive and for me slotting these in position is the moment the wagon comes alive - which is a silly thing to say about a resin model, I know, but I hope you'll understand what I mean.

Brakes Seven

I've been working flat out on the flat wagons all weekend.

The result of my endeavours is that the batch of seven DZ chassis and the bogies which have been assembled and given a coat of primer.

Those are intended to have 3D printed SAR wagon bodies mounted on top.

The second batch of seven are being made up as complete flat wagons, although they too may well have scratch built bodies added to them in due course.

Because they are complete wagons they need the brass brake gear added.

The next task is to prepare another seven pairs of bogies to go under them.

A Garratt - With Knobs On

The boiler unit of 138 is really taking shape now.

The brass strip which represents the bands holding the cladding in place has been added as well as the castings for the dome and chimney.

All the holes required have been drilled and various other parts attached.

Himself has lengthened the steam turret just in front of the cab as quite a few pipes join it, and it will also have to have the whistle sprouting from it rather than being attached to the boiler side as was the case on 87.

One thing that's worth mentioning is the handrail knobs.

He has not used the short ones supplied with the kit on the main part of the boiler, but substituted them for  Alan Gibson medium length ones instead.

He tells me there are two reasons for this:

a)  If the short one are used the hand rails will not line up with the long hand rail knob on the smoke box.

b)  Using medium length knobs will allow him to get all the pipework in place that passes between the handrail and the boiler.

He's also modified the ash pan to resemble something more like the ones produced by Boston Lodge when they put their Garratts back on a diet of coal.

Putting the whole thing together it's beginning to look very impressive. I can't wait to see it finished in that lovely deep red colour 138 wears these days.