Engineering Possession

For the purposes of checking the alignment of the board joints Himself has been testing them with what prove to be our most derailable stock: the B Wagons.

Or to be more precise, my resign cast B Wagons.

This, I'm sure, is just because when running empty they are absolutely featherweight, unlike the Worsley Works kits for the earlier, flat-ended design, which are made of brass.

I suppose one idea might be to fill them with some removable loads of loco ash, as these wagons have made quite regular trips up the WHR carrying all the clinker generated at Boston Lodge to be used as infill.

At any rate, I saw them sitting parked on the layout on the usually inaccessible S-bend and thought they made a good subject for some arty shots which also show off the ruined barn well.

Spy In The Sky

Nothing much new to report today except I spotted something the other day which I thought you might enjoy seeing.

While Himself has got parts of Bron Hebog set up in the garage to realign the board joints it's left some of the boards which are not being used standing upright around the edge of the room.

(Usually they are stored in pairs, face to face.)

The one at the south end of the station with the Oberon Wood scene on it caught my eye.

I realised that you when you have the layout set up you never really get the chance to get a birds-eye from directly overhead, so I took this snap.

If you'll forgive my immodesty I think it looks pretty damned good.

Return To Service

There was a complaint received recently - or perhaps we should give it the benefit of the doubt and call it a comment - that there are not enough photos of our models on the blog.

Well, we pride ourselves on responsiveness to our audience, so please allow us to spam you with a series of snaps taken of our Darjeeling C class pacific out for a wee test run after it's reassembly.

The purpose was twofold.

As well as testing the running of the locomotive we were also using a engine with tiny wee bogie wheels to test the board joints after the work to realign them.

I do think it's a lovely looking locomotive and although totally unprototypical for the WHR we make no apologies for invoking Rule Number 1.

Such a shame the real ones are stuff and mounted in India because I can't help thinking they'd go very nicely on the WHR - like souped-up Penrhyn Ladies on the FR.

Join The Cavalcade

Never let it be said that we are unafraid to jump on a bandwagon at Bron Hebog.

As the FR celebrates the 125th birthday of Hunslet 'Ladies' Linda and Blanche by inviting lots of other Loiners to come and play in the top left and corner of Wales this weekend we thought we'd get in on the act too.

My social media feeds have been full of pictures of line ups of little locomotives so Himself decided to do the same by posing all our Hunslets together.

This collection was made possible by Brian Madge, Robex, Roger Chivers and Backwoods Miniatures - and we're very grateful to them for their wonderful kits.

Dark Side Of The Van

I've hit a snag in my effort to complete the transfers on the WHHR / VofR brake van - I don't know what the other side looks like!

All the pictures of it I've seen in its current BR blue livery are taken from the platform side and they show the stickers for the Midland Region running number on the right hand of the double doors.

The question is, where are they on the other side?

Are they also on the door? Perhaps the left hand one also at the Pen-y-mount end of the carriage? Or is it also on the right hand side of the carriage, in the big panel at the Porthmadog end?

Also, where is the 2 running number at the uphill end? In the top right hand corner of the lower panel as it is at the end with the windows?

Any confirmation from a reader - ideally with photographic evidence - would be much appreciated.

Boiler Shop

Himself is going through one of his odd job phases, and this is one of those tasks that he's been meaning to get around to for years.

It's a sorry tale about a locomotive that, by rights, shouldn't have any place in our stock boxes.

Many years ago when Backwoods Miniatures brought out a kit for the Darjeeling C class pacific Himself bought one on a whim - he's always said it was one of their easiest kits to make.

With clever design the motor was mounted in the tender but drove the driving wheels through a shaft and universal joint to a worm gear above the gearbox in the firebox area.

This meant the boiler could be a solid white metal casting, so there was plenty of weight for traction.

All of which, in hindsight, makes you wonder why he thought it was necessary to fill the firebox area with lead, but he did, and over the years the lead expanded until it caused a rather spectacular throat plate failure with a large chasm opening up between the firebox and the boiler.

With the lesson learnt he has stripped it all down and refitted the firebox wrapper and now it's ready to be reassembled.

Of course, it has no place on either of our layouts because neither of the two prototypes have ever run on the FR or WHR, and nor are the likely to because they are both stuffed and mounted in India.

I suppose the only connection for what are now layouts that live in the west of Scotland are the these rather attractive mainline narrow gauge locomotives were built by North British in Glasgow.

And, of course, Himself rather likes it, so what other excuse do you need?

Reverse Engineering

One of the things we understood would be crucial when we began building Bron Hebog was that on such a large layout, with a sinuous trackplan with many board joints - both end to end and side to side - was to make sure they were always perfectly aligned.

That's why Himself invested in some very high quality German engineering dowels to try to ensure that the boards would always fit together accurately regardless of whether the wood had shrunk or expanded with the season.

So imagine our consternation on the day of the exhibition at Bressingham to discover that one of the track joints, which is slightly on a skew, had moved ever so slightly during the night.

It wasn't much but it was enough to derail one particular Garratt pony truck and occasionally a bogie too.

Considering what to do about this he came to the conclusion that although we had fitted a system of dowels all around the layout they were low down on the frames, but much of the trackbed sits quite a few inches higher on an embankment.

It seemed that maybe there was still potential for this to move off the vertical?

His solution is to fit another series of dowels just below the trackbed.

However, this is easier said than done because these are supposed to be fitted - for precise location - by drilling all the way through the two pieces you are connecting.

This is not possible on a finished layout where you can't get a drill up behind and underneath.

He's just had to do it very carefully from the outside instead.

Let's hope it does the trick.