It’s not immediately apparent that these started out as basically the same carriage.
Himself has soldered together the body for the original spec NWNGR Ashbury corridor and now it’s over to me to make an interior for it.
The buffet car in the foreground would have looked the same before it was cut down the the FR with the intention of through running.
It’s remarkable what difference the extra few inches in height make, but I think the biggest visual differentiator is the bars over the opening windows which alter its appearance.
Also, you can’t help being struck by how austere (and economical) these carriages look compared to the high water mark of the FR ‘bowsiders’ a few years before.
Himself isn’t the only one being diverted by non-NG projects this week - although mine is at least still 4mm scale.
I’ve got to the stage of refreshing the paintwork on the cottage model for my friend.
The more I looked at it the more apparent it became that the white was becoming rather dirty, so just like any real building I’m giving it a coat of whitewash.
In this case I’m using thinned Humbrol enamel so it flows better over the harling, which in model form is represented by fine ballast glued onto a styrene base.
I always have been one for doing things the hard way, but it is very effective and has stood the test of time.
I let Himself out of my sight for a week and see what happens?
While he was in Wales volunteering on the FR he got nobbled by the Engineering Consultant who succeeded in bribing, or blackmailing him (I’m not sure which) into putting together some etched brass 3mm scale standard gauge kits.
Having reached a unavoidable dead end with both the Fairlie and NGG16 builds - waiting for Blodge and Dinas to finish the real ones - he has made a start on the first of these kits which is a GWR Hawksworth Carriage.
It’s rather odd to be making something in a smaller scale which is actually bigger than the models he usually works on.
It can be the little details which really make a model and one of the things I like most about our Fairlies are the bars at the front of the bogies which Himself adds on.
These are the thing that instantly differentiate the modern Fairlie from days gone by.
I call them bull bars because they remind me of the bling which people put on the front of their cars to make them look more rugged.
Himself tells me these are quite tricky to fit.
Not only do you have to get them sitting level and equally spaced, but over do it with the soldering iron and you could have bits falling off, or in the worst case scenario, the plastic gears on the front axle (which are not a million miles away) could deform.
Fortunately this has never happened on any of the nine bogies he’s made.
Himself's probably gone as far as he dare's with our James Spooner for now.
Our model has reached pretty much the state of construction on the real locomotive.
Both the bogies have been completed to the point where they can be test run on a rig with an old motor and a spring driveshaft.
I've included the slow motion sequences on the video so that you can appreciate the really tight clearances on the motion.
Himself says the key to building these Backwoods power bogies is to have a really good set of small files!
It's crucial to ensure the bearings in the frame are as flush as they can be.
You will also have to carry out surgery on the motion bracket in order to make space for the coupling rod to rotate, and some elongation of the hole into the cylinder block is needed to give the piston room to waggle about a bit.
Himself recalls that when he built the first one, for Merddin Emrys over 20 years go, the trial and error was so frustrating he got close to hurling it down the garden path.
Now on his ninth Fairlie bogie it's all become somewhat routine....
Broadcaster, writer and railway modeller.
Best known for the 009 Festiniog Railway layout 'Dduallt' which I built with my father David in the early 1990's and which is still making appearances on the exhibition circuit.
