Minffordd Update: Bachmann Bargain

You don't have to read much railway modelling social media to find people bemoaning the runaway inflation in the prices of toy trains and accusing the manufacturers of naked profiteering.

There’s not necessarily respite for the wallet to be found in the secondhand market with some of the big retailers selling pre-loved models at top end prices online, as well as some ambitious asking prices on the auction sites.

Recently I've found the best bargains the old-fashioned way at local model railway exhibitions, such as this Bachmann Collet Goods - one of the re-worked models with a decent chassis (not split frame) although not new enough to be dcc ready.

It wasn't so much going for a song as an entire operetta!

How much did I pay?

£25!

"I think it's priced to sell", remarked the person manning the stall at Perth as I quickly snapped it up.

As always, caveat emptor applies, but at that price I figured I wouldn't be too upset if it turned out to be a lemon.

Himself took it into works for a 'fitness to run' exam, and sure enough he found the mechanism gummed up with congealed grease, and he says it took him most of the afternoon to strip it down and clean it up, but it runs sweetly enough.

More work is required before it is suitable for use on Minffordd, however.

In the first instance, when he got it home and discovered one of the buffers on the tender is missing.

We're thinking, though, that we might have carelessly knocked this off unknowingly as we pulled it out of the box to inspect it behind the layout at the show.

So Himself has had to buy a new tender body from the Bachmann Spares site which cost almost as much as the locomotive!

The other issue is that the tender is very unhappy on anything except the widest radius curve, which is not very good in our pokey fiddle yard.

This is not the case with other six-wheel tenders in our locomotive collection, so we suspect there might be something going on with the wheelsets.

Further tinkering is required.

Pulling Apart A Prince

Even though 009 is fast becoming a ready-to-run scale its good to know that some old fashioned modelling is required to produce the appropriate locomotive fleet for our Minffordd layout.

A consequence of Kato/Peco beating Bachmann to the punch on producing a model of the Small England engine is that the differences between the versions put on sale so far are confined to decoration rather than changes to the body tooling.

This means, as far as Prince is concerned, the most current version they can (accurately) make is more than 60 years old.

The first example of extreme tinkering - others would say butchering - at Boston Lodge in the preservation era was when 'The Old Gent' emerged from it's first overhaul with the distinctive stepped frame beneath the saddle tank turned into a straight beam which ran the length of the locomotive, with a pronounced gap now beneath the tank.

This is the way it would have looked in the period we are going to run our Minffordd layout.

It ran in this guise for around 6 years before being withdrawn again and emerging in 1980 looking like a body builder who has overdosed on steroids.

Fortunately, the main component parts of the body are designed in such a way that the frame can be easily separated from the saddle tank, cab and smokebox to allow for some corrective surgery to be attempted.

I know it's possible because it's already been done by the model designer (and a very good job of it he's done, too) and he's kindly passed on some notes on how it was done.

As you see in the picture, Himself has disassembled the model and is awaiting supplies of appropriately-sized brass strip before he begins chopping.

Minffordd Update: Mock Ups & Mod-Roc

A start is being made on the scenery proper, now most of the track laying is complete and some basic wiring for testing purposes has been installed.

Creating the buildings from scratch will be one of my main contributions to the project and I'm going to start with those on the standard gauge Cambrian platform.

As the project has developed we've become a little more flexible about the time period for the layout.

To begin with I was being quite strict that 1967 would be the bottom end of the scale, but in that year the very nice station building had recently been torn down and replaced with a bus shelter-type structure, which is rather dull, to say the least.

So I think we're going to bend out time frame a little and include a dilapidated station building along with the signal box.

My first challenge has been to guesstimate the dimensions of the station. 

I have been kindly provided with some drawings for the Dutton signal boxes on the Cambrian, 

The one at Minffordd appears to be an enlarged version of the Number 4 design, and I've got enough to go on to be confident enough with that, but the main building is a another matter.

I haven't come across any drawings yet, or even a so much as a picture taken from a straight-on position, so I'm having to extrapolate from shots taken at three-quarters.

After some experimenting with alternative size structures I've knocked up a couple from a cardboard taken from a redundant shoe box and I think it'll do the job.

Over on the other corner Himself has begun forming the cuttings in traditional style using chicken wire covered in mod-roc.

It feels like another of those great leaps forward to start seeing the outline of a landscape appearing on the wooden framework.

Minffordd Update: Round The Bend

Last week I posted a picture of Himself's first attempt in the best part of 20 years at making 009 points by hand.

These are required for the sidings which peel off as the line plunges down the steep 180 curve into Minffordd exchange yard.

As I wrote, after finishing the first one he realised he'd soldered the frog to the wrong sleeper, leaving too much of a gap, so another pair have been produced and pinned into position.

They really are works of art, aren't they!  I am impressed beyond words.

This time the alignment is spot-on, and has been proven by the ultimate test.

The line is on such a gradient here that slate waggons will hurtle down by gravity, and they pass quite happily through both of these points before ending up in a heap at the end of the 'coal hole'.

Yes.....accurate coupling heights to prevent runaways are going to be crucial on this layout!

Minffordd Update: Down The Hole

A week on from my last visit to observe progress on the Minffordd project and more track is in place, down in the depths of the yard.

This is the infamous 'Coal Hole' - the sunken roads where coal, ballast and anything else granular could be poured directly from standard gauge wagons into narrow gauge waggons using a pair of chutes, positioned just above where the waggons are sitting in the picture above.

Because our layout will be a compressed representation - as opposed to a scale model - of Minffordd Yard, the distance between the points is much shorter than at the actual location, but I think you'll still get a good flavour of the fun to be had down there.

One thing worth mentioning is that, despite appearances, it doesn't really function as a run-round loop.

The chutes are positioned such that it's not possible for a locomotive or van pass beneath them, and many items of FR rolling stock bear the battle scars of accidental (or perhaps even deliberate?) attempts to do so.

What I think I will really like about this part of the layout is the juxtaposition of the SG and NG tracks as well as the differences in the track levels.

I hope it'll draw the eye, making an additional focal point to the bridge where the FR main line crosses over the Cambrian at the station.

Minffordd Update: Flange Squeal

I wrote last week about the temptation to stretch the era on a layout - and here it is!

At the start of the project I'd only envisaged running DMUs and class 24s to fit in with the 1967-71 time frame.

But browsing the second hard stalls at an exhibition a couple of weeks ago I failed to resist the temptation of a weathered Bachmann 4MT tank at a very enticing price...

Our followers on social media will know that I was a a bit disappointed with its performance when I first ran it on our test track at home.

It wasn't the smoothest-running model, and was also very sensitive to tight radius curves  - by which I mean bends of roughly R2 dimensions - without the torque in the mechanism to overcome the resistance of the bend without slowing down markedly.

This didn't fill me with confidence for how it might perform on Minffordd where there is one bit of the curve into the storage roads just beyond the bridge which is more like R1.5, followed by a set track curved point.

I was very apprehensive when I took it over for a test run, but it was more positive that I expected.

It seems to be much happier on the finer code 75 Bullhead track, and using a different controller to the ones I have at home ran more smoothly at slow speed.

It does juuust get around the tightest bend into the storage yard, but only to the outermost storage road.

The front pony truck derails if you try to keep turning hard right into the inner storage roads on the curved point straight after the bend.

So it's not as bad as I feared.

In time we'll decide whether or not it i worth investing in a chip to run it on the layout (which will cost at least twice what I bought it for) or perhaps we might splash out on a slightly smaller 3MT tank, which were a little more of a regular sight at Minffordd at the end of steam on the Cambrian.

Minffordd Update: The Handmade Point Tale

 As much as we can we're trying to do the Minffordd project the easy way, with ready-to-run stock in both OO and OO9, DCC sound and all the rest.

That's why we've mixed 'n' matched on the standard gauge Cambrian loop using Peco code 75 Bullhead track on the scenic section, code 100 'streamline' in the fiddle yard and even a few 'settrack' curved points to help us cram it all in.

On the FR narrow gauge we're using both the 'mainline' track and points with the neat, straight sleepers and the larger radius turnouts, but also the original 'crazy track' product for the rougher trackwork in the yard.

However, Himself has come to the realisation that there really is not an alternative to constructing some handmade points for where sidings peel off from the tightly curving descent into the yard.

We've needed to use handmade points in places on all three of our layouts.

On Ddaullt they were the only option for the curved points into the passing loop and bay platform at the Blaenau end.

And on Bron Hebog he felt we could only do justice to the large radius points in the station by making them from scratch.

This was the first point he's made for at least 15 years, if not longer, and he's not completely happy with it.

The frog is slightly out of position and the tiny OO9 waggon wheels drop into the gap a little more than he would like, so he'll probably have another go.

Apparently it's only a full afternoon's work....