The Secret Can Be Told

If you've been reading this blog over the last couple of months you may recall I have started work on building a second model of the NWNGR replica carriage 24.

I never did say why, and that was quite deliberate. Because I was keeping a secret.

A few months ago Himself and I were approached by a director of the FR Company - the world's oldest independent railway company, as I'm sure you know - and told about a plan to present a gift to the outgoing chairman, Dr John Prideaux, featuring 4mm / 009 models of some of the heritage rolling stock he has played a major role in restoring / recreating.

The snag was while it was simple to buy models of Welsh Pony and the 'Curly Roofed Van' there was no readily available model of 24.

Could we make another to be part of the presentation?

We said we'd be delighted to help, of course, but there was no way we'd be able to turn it round in a matter of a few weeks.

However, as lifetime supporters of the railway, we felt we should assist in any way we could, so I suggested that as it was such a special request, for someone who's given so much to the FR for many years, we could donate our own model of 24 as part of the gift.

It's not as if we're likely to need it to run on Bron Hebog again, and the Dinas project is likely to be a couple of years away.

Dr Prideaux was presented with the models, in a lovely display box, at a dinner in his honour earlier this week, and I gather he was delighted with them.

So that's lovely.

And I suppose it shows that volunteering for the railway can come in many forms.

In the meantime I've made a wee bit more progress on the replacement which I've cast in resin from my own styrene masters.

The sides and ends have been bonded into a box and I've cut out the pieces for the chassis and the false ceiling.

The Lonely Lowmac

I'm not the only one who's been having ideas about some one-off conversation pieces as part of the trains we run on Minffordd at exhibitions. 

As the towable Princess project has progressed so Himself has been casting wistful glances in the direction of our Lowmac wagon.

It looks rather at home in the siding against the 'quay' where the FR tracks run next to the goods shed, doesn't it.

For what historical recreation purpose could we employ one of these wagons at Minffordd in the period we model??

Because Minffordd was yard was always as much about transfers from standard to narrow gauge as about the exporting of slate on the 'big railway'.

Many of you will be ahead of me already, or course...

No, we won't be attempting to animate the scene.

And to get around the awkward questions about duplication we shall simply declare Rule 1 is in force!

Because what is the point in spending years building a layout - even an exhibition layout - if at the end of the day it's not your 'train set'?

Margot Modifications

More of the essential modifications to turn our antique Hornby Princess from a locomotive into a piece of unpowered rolling stock have been completed this weekend.

Himself has very neatly cut out out the moulded plastic coal load in the tender and fitted a fake sloping top to the water tank.

In order to do that some significant changes have been required beneath.

The most of the metal block of the Ringfield motor has had to be cut off.

We've also needed to get rid of the two large metal weights which were positioned at either end, as you can see in this before image, below.

They also had a role in securing the motor into the chassis because two long screws passed through them to clamp the two parts together.

Himself has reduced the screws in length and used washers to do the same job.

You can also see he's added a vacuum pipe - which was missing from the model as it came to us.

On the engine he tells me he's removed the pick ups from the driving wheels which removes much of the rolling resistance.

One thing's for sure, this loco will never be self-propelled ever again!

Will It Fit?

It is just possible that some of you have been waiting with baited breath - not too baited, I hope - to find out the results of the gauging trials with the Princess.

The one you see in the picture is the 'reasonably priced Pacific' I bagged from the well-known auction site a couple of weeks ago.

After being adapted to tow-only mode by the surgical removal of gears from the tender drive it was passed over to Himself for testing on Minffordd.

As you may recall, the more recent version of this model, which comes with extra details like pipework beneath the cab (and some front footsteps which were added on by a previous owner) cannot get past the platform edge on our layout.

And so to the moment of truth...

You could say it is now 'full steam ahead' on Project Princess, but of course that would be an entirely inappropriate phrase....

In The Paint Shop

After a long pause there's some progress to report on our project to build a modern day James Spooner from a Backwoods kit.

As you can see above, Himself has started the process of painting the superstructure.

It's had a coat of grey primer and the black has started to be applied.

This model has taken many years to build.

In fact it has been test running on the layouts since before we started the Minffordd project, getting a run on Bron Hebog at the final Warley show at the NEC.

It's also seen some use on Dduallt.

Some of the delay on  finishing the loco can be attributed to the long time it took to obtain some custom lining transfers.

We also spent quite a while wondering how to replicate the bells which sit between the chimneys and the domes, before eventually butchering one of the 3D printed static models (in a slightly smaller scale) which were being sold in the FR shop.

When it will actually get used is an open question.

It's the wrong era for Minffordd  (and dc-only) and there isn't any prospect of either Dduallt or Bron Hebog going out again, so it may have to wait for the Dinas project to get off the ground.

On Tow

Once I get an idea for a model I usually like to make a start on bringing it to reality.

Which is why a very reasonably-priced, antique Hornby Princess arrived on the doorstep within days of us carrying out the first gauging trials on Minffordd, pictured here on my home test track.

The tooling for this one dates back to the 1980s, so it is less sophisticated that the version I was showing in the previous post, which has since been updated again.

The model I have was from Hornby's tender drive period, which is perfect for our purposes because I need a loco which will be towed, and so the driving wheels and motion has to be able to revolve with little resistence.

The other thing this old loco has going for it is that it is already in LMS crimson lake livery, and just requires renumbering and renaming, not an entire repaint and reline.

Making it towable takes just a matter of seconds.

With the tender body removed it's simply a case of removing the clip which holds the drive gears in place on some cast pegs, and they just lift off.

Now the Ringfield tender drive is nothing but a freewheeling chassis.

There will be little more violence required, however.

Princess Margaret Rose naturally had no coal in its tender when it was moved from Pwllheli, so I need to cut out the plastic moulded coal and insert a sloping base for the top of the water tank. 

However, the motor housing, and the large metal weights, will need to be cut down to make space.

Before I get out the drill and the cutting discs and permanently disable the loco I think it would be wise to carry out one more gauging trial just to check it will fit...

Royal Train

Now we're truly time travelling with plans for another curiosity piece to run on Minffordd, depicting one of the most unlikely trains to traverse the Cambrian Coast Line.

I have surrendered to a temptation to recreate the liberation of Princess Royal class 6203 Princess Margaret Rose from captivity at the former Butlins holiday camp near Pwllheli.

After withdrawal by BR the huge Stanier pacific was bought by the famous holiday camp entrepreneur and moved to North Wales in 1963, which is bang in the middle of when we are modelling Minffordd.

Unfortunately for us, it arrived at Penychain via the former LMS line to Afon Wen, and never passed through Minffordd.

Twelve years later, however, when it was moved again, this time to Derby, the route north to Bangor had been closed and in a very bold move - given what was later to emerge about the state of Barmouth Bridge! - it was carefully towed away along the Cambrian Coast, the movement being captured in a oft-shared photo of it about to pass under the FR at Minffordd, which I have recreated above.

Of course, having happened in 1975, this is preposterous train to run our layout showing the station in 1960s condition, which is exactly why we intend to do it!

For the move the 4-6-2 loco was sandwiched between two long bogie barrier wagons, to add brake force as well as to spread the load.

Those of you who know about the locomotive's history will have already noticed that the one in the photographs above is not only the wrong engine but also in the wrong livery.

We know.

Before committing to the project I wanted to check that a enormous beast of an engine such as the Princess would fit on the layout, and for this I've used one we've already got to hand.

It does foul the platform, but only because it has been fitted with some steps in front of the bogie, and where some of the pipework hangs down beneath the cab.

If these were chopped off it  appears that it will negotiate our very tight corners successfully.

So I have taken the plunge and bought a cheap 1980's vintage, tender-drive, Hornby model in LMS livery on a well-known action site.

The intention is that I will be able easily to disengage the motor to leave us with a towable dead model.

An added benefit is that it also gives us an excuse to use our BR blue class 24 with its 'TOPS' number on the layout - because if you're going to abandon historical accuracy you might as well go big!