Upgrade Or Replace?

I've been swithering for many months about the best way of getting a 45XX Small Prairie tank for the Minffordd fleet.

First World problems, and all that, I know...

Although outshone in the popular imagination by the Manors, Duekdogs and Collett Goods, they saw a lot of use at the northern end of the Coast line, working from Pwllheli and Portmadoc sheds, and often entrusted with the Cambrian Coast Express.

Right now pre-orders are being taken for a brand new version of these go-anywhere ex-GWR branch line engines from Rapido.

If it's anything like the Highland Railway 'Jones Goods' I already have it will be a superb runner, and you can buy it pre-fitted with DCC sound.

However, I already have a 45XX.

It's one the Bachmann ones which probably date back the best part of 20 years.

It's so ancient - I use the word advisedly - that it doesn't have a DCC socket, but it's a relatively simple project to hard wire a chip and fit a speaker and stay alive.

This was bought second hand a couple of years ago for around £60 if my memory is correct, and it runs perfectly quietly and smoothly.

It's also been factory weathered in truly filthy condition.

Yes, it lacks subtlety, but if I were to chose to go down the Rapido route as well as paying around £250 for a sound fitted example I'd probably want to send it away to get it weathered professionally.

For around half this outlay I could buy and chip and speaker etc for the Bachmann model and for less than half that outlay we'd have ourselves a Prairie, and we could probably get it running for the next exhibition in September.

So there's quite a lot to weigh up.

How much of an improvement over the Bachmann version will the new Rapido one be?

If it's better is it 50% more £ better?

In my position what would you choose?

Count Binface And The Toy Trains

I never expected model railways and politics to collide in such a media spotlight, but here we are, and it's happening in, of all places, Clacton.

Many years ago, before anyone beyond private school alumni and city traders had heard of Nigel Farage, I was starting my career in journalism in that corner of Essex.

And like all well-trained reporters I do my research on the candidates in a by-election.

This unscheduled contest looks very much like it will be, in Essex - sorry, essence - a head-to-head between the aforementioned Mr Farage - by now much better known - and what until now has been considered an amusing fringe candidate known as Count Binface.

Except this time the Count would appear to be in with a 50/50 chance of getting elected to the mother of parliaments.

And this has what to do with our own spoof layout feature, a model of former Vale of Rhiedol brake van 2 in BR blue?

Well, my research shows that in previous elections he's stood in one of Count Binface's manifesto pledges as been to 'Nationalise Model Railways (and Adele)'.

And in election after election he insists that he stands by his previous manifestos.

So now that our dear hobby is at the centre of the political debate in the UK the question is what legislation would you like to see brought forward to reform railway modelling?

A legal requirement for all manufacturers to offer a no-frills, low-cost version of every new model?

A maximum RRP for a non-powered model like a carriage or wagon?

In the wake of the KR Models saga perhaps some greater protection around crowdfunding, or pre-orders?

A law to force a return to proper British TT standards?   (I put that in for our Engineering Consultant - it's a bit of a soapbox issue for him....)

Let's be hearing your suggestions!

Mute Moelwyn No More - Hopefully

I am not one of life's gamblers.  

If you needed to stick a label on me it would definitely be the one marked 'Risk Averse'.

So you can probably imagine it was a 'moment' to entrust our precious Moelwyn to the care of our elite posties for a 400 mile trip across the UK to see a man who's kindly offered to help convert it for DCC operation with sound for use on Minffordd.

Were it a model one could buy off-the-shelf then if anything unfortunate happened one could simply curse one's luck and dip into the piggy bank for a replacement.

Sadly, it's not the case with a kit built loco such as our trusty Baldwin Gas Mechanical.

This excellent kit has been in production from time to time over the years, but I reckon I've seen more Backwoods Garratts come up for sale that one of these - and that's saying something!

So it really was a leap of faith to hand that parcel over!

I'm pleased to say it has arrived, safety, and on time  (well done, Royal Mail!) and I'm told it will be going into the workshop imminently.

The challenge with this model is not simply wiring in a chip and speaker - first it will be necessary to make room for them.

At the moment all that space under the bonnet is taken up with a (superb) Mashima motor.

The idea is to replace that with something much, much smaller.  Probably in the shape of a shiny coreless cylinder, which will buy some space for the digital gubbins.

How much space is the question which will only be answered when work starts.

It may be that other places will have to be found to hide the speaker or stay alive as much out of sight as is possible.

However, for now, it's just good to know that we're taking action on something we've wanted to make happen for quite a while now.

I look forward to being able to post progress updates soon.

Royal Renumbering

If you'd wondered about the lack of posts in the last fortnight I hope you assumed (correctly) that I was on a summer holiday - rather than having another hissy fit and ceasing blogging.

While I was away there some bits and pieces being done which I can update you on.

One of those was putting the finishing touches to our new tow-around Princess.

This Hornby antique, now without a motor in its tender or any driving wheel pick ups, has undergone an identity downgrade from next-in-line to the throne to 'the spare'.

What was once 6201 Princess Elizabeth is now the slightly scandalous youngster sister 6203 Princess Margaret Rose.

Some etched brass nameplates are the only other investment we've needed to make for this cheap layout novelty - other than finding the old model on eBay.

The renumbering was easy enough to accomplish because we have a stack of sheets of LMS presfix transfers because they were the best source of the large number 3's which the FR decorated its carriage doors with from the 1950s through to the 1980s.

Hopefully the Princess making its slow, regal journey around Minffordd, recreating its escape from Butlins, will make an entertaining talking point when we next show the layout this autumn.

Minffordd's First Show In England

I did mention a while back that there would be an exhibition date for Minffordd in England later this year, and that it would hopefully be convenient for the greatest number of people.

Now the embargo has been lifted we're at liberty to say where and when.

We're very pleased to have been invited to bring the layout along to this year's National Festival of British Railway Modelling at the NEC in Birmingham in November.

This show fills the time and place vacated by the legendary Warley show where we had many happy days exhibiting Dduallt and Bron Hebog over the years.

We hope this will please many of you who've wanted to see the layout but said it's been too far to come to our previous appearances in Scotland and Wales.

Model Railway Miser Tips

My company is in the process of moving out of offices we've occupied for more than 40 years.

It means decades of paperwork is being slung out, and with it a lot of storage devices which are increasingly a thing of the past - the humble box file.

There are many uses which can be found for these for the railway modeller who has an urge to recycle.

For example, slice up a redundant shoe box and you can transform you old box file into a cheap & cheerful stock box perfect for storing up to half a dozen OO carriages.

Another one is performing a useful function to keep my stock of styrene sheet neat and tidy.

And not a penny spent!

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.