Under And Inside

I’ve been getting on with some of the detailing jobs on Livingston Thompson.

It’s hard to keep track from the few photographs I’ve seen taken over a decade or more it was in store of the parts it still had on it when it was taken for its trips up and down the line, but it would appear that it did still have its ash pans in place, so I’m making up a representation in styrene.

The other key job - which would stand out like a sore thumb if it wasn’t done - is to fit out the coal space in the bunkers on the stoker’s side.

You might also notice that I’ve removed the handbrake and reverser mouldings from the sides of the firebox because it would appear LT lost both of those when it was retired - did they get transferred to the new Earl of Merioneth ?

In which case, where did the parts Livingston Thompson has in the cab now come from?

The Princess

That’s one job ticked off the lockdown wish list!

Himself has completed the painting, lining and (matt) varnishing of Princess.

It almost looks too good to be unpowered, doesn’t it!

I’ve had an ambition to have a  model of the engine in post-Blaenau plinth condition for as long as I can remember.

On this model the green is very faded from exposure to the elements but in all other respects it’s in peak Garrawegian condition with unique red frames and the wheel rims picked out in white.

Sadly, the loco made its way back home to Boston Lodge on the back of a lorry (much like its first arrival in Wales) but ours will be towed around Dduallt as a bit of self-indulgent modelling make believe.

I can imagine it might also spent much of its time parked on the truncated siding behind the signal box as a reminder of what might have been....

On Tow

Livingston Thompson is looking deceptively complete.

In fact it is just posing on the first finished pair of ambulance bogies to see what it might look like

The bottom end boiler / tank casting and the upper cab are still to be fixed down until the firebox is fitted permanently in place.

With the bogies we’ve decided to revert to the original frame casting and accept the wheel sets will have to remain fitted during painting because to attempt to remove them risks them cracking - resin is inherently less flexible than injection moulded plastics, alas.

I think they’re pretty effective, and they certainly run freely - if this whit metal Livingston Thompson breaks away while being hauled uphill around the spiral we’re in trouble!!

Firebox Fitting

I’ve received Livingston Thompson as the backload from a lockdown shopping delivery to Himself.

He was smarter than me and realised that if he soldered the whole body together it would be impossible to insert the firebox casting.

The resin copy I made of the white metal chassis block has undergone a lot of filing at the bottom to sit lower inside the cab - on the Langley kits it rises too high into the cab to accommodate the motor.

What I’m wondering now is whether I was wrong to fatten it out with a thick wedge of styrene in between the two halves?

Cracked It

I’ve been making swift progress on the ambulance bogie design for Livingston Thompson with a prototype rolling chassis completed.

I’ve also worked up a master for the axle box and suspension casting which will slip onto the side of the bogie frame.

There has been a slight setback - I suspect the frame is a tiny bit too narrow.

The wheel sets are a very snug fit inside the bearings cups.

While this is fine with the frame alone - which is able to flex enough to insert them - when the extra castings are fixed on the outside it becomes too rigid and I ended up cracking the frame trying to get the wheels in and out.

There are a couple of options to explore including a mark 2 casting, countersinking the frame where the bearings go on, or accepting that the bogies will have to be made up with the wheels inserted at an early stage.

Bunkering

Even in bare white metal Livingston Thompson has already got the look of the hulk that sat hidden away in Minffordd yard for so many years.

Himself has corrected the bunker casting error and the added details such as the handrails really set it off - it’s remarkable what you can achieve with these old Langley kits when made up carefully.

The bogies it’s sitting on just now are a pair Himself has sitting around in his den while I work on the proper ambulance bogies.

One of the important details - which Himself didn’t thank me for - was to hack out the cast coal detail in the bunkers.

Now it’s being passed over to me to fit in the firebox casting and complete the bogies.

Emergency Service

My current challenge is to try to produce a pair of Fairlie ‘ambulance bogies’ to go under Livingston Thompson.

The bogies in question are the ex-Polish ones which I previously scratch built to run under our oil tanker 66, which I’m using as a guide.

These bogies have a very distinctive short wheelbase and a semi-circular frame at the front.

Last time I fabricated them entirely from styrene but this time I think it might be a better idea to try to cast them from resin as one piece to give it more strength.

I’ll use the technique I adopt with the brass-framed bogies of having the axle box and suspension detail as a secondary casting to glue the sides afterwards.

The first attempt at a master for the frame is ready to create a mould, and we’ll see if the concept works.

Double Bottom

While I've been casting a resin copy of the firebox Himself is cracking on with the main superstructure of Livingston Thompson, and I think I've discovered why it was I was given it as a freebie...

Have you spotted it?

Yes, this kit came with two bottom end castings!

They should be a mirror image of each other, so that when they are fixed onto the frame the coal bunkers are both on the stoker's side - look carefully at the picture and you can see that these would be diagonally opposite.

Never mind, it should be relatively easy fix -in any case the bunkers will be empty on this tow-around hulk.

Himself has also fixed in bolsters for bogie pivots which would normally be taken care of by the chassis block.

Speaking of which, it's my job to try to come up with a pair of ambulance bogies to tow it around on, which for its adventures in the 1980s were a pair of distinctively short wheelbase Polish bogies.

Fairlie Firebox

So far lockdown has resulted in us cracking on with a number of projects which have been on the back burner for years.

Following on from our Princess Himself has suggested we action a long term ambition to create a Livingston Thompson.

Just like with Princess we’ll be portraying the loco at its nadir, when the rusting superstructure spent a decade and a half hidden away in Minffordd Yard.

I remember clearly the first time I saw this in a full colour picture in the FR magazine and it was like discovering a mythical lost engine, and it’s fascinated me ever since.

LT did eventually escape when it was towed to Glan y Pwll in 1985 for cosmetic restoration - which never started - and then back down the line again at the end of 1987, and so that’s how we’re going to have our model finished, as a tow-along on ambulance bogies.

For the model we’re going to use a Langley white metal kit for LT which was kindly donated many years ago.

I’m conscious, however, that a white metal engine of this size is quite heavy so I’m going to try to keep the weight down.

The Langley kit includes two chunky castings to replace the Bachmann diesel chassis block, and the bit where the motor goes also doubles as the firebox detail you can see in the cab.

These two pieces alone weigh 67g, so my cunning plan is to cast a resin copy, not of the whole chassis but just the bit you can see in the cab.

To this end I have crudely chopped up the white metal blocks and glued them into a mould box which I have covered in RTV silicon and cast copies from.

The combined weight of the two resin castings is 6g, which shows you what a no-brainer it is to make these copies.

What I will do now is glue them back to back into a unit which can be inserted into the cab area.

Smuggling

Construction of Van 51 is finished and its been handed over to Himself for painting.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the package was hidden in amongst a delivery of supermarket food I had fetched for them, along with some nameplates for Princess kindly supplied by Narrow Planet.

It’s fortunate that he also lives on my route home from (essential) work so all rules are being obeyed.

The final pieces I added were the brass roof (already shaped and cut by Himself) and a vent I adapted from my casting for the lamp holders on the vintage carriages.

It should look quite smart in its green livery and will be just the thing for the Engineering Consultant’s bridge inspection train.

Fade To Green

Princess is beginning to look suitably distressed.

The choice of which era to depict our new tow-along model was left to me, and I decided to go for the period which fascinated me most, when it was rescued from its plinth in Blaenau and brought into the museum at Porthmadog.

In this state it was so obviously a non-runner,  whereas these days it looks as immaculate as any of the other FR engines, and the urge to shove a motor in it would be overwhelming.

An FR figure recently shared some correspondence from the late Alan Garraway where he recalled his fear that there would be moves to restore it to traffic in the early days of the restoration - the last thing he wanted with traffic booming was another puny small England engine.

Hiding it in plain sight in Blaenau, as a promotional tool and statement of intent, probably served a double purpose for AGWG.

One point of modelling interest in the picture is Himself’s trick for using black lining as a guide for getting your black infill and edging to look flawless.

And don’t you just love those white wheel rims?

It’s like a 1970s Ford Cortina on rails!

Brew Up

I don’t normally go into micro detail inside our rolling stock but I thought I’d make an exception with  Van 51 and try to make something to represent a kettle on the hot plate in the corner - surely the most important piece of kit on any working party!

Rooting around in my spares box I also found a plastic wheel which will do for the handbrake.

There are just a few bits left to put on the outside - like a vacuum pipe and an air vent in the roof  and then it’s ready to join the ever-lengthening queue for painting.

Optimism

I’ve done my bit on Gwyrfai and it’s been delivered to Himself disguised amid bags of shopping from the supermarket.

The reference to optimism is regarding the number of chairs in the front saloon.

I’ve fitted 8 as per the design, however the carriage entered service with only 6.

Will it ever receive the missing pair as originally intended?

Will this be the carriage equivalent of the New Moelwyn Tunnel portals?

Am I going to look a right idiot?

Only time will tell......

Primed Princess

New images have emerged from within Himself’s isolated bunker of progress on our unpowered Princess.

He’s added some extra details to the kit, such as the vac pipe at the front and extended the nameplate block.

I’ve decided to go totally out of period and gone with heart over head on the finished livery.

We’ll turn it out in peak-Garraway era condition green with frames highlighted in red and white tyre walls.

That’s the condition it was in on the plinth at Stesion Fein and then in the goods museum at Harbour Station where I first remember seeing it.

Does anyone have a photo, or the rights to a photo, I could share?

There are lots on the internet but I try not to do copyright theft.