Younger Brother

I'm sure you're probably heartily sick of pictures of proudly purchased Bachmann Double Fairlies by now, but if you've come to this post by clicking on our social media I suppose you must still have a smidgen of interest left to want to know what I'm saying about them.

The first of our pair has arrived direct from Bachmann HQ, the model of Livingston Thompson in peak-Spooner condition, and looking just like it does today in the NRM at York.

Himself posed it next to our eldest Backwoods Miniatures Fairlie, which was also designed as LT but doctored as best we could to represent Merddin Emrys as it emerged from its re-Spoonering overhaul in 1988.

Of course, the Backwoods model is not to scale. 

The real loco is much longer and taller now, but it's pleasing to see that our one still sits a little higher than the Bachmann version, which at least gives some of the effect of what the brothers looked like when Merddin dragged LT to Tan y Bwlch for the official handover ceremony to the NRM.

Our LT has already had a short light engine test run on Bron Hebog.

However, I'm looking forward to putting this pair up against each other in a 'King of the Hill' challenge.

We already know our brass Backwoods Fairlies can handle a longer FR rake than the real locos do around the  S-bend out of Beddgelert.

The big question is whether the relatively featherweight RTR version will be able to haul an authentic number of carriages up the grade?

Watch this space...