Ladies Cosmetic Surgery

As you will know already if you follow the Bron Hebog social media posts, we have (expensively) succeeded in backdating one of the new Bachmann Blanche models to condition which is appropriate to the era we are depicting on our new Minffordd layout.

(Yes, I know that's a picture of Linda.  Read on for the full story.)

I was forewarned that Bachmann would only be producing a model of the loco as an FR machine in post-1971 condition with the pony wheel and the elegant piston valve cylinders.

But in the early days of its new life as a passenger loco, Blanche retained its original, chunky, square-topped slide valve cylinders, which sister engine Linda sports to this day.

The plan I hatched was to purchase an additional Linda - in early FR 0-4-0STT condition - with the intention of performing a cheeky chassis swap, and lend Blanche an authentic front end.

It turned out that the cosmetic surgery was not as simple as I thought it would be.

What I had imagined was that we (or to be more accurate, Himself) would be able to just undo a few screws to release the cab / saddle tank / smokebox units and mate them to the opposite chassis.

What I had forgotten about were the tenders!

Or, more to the point, I hadn't appreciated how on the Bachmann models the tenders are hard wired to the locomotive chassis.

Even if we released Blanche's upper front half and put it onto Linda's chassis, it would still be attached to Linda's tender....

The only way around this was to completely dismantle the chassis - wheels out, motion disconnected, cylinders unscrewed,  the lot! - which allowed Himself to exchange the chassis frames and the cylinders between the locos, before completely rebuilding both.

I'm told it was a full day's work.

All this highlighted the lengths that Bachmann's designer went to make these models authentic.

Just like the real locos the frames on the contemporary 2-4-0 are teeny bit longer at the front where they were extended to accommodate the pony wheel.

The frames on the modern Blanche also include some very intricate red lining.

This process has left us with an intriguing bonus loco - a Linda sporting piston valve cylinders (which I think suits her very well indeed).

It's well known that at the start of the 1970s this was the plan for both the Penrhyn Ladies, but legend had it that one pair of the cylinders which were produced at BREL Crewe were faulty, and thus only Blanche had them fitted.

I found out this summer, in conversation over a pint with a respected Boston Lodge figure, that this story is false in at least two aspects.

Firstly, the piston valve cylinders were fabrications, not castings as has so often been reported.

I was also told that both sets have the same imperfection - but it's quite clearly nothing that's prevented Blanche ricketing up and down the Vale for the past half-century.

Perhaps there's more to the story about why Linda was left untouched?

Minffordd Update: Dimension Check

There's not been a tremendous amount happening on the layout for the last couple of weeks, which explains the lack of posts.

Most of the action has been on my workbench at home where I've been getting on with the main Cambrian station building.

With the main walls made and joined together I thought it would be wise to pop over for a test fit to check that will sit nicely in the space we've left for them.

The value of making the cardboard mock-ups was underlined because it fitted perfectly, as did the signal box.

In fact, I don't mind saying I think they look rather good.

 

Minffordd Update: A Little Realignment

Himself hasn't had so much time available to make great leaps forward on the layout in the last few weeks, but there is a little bit of progress to report this time.

Having first had to obtain a couple of replacement points - the originals being damaged during removal - he has relaid the wee run round loop at the back of the yard in order to re-route the siding which runs between the two Maenofferen slate sheds.

All being well, this should be the last bit of trackwork required on the layout.

The next job is most likely going to be wiring it up, but after that there will be a bit of a lull as we enter exhibition season.

The old warhouse Dduallt has a couple of trips out this winter - more comebacks than Sinatra! - so that will have to be set up and tested, and of course we have Bron Hebog's big appearance at the Warley show in December.

At my end I've been making a start on the Cambrian station building.

This building I am having to design using only educated guesswork and a rather slim selection of archive photographs, but I was pleased when we went to check out the original Minffordd layout on display at the WHHR's Gelert's Farm museum to see that the dimensions of that model are more or less the same as mine.

(With the caveat that the only way I could measure it, as it was in a perspex case, was using the fiendishly clever measuring app on my iPhone.)

Much of the construction time so far has been swallowed up fabricating the sash windows from  styrene strip.

Signal Saga

As well as work on the Minffordd project there are still occasional developments on the 'test track' at home.

If you're going to have a 'test track' then there's no harm in doing a little scenic work to turn it from something purely functional into a more of a feature in the room.

However, it is definitely not a layout for boys, big and small, to play with, wipe that thought from your minds..

I've been tempted to try out some of the Dapol working semaphores and decided now was the time to splash out on an LMS bracket starter signal for the inner loop.

These beasties are motorised with a chunky box containing the servos to move the mechanism, and  include a rather nifty bounce function when the signal arm goes down.

I watched a selection of the review and fitting videos you can find online, and then when the signal arrived I thought I would give it a wee test on 'dry land' to see how it all worked.

Which is where the problems started.........

The fit the signal on a layout the base simply clips onto the bottom of the treaded tube which you insert into a 15m hole drilled in the baseboard. 

The signal comes complete with a pair of switches which have wires already fitted, and plugs on the other end which push home into the side of the base unit.

These are not long enough to stretch to where my control panel is.  

You can buy extension kits but what I intended to do is to splice in some extra wire so it goes the distance.

Anyway, back to the test.

I clipped on the base, plugged in the control wires, hooked it up to the power and had a play - and was very impressed.

And then I went to take it apart again.......

To be fair to Dapol, there is nothing in the instructions which tells you how to remove the servo base, but equally there is nothing written to say that once it's on you can't take it off again.

Well, it certainly doesn't unclip as easily as it clips on, and eventually when I tugged at it hard enough - holding the signal by the threaded tube not the post - as the base came free it ripped off the mechanism to the left hand signal, which flew off in all directions.

The part that I couldn't find anywhere in the room was the cover which goes over the balance weight arm and holds everything in place.

Without it the control wire mechanism simply falls off and the signal arm stays stuck in the raised 'off' position.

It was a very tricky job, too, to reconnect the mechanism, but I was forced to come to the reluctant conclusion that I had wrecked a rather expensive accessory within 5 minutes of opening the box.

My family will attest that I was in a very bad mood for the rest of the evening!

Blatantly courting sympathy I posted about my mishap on our club Facebook group and received some helpful suggestions about possible repairs, and I chewed these over in my mind over the course of the next day.

Returning to the workbench I examined the broken signal again and noticed there was a little bit of metal peg sitting proud of the balance weight arm.

Thinking about it some more I realised that the servos operate the signal mechanism much slower, and more gently, than I was doing with my fingers.

My hope was that if I could put some sort of retaining cover over the pivot it might not need to resist too much sideways force.

Rather than attempt to glue a piece on I thought I would first try drilling a very small hole in a piece of styrene strip to see I could make it a resistance fit onto the peg and hold the mechanism in place.

It did fit, and what's more it seemed to stay in place even through some vigorous manipulation of the mechanism.

So I made another one, and shaped it to something like the original cover, pressed it into place , adding a dab of superglue for luck, and painted it matt black to match.

Now, as you can see in the picture at the top of the post, the signal is in place on the layout.

It still does not have the servo base attached.

I won't do that until the wires and been extended and the switches mounted in the panel, because I am quite sure that once that base is clicked on again I will not be able to risk a second attempt at removing it without wrecking the signal even more.

And we shall see how long my repair holds out for.............

Minffordd Update: Cabin Fever

This week has seen very satisfactory progress on the latest building project to make the Minffordd signal box / ground frame cabin.

The main structure is complete and the biggest remaining construction task is to form the steps up to the door.

As I wrote in a previous post, the first job was to create a master for the window frames which could be cast in resin in multiple.

Once they had cured and been cleaned of flash they were built into an outer styrene frame.

The front and the sides of the cabin were built around these with a laminate structure with wooden slat effect styrene and embossed brick styrene.

With carefully mitred edges to the brickwork prepared this was bonded together into a box.

When it came to making the 'crinkly tin' roof my habit of hoarding off-cuts paid dividends.

The transparent Wills corrugated sheet I had tucked away in the drawer is sold old it was the pack I bought for making the entrances to the wooden toilet block on Dduallt more than 30 years ago!

This accounts for why it is very much yellowed now, rather than clear.

Because it is so thin and bendy it's been glued onto plain styrene sheet to try to ensure the roof doesn't sag.

Minffordd Update: Chute Gallery

The most obvious progress to report on the layout this week has been going on deep in the 'Coal Hole'.

Himself has been working on recreating the chutes used to transfer bulk loads, such as coal and ballast, from standard gauge wagons into the FR narrow gauge waggons on the tracks below.

This has been done using styrene to represent the concrete support structure, with brass used for the chutes themselves.

I think this has the potential to be one of the most unusual and appealing cameos on the layout - although we're not going to be silly enough to attempt to transfer any substances from the big wagons into the small, you'll have to imagine that bit.

It will, however, be one of those things which makes it unmistakeably Minffordd Yard.

The one thing that will be authentic about it is that the chutes encroach well into the FR loading gauge, ready to catch out the unwary who forget, or allow gravity to drag their engine or vans further down into the coal hole than they can venture.

Hopefully we won't have to straighten out bodywork or attend to dents the way Boston Lodge Works has had to over the years.....

Minffordd Update: A Start On The Ground Frame

I've decided to tackle the Cambrian ground frame building next, and thought it would be best to tackle the hardest bit first - the window frames.

These are a fun challenge, but very fiddly to fabricate from strip sections which are no more than 0.5mm square.

(That's a 1p piece in the picture, for reference.)

So what I've decided to do - much the same as with the saw tooth barge board in the previous post - is to make a master from I can cast copies,

I'll need four of each for this project.

Notice that I've not called it the 'signal box', because although the pretty little cabin on the station platform contained more than a dozen levers, they only controlled the points in the yard.

Aside from the Weigh House this is the only other building on the layout for which I have any sort of drawing to guide me.

I am having to adapt a drawing for one of the Dutton 'Type 4' boxes which were very similar to the Minffordd cabin, except the one I'm building has larger sliding windows made up for a 6 pane unit and a 4 pane unit  (on the drawing it's 4 and 4).

My box also doesn't have a chimney breast at the rear, I suppose because it was never permanently occupied and only opened up when it was necessary to shunt the yard.

Minffordd Update: Hell's Teeth

The Minffordd Weigh House has no shortage of challenges for the scratch builder who wants to make their effort look halfway like the real thing.

There's the very neat dressed stone blocks and quions, which are a distinctive feature, as well as the diamond-shape slates on the roof.

And once you've found a way to replicate those you look at the finishing details, such as the barge boards, and run your fingers through (what remains of) your hair wondering how on earth you're going to produce that distinctive toothy look.

Fortunately, this is where resin casting makes things much easier.

All I had to do - all, he says.... - was chop two sets of tiny triangles, large and small, and glue them alternately to a broader strip of plastic to make one complete barge board.

I used this as a master to resin cast four copies which could be reversed and used on the opposite side.

It was also to my advantage that by the late 1960s this original feature was looking a little worse for wear, and so it wouldn't matter if a few of the points on the castings were less than perfect, because by this stage they most certainly weren't on the real thing!

Minffordd Update: Landscaping

We've been back just over a week but already the bulk of the destructive alterations to the layout we decided were needed after our research visits are in hand.

The 'extra' scenery between the FR mainline and the bottom of the exchange yard, has been hacked away to make room for both of the Maenofferen sheds.

The point work at the end of the upper run-round loop has been lifted so the turnouts can be repositioned to allow a connection to the siding which squeezes between the large and small shed.

At the other end, the original square bridge beams have been hacked out and I spend the weekend designing and casting some replacements to the correct bow-string profile and it looks like they're going to fit very sweetly in the gap.

It just goes to show what you can achieve quickly when you're sufficiently motivated.

Minffordd Update: Bridge Replacement

I mentioned in the previous post that one of the inadvertent errors we discovered during our research week in Wales was the design of the bridge which carries the lane running from Boston Lodge to Minffordd over the Cambrian just west of the station.

Himself has wasted no time ripping out the old Peco plastic girders he'd fitted...

And at my end I spent a couple of hours this afternoon making a styrene master of a bow string girder to replace it with.

A wooden palisade fence will be added on top to bring it up to the full height, and I shall cast a couple of extra ones to do the other side of the bridge.

The idea is it should end up looking like this.

Dynamic, decisive action!

Minffordd Update: Excavations Required

It's not often you return from a research site visit happy that you're going to have to tear things apart, but that's the unusual situation we find ourselves in after our week in Wales.

One of the objectives was to have a good poke around Minffordd Yard, and run the tape measure over some of the buildings, and also to plagerise from the beautiful diorama of Minffordd which is now kept in the museum at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway.

Our number one concern was about the Maeofferen slate sheds which are a prominent feature at the bottom of the FR's yard.

We'd reached the reluctant conclusion that we only had room to include the larger of the pair on our layout.

Peering through the perspex cover at the museum exhibit (which I believe was built by Dave Perrin) we were confounded to see that he'd managed to find room for both!

The difference, we discovered as we stood and compared with photos on our phones, was that we'd made the slope of the land down from the FR mainline far too generous, which you can see from the photos above.

In fact, when later inspecting the sheds, it become clear that the smaller Maenofferen Bach is slightly cut into the hill.

With a bit of remedial landscaping, and some repositioning of the sidings, we should be able to get both in.

Other errors came to light during our visit.

We had puzzled about the bridge over the lane which forms the scenic break for the Cambrian at the Porthmadog end, and decided that we probably wouldn't be too far wrong with a bog-standard square girder.

But flicking through a book on the shelves in the Harbour station shop, just on the off-chance that it might contain some pictures of Minffordd, I finally discovered the answer!

This bridge, before it was rebuilt in more modern times, had a bow string girder with a wooden palisade on top.

So another bit of re-engineering beckons.

And I also solved another mystery that had been puzzling me about the weigh house building which I am making.

I knew that at some point the original windows at the Porthmadog end were replaced by something a lot more domestic-looking, but I had no idea when that was.

A chance conversation in the pub with a long-standing FR figure revealed that he had scanned a collection of photographs from the 1960s, one of which was a rare picture of this end of the building.

© J Owen

This also revealed a small extra building which I never knew existed, as well as confirming the original, ornate, bargeboards were still in place.

Who said no good ever comes from going to the pub?

Minffordd Update: Diamonds Take Forever

I mentioned in a post last week that putting an authentic slate roof on the Minffordd weigh house was going to have to be done the hard way, and this is it.

My means of replicating the distinctive diamond pattern is to patiently cut and stick rows of very thin card which, with the aid of a scalpel blade, has been shaped into regular pointed slates.

To make this a little - just a little - easier, I have a photocopied template which gives me around 20 rows on an A4 sheet.

It stems from a project a number of years ago - another favour - to make a 7mm scale model of the 'Bobby Hut' replica which stood at the station throat at Porthmadog Harbour before the return of the WHR and the extension of the Cob.

This also had a diamond pattern slate roof, although being a much smaller building there weren't so many of them, and being a larger scale the rows weren't quite so fiddly to cut.

It was for this project that I drew up the template, and when I came to make the previous weigh house model (for Fred Howes' retirement) I could easily reduce it in scale on a photocopier.

It's taken around a week to get one side of the roof completed.  

I can manage about 4 or 5 rows a night before I begin getting cross-eyed or just plain bored with it!

Earlier today I took it over to Himself's place for a quick trial run on the layout to check it fits in the intended space.

(Yes, it might have been an idea to have tried this before I began doing all the really fiddly bits....)

The good news is that it slots in perfectly.

The not so good news - although we knew this all along - is that hardly anyone will notice all the pretty detailing on the front because most people watching the layout at shows will see it from this side.

Oh well, the important thing is that the operators get the best view, don't you agree?

Minffordd Update: Every Gram Counts

We're hurtling towards the end of the basic landscaping of the Minffordd layout with the fitting of the plywood formers for the field area in the middle and the area to the north-east of the Cambrian station.

They've also had the chicken wire fixed on top which will be covered in due course with mod-roc plaster bandage and then a brushed-on coat of plaster.

Yes, this is very old school and not especially lightweight, hence Himself's token effort to save a few vital grams by drilling holes in the plywood.

He tells he it was done mostly for my amusement.

The area behind the station is rather dead space, but we wanted the boards to be symmetrical so it will be simpler to fix one above the other when transporting it, so we're stuck with it.

Minffordd Update: Corner Stones

Progress has been relatively swift on the weigh house building, with the walls complete and fixed together now.

The process was accelerated by the decision to use embossed styrene sheet for the dressed stone at the front and sides, and also for the mortared rough stone rear wall (which is actually the one which is most on show on this layout).

The design of the embossed sheet is not identical in either pattern or size to the real building but I think it will be good enough for viewing from a distance.

Of course, it wouldn't be one of our models if it didn't include a element of gratuitous labour intensive detailing.

The multi-pane windows were fabricated using 20" strip - double layered for strength, and each of the stones on corners of the building and around the window frames were cut and stuck by hand - another process that took a couple of evening's work.

Neither is there a ready made solution for the distinctive diamond-pattern slate roof of this building, so that will also have to be done the hard way....

Minffordd Update: Office Work

One of my biggest contributions to the Minffordd project is going to be making the buildings.

I've decided to begin with the FR weigh house - otherwise known as Fred's Office from its more recent use as admin space for the legendary track supremo - partly because I've already made one model of it.

The story behind it was that around 10 years ago I was asked if I could scratch build model of the weigh house to be presented to Fred as a retirement gift - which I was delighted to do.

I did it the hard way, painstakingly scribing the distinctive dressed stone courses into styrene sheet.

(Nothing was too good for Fred!)

This time I'm looking for a easier approach.

I'm still making the walls out of 60" styrene sheet, for strength, but only as a base layer.

On top I have bonded a thin covering of embossed styrene which is the closest I've been able to find to the stone courses on the real building.

Very little of that will be seen by the public because the part of the building which faces the front of the layout is the rear wall which was left as rough stone, so I'm using a different kind of sheet for that.

At any rate, this model will be the one that is furthest away from the audience, so all the more reason not to worry about pragmatic compromises.

Minffordd Update: Grey Scale

I've always thought painting models to get them looking right is a hell of a lot harder then building them in the first place.

Thus, I was impressed on my latest 'inspection' - having been away on holiday - to see Himself put the paint brush between his teeth and had a go at getting some colour on the undoubted centrepiece of the new layout project, the arched stone bridge which carries the FR above the Cambrian at Minffordd.

Things like this are so tricky because a structure made out of natural rock, like this, will always look slightly different depending on the weather conditions on a particular day - how bright the sunlight is or whether it is wet or dry.

It's looking pretty good to me, so far.

I think perhaps it might still require a little more weathering - perhaps some vague hints of brown tones here and there to contrast from all the shades of grey - and even maybe some invasive vegetation creeping in, although structures like this benefitted from a little more 'gardening' care in the 1960s than they get today.

On the other side of the layout he's mostly completed the track laying in the yard - with just the NG spur into the goods shed remaining to be fixed down - and he's been able to conduct some shunting tests with the Kadee couplings and magnets which are a new adventure for us on this project.

Hopefully this means we can have some hands-free fun shunting the daily pick-up goods from Pwllheli.

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.