I've been neglecting the blog a little while I was away on holiday in Wales with Himself and The Trainee.
If you follow the Bron Hebog and Minffordd page on Facebook then you'll have been able to follow the narrow gauge adventures we were getting up to, with many photos and video snippets.
One of the missions to be accomplished during our stay in Porthmadog was the collection of a model from the shop at Harbour Station which I hinted about a few weeks ago on these pages.
Many of our readers guessed the intention with the Lowmac wagon is to replicate the arrival of Linda on the FR in 1962, on hire, to help with an acute motive power shortage.
A notable part of the story is that she made the journey by rail from Port Penrhyn, via Afon Wen, and was transhipped from standard to narrow gauge in Minffordd Yard exactly as Spooner would have intended.
There's a chance you're already one step ahead of me here and thinking; 'Hang on! Haven't they already got a Linda?'
Yes, you're quite correct.
Linda in FR green with her 'fat England tender' is part of our core loco fleet for the mainline passenger services along the back of the scene.
So what's the excuse?
There's none.
It's just a pure indulgence.
And we're not apologising for it.
A model railway is supposed to be fun!
There are some adaptations which need to be made before it goes into service (sort of).
Linda was propped up on the Lowmac with sleepers, and secured with chains, so we're doing our best to replicate that with some chunky styrene strips.
These have got some extra bits which will connect with the underside of the Bachmann loco to help ensure it doesn't topple off the wagon while being transported around the layout.
And we also need to find something for that most vital PQR embellishment - a bucket to sit in front of the smokebox!
