In The Paint Shop

After a long pause there's some progress to report on our project to build a modern day James Spooner from a Backwoods kit.

As you can see above, Himself has started the process of painting the superstructure.

It's had a coat of grey primer and the black has started to be applied.

This model has taken many years to build.

In fact it has been test running on the layouts since before we started the Minffordd project, getting a run on Bron Hebog at the final Warley show at the NEC.

It's also seen some use on Dduallt.

Some of the delay on  finishing the loco can be attributed to the long time it took to obtain some custom lining transfers.

We also spent quite a while wondering how to replicate the bells which sit between the chimneys and the domes, before eventually butchering one of the 3D printed static models (in a slightly smaller scale) which were being sold in the FR shop.

When it will actually get used is an open question.

It's the wrong era for Minffordd  (and dc-only) and there isn't any prospect of either Dduallt or Bron Hebog going out again, so it may have to wait for the Dinas project to get off the ground.

So, what's next?

One of the great things about model railways as a pastime is that you are often eagerly anticipating the future - the next item of rolling stock you want to buy or build, the next exhibition, or dreaming up plans for a new layout.

That's where we find ourselves in 2026, excited about taking Minffordd out for a first full year of exhibitions - check out the diary page - and also turning our minds to what we could do with our collection of Welsh Highland stock.

Bron Hebog is effectively mothballed since its potentially final outing to Manchester just before Christmas, but we have a magnificent collection of exquisite Backwoods Garratts and nowhere to display them or run them.

It would be shame if they just stayed in a stock box never to be admired again.

So we're developing a plan for a smaller, more manageable, more easily-transportable, but still authentic WHR-themed layout.

We were looking for a location and design which can fulfil a number of criteria. 

* It needs to be as compact as possible, however...

* We need to be able to run full-length WHR service trains  

* We want it to be an accurate model of a real location

* It needs to have genuine scenic breaks - nothing too contrived.

On a line as wild and open as the WHR is for much of its run is the presence of natural scenic breaks, such as over bridges or tunnels, was going to narrow down the possibilities.

For a while I had mused about the possibilities of doing something based on Aberglaslyn where there is a very short stretch of open line between two of the tunnels.

It would be a very simple run-past layout, with the train completely dominated by the scenery.

However, the ratio between scenic layout and fiddle yard to hold those full-length trains would be very unfavourable, and it might end up being just as much of a headache to transport as Bron Hebog.

It also might be a little bit too simple to hold interest at an exhibition?  Once you've seen one Garratt pass through with a long train of carriages you've seen them all, haven't you?

And so my mind turned to places along the route where there are overbridges within quick succession, and one of those, I realised, was Dinas South Yard.

This location has the advantage that it is not just plain single track.  

It includes the locomotive shed and the head shunt, so you can have more of your stock out on display as well as running a wide range of trains not limited to run-of-the-mill passenger services but also engineering and gala specials.

Not only can trains run past the scene but you can have light engines shunting on and off shed, or fiddle about with unusual wagonry in the head shunt.

At the southern end of the scene is one of the classic NGWGR arched bridges which look almost like some kind of mouse hole in a skirting board for the Garratts to squeeze through, which would look really good.

The formation here is on a curve, so it would not be a regular rectangular layout, either.

Our model railway club in Greenock showed us the way with a very creative baseboard design for the OO layout Inches set in wild country on the Lanarkshire / Ayrshire border by having the layout arranged in a hexagon shape with three of the boards scenic and the other three a space where storage loops fanned out.

I though this might work well for Dinas as a 2/4 arrangement and printing out a scale plan of the site showed it would fit with very little tweaking of the track bed required.

The idea has met an enthusiastic reception at the club so I'm hopeful this is a project which may progress later this year.

Review Of The Year - Part 1

And so we come to the end of another year of lockdown and exhibition-less modelling - for us at least.

It's ironic that the reason I began this blog nearly a million page views ago, was to have a way of showing off what we were doing while we were in the long process of building Bron Hebog, and while Dduallt was retired from shows.

Never could I have imagined we'd face such a sustained period where modelling, once again, became an almost exclusively private activity in your home, with no communal outlet.

It's one reason to be thankful for the opportunities the online world gives us.

Now, as I always do at the end of December, I'm going to take a look back - three months at a time - at some of the highlights of our modelling .

January

I'm afraid to say that there's been little progress since the start of the year on my prototype for the FR infrastructure well wagon,

Since this picture was taken I have found a way to cast the deck pieces in styrene, but it still doesn't have any couplings so has yet to be given any sort of test run.

Himself was busy adding the final pipe runs onto to the boiler unit of the Backwoods NG G16 kit for our model of the freshly restored 130.

And he was also well on the way to lining out a set of three 3mm Hawksworth carriage kits he'd been making as a favour to the Engineering Consultant - a man who was destined for higher things before the year was out!

February

This was the year my son reached an age where he was ready for his first OO layout, and I found my moulding and resin casting skills came in handy fixing a second hand Mainline wagon which had lost one of its sliding doors on one side.

Once the pipe runs were finished on the real locomotive, Himself wasted no time in getting our 130 painted, lined, and sent on a test run on Bron Hebog.

It really looked quite the part!

Another locomotive which was finished off - after many years - was our Mercian Welsh Pony, which looks absolutely stunning matched with the Victorian set.

March

Our James Spooner II project was in danger of running perilously far ahead of the real build as Himself had a play around with the etches to see how the half cab arrangement would work,

This is a model I hope we can expect more updates on in 2022.

Many years after our first model was stolen at an exhibition, Himself finished off his long-term project to make a replacement of the works shunter Harold. (aka, Shitty the Shunter)

At this time I was busy working on a commission for a scratch built model of Carnforth buffet car 114 in styrene.

To be continued...

1870 And All That

The arrival of a radical new locomotive in the top left hand corner of Wales always brings the irresistable urge to put it to the test and see what it's capable of.

In 1870 it was the FR's pioneer Double Fairlie Little Wonder and in 2021 it's the Bachmann 009 version which I suspect will be as much of a game-changer for the scale as the real locomotives were for the FR and for narrow gauge railways in general.

This time we didn't bring along Russian Imperial observers - just me with my iphone - but the principle was the same: find a hill and hang the longest train you can on the back and see what it can do.

150 years ago the newcomer Little Wonder was up against the incumbant in the form of Large England Welsh Pony.

For our version we pitted the DCC sound fitted Earl of Merioneth against the eldest of our fleet of Backwoods Miniatures Fairlies, Merddin Emrys.

The results were obvious enough if you watch the video, so I won't explain it all here, but a little bit of background context will be helpful.

The Bachmann model has been pulled apart and some extra weight added in the empty space in the tanks, but unfortunately I forgot to bring along my digital scales for the test so I can't tell you how much was added, or how the RTR model compares to the Backwoods which is 100% brass construction.

What I can say is that despite the alterations it wasn't able to haul much more than the Bachmann model of Livingston Thompson which has not been touched - and will probably be left alone as a result of these tests. 

So are we disappointed?  Not really.

It would have been nice if it could have handled a rake of six, but I'm not sure that the real locomotive - which by the end of its working life was beginning to struggle by all accounts - could take many more than four of the current FR super saloon carriages up the 1:40 grade.

The capablity of the Backwoods models on our layout far exceeds the prototype, indeed, our Merddin was limited only by the output of the motor in this test, requiring full power and feeling distinctly warm to the touch afterwards.

It's more than 25 years old now, and such is the design of the Backwoods kit it's impossible to get the motor out to replace it, so we need to take care of the old girl.

What's more, nether of the models we have bought should ever run on either Bron Hebog or Dduallt if we're being prototypical, so they're strictly for Rule 1 specials.

The green Earl looked very nice on a set of 4 carriages in red livery, and I suspect once we've given the carriage bogies an overhaul it could handle 5 quite comfortably, and LT will look good on a vintage freight or a short Victorian set running a short service from Port to Beddgelert.

What is sure is that as gorgeous as the Bachman models look, the Backwoods Fairlies aren't going to be retired from mainline duties on our layouts any time soon!

 

 

 

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...

Fantasy Fairlie

Himself is slightly short on projects so has been flirting with a danger and second-guessing Boston Lodge. 

More specifically, he's been jumping a few steps ahead of the FR with the construction of James Spooner (II).

Don't worry!  

None of it is glued down - or soldered down, to be technically correct.

This mock up with the tanks and the half cab is only held in place with Blu Tack and fresh air - and the cab roof which has been sliced up is just a spare etch we had in a drawer.

I gather his main concern at the moment is finding the best way to remove the etched ribs.

One Three Oh!

Just a couple of weeks behind the real locomotive our 130 has been completed and is undergoing some running-in on the WHR main line!

Himself reassembled the locomotive after the varnish had set on the boiler unit and reunited it with the power bogies which were finished last year, before taking it for a spin on Bron Hebog.

Unfortunately he doesn't have a large enough garage to put up the whole layout - but we can get the long top end section from the Rhyd Ddu fiddle yard down through the S-bend into the station running.

The lounge is the only part of the house large enough to accommodate the entire layout, but I suspect that might be out of bounds.....

Almost There

The arrival of warmer weather has allowed Himself to venture into the garage / workshop and unleash the airbrush on a number of models which have been awaiting a protective coat of vanish.

Of most interest to readers of this blog, I'm sure, are our latest FR and WHR locomotives.

Welsh Pony has all its transfers applied now, although when this photo was taken was still awaiting the fitting of the nameplates.

130 has been refitted with a lot of the extra piping and the handrails are the last things to be fitted, along with its number plates on the cab.

Both are going to make stunning models when they are reassembled and tested, hopefully within the next few days.

Stripey Boiler

There's been rapid progress with the next stage of lining out the boiler unit of 130.

With great skill Himself has applied the very fine straw lines around the boiler bands and begun work on the cab sides.

There's still some touching up to do on the corners, you'll notice.

Already you can see the finished effect is going to be terrific.

Black Lines

The real 130 steamed back into action this week and our miniature version is not far behind.

With the main plum colour and the large expanses of black painted Himself has worked through applying the edging transfers around the cab and on the boiler bands.

We use lines of waterslide transfers because you get a much sharper definition than you would ever manage with a brush.

They will get a protective coat of varnish before the trickiest job of applying the fine, straw lines begins.

Sir Handle

Every so often I am astounded by Himself's ingenuity.

A case in point is when I received an update on progress with painting the boiler unit of 130.

What I noticed first was not the finish but the rather clever - and also wonderfully simple - way he is managing to avoid touching the wet paintwork.

He's using the hole at the back of the footplate where the rear power unit is connected to fix on a makeshift handle.

There's been something extra added in the cab, where he decided to use some styrene rod, and tiny brass wheels, to represent the various gauges and controls.

No More Hanging Around

Himself has decided he's not going to wait any longer for illusive evidence of the pipework on the 'engine side' of 130, so it's time to start painting it whether it's right or wrong.

There was one remaining piece of brass wire to be connected up on the side of the firebox, and we'll just have to hope that they haven't decided to route it anywhere radically different to on the other three WHR engines.

The completed boiler and cradle have been given a coat of primer as the first step.

Both power units and their tanks / bunkers have been painted and lined in the gorgeous maroon livery, so this is the last step for completing the locomotive.

This will be our fifth NGG16 in the fleet, but only four of them represent WHR machines, the doyen of the quintet being turned out in plain black with Alfred County Railway branding on the bunker.

Wee Pipes

The boiler unit of 130 is getting tantalisingly close to being ready to paint.

This week, aided by the flow of new photographs of progress at Dinas on the real locomotive, representations of the thin pipework on the 'engine' could be added in brass.

There's been so much added to the model which is over and above what comes with the Backwoods kit, and - naturally - each of the WHR machines is different.

All we need now are to see some pictures taken from the opposite side and Himself can get it finished.

Missing Piece?

For quite a few months the boiler unit of our 130 has been hovering on the cusp if completion, with just the final pipework around the front of the cab and top of the firebox to finish off.

That's because we were waiting to see the exact position of the pipe runs on the real locomotive first.

This week some pictures emerged from Dinas, courtesy of the FR GM, Paul Lewin, that might allow Himself to get cutting, bending and soldering.

With the power bogies and their bodywork painted and lined it's just the middle bit of the Garratt still in brass.

Perhaps there might not be too much longer to wait to see ours completed.

2020 Review - Part 4

October

The output of new models slowed towards the end of the year, especially at my end of the operation as I spent more time concentrating on meeting requests for resin wagon kits and parts.

By now I had completed the prototype for the MOD flat wagon kit.

Himself spent a week volunteering on the FR and getting a look up closed at the new lining design on Welsh Pony.

We had always intended to finish ours in the green livery that was predicted all through the restoration, but now it looks like the running-in livery will be staying for a few years so we decided to take the plunge and apply that to our model, seen here with the black lining transfers around the edge being applied.

Himself also got round to a job he'd been meaning to tackle for a number of years, and overhaul the Steve Coulson working dioramas in our custody.

November

Progress can be an illusion sometimes.

Himself began applying the orange lining around the edge of the panels on Welsh Pony.

It looked fine on the tender, but once it added to the tighter areas like the cab sides it became painfully apparent that even the thinnest products from the Fox range would be unsuitable.

It was time for Plan B....

The delivery of the painted and lined cylinder covers for 130 to Dinas meant we could follow suit with confidence on ours.

There was more pipework added to the boiler unit which is the last part of the locomotive still under construction.

We can't complete it until we see pictures confirming the positions of all the pipes at the front of the cab.

December

Plan B for Welsh Pony meant stripping it right back to brass and starting again with a coat of primer and purple/plum from the airbrush.

We commissioned a set of bespoke transfers from Custom Model Decals and you can already see the results in some of the latest blog posts. 

I was kept busy with casting.

One customer asked if it was possible to produce some copies of the fake bogie frames we used on our Funkey diesels to disguise the N Gauge chassis.

An enquiry from one modeller turned into orders for 10 sets from all across the country, so that kept me busy for a few weeks.

Currently I am in the process of producing a prototype for a kit of the FR/WHR well wagon.

There's been good progress on the main body of the wagon.  

I'm hoping to finish it off with an etched brass deck covering but that may take a while to come to fruition.

That's the story of our 2020.

It was a year when it seems that railway modelling was given a shot in the arm by lockdown - within our homes at least - let's hope that in 2021 it might be possible to attend an exhibition again.

Wouldn't that be marvellous!

2020 Review - Part 3

July 

 

As we moved into the second half of the year Livingston Thompson had been painted, lined and weathered and taken for its first test runs on Bron Hebog with the formation recreating the train when it was first towed from Minffordd to Blaenau Ffestiniog to try and kick start the restoration.

 

After a false start that ended up with the locomotive on display at the NRM in York where it remains.

 

The Double Fairlie story continued with Himself trying to keep pace with Boston Lodge on progress with James Spooner.

 

 

 

We're doing out best to adapt a Backwoods brass kit - although there will have to be the inevitable compromise on scale. 

On my workbench I was getting to grips with a new project in resin....

 

August 

Those Hula Hoop shapes were turned into the body of Maenofferen water tank wagon which sits on an extended 3 ton slate waggon chassis.

 

 

Almost immediate I was inundated with requests to produce a kit version....

 

And Himself used the first lockdown to reach the finishing line on another long term project, finally completing the painting and lining of our Backwoods Lyn.

 

 

 

The latest of our WHR saloons rolled off the production line, too.

 

 

September

 

Trying our best, once again, to stay synchronised with real world developments, Himself began painting our 130, starting with the bunkers and tanks which received their lovely crimson/plum colour and straw lining. 

 

 

After completing work on the tank waggon I was engaged on a request to produce a kit for the FR's small ex-MOD bogie wagons.

 

The first task was to find a way to produce the bogies.

 

The solution I hit on was to cast a piece which could slip over the very free-running Hudson bogie sold by Dundas.    

 

 

 

In fact, Dundas was doing very good business out of us with Himself deciding it was time to replace a lot of our slate waggon fleet as the 30 year old bodies became brittle.

 

This time instead of a uniform grey he decided to make them a little more colourful.