Battered Bagnal

I've not hung around getting Kidbrooke ready to be permanently abandoned on a length of track in Minffordd Yard.

I don't have enough tiny alphabet transfers in stock to attempt to replicate all the graffiti which was painted onto the hulk of the loco during its time in the yard, but I've had a go at representing some of the other whitewash embelishments.

The 3d print was given a spray with red oxide primer before applying a succession of diluted acrylic washes of various shades of brown and then dry brushing with some orange hues and darker colours to get what I hope looks like a suitably rusty effect.

Being a print it is absolutely featherweight so we'll have no problem permanently gluing it onto the length of track in front of the slate sheds.

It should make an interesting conversation piece in Porthmadog in a two week's time.

I wonder what the ratio will be between those who give a knowing smile and those who point and say 'What's that doing there?'

Surgical Violence

There's nothing so strange as receiving a new model in the post and then immediately starting to hack it to bits, but that was how I spend one afternoon this week.

The model in question is a Fourdees 3D print of a Bagnall 0-4-0 which is being heavily distressed to be version of Kidbrooke, a small tank which spent most of the 1960s looking very sorry for itself in Minffordd Yard.

The kit is very cleverly designed so you can sit the body on a static chassis with very nicely represented valve gear, or install a Bachmann Percy chassis.

No other adaptation is required, it is simple swap.  Nicely done Fourdees!

The fidelity of these prints is most impressive these days, although it's fortunate that I needed to chop a lot of bits off because in my experience it is incredibly easy to break off the small details on models such as this.

Whilst I admire that it is possible to render such fine items such as handrails, regulators and really small pipework I do wonder whether it wouldn't be better to leave it for modellers who desire this kind of detail to add it themselves in a more robust material?

The other aspect which always makes check and check again with prints like this differentiating what is a production support sprue which needs to be removed, and what is the part of the model which must remain?  

The spider's web of supports in the cab opening on this print are a case in point.

As you can see by comparing the photos I've posted there was a lot which needed to be chopped off and filed away, such as the cab back sheet, the chimney, smokebox door and the dumb buffers.

The most intricate job was to remove the cab support frame so the cab roof can be resting partly on top of the saddle tank, which is how the loco looked when it was at Minffordd.

With the destruction done the next task is to paint and weather it to look supremely rusted and neglected....

Space Saver

There's one finishing touch to be added before we pack up Minffordd to take it it Porthamdog next month.

Having recently become aware that during the 1960s the hulk of the Bagnall 0-4-0 Kidbrooke was hanging around the yard we had to do something to represent that.

You can read more about it here.

A 3D print of a very similar Bagnall tank should be arriving any time soon, and shall set to work distressing it appropriately.

In the meantime, Himself has prepared a isolated length of weed-strewn track for it to rest on.

This is not strictly prototypical because in reality Kidbrooke was placed on the long siding which runs in front of the Maenofferen sheds, but that's a useful bit of yard for shunting wagons around so we're going to reposition it slightly.

The model in the picture is an old white metal body we somehow acquired - or were gifted - long ago and is sitting there to give an impression of how it's going to appear.

Missing Pieces

Having exhibited layouts of real locations for the last 30 years and more we've got used to people pointing out the bits we've missed - in fact we've come to welcome it.

I mean, why wouldn't you, if you're trying to faithfully recreate somewhere in miniature you want to do the best you can to make it as accurate as possible, don't you?

On Dduallt, for example, we had a couple of occasions where former 'Deviationists' brought some oversights to our attention, such as the 'sheep creep' which was missing in the area just beyond Barn Cutting at the back of the layout.

And then there was the former volunteer who told us the story about how on one occasion he was drilling into a rock and the drill bit broke and could not be removed.

So we asked him to point to the spot and at the next opportunity inserted a small bit of wire at the appropriate place.

With the development of the Minffordd project being shared so widely on social media I've been surprised we haven't received more "you've missed that" messages.

Something which was mentioned the other day, and which I never came across in our research, was the presence of the rusting hulk of Bagnall 0-4-0 tank Kidbrooke in Minffordd Yard in the 1960s.

Image taken from Festipedia

This loco, dating from 1917, was bought from the Oakeley Slate Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog by Richard Hilton and was stored in the yard until 1970, when it was moved to his home in Oxfordshire.

It was eventually restored to steam and can be found at the Yaxham Light Railway in Norfolk.

Now that we know about it we'll obviously have to have our own tiny Kidbrooke rusting quietly in the yard.

The immediately obvious solution seems to be a generic 3D print for these Bagnall locos which is available from Fourdees.

The bigger question is where to place it on the layout?

In the photo above it is sitting on the rails on the long siding which runs in front of the Maenofferen slate sheds and along the wharf beside the Cambrian headshunt.

But that's a very useful section of track for shunting waggons about in our yard, so we hardly want to place what amounts to a buffer stop halfway along it.

So instead I expect we will place it on the ground in the area in front of the smaller shed, with a respectable amount of vegetation growing around its wheels, like in the picture above.

I'm expecting there will be quite a few more oversights brought to our attention when we show the layout in Porthmadog in a few weeks time....

This Time Next Week

We’re starting to get excited about taking Bron Hebog out on show next weekend in Greenock.

Our Gelert is ready to make its debut but it was a close run thing!

The loco has needed major surgery after the prototype chassis developed a serious issue that threatened to leave it as a static exhibit.

What went wrong is that the sleeve holding the drive gear on the leading axle became loose resulting in the motion locking up going in reverse as the quartering went out of alignment.

To fix it one crank and a wheel had to come off to enable the axle to be released so the sleeve could be relocked onto the axle.

The problem is the axle has to be reassembled complete with gear, bearings and wheels before it can be returned into the chassis and there is no way of getting it back in without cutting off the little lugs on the bottom of the chassis that hold the axle and bearings in place. Having done that the axle is popped back in, but there is now nothing to hold it in the frame! 

In the end the bearings were held in place by carefully applying a tiny bit of solder before refitting the crank and rods.

Thanks to Himself’s ingenuity it looks like it will indeed be in use next weekend.

Weight Watching

With the prototype chassis complete and working well, Himself has been beefing up the Bagnall, Gelert, to give it a little more tractive effort.

One of the challenges with 3D printed bodies is their extreme lightness, especially in a scale which has previously got used to heavyweight white metal locomotive bodies.

So he has stuffed lead into every available orifice.

The only visible bits are these pieces you can see in the bunker, which has yet to be filled with coal.

Lead has also been fitted inside the side tanks and also stuffed into the smokebox and the front section of the boiler, which all helps with the weight distribution on a model which runs the risk of being tail-heavy.

The chassis we've test build for the developer has an very clever roller system above the bogie truck which provides excellent support and a smooth swing.

If you look carefully you'll also notice that the nuts to secure the motion have been fitted now, and Himself has also created a firebox piece to fit inside the cab.

The fixed rear coupling will need to be replaced with one that swings before it can haul anything around our tight curves going boiler-first, but visitors to the Troon show this weekend might catch a glimpse of it having a - rather improbable - test run around the Dduallt spiral.

Gelert Goes To Dduallt

Gelert has moved under its own power.

Himself sent me a short video of it undergoing a test run on Dduallt.



As is self-evident from the film it now has the motor wired to the pick-ups and the motion fitted, although on the rear axle the rods are just held in place with a bit of plastic sheath for now because we don't have any 16BA nuts yet.

The motion looks very skinny under a relatively large locomotive, and Himself tells me that assembling the slidebars, crosshead and connecting rod made making up Garratt motion seem like working on 7mm scale!

It's encouraging to see that it will haul a pair of plastic carriages up the slope quite happily which makes me believe that it will be up to the job I have in mind for it on Bron Hebog, where the gradient is less severe.

(I know, I know....)

In any case I'll be encouraging Himself to try to stuff as much ballast into the lightweight 3D plastic body as he can.

Those big side tanks are a prime candidate, as is the hollow smokebox.

Beginning Gelert

Output at Himself's end of the operation has slowed on account of a spell of dry sunny weather which has necessitated his presence in the garden - well that's his story anyway.

While I was away, however, he did make a start on the prototype Gelert chassis.

This, he reports, has been quite fiddly so far - he describes it as being in the watchmaking class.

(And this from a bloke who is onto his fifth Backwoods Garratt currently.)

The motor bogie - with its tiny can motor and rubber band drive - has been made up and can be see in the background.

Towards the front is the main frame and the rear pony truck.

Progress is on hold while he awaits delivery of a 16BA tap to make up the cranks.

I suppose the lack of any visible valve gear on this loco will cheer him up...

Secret Squirrel

This is all very cloak and dagger, but Himself has taken on a secret mission.

If you watched the recent TV documentary on Hornby you may remember they featured a modeller who volunteered to test-build their latest Airfix kits.

Himself is doing something very similar, the only difference is that we’ll get to keep this one afterwards.

It’s a prototype for an outside frame chassis kit for the Baganall 0-4-2 tank, such as Gelert on the WHHR.

Even the packaging was very mysterious and must have puzzled the postie.

I’m limited in how much more I can tell you but hopefully I can post a few updates as the project progresses.

Making Myself Unpopular

Himself's birthday has come around again, and just like last year I decided to treat him to a Robex 3D print.

We've seen what a fabulous job he made of the Lilla so I thought I'd challenge him with the WHHR's Bagnall 0-4-2 Gelert.

As the real one has made a test trip as far up the line as Beddgelert it would be nice to be able to represent that on Bron Hebog.

It's true that in his first experience of the material he found it very much less robust that he was used to with brass, and it was quite a steep learning curve, but at least the project with the Minitrains chassis was quite straightforward.

Not so with Gelert.

The Robex print is designed to fit the Fleishmann 0-4-0 chassis, and no problem there because I've had one of them in strategic storage for years.

The difficulty is that the Bagnall is outside-framed and Himself looked rather unimpressed when I broke it to him that his challenge is to try to covert it with new driving axles, fly cranks and all the rest,

I've no doubt he'll be able to achieve that because he managed it brilliantly on a pair of Ibertrens under our original Penrhyn ladies more than 20 years ago.

I am expectiing my name will be mud when he gets round to trying to do it, though.....