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: 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.