Packing For Porthmadog

We still have the best part of a fortnight to go but today the plan is to break down Minffordd  and get it all packed away ready for the trip to the show in Porthmadog.

Over the weekend we did a last bit of test running to check a few of the adjustments which have been made since Glasgow, one of which was an overdue reset of the decoder on the green 24 to cure its tendency to unpredictable rates of acceleration, which made attempting to shunt wagons into the yard a challenge.

The show, at Y Ganolfan, just across the harbour from the FR station, looks like it will be a terrific event.  Link here.

The organisers look to have pulled together a remarkable collection of layouts of locations along the FR, or ones which have been inspired by it.

There's a few I'm particularly looking forward to seeing, and I hope the owners won't mind that I've lifted some photos from their social media.

Tan y Bwlch by Nigel Smith has captured the feel of everyone's favourite FR station perfectly.

In a larger scale, Rhiw Goch, from James and Peter Hoyle, is another exquisitely faithful representation of a real life location on the line.

And Charles Insely's Bangor looks like it oozes atmosphere, and I've been watching his Bachmann Fairlie kit bashes with interest as he documented the project, so it will be fascinating to see them close up.

Proceeds from the show will be split between the fundraising appeals to overhaul Blanche and to build a replica of the Spooner bogie ballast wagon, so that's an extra incentive to come along to the show if you are able to.

Minffordd Update: Mineral Line

The focus of tracklaying on the Minffordd project has moved 'upstairs' to the narrow gauge line.

If you've been following our updates you'll remember the crossing points at the Porthmadog end of the section were one of the early things Himself tackled, with an inventive mechanical solution to motorising the points on top of an overbridge when you can't place a motor directly beneath it.

While waiting for the points to arrive to complete the standard gauge fiddle yard he got on with extending the FR main line and the parallel mineral line which form a very pleasing arc along the back of the scene.

I've always liked this section of the FR - and in its heyday the section from Glan y Pwll into Blaenau Ffestiniog - because double track formation is such a rare thing to see on British narrow gauge lines.

 

Childhood Memories

An afternoon hacking back the vegetation in the garden set me off reminiscing about childhood trips to the FR.

John Firth

What did it was the wheelbarrow.

We didn’t have a wheelbarrow at home - the garden wasn’t big enough - but my grandmother, who lived on the Cambrian Coast, did - and every autumn half term I’d be allowed to join Himself on a trip to Wales to ‘megabash’ the garden, to borrow an FR term.

I got the job of disposing the clippings with the barrow while Himself handled the secateurs!

An incentive to get the job done in good time was the promise of a trip to Porthmadog to visit the model shop at Harbour Station and perhaps see a train.

Being the shoulder season this was usually one of the Ladies, or perhaps even Prince, on a shortened rake.

These were the days of all over red carriages and the restoration of services to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

It ought to be remembered as one of the high points of the railway’s history, instead it appears to be the era which dare not speak its name - something to be ashamed of.

You can visit the FR today and see every significant era represented and celebrated, except the 70s and 80s.

So much of it has been stuffed into storage or sold off.

It saddens me to see my childhood being denied in this way.

Painting The First Bridge

Himself has been lured away again for a spell of 12 inches to the foot modelling, which partly explains why in recent days this blog has been filled with waffle rather than posts about actual progress.

The cause this time has been the repair and repainting of Tan y Bwlch footbridge.

(Some might say the real footbridge but we'd never stray into controversies like that on here, oh no, not us....)

It's one of the few remaining monuments from a frantic period of development on the FR when function mattered far more than form.

Form is rather expensive, though, and there weren't so many people with deep pockets or agencies with funds to distribute in the late '60s and early '70s.

That said, it is interesting to note that the construction of this bridge - which was felt to be necessary when a more formal island platform was created after the reopening to Dduallt - did receive some corporate sponsorship from, of all people, the owners of the John Player tobacco brand.

That may seem hard to imagine to some people these days.

Pedants may take issue with me calling it the first bridge in the title, because properly speaking it was the second footbridge on the site, but it is the first, and the only one, to allow access to the platform.

(Steady now....)

As a child of the '70s It is also the only way I have ever known Tan y Bwlch station.

Incidentally, the person in the foreground holding the drill - in what could be construed as a mildly threatening manner - is none other than my mother.

No wonder Himself always does as he's told!

Horrible History

I know I bang on on this blog about the 1980's and the tin cars, etc, but I make no apology for doing so again.

It seems sometimes like the FR treats the era as its dirty little secret and I'd like to see it getting a little more acknowledgement from a heritage perspective.

Once Earl of Merioneth is out of traffic, and all but one of the 'tin cars' sent off to their new homes, there will be very little to represent a very considerable chunk of the FR's history to be seen on the rails.

(Although I suppose you could argue the very railway itself - the Deviation - is enough of a reminder of the 1970's and '80's)

When we first built Dduallt we set it in 1988 which was the last year the passing loop was in use and also the transition in carriage liveries from plain red to the two tone livery which persists to this day.

So feeling, as I do at the moment, that this era is a little under-appreciated I got our red set out for a play the other day to create some authentic 1980's scenes.

We should the grateful that at least Linda and Blanche are currently wearing the classic FR lined green livery but I would like to start a lobby to get some carriages in Cherry Red before it's too late.

As a start maybe 110, the prototype tin car, could be put back into this livery - and with authentic bus seats if there are any still around - and also the original Barn 104 while it survives in its early 1980's rebuild condition.

A case could also be made for 116 and 123 (ex-101) although they've both had their window positions altered in recent years and been reclassified.

I'm all too aware that mid 1980's was not the FR's finest hour from a presentational perspective, and fully appreciate why the Garrawegian diktats on locomotive and carriage liveries had to be relaxed to make the railway more attractive to the punters.

But consider this.

We have half of our unique and splendid Victorian carriages dressed up in drab 1930's liveries to represent the Colonel Stephens era which was surely the FR's nadir - if you  ignore the period of closure, that is.

If that can be celebrated then why not the 1970's and 80's?

Probably because too many people lived through it and still think it was only yesterday.

Well it wasn't!

Russell Returns & Baldwin Beckons

There have been exciting Narrow Gauge developments in recent weeks.

In the real world Russell has returned to service on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway following a long, and thorough overhaul.

I suspect I am not alone in wondering how long it will be before the old boy ventures onto the original formation once again. (The last time was trips from Dinas to Waunfawr)

Of course here on Bron Hebog Russell has already returned to Beddgelert and hopefully soon this scene will no longer be just a piece of modeller's licence.

The other exciting news is that Bachmann is dipping a toe in the OO9 market and has announced plans to make a ready-to-run model of the Baldwin 4-6-0, and some WD wagons, as tie in to commemorations of 100 years since the start of the Great War.

This is amazing news because I have hankered after a model of a Baldwin ever since I saw 778 running on the WHHR a few years ago.

The railway is in the process of restoring another survivor to run as number 590, the loco used on the original WHR, which is one of the versions Bachmann is proposing to build.

Although body kits for Baldwins have been around for decades I've always been put off by the lack of a realistic chassis option because there is noting that has the distinctive gap between the 2nd and; 3rd axles.

We have already put in an order for a model of 590.

We may have to wait around a year for it to appear. How long, I wonder, before a real Baldwin steams back to Beddgelert?

Now finally, there is an issue for the Bron Hebog HR dept to address.

You may have heard of a story which cropped up here in Scotland a couple of weeks ago where it emerged one of the volunteers taking part in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games was (allegedly) doing it having told her employers she was on sick leave.

Her cover was blown, so the story goes, when her bosses, watching the show on TV, noticed that one of dancers looked strangely familiar.

I guess she hadn't considered that....

Well something similar has happened to Himself.

He's been caught on camera skiving from the task of getting Bron Hebog ready for its next exhibition in a few weeks time and is instead apparently having a jolly good time in North Wales.

He's clearly forgotten that I have spies everywhere.

Garratts Great And Small

Four weeks from now Bron Hebog will be getting its next outing on 'home territory' as it were.

We're very exciting about having the layout on display at Dinas for the WHR Great And Small event from 6th - 8th September.

For the last few months the FR / WHR has been promoting the event on its Facebook page with this merged image of the real number 87 its first grey livery on the S bend at Beddgelert with a snap I took of our pair of NGG16's on the layout.

Looks rather good, don't you think?

I hope some readers may be able to come along to the show and if you do please say hello and let us know what you think of the blog.

Corrections & Clarifications

A regular reader is concerned that I have been misrepresenting matters regarding Himself.

This is a serious charge to level against a time-served member of the Fourth Estate (Radio Division) so before Lord Leveson sets about reconvening his inquiry I believe I should set the record straight

I may have misled you in a previous post if you took literally my comment that Himself has been confined to his modelling room.

This, it transpires, was a false statement because he has, as a matter of fact, surfaced in North Wales and my source - who, of course, must remain anonymous according to the ethics of my profession - leaked this photograph of Himself assisting with the construction of the new signal box at Porthmadog Harbour Station last weekend.

We trust that this lapse has not spoilt your enjoyment of this blog.