Perhaps rather like an artist attempting a self-portrait, taking good pictures and videos of your own layout is surprisingly hard, in my experience.
I suspect a lot of that may because after years designing and constructing it you are simply too familiar with the subject.
Someone who is seeing it for the first time may find the viewpoints and angles which you have overlooked.
(They may also have better equipment or, quite simply, possess more talent and creativity...)
Therefore, I always welcome it when people watching our layout take photos and videos and are willing to spend the time to edit and share them.
Over the years FR volunteer Matthew Hall has produced some terrific videos of our former layouts Dduallt and Bron Hebog and I'm delighted that he has done it again for Minffordd following his visit to the show in Porthmadog at the weekend.
This is without a doubt the best footage I have yet seen of the layout.
It is a generous feature-length production of a full half-hour so grab yourself a drink, and maybe something to nibble on, then click, sit back and enjoy!
This was one of the more unusual trains we've ever run on Bron Hebog.
I suspect many of you have already guessed that the object on the wagon in front of Taliesin is a miniature digital camera.
It was being used to record a 'driver's eye view' sequence on the layout by a model railway You Tuber who posts highlights packages of exhibitions.
Bron Hebog is towards the end of the film but I would encourage you to pour yourself a cup of tea and watch the whole thing through because there were many great layouts on show in Greenock.
We had a great weekend at our home club exhibition in Greenock giving Bron Hebog its Scottish debut.
Rather like with the return from a holiday, however, the days following a show like this leave you feeling rather flat.
I suspect it will be a few days before I get my mojo back.
Part of it, I think, is a subconscious feeling of dissatisfaction that local shows like ours don't always get the credit, or the clientele, they deserve.
This year's show in Greenock might have been small compared to one of the events in a big city but I would argue the quality of what was on show was on a par with anything I've seen elsewhere in recent years.
There are good things happening in Scottish railway modelling right now, but I have a suspicion its not getting the recognition it deserves.
The OO layouts which came first and second in the public vote in Greenock would find a place at any of the best exhibitions in the UK - Kilbowie (the Caley in Clydebank at the end of steam) and Barnsford Bridge (a bang-up to date depot layout) combine excellent scenic modelling with beautifully detailed and modified models plus the immersive experience of DCC light and sound.
We were humbled to receive a great many compliments for Bron Hebog but I suspect that for many of the ordinary punters, who are not dyed in the wool railway enthusiasts, it went slightly over their heads.
It's probably a taste of what it's always felt like to be exhibiting a continental layout at any time ever...
The truth is narrow gauge modelling - especially with 'weird' engines like Garratts - is very niche.
You can never get the same ego boost at a show like the one this weekend as we do when we've had it on display in the goods shed at Dinas station, with the real engines simmering outside and surrounded by an audience who know what they're looking at and, dare I say (?), fully appreciating what's gone into creating it.
It's a similar story in the online modelling world.
I've spent nearly 10 years writing this blog and posting on social media but still attract a fraction of the followers than many other modern image OO bloggers and vloggers can attract.
Is it frustrating? Frankly, yes it is.
Perhaps I'm just crabbit with the post-exhibition blues.
We've returned from a terrific three days showing Bron Hebog at its second home - the goods shed at Dinas Station - during WHR Superpower 2018.
It was great to see so many familiar faces and also get to meet a number of fellow modellers who we've only ever had contact with in the virtual world until now - a couple of them even brought along some special guest locomotives which had a cheeky run around the layout.
There'll be more to tell you about in the coming days but for new here are some extended video highlights for those of you who weren't able to come along, and to enjoy again for those who did.
Thanks again to our friends on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway for inviting us along and looking after us so well over the weekend.
I spent most -of Saturday at Narrow Gauge East at Bressingham attempting to multi-task, which is no easy thing for the average bloke and even harder when you're attempting to operate a large, traditionally controlled layout.
I was trying to capture as much still and video footage of the layout as I could in the first opportunity to see it running for two and a half years - and that went for us as much as any of the paying visitors.
My camera-wielding efforts frustrated Himself a little at times, who clearly thought I was too distracted - and I'll admit there were a few operator errors as a consequence - but I hope you'll enjoy the end result which is some little clips of action like this.
Let's face it, there's not a lot of modelling gets done in the run up to Christmas, so I've got into the habit on the blog of taking stock of what we have achieved over the course of a year.
Quite often I end up surprising myself with how much has been done, because progress on a model can be such a haphazard affair that you sometimes don't realise how many things you have been working on over the period.
January
At the start of the year Himself was putting the finishing touches to our scratch built model of the new FR service car 125.
A few miles down the coast I was starting work on one of the more obvious missing pieces on Bron Hebog - the ruined barn which sits in the middle of the S bend.
And after many years sitting in primer Himself got around to painting the exquisite model of Britomartwhich was built up from a Brian Madge Quarry Hunslet kit (which are sadly filed under H for Hen's Teeth currently, more's the pity.)
February
There were other locomotive loose ends which Himself set about tidying up earlier this year, including the long-standing issue we had with the wheels on our Welsh Pony.
This model was built - with extreme difficulty! - from another now unavailable kit (do you spot a trend here?) and the problem was that one of the wheels on it was slightly less than round.
Our little pony ran with a nasty limp.
Fortunately, one of my contacts who knows the manufacturer was able to obtain a replacement set of wheels, for which we are most grateful.
Himself pulled the chassis part and replaced them, with the result that it now runs much more satisfactorily as you can see below.
Which is more than can be said about the real Welsh Pony! (Patience is a virtue...)
As milder weather arrived he ventured into the garage and began scenic work on the layout again, making a start on the scale miles of post and wire fencing alongside the line.
I was very taken with an overhead shot he took of the farmyard area, which I think showed off the subtlety of the scenic work he's been doing.
March
While that was going on Himself had been painting the old barn which was ready to be tried out in position on the layout, and looked very effective.
We'd also taken a radical step into a new technology: 3D printing.
For his birthday I bought him a copy of the Robex design for the unique Quarry Hunslet Lilla which I had been admiring for some time after seeing pictures of models which other people had made.
Until now all our locomotives have had brass or white metal bodies.
Himself found that bits fell off this one from virtually the first time he held it, which didn't do much to endear him to the medium.
On my workbench I had begun another stretch of house building with the intention of finally finishing the Oberon Woods estate scene.
I got to see for myself at the weekend the dramatic improvement in the performance of our Welsh Pony since the new wheels were fitted.
Currently there is around half the layout erected in the garage (there isn't room to put the whole thing up, alas) a section running from the top fiddle yard (just beyond Bron Hebog crossing) down to the points at the Caernarfon end of the platform loop and the old arched bridge across the Afon Cwm Cloch.
So here for you to enjoy are a trio of short videos of our little pony trotting along with our latest incarnations of carriages 11 and 12.
I took my client's model of the 'Disco Car' 121 over to Himself's place the other day for a wee test run just to check for any snags or alterations required before it gets painted.
While I was searching through Himself's collection of slides a few days ago, looking for pictures of Earl of Merioneth, I came across some images that I forgot we took of the early stages of construction of Dduallt.
At a guess I would date these pictures as 1992, so pretty much a quarter of a century ago.
As you can see, by this stage he had finished creating the trackbed, which was a very precise operation with the gradient on the spiral, and the track had be wired up and was being tested.
The rolling stock is worthy of note.
This was in the early days of my scratch building carriages in styrene so some of the trains are formed of very weighty white metal GEM kits and the brass Langley bowsiders.
It was also the era before the Backwoods Miniatures kits came along and so our Fairlies tottered along with tiny wheels from an adapted Bachmann diesel chassis sitting beneath a white metal Langley body kit.
The model of the Earl was a fine kit-bashing effort by Himself with the tanks formed from styrene and the smokeboxes and chimneys sourced from Parkside Dundas kits for Linda and Blanche.
The Earl is still with us - sitting on a shelf in Himself's study - but Merddin was donated as a gift to an FR luminary. I think of it now and then and hope it is being well cared for.
With no modelling done this week myself - and no confirmation of whether Himself made it as far as the modelling room with his sticks - I have precious little to blog about.
Time, perhaps, for one last video clip from Super Power?
I have managed to cast a batch of FR bogie sides for Narrow Planet to sell and I have liberated the incomplete farmhouse from its box to remind myself what remains to be done.
So in the meantime, until I have something of substance to report here's another video, of Dduallt this time.
Three things are conspiring to restrict the amount of construction content I'm able to post on the blog currently.
I'm still working through a large order of kits for the FR shop - yes, still! 3/4 done now, by the way.
While that's tying up my time Himself has not had anything to contribute. In fact he's going to be out of action for a few more weeks.
And lastly my elderly laptop has expired and there's only so much copy you can type with one thumb on a smartphone before it becomes terminally tedious.
So here's another snippet of video to keep you entertained in the meantime.
I had another very busy weekend at the workbench casting yet more kits to be sold in the FR shop. (Halfway through now - yay!)
It was rather more productive too.
In contrast to the B Wagons which were a little troublesome with an irritatingly high number of mis-casts the bits for the batch of DZ wagons came out almost faultlessly with hardly any wastage.
I doubt, however, that you'd be interested in seeing another picture of dozens of resin casstings curing on my desk, so instead here's another wee bit of video from the layout.
It's been a quiet week on the modelling front - other than wall to wall resin casting.
(Around a third of the wagon kits for the FR shop have now been cast, you'll be pleased to know, so there is hope that I may soon be able to return to more interesting topics on the blog)
In the meantime I hope I can amuse you with a short piece of video I filmed on the layout at Super Power a fortnight ago.
During the show at Dinas last weekend we were able to update our Driver's Eye View videos of the layout.
Last time we tried this exercise was two years ago at Super Power when the layout was only half-complete with track running as far as Cwm Cloch Crossing.
The videos are shot using a nifty little miniature camera belonging to one of our operators, and Dinas shed fitter Huw, mounted on a 4-wheel flat wagon and propelled along by one of our locomotives.
You want to ensure that you'll get a nice, smooth run with no jerking or hesitation so we rostered one of our NGG16's for the job.
We also had the unprecedented opportunity to repeat the exercise on Dduallt.
Please also take a look at the Layout Videos page on the blog where you'll find a wonderful 14 minute film of Bron Hebog in action last weekend.
There were many cameras being pointed at Bron Hebog over the Super Power - Great & Small II event on the Welsh Highland over the weekend, including mine.
I managed to grab a few snaps and some small video clips which I'll be sharing with you here over the next couple of weeks.
Dinas was our first exhibition with the proper fiddle yards where we were able to run full-length WHR trains of 10 carriages, which was the reason we build such a ridiculously big OO9 layout in the first place.
So here is a shot of our black NGG16 (not meant to represent a particular WHR locomotive) climbing around the big horse shoe bend into Cutting Mawr.
I'll confess from the start that there isn't anything new to report today.
For the last week I've been banished from my modelling bench on account of Himself occupying the study on a visit north.
On top of that he's had best part of three weeks out of modelling action including a week in Wales working on the FR.
All of which doesn't give me a lot to blog about, but as a time-served member of the Fourth Estate I refuse to be defeated by the mere absence of anything new to report - I'm more than happy to recycle old stories!
So I thought I would whet your appetite for the WHR Great and Small show next month with a reprise of the videos that were shot on the layout the last time we were there two years ago.
That was filmed by the F&WHR's John Wooden with the footage from the moving train filmed using a small camera placed on a flat wagon.
Our second movie is a true miniature driver's eye view shot using a special camera wagon belonging to the the railway's Huw Jones.
Back in 2013 we were only running trains on around half of the layout, the rest of it had yet to be built.
This time, however, Bron Hebog will be on show in its entirety and I'm very much hoping that we will be able to repeat the filming exercise.
If you missed the chance to see 3 working NGG16s at the same time at WHR Superpower last weekend, don't worry, you've got another chance this coming weekend!
Because Himself has been working flat out to complete the layout - physically at least - in time for the Woking show it's been many months since he's done any work on our latest locomotive 138.
However he thought it would be fun to give her a trial run at the show this weekend so he gave her a week test along with our existing pair in one of the fiddle yard tracks.
I promise you it'll look a lot more impressive - and sound a lot sweeter - climbing up and around the big S bend behind Beddgelert station on Bron Hebog.
Broadcaster, writer and railway modeller.
Best known for the 009 Festiniog Railway layout 'Dduallt' which I built with my father David in the early 1990's and which is still making appearances on the exhibition circuit.
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