Back Burners

I bet we've all got them, haven't we? Those modelling projects sitting in a box which you say you will get around to one day.

This pair are one of mine.

If you don't immediately recognise them from their ghostly resin appearance, they are 3D prints from Robex of bodies for the Manning Wardle tank loco Jubilee 1897.

And if you know something about the history of that locomotive you may wonder what my interest in them would be.

There is is tangential connection to the FR in that it started out working at the Cilgwyn quarry alongside Lilla, and made a fleeting trip along the Welsh Highland as part of a transfer move to the Penrhyn quarry.

But the reason I have them is nothing to do with rolling stock for Dduallt, Bron Hebog or Minffordd.

A couple of years ago when I was developing my home dual gauge test track - which turned into a full-blown layout - I was looking for a couple of small tank locomotives which would look at home on the small narrow gauge loop which is done up like a very small scale tourist railway.

I was very impressed with the smooth performance of the Minitrains outside framed F&C chassis which powers our Lilla (also a Robex print) but I found the slight more chunky look of the Manning Wardle loco more attractive.

I've always intended to get these bodies mounted on a pair of spare F&C chassis we have in stock, but it's one of those things that I've not got round to.

Or more accurately, Himself has always had to much to be getting on with that it seemed unreasonable for me to add to the backlog by asking if it'd mind taking a look at them for me.

As well as the chassis I ordered in the other parts we'd need, such as the etch for the motion and slide bars.

I'd even had a couple of name plates produced because I intended to finish them in freelance liveries and name them after my children. (Very soppy for a serious prototype modeller, I know.)

I wonder, however, whether this might be a good moment to suggest the idea to Himself, because we get seriously drawn into the Dinas project.

And I also suspect he might be quite glad of another excuse not to have to try to sort out the knotty problem of how to attach valve gear to the NG15 chassis which is sitting on the workbench taunting him...

2019 - Part 3

The summer saw us taking Dduallt for its third showing in nine months, after receiving an invitation to represent the Greenock club at the show in Perth.

This was is up there among one of the best in the country and we're very much looking forward to returning with Bron Hebog in 2020.

June also saw an unexpected opportunity to purchase another Backwoods double fairlie, which Himself duly snapped up and straight away began starting work on a James Spooner, being careful not to get ahead of the real one under construction at Boston Lodge.

The Gladstone Car was also finished with transfers and the illusion of curtains in the central saloon now in place.

August

We didn't waste any time starting on the next of our WHHR carriages.

Himself soldered up a Worsley Works kit for the buffet car and I was given the job of knocking up an interior in styrene.

James Spooner now had its bogies and firebox (motorbox) complete.

Hot on the heels of the Buffet Car was another brass body shell for the Ashbury corridor carriage in its original form, which we're doing up as the replica built for the WHHR.

September

There was a little more scenic work done on Bron Hebog ready for its next outing in Greenock in the autumn, with more trees being planted.

By now the WHHR carriages were already being painted.

And Gelert was in the final stages of painting and lining with a lot of extra details being added to the 3D body to really set it off.

2019 - Part 2

The next instalment of our review begins in April when I was making the interior for another 'bowsider' which was destined to become number 20 in Col. Stephens green.

Himself was being challenged with building up a prototype chassis for Gelert which we had been asked to test, seen here beneath the Robex 3D printed body.

Some finishing details were being added to observation carriage 152.

May

Dduallt was back on show just down the road from us in Troon.

I was puzzling out how to fit an interior into the Gladstone carriage while still allowing for the floor to be removed for painting and maintenance.

Carriage 20 was swiftly painted and made its debut on the layout at the show.

June

I was embarking on a project to create a kit of parts to build the P Way van 51 in its current condition - shown here are the first of the castings for the body.

The chassis on Gelert was progressing with the motion now in place.

And carriage 152 was taken for a first test run on Dduallt.

Fortunately, this time I'd drilled the holes for the bogie pivot bolts in the correct position and it didn't foul the rockface in the cutting beneath Rhoslyn Bridge!

New This Weekend

In a few hours time (as I write) we’ll be in the process of setting up Bron Hebog for this weekend’s exhibition in Greenock - our ‘home’ show now - and the layout’s Scottish debut!

We’ll have a number of new models getting their first run on the layout.

Garratt 143 brings our active NGG16 roster to four, making life a lot simpler for the fiddle yard operators who should have less of a struggle finding suitable motive power for the two long WHR rakes.

(If only it we’re that easy on the real railway sometimes...)

Our heritage set will be appearing for the first time along with Gelert to take a turn hauling it.

Do say hello if you’re coming along to have a look.

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.

Gelert Looking Good

Himself has done his customary excellent job on the transfers on Gelert which now awaits the airbrush for a coat of satin varnish.

The nameplates from Narrow Plant will go on right at the end.

One final additional detail which has appeared is the bright red crank visible in the cut out in the water tank.

I do think that accessorising these 3D printed bodies is so important if you have any ambition to produce a decent model.

They make a fabulous starting point, but that’s all it is.

I’m afraid there are too many modellers happy to regard them as unpainted ready-to-run bodies, and that’s a shame.

Bagnall Bling

Now back from his sojourn down south Himself is getting on with preparing Gelert for it's roll-out at the Greenock show.

We've decided to finish it in its current lined out livery, because frankly it just looked too dull in all-over dark blue.

For this he's using Kemco / Modelmaster BR mixed traffic lining sheets.

These are also what we used on our spoof BR liveried Lyd.

Its arguable that the grey is a little too - well - grey for the lining on the real loco which looks more brilliant white, but these transfers are very crisp which more than makes up for it in my mind.

If you look very closely you might be able to make out that he has deployed his thick black transfer line trick to get perfect definition on the change between the blue of the tank and the black of the running plate.

I think it'll make a very attractive little engine and look terrific taking turns with Russell and the Baldwin hauling our new WHHR set on Bron Hebog.

In The Navy

The first navy blue topcoat is being applied to Gelert.

Himself is still not entirely happy with the way paint takes and dries on these 3D printed bodies, even when they’ve been cured in white spirit and primed.

It looks a little ropey just now, but just like with Lilla I’m very confident with how the finish will turn out.

Embellishments

Himself has been doing some lovely detailing work on our Robex Gelert.

This is what really lifts a 3D printed body and makes it something that can live alongside a loco built from an etched brass kit, or one of the current, highly detailed, ready to run products.

I hope other modellers who are at the start of their journey in this hobby use this as inspiration, and perhaps in future decide not to settle for what comes off the printer as the finished article.

Most of the new bits have been made from brass, so they show very clearly in the pictures.

The most obvious are things like the coal rails on the bunker and the whistle, but look closely and you'll see lots of other things like the footsteps and various bits of pipework coming out from under the cab.

Most importantly, at the front end, he's made up something to represent the air brake pump and created a dart for the smokebox door.

This has mostly been done with scraps that you might find among your modelling materials such as hand rail knobs 16BA nuts, brass tube, wire and styrene rod.

I appreciate that for someone who never scratch builds that probably reads like one of those recipes that blithely refer to 'store cupboard ingredients'.....

New Buffer Beams

A small update on our Gelert project.

A pair of etched brass overlays have been fitted onto the buffer beams at the front and rear of the engine.

The designer of the chassis kit (for whom we have been test-building this prototype) was unhappy with this part of the Robex 3D printed body which came down too low.

You will notice that Himself has also replaced the moulded buffer with a pair of Greenwich couplings which are the standard on our layouts.

These couplings also swivel, which was a necessary adaptation because of the long overhang on this locomotive, which meant that when a fixed coupling was used it would drag the rolling stock off the rails on tight bends.

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.

Chassis Fit

The mystery chassis for Gelert has been test fitted into the Robex body.

At this stage it doesn’t have the fly cranks - which have to be fabricated as a four slice sandwich of brass etches! - nor has the motor been wired up yet, so it hadn’t gone for a test run.

Himself is relieved, though, that he many to remove the false frames from the body without managing to break anything off, which is a step in the right direction after putting his finger clean through the body of the last 3D printed loco he built.

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.

Review Of The Year - Part 1

I've established a tradition on this blog in the last days of December of taking stock of everything that Himself and I have achieved over the year.

I usually find there are things that I've forgotten about, and I'm always surprised by how much we've got done.

So here's a look back at what we were up to in the first quarter of 2018.

January

Looking back now I see that there was a lot of carriage building going on at this time.

FR 'superbarn' 118, which I'd built up from resin castings, had been painted, assembled, had its transfers applied and, finally, varnished.

Himself was also starting work on a very long-term project indeed - the completion of a Worsley Works bowsider 19 which had been sitting in a drawer in its naked state for years.

I was also busy trying to keep up with the expanding WHR carriage fleet and had started work on saloon 2047 which was being scratch built in styrene - as opposed to the resin parts I use for the latest FR stock.

February

This was the big reveal of our finished Robex 3D printed Lilla.

I thought at the time - and still do - that it looks absolutely stunning!

We'd decided to finish it in its current, highly ornate, plum livery with oodles of gold leaf lining.

It was taking up all Himself's reserves of patience and concentration but it was already clear the results were going to be worth it.

He'd also restarted work to plug the last remining scenic gap on the layout, landscaping around the last two houses I'd built.

March

There was yet more carriage work going on with me kit-bashing a Dundas 'Bro Madog' carriage to make it look like it's current condition on the WHHR.

As to why I was doing it, that was about to be revealed...

I'd also been putting together the castings for the second of the latest FR observation carrs 152 ready for Himself to add a brass roof and the window pillars at the front.

The reason I was making a WHHR carriage became clear when I handed over Himself's birthday present - a Robex print for the Bagnall Gelert.

I had confidence that he'd make a fine job of the body, after what he'd done with Lilla

The challenge for him was going to be doing the outside frame adaptation on a Fleischman chassis to go under it.

I had a feeling he wasn't going to thank me for that...

Waggon Tracks

Lilla will be one of the models getting a first run on Dduallt at an exhibition this weekend, having only been completed last year, long after the layout was last shown.

It's been used to give our slate waggon rake a test on the layout, here seen double heading with Moelwyn (one of my favourite models).

I'm told that Lilla is able to haul the full rake around the spiral unassisted, which is rather impressive for a very lightweight 3D printed body, I think.

The slate waggons are starting to show their age.

They're made from Dundas plastic kits and some of them are getting on for 30 years old, and inevitably that material starts to get brittle as it ages.

This is manifesting itself around the axle boxes which are the most vulnerable parts of the model.

Himself is taking about a rolling replacement programme for the fleet.

We shall see.