Model Rail Scotland Debuts

Excitement is building ahead of us taking Bron Hebog to Model Rail Scotland in Glasgow in a month's time, which will be our first show in more than two years.

While I was thinking about that the other day it occurred to me that there must be a number of models we built in that time which have not been seen in public yet (aside from on this blog and our social media).

I stopped counting when I got to 15.

So I thought you might like a reminder of what's among the new stuff.

The steam engines include NGG/16 130, which is all new, and in the last two years Himself has got round to painting Lyn and Welsh Pony.

The diesel fleet has been bolstered by the recent arrival of our green Vale of Ffestiniog, and the duplicate of Conway Castle in the livery in which it served with distinction on WHR construction trains and as the Dinas shunter for many years.

Now, we also have the locomotive which replaced it, the big yellow Baguley number 9, and at the other end of the spectrum the former Boston Lodge gofer Harold.

New carriages include 2048 and the fourth of the opulent observation cars Gwyrfai, as well the much less salubrious Ashbury replica 21 and the Pickering brake for the WHHR excursions / incursions. 

If Rule One is enacted at any point over the three days at the SEC you might also be lucky to see some of our new tow-along amusements including a derelict Livingston Thompson on ambulance bogies, and a freshly un-plinthed Princess.

Both are completely out of era - being 1980s representations - and completely out of place on the Welsh Highland section, but you never know...

More prototypical is a deconstructed NGG/16 loaded onto DZ flat wagons for transfer between Boston Lodge and Dinas.

This little tableau is a consequence of us being offered the chance to buy the remains of a Backwoods kit which someone made such a Horlicks of building that the best thing to be done with it was recover any parts which could be used as spares and turn what was left into a conversion piece.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

And so to the final three months of 2021 as we look back on what Himself and I got up to...

October

In the first of these review posts I remarked on how there had been little progress with my prototype for a model of the FR's infrastructure well wagon.

I decided not to wait any longer for a bespoke etched brass part for the durbar plate deck and had a go at seeing if I could cast it in resin instead. 

First, I cast copies of the small piece of brass I had in stock, then placed them side by side to make a large cast sheet which I cut and shaped into pieces to fit onto the wagon, and used them as masters for a final set of castings.

Round about this time Himself was adding more finishing details to the Dinas shunter.

And in a surprise development, he announced the purchase of another Worsley Works body kit for Vale of Ffestiniog, because he'd decided to make a model in its current two-tone green livery, which will look more at home on Bron Hebog than the original National Power livery on our first model.

November

A few weeks later, and number 9 had been painted and was posed for its first pictures on the layout.
 

By this time painting was underway on the Hudson toast rack carriages which featured prominently in the previous blog post covering the summer months.

And the building and painting of Ashbury 21 was completed, too.

December

By the year end, along with apparently the majority of 009 modellers (and a lot of OO ones, too) we were taking delivery of the exquisite Bachmann Double Fairlie models, the existence of which had only just been revealed to a shocked ready-to-run market.

Our choice of a 1960s Earl of Merioneth was completely out of keeping for either Dduallt or Bron Hebog, but the way the model railway market operates these days with limited production runs it's a case of 'you snooze, you lose', so we knew this was going to be our best opportunity to get one at a 'reasonable' price, and I've always had a fascination with this engine, having never had the chance to see it running.

My childhood memories of the FR also revolve around green engines and red carriages, so it's a nice piece of nostalgia for me.

We were intrigued to find out how the a plastic RTR model - complete with coreless motor, flywheels, DCC chip and sound would compare against our kit-built, Mashima-powered, brass Backwoods Fairlies, and filmed the trials for your entertainment.

A pretty conclusive result......so don't expect to see our Backwoods models being retired any time soon.

I rounded off the year by laying the narrow gauge side of the 'test track' project at home.

The early weeks of 2022 will, hopefully, see us getting this wired up and ready to start, ahem, 'testing' things on....

Best wishes to everyone who drops by this blog for the new modelling year. 

Review Of The Year - Part 3

Here we are into the second half of our annual review, and the pace of projects slowed down a little over the summer months, as I suspect it does for most of us.

July

We were fortunate to be able to get hold of one of the last of the batch of 009 Society Hudson toast rack kits, which we made up to represent number 42 on the WHHR.
 

In this picture it is positioned between one of our Dundas 37 / 38 pair and my original scratch built 39 which I must have made in the mid-90s.

Himself got on very fast with the RT models Baguley Drewry shunter kit prototype we obtained from RT Models, having swapped the etch brass fly cranks for some cast brass ones we had spare.

August

I was working away at my version of the toast rack to represent the FR's replica 39, which I was making using a basic resin casting for the body side and then using styrene angle and brass wire to complete.

 

Himself had the idea of using a spare Lynton and Barnstaple bogie van kit to make a freelance FR-style track cleaning wagon.

This has a sprung pad beneath it which wipes the rail heads, and the whole wagon is weighed down with lead, to the extent that it needs to have a locomotive at each end of it to be pushed around the layout.

At my house the 'test track' project had reached the track laying stage.

September

By now now the toast rack 39 carriage had reached the stage where it was almost ready to have a roof added and be sent for painting.

In order to better represent the Dinas shunter, number 9, I produced a styrene master for some alternative bonnet doors and grills which I turned into a casting.

And after a saga which went on for more than a year we finally got hold of etches to make a model of the Ashbury replica 21, which Himself soldered together in short order.

I'll bring the story up to date with a final instalment to be posted on Hogmanay.

Review Of The Year - Part 2

Picking up on our look back at the year, and a lot of what we were up to in the spring revolved around the carriage fleet.

 

April

A long-term ambition had been to get round to buying and assembling a Chris Veitch brass kit for the FR 'sentry' brake van, which makes a very distinctive model full of Victorian character.

Trying our best to keep up with the carriage works in Wales we also set making a miniature version of the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway's new Pickering brake replica.

This project had a false start because, at first, I purchased the Dundas brass kit.

Once Himself put the body together he found there were a few inaccuracies in the dimensions, but more importantly from our point of view, the design made it difficult to paint and to fit an interior.

So we put that one on ice and got hold of the alternative body kit from Worsley Works.

If you read the first part of the Review you'll have seen a picture of the early stages of my commission to scratch build a model of Carnforth buffet car 114.

This was a snap I took just before it was sent off to its new home.

May

A crucial part of the Pickering project was to find a way to depict the fake lamp pots on the roof.

I had a number of goes at scratch building one which could be copied with resin casting.

Himself got round to finishing off the paint job on the 3mm scale ex-GWR 2-8-0 tank engines he'd been building for the Engineering Consultant.

It was just as well we kept in his good books, unknown to anyone, he was about to become a very important person in the top left hand corner of Wales.

In this month I also resolved that the time had come to make a model of the WHR's diesel shunter at Dinas.

The post about my intentions resulted in an offer to try out one of the prototype body kits from RT Models....

June

The paint job on the Pickering brake was one of the more straightforward ones so we didn't have long to wait for a picture of it posed ready for service on Bron Hebog.

With the Pickering built it left the Hudson toast rack carriage as one of the obvious missing vehicles from our WHHR sets.

We managed to get hold of one of the 009 Society kits before they sold out, but I was also keen to have a second model of the FR replica 39 in its current green livery, so the only option left was to scratch build.

This was a fortunate move because it transpired that Winson Engineering wasn't capable of making an exact copy of the original carriage, and there are some fundamental differences between the 1990s version and the original carriages.

My plan was to make a master for the carriage sides in styrene and cast a copy of it - the one in the picture shows me starting to embellish it with extra details in brass and styrene.

And June was also the month when, after much planning, we began installing the baseboard for a permanent dual gauge test track, my first home layout since I was a teenager.

We came up with an 8ft x 5ft board which can be folded into a frame on the wall when the space in the study is required for something more boring, such as *spoiler alert* self-isolating from Covid-19.....

Bush Train

I've been sent some nice pictures of WHR diesel shunter number 9 which was finished off during the week.

It looks pretty good to me considering where we started with a set of prototype nickel silver etches from RT Models, and we've added a lot of extra details such as the castings I made for the doors along the side of the bonnet, the protective bars in front of the grill and the exhaust and lights.

I've written in previous blog posts that this model is undersized because the design was based on the majority of these Baguley Drewry locos, whereas this one which worked in Australia and was retired to North Wales is longer and wider.

However, I hope all the extra details and the colourful livery will distract the eye.

Multi-Shade Shunter

For a humble yard shunter the Dinas-based Baguley Drewry number 9 carries an exotic mix of colours.

Himself is making solid progress adding the green and orange sections to the yellow base on the body.

The very fine band midway up the cab sheets has been covered with a waterslide transfer and will most likely be picked out in the same darker shade used on the top of the bonnet.

The orange on the rods and fly cranks certainly helps them to stand out and will look great when it's moving.

Brexit Yellow

Himself took the decision on which colour scheme to paint diesel 9 out of my hands by giving the bodyshell a couple of coats of yellow before the pixels had appeared on your screen in the previous post about this model.

As always, our readership was quick to point out the gaps in my knowledge, and it turns out that what I assumed was faded paint on the bonnet at one point was, in fact, just undercoat!

Being more familiar with the stringent paint shop procedures at Boston Lodge it hadn't occurred to me that a half-painted locomotive would be left out in the yard, and used, but I guess that's the difference at Dinas.

I'm rather pleased with how well the resin cast bonnet doors look now they're painted to match the rest of the body. 

We haven't attempted an exactl colour match but have used the closest Hunbrol tin we can find to the pictures of the real locomotive, which I'm told is painted 'JCB yellow'.

Or, as other readers have suggested, that shade should perhaps be called 'Brexit Yellow' on account of the political views of the chairman.

Although given the current state of the economy and society in these islands I'd suggest that prefix might be more appropriate for a particular shade of brown....

Diesel Embellishments

Himself has completed the detailing work on WHR diesel number 9.

As mentioned in the previous post about this model, it's transpired that this particular locomotive is a longer, and a little wider, than the standard Baguley Drewry diesel of this type which RT Models based these prototype etches on.

However, once you start to add on all these extras - such as the lights, the lamp brackets, the housing for the exhauster, the exhause pipe, steps, and brake pipes - they draw the eye so much that I wonder how much it will notice that it's slightly too small?

Since we built the Harrogate Peckett I've been impressed with the kits produced by RT, which are certainly a step up from the 'scratch aid' etches on offer from Worsley Works (and that's not a criticism, by the way) but I think these images show just how much these can be enhanced by making the effort to scratch build the embellishments, and it's a shame I see so many models where this is not attempted.

I look forward to seeing how this progresses during the painting stage.

I guess the next question is whether we finish it ex-works with all the sunshine yellow livery all over, or if the bonnet should have the washed-out, faded look of the real loco?

Bull Bars

There's been more work on the front end of WHR diesel number 9, specifically the protective structure in front of the radiator.

The real one has quite a few more bars, but short of getting something etched bespoke for us I think this will give enough of an effect.

Besides which, I'm hearing whispers that the prototype etch for the loco we're using has turned out to be a smidgeon on the small side when a tape measure was run over the real thing, so there's always the question of how much effort Himself should go to with this one because I couldn't rule out that a some point in the future the chassis may be transferred to a body of the correct dimensions,

Regardless, its's developing into a very nice looking model, and given that the real one has only made the most occasional forays to Beddgelert so far it's never likely to be a front line machine for us,

But it is yellow, and yellow is my favourite colour, so it's definitely got a place in our stockbox.

Rob's Bonnet

A day isolating in the 'Covid Cave' on Sunday gave me the opportunity to get the master and the castings for the new side doors on the bonnet of WHR diesel shunter 9 completed.

I think I'm pretty satisfied with how they've turned out.

I cast three copies (and one for luck) of the first master of just one set of the double doors, then joined them together - with an extra blank door on one end - to form a second master.

Once that had been used to make a mould I cast a few copies of this longer set and selected the best pair to use on the model.

When they had cured the spare door was cut from different ends - because they need to be a mirror image - and I've added some hinge details using fine styrene rod.

They're not that much thicker than the nickel silver etches which came with the kit prototype from RT Models and I'm confident they'll look quite effective on the finished model.

I think this can now be passed back to Himself to work out how to replicate the 'bull bars' style grill protection on the front.

Killing Time

In the previous post I said I had run out of excuses for not getting on with the doors on diesel 9, well, how prophetic those words turned out to be!

That very same day I somehow found myself - finally - among the millions testing postive for Covid.

As I am the only one in the household who needs to isolate, and because I have shut myself away for the duration in the room where I do all my modelling, there's no reason not to crack on.

Forget any idea that I shall be spending the whole ten days beavering away on models, though, because at the start of lockdown my employer issued us all with the kit to broadcast from home, so for most of these ten days everything is cleared away to turn the desk into a temporary news studio.

For this weekend, however, I have packed all that away and filled the empty hours with some casting work for customers and made a first attempt as a master for the door castings on the diesel's bonnet.

These are to replace some thin etched panels so I've made them out of 10" styrene and put a blank door on either side so I can use the castings that are produced with the door with the vent either to the left of the right.

This has been formed into a casting box and is curing under the RTV as I type.

For those who are curious about my health, I'm pleased to report that four days after testing positive my experience of Covid after being double-vaxxed seems no different to a winter cold, so far.

Doors Time

With the toast rack project passed over to Himself for the roofing and painting stage I've not got any excuses left for not tackling the doors on WHR diesel 9.

As you may have read in previous posts on this blog, the idea is to make this up from a test etch for a potential new kit from RT Models running on an adapted Farish 08 chassis.

Because it is a test, a few of the details will need to be altered before it goes into production, including the side doors on the bonnet which were not the same as the ones being carried by the WHR example based at Dinas.

In the kit these were meant to be metal overlays to be positioned on top of the perforated bonnet former.

I think I shall try to make a very thin masters out of styrene and attempt to cast copies. 

Keep following the blog to see how I get on....

Tall Slim Aussie

While I was away Himself was making progress on the test etches from RT Models for the Dinas shunter number 9.

At this stage the bonnet and cab are just resting on the footplate, and in the case of the bonnet it's just a basic former which will need some thin door and grill pieces scratch built on top.

What surprised me was how comparatively thin it appears, probably on account of the cab being so tall.

The most important developments have been down below where the chassis has had its Farish fly cranks replaced with brass ones from Meridian Models and the jackshaft drive has been grafted on.

Himself has decided not to use the replacement keeper plate supplied with the kit but to insert a brass tube through the rear of the chassis to hold the unpowered axle.

Its been reassembled and test run on the layout.

The next stage will be for me to do something with the bonnet.

Australian Adaptations

Himself has begun making the alterations to the Farish 08 chassis which will power our model of No. 9 - the large, yellow, ex-Australian shunting diesel at Dinas.

In the search for a more authentic look, with chunky fly cranks, he's replacing the plastic extensions which create the false outside frame effect on the 08 with a couple of packets of brass cranks we had in our strategic reserve of bits and pieces.

These were once produced by Meridian Models (item MP24) but so far as we can tell are not available at the moment - which is a shame because they're very handy to have.

They are fitted over the stubs of the overlong axles on the wheel sets on the chassis.

Quartering is as simple as it can ever be because you can line up the crank with the inset in the wheel where the original plastic cranks were positioned.

The jackshaft drive will be created using the clever replacement chassis keeper plate supplied by RT Models and employing a fourth set of these cranks.

Bags of Drewry

The previously mentioned aspiration to build a model of WHR diesel number 9 has taken a big leap forward with he arrival of some prototype etches.

We were offered the chance to buy them from the owner of RT Models who is working on bringing out a kit to run on the Farish 08 chassis. (What else?!)

Unless I am mistaken - which is always a possibility - these are in nickel silver, and I bought them knowing that at least one detail will need to be kit-bashed, because the etched vents in the side doors along the bonnet are in the wrong places.

This is more than outweighed, I hope, by the benefits of a crisp, solid and reasonably heavy body structure.

The other fun aspect is that it because it is a test etch it doesn't come with any instructions, so I'm sure Himself is going to thank me for that!

Number Nine

With an empty work bench I find my thoughts turning to what I might get up to next?

Something that's been on the wishlist for quite a while is the Dinas-based Baguley Drewery number 9 which turned up on the Welsh Highland in 2009 after being built for work at a sugar mill in Queensland.

It has ventured down to Porthmadog at least once and I've always been drawn to the bright yellow livery (my favourite colour).

At first glance it would seem to be an ideal candidate for a Farish 08 chassis with the jackshaft drive adaptation, but it's a much bigger beast than the FR's BD 0-6-0s, as comparison to the vintage brake van behind it shows.

I have some basic measurements for the body so it might be that I'll try to work up a design and start working out how best we can scratch build it.