Weight Watching

Himself has been tinkering with the prototype flat wagon to try and improve its ability to stay on the rails.

The first runs at the Glasgow show suggested that the all-resin construction is a little on the light side when faced with the kind of complicated point work we have in our fiddle yards.

His idea was to fix a layer of 'liquid lead' shot on the underside of the wagon floor and I'm told initial tests suggest it is an improvement.

Were I to make a second version I think I might experiment with adding some lead shot when I pour the resin into the mould for the base of the floor which is hidden with the durbar plating.

I did consult a friend who is a doctor of chemistry to ask if mixing lead and resin was a foolish idea? 

But his advice was it should be no more toxic than casting with resin already is....

Rush Job

It wasn't part of the plan, but a very productive couple of hours at the weekend saw me put the finishing touches to my prototype FR intrastructure well wagon.

These bits included links cut out of a chain to represent the lashing rings on the deck and some brass wire bent to look something like the pipework around the brake cylinder on the Caernarfon end bogie.

At which point I had a very bad thought - I wonder if there's still to give it a lick of paint in time for Model Rail Scotland?  

Himself indicated he was up for the challenge, and so here it is with a rapidly applied interim livery in the infrastructure department's rather drab olive green livery.

At this point the wagon has been test run around the track at my house but has yet to be tried out on Bron Hebog itself.

So whether or not it will play a part in any of the train formations, or just be a static feature in the siding at Beddgelert station, will depend on how it runs when we get the layout set up tonight....

It Really IS A Test Track

I've had this weekend marked in the diary since Christmas as an opportunity to make some significant progress on the electrics on the 'test track.'

I'm pleased to report that in a full-day session yesterday Himself and I managed to install and wire up all but one of the remaining point motors on the standard gauge side, and were prevented from completing that only by the need for an unforeseen additional switch.

We got that done so efficiently that there was time to get some power into the narrow gauge circuit and sidings.

I've always used inverted commas when referring to the test track, because I fully expect it to morph into more of a home layout project in the fullness of time.

However, I would like to place on record that one of the first things I did when it was wired up was to test propel the well wagon around the circuit, as until now I have not yet been able to do any more than push it by hand along a short section of straight track.

And the test track immediately proved its worth because I discovered the bottom edge of the frames below the axle boxes on one bogie needed a little attention from the file when they fouled on the points.

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 1

And so we come to the end of another year of lockdown and exhibition-less modelling - for us at least.

It's ironic that the reason I began this blog nearly a million page views ago, was to have a way of showing off what we were doing while we were in the long process of building Bron Hebog, and while Dduallt was retired from shows.

Never could I have imagined we'd face such a sustained period where modelling, once again, became an almost exclusively private activity in your home, with no communal outlet.

It's one reason to be thankful for the opportunities the online world gives us.

Now, as I always do at the end of December, I'm going to take a look back - three months at a time - at some of the highlights of our modelling .

January

I'm afraid to say that there's been little progress since the start of the year on my prototype for the FR infrastructure well wagon,

Since this picture was taken I have found a way to cast the deck pieces in styrene, but it still doesn't have any couplings so has yet to be given any sort of test run.

Himself was busy adding the final pipe runs onto to the boiler unit of the Backwoods NG G16 kit for our model of the freshly restored 130.

And he was also well on the way to lining out a set of three 3mm Hawksworth carriage kits he'd been making as a favour to the Engineering Consultant - a man who was destined for higher things before the year was out!

February

This was the year my son reached an age where he was ready for his first OO layout, and I found my moulding and resin casting skills came in handy fixing a second hand Mainline wagon which had lost one of its sliding doors on one side.

Once the pipe runs were finished on the real locomotive, Himself wasted no time in getting our 130 painted, lined, and sent on a test run on Bron Hebog.

It really looked quite the part!

Another locomotive which was finished off - after many years - was our Mercian Welsh Pony, which looks absolutely stunning matched with the Victorian set.

March

Our James Spooner II project was in danger of running perilously far ahead of the real build as Himself had a play around with the etches to see how the half cab arrangement would work,

This is a model I hope we can expect more updates on in 2022.

Many years after our first model was stolen at an exhibition, Himself finished off his long-term project to make a replacement of the works shunter Harold. (aka, Shitty the Shunter)

At this time I was busy working on a commission for a scratch built model of Carnforth buffet car 114 in styrene.

To be continued...

On The Deck

I've cast, cut and fitted the sheets of Durbar plating for the FR infrastructure department's well wagon and I'm quite pleased with how it's looking.

There are still a few more details I need to try and recreate, such as the rings which are there to tie down the loads on the deck, and I need to fill the holes in the axle boxes of my home made bogies,

Before long I'll pass it over to Himself to fit some couplings, vac pipes and things like that, and he can give some test running to see whether it will be a practicable item of rolling stock on the layout or not?

 

Non-Slip Casting

I'm in a mood to finish off some projects which have been held in abeyance for too long.

One of them is the well wagon project which has been sitting waiting for something to represent the Durbar plate decking.

My original plan was to get something bespoke in etched brass which would help give strength and weight to the structure, and would be user-friendly if the wagon ever got added to my range of kits.

I'd sent off some design sketches but nothing as come of them - and I'm reluctant to nag or chase-up - so I've decided to try one of the alternative approaches I had in mind originally.

Years ago I bought a packet of very thin, etched brass plates, which I can't seem to find being sold anymore.

They weren't big enough to cover the whole lower deck of the wagon, and I don't have enough of them in any case.

What I can do, however, is use one of them as a master to make a mould and cast a number of copies in resin, which I can then join together to make a master for a large piece which does fit.

This is what I have done, and you can see the result in the picture at the top of the post.

You can still make out where the join is but I'm hoping it won't show up too much when the wagon is painted and perhaps given a bit of weathering too.

Next, I shall be making some smaller pieces for cover the slopes and the upper platforms above the bogie pivits.

This will mean that the wagon still probably be a little on the light side, still, but the solution will probably be just to run it loaded.

Well Pleased

I got a little modelling done over the Christmas and New Year holidays with a few more steps on the FR well wagon prototype.

First I had to make a second bogie frame design for the Caernarfon end of he wagon which has a square-cornered extension unlike the semi-circle at the Blaenau end, which is how these Polish bogies were originally made.

This end also has the vacuum cylinder mounted on the longitudinal bar.

It took a little bit of head-scratching to work out how to cast it and get it angled.

My solution was to cast the bracket and the top end as one piece and the main lower bit of the cylinder which can be glued onto it to make up the unit which can be fixed onto the bogie.

There's not much more I can do on this until I get the brass deck designed and test etched, but I think it is showing promise.

2020 Review - Part 4

October

The output of new models slowed towards the end of the year, especially at my end of the operation as I spent more time concentrating on meeting requests for resin wagon kits and parts.

By now I had completed the prototype for the MOD flat wagon kit.

Himself spent a week volunteering on the FR and getting a look up closed at the new lining design on Welsh Pony.

We had always intended to finish ours in the green livery that was predicted all through the restoration, but now it looks like the running-in livery will be staying for a few years so we decided to take the plunge and apply that to our model, seen here with the black lining transfers around the edge being applied.

Himself also got round to a job he'd been meaning to tackle for a number of years, and overhaul the Steve Coulson working dioramas in our custody.

November

Progress can be an illusion sometimes.

Himself began applying the orange lining around the edge of the panels on Welsh Pony.

It looked fine on the tender, but once it added to the tighter areas like the cab sides it became painfully apparent that even the thinnest products from the Fox range would be unsuitable.

It was time for Plan B....

The delivery of the painted and lined cylinder covers for 130 to Dinas meant we could follow suit with confidence on ours.

There was more pipework added to the boiler unit which is the last part of the locomotive still under construction.

We can't complete it until we see pictures confirming the positions of all the pipes at the front of the cab.

December

Plan B for Welsh Pony meant stripping it right back to brass and starting again with a coat of primer and purple/plum from the airbrush.

We commissioned a set of bespoke transfers from Custom Model Decals and you can already see the results in some of the latest blog posts. 

I was kept busy with casting.

One customer asked if it was possible to produce some copies of the fake bogie frames we used on our Funkey diesels to disguise the N Gauge chassis.

An enquiry from one modeller turned into orders for 10 sets from all across the country, so that kept me busy for a few weeks.

Currently I am in the process of producing a prototype for a kit of the FR/WHR well wagon.

There's been good progress on the main body of the wagon.  

I'm hoping to finish it off with an etched brass deck covering but that may take a while to come to fruition.

That's the story of our 2020.

It was a year when it seems that railway modelling was given a shot in the arm by lockdown - within our homes at least - let's hope that in 2021 it might be possible to attend an exhibition again.

Wouldn't that be marvellous!

Wagonry

There's not been much to report on the blog in the last week.

I was busy with more commercial casting, while Himself's been kept fully occupied on a top secret project to be revealed later this month.

Once my outside work was out of the way I have made a little more progress on the prototype of the well wagon.

Having previously cast the two side pieces I now needed to make some masters for the spacers which will give the wagon more strength.

These were made in styrene and then the first ones cast and fixed to the prototype.

The intention is for brass sections, etched with a durbar plate pattern, to be fixed on top.

My next task will be to sort out the bogies which - in true FR fashion - are not identical.