Big Bananas

If you've been reading the carriage building guide (you'll find a link over on the right if you haven't seen it yet) you'll have seen me mentioning the way the laminated styrene carriage sides have a tendency to curl up, due to the action of the solvent, and how when you join the sides and ends together for the first time it looks more like two bananas placed back to back rather than a railway carriage.

Until now I've not posted a picture of this, so I made sure I took a snap when my latest carriage (FR Barn 105 for a Boston Largs Works client)reached this stage so that you could see what I was on about.



It looks rather catastrophic but it's not a big problem. In fact, so long as they bend inwards, it's a help. Once the floor is inserted (see below) it keeps the sides nice and straight, and the roof structure will do the same job at the top.

Nameless No More

For more years than I can remember our model of the FR's newest double engine, David Lloyd George, has been running around without nameplates.

Finally it is proudly sporting a pair...



Until recently 009 nameplates have been very hard to come by unless your kit came with them or it was one of the more popular / common prototypes, which DLG is not.
But, 009 modellers, despair no more, because in the last year or a new nameplate supplier has appeared on the horizon. Narrow Planet provide a completely bespoke, and in our experience, highly efficient service, and will design and produce plates to your exact requirements at a very agreeable price.

A number of other models are now also sporting Narrow Planet plates including Planet diesel Upnor Castle.



K1 is now fully dressed...



As is NGG16 87....

Encore Une Grange (Another Barn)

No, your eyes are not deceiving you, this indeed a carbon copy of the last model I made.



Progress has been steady since I returned from holiday on the 'copy' of FR 'Barn' 105 for a Boston Largs Works customer.

As you can see most of the beading is on the two sides (which are not a mirror image - see previous posts on the history of this carriage for an explanation) the next job is to turn them over and mock up the full wooden droplights on the doors and the half droplights on the small windows.

The ends have been cut from styrene and will be beaded-up, and then we're getting tantalisingly close to fixing them into a four-sided carriage shape.

So Long, Farewell...

Today it was time to say goodbye to some old friends which have been a fixture on the shelf above my modelling desk for many months.



They are, from the back, the WHR Romanian ballast wagon, the KMX tamper and the FR's rail mounted cherry picker.

Himself has taken them away to Bron Hebog HQ in Oxfordshire for painting. We've been on holiday together for the last week on the beautiful Hebridean island of Islay - which explains the lack of posts.

Islay, by the way, is highly recommended, especially if you take a recreational interest in Malt Whisky and mirco-brewed real ales. (Hic!)

Back at the workbench this week I'll be aiming to resume progress on rebuilt Barn 106 as well as an order for models of 105 and 102. I'm also going to try to get to grips with transfer resin rivets on the pair of 7mm ballast wagons.

May We Suggest...

There's a new blog on the Net you might care to take a look at - it's for Cooper Hire MRC, Bron Hebog's parent organisation, if you like.

Cooper Hire MRC is a loose affiliation of three old boys and one 'overseas member' (Me). They get together about once a week to blether and booze and occasionally they might get round to some modelling too. At the very least they'll have a thorough and comprehensive discussion about the modelling they might do at some unspecified point in the future.

Aside from Bron Hebog and Dduallt the 'club' are custodians of two other notable layouts.

New Mills is a OO layout set on the WMCL which has been exhibited across the UK for many years as a modern image layout and is now been recast into a 1960's steam/diesel/electric transition era layout.

Of more interest to narrow gauge modellers is the collection of 16mm models built by the late, great Don Boreham, the godfather of UK narrow gauge modelling. We have built a small exhibition layout, Merioneth Town, to display his famous models at exhibitions.

The website is still being developed but if you'd like to take a look you can find it here

Ffes-pionage

Himself has returned from another undercover spying mission to North Wales, infiltrating a lineside maintenance working party at Rhiw Goch as a means of penetrating the interior of Boston Lodge Works to bring back intelligence reports on the progress in the conversion of the original WHR Winson semi-open into a service carr.

Looking at the pictures smuggled out of Porthmadog it's remarkable how different the carriage looks and how much they've been able to do so quickly.

It looks pretty stark and slab sided without any of the beading in place yet. It's quite unusual and amusing to see a real carriage like this which is more akin to the first stage of my scratch-built carriages (see the guide on the page menu over the right if you haven't read this yet).

Once the beading goes on I'll be ready to start making my model of it.



As you can see one side of the carriage has a big opening. This is the compartment which houses a generator to power the electrical equipment, such as fridges, in the buffet section of the carriage.

The service carriages also includes a toilet compartment and an area for the guard, with a vacuum setter and hand brake etc. As far as I know this concept is another in the long list of FR 'firsts'. I'm sure someone will correct me if I am mistaken.

A Barn Again Modeller

I could be forgiven for a certain feeling of Groundhog Day right at the moment.

I've begun work on a new model - another FR 'Barn'. This time it's to make a version of the current 106 which had a total body replacement 10 years ago.

Here are the two naked sides without any beading detail.



106 is a little simpler to make than 105 because all the window edges are square, so there's no fiddling about with tiny triangles and then filing them down.

But here's the rub.

I've agreed to make another model of 105 (and Obs 102) for a Boston Largs Works client so I feel like I'm seeing Barns in my sleep....