In The Frame

The next logical step in the ballast wagon kit development is to design the main frame.

It's much more complicated than the frame for the DZ I did previously.

For a start it is part open structure, part flat platform. I had to factor in accommodating the ballast door / chute assembly in the centre of the wagon and the bogie mounting points which have to sit down below the rest of the frame, meaning the top surface as you look at the model would have to at the top of the open mould for casting.

To make like easier I used pre-cut styrene strip to the same height as the frame on the sides so they should match up perfectly as the meat in the sandwich, as it were.

Here it is glued to a sheet of styrene which will form the bottom of the mould box.

And here is the first casting produced from the mould. In this picture you get a better view of the thin platforms at each end, which are cast just half a mm thick to save resin.

Once I've made masters for the ends we can glue this to the sides and see if we end up with something that looks like an NG-Y, or not.

Protot-Y-pe

The mould for the NG-Y ballast wagon sides has been tried out for the first time and I'm more than satisfied with the result.

Here's how it looks fresh out of the mould..

All that excess resin you can see is the very thin film - and it is no more than a film - which is formed when the clear sheet (covered in sellotape, for non-stickness) is placed onto the back of the open mould and squelches out in all directions.

A few minutes careful work with the scalpel leaves you with this....

Now I have proved the master - and the mould - is satisfactory I can get on with making masters for the hopper ends, the frame and the trademark Z struts on these NG-Y ballast wagons.

MOTW - Van 2

We have another player in the popular FR game of musical numbers this week.

This attractive example of a Mk3 quarrymen's carriage turned brake van is very much a period piece now showing the van in the orange livery it wore through much of the 1990's and wearing the number 2.

This is how it was known for around 40 years after the preservationists takeover until the fleet of heritage vehicles was re-numbered in the mid-90's, a state of affairs that still leaves many of us - me included - confused.

What I grew up calling Van 2 - and have this model of - is now known as Van 6.

Carriage 6 - a first class 'bug box' - is now carriage number 2.

And carriage number 10 is now Van 2.

(I hope you're remembering all this because I certainly struggle to.)

As for the history of the van / carriage, it is said to have been converted in 1908, when the bodyshell was cut back at one end the the balcony added on.

Between the two world wars it was also fitted with air brakes and used on the WHR.

In the early years of the FR revival it was often pressed into passenger service as part of the famous 'Flying Flea' set of four wheeled carriages, with room for 6 people.

Our model was adapted - in much the same style as the prototype - from a Parkside Dundas plastic kit for one of the Mk 3 Quarrymen's, with windows cut into the ends and a balcony rail added in brass.

Van 6 is once more running around in green livery and I may well find myself making another model in this condition at some point in the future.

Trial & Error

The first test etch for the bogies and brake bits of the DZ wagons has arrived from Narrow Planet.

It's only now that I see it in three dimensions that I realise I didn't quite ask for the right thing.

The bogie frame outline isn't quite right - which is entirely my fault - so I've had to ask for the design to be tweaked and another trial etch is being done before I commit to the production run.

The brake wheels, however, have come out perfectly.

It is much to Narrow Planet's credit that their professionalism and determination to get this right is matched only by their forbearance of my complete inability to ask for what I want properly, the first time.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Dduallt and Himself are set to be TV stars.

A crew from Available Light Productions came along to film the layout yesterday.

The footage is to be used for a two part programme for BBC Four called 'The Golden Age of Steam.'

The first of the programmes, will be about the revival of the Welsh narrow gauge and one of the main narrative threads of the episode will be the building of the Deviation and the construction of the current 'Earl of Merioneth' at Boston Lodge.

So how come they've been pointing a camera at our layout?

The producer told me when they were going through the footage they filmed on the FR a few weeks ago they realised they could do with some shots that showed the spiral in the context of the wider landscape and the original route to Blaenau.

Hiring a helicopter for aerial filming wasn't an option so they asked the FR's PR department if the railway, by any chance, had a model of the spiral?

'No, we don't', they replied. 'But we know some blokes who do.'

So yesterday they filmed our trains running around the spiral - hauled, appropriately, by our model of 'The Square' and also recorded some interviews with Himself talking about the making of the layout and the stock (which I suspect he may secretly be hoping ends up on the cutting room floor - or whatever the digital equivalent is these days).

We'll find out next spring when the programme is due to be screened.

MOTW - Dduallt Signal Box

A lot of the subjects I have modelled for Dduallt and Bron Hebog have been altered or rebuilt since I completed them, but very few of them have ceased to exist - this is one of them.

If you've only ever visited Dduallt in the last 20 years you could be forgiven for not realising there ever was a signal box here because it was torn down a few years after the passing loop was taken out of commission.

You could also be forgiven for thinking it looks more like an overgrown potting shed than a signal box, but this is the FR of the 60's and 70's where practicality and getting back to Blaenau were the only criteria that mattered.

The box was tucked in the corner between the start of the new Deviation spiral and the line to the Old Moelywn Tunnel.

In the year we chose to model Dduallt - 1988 - there remained a very short stretch of this line forming a short siding behind the signal box. It gives us lot more operational flexibility when running the layout at exhibitions and a handy place where we can leave items of rolling stock on display while the trains run.

The model was built by guesstimating the dimensions because I never did take  the opportunity to measure it while it was still standing.   Using a comprehensive set of pictures - that I did have the presence of mind to take - I based the design around the size of the average front door knowing that the FR most likely built it using off-the-shelf components. 

I think it turned out pretty well.

Britomart - Almost There

Himself has been very busy putting the finishing touches to our new Britomart.

As you can see from these pictures he's sent me the wee engine is looking pretty complete now.

One of the details he has added which make this unmistakably a model of Britomart is the small wooden box which sits on top of the saddle tank just in front of the cab.

I've dreamt for over 20 years of having proper outside frames on Britomart and I think this model looks absolutely sensational and I for one can't wait to see the finished loco running on our layouts.