A Great Leap Forward

This update isn't just an excuse for a cheap, topical pun, there's some serious progress to report.

The scenery front line has marched northwards to the upper end of Beddgelert station.

Himself has completely revamped the board with the River bridge. When the layout was last shown it had some experimental static grass which upon reflection was a little short, a lot too green and very train set-ish.

The old static grass taken off, carpet underlay laid and then new static grass and more scatter materials added on top. (There is still more to go on.)

Some fencing has been done down by the road as well.

Here are some long range views of two of the station boards. The scale length platform loops - which can take a 12 carr train - are spread over three boards.



Here you can see some more of the Artistic Director's handiwork on some more bridge stonework and the water tower which Himself fabricated in brass. There's more on the tower in the Model Of The Week archive which you'll find in the menu at the top right of the page.





The next board up the line towards Rhyd Ddu is still pretty skeletal and has nothing on it apart from the ballasted track, land contours, some walls and bridges. This is what Himself will be tackling next.

Moving On

I'm keeping my New Year Resolution to make a model of the Parry People Mover - a flywheel powered rail car which had a pathetically brief career on the WHR in 1999.

You can read more about it in this post.

For this I'm using an outline drawing of the machine which I discovered on the Parry website, which has been scaled to 4mm by cross-referencing with measurements I took of the railcar in the shed at Dinas twelve years ago.



The tricky bit on this model is getting the angles at the front correct. I used a cut out of one end of the floorplan as a guide when assembling the bodyshell.

Here it is with all eight panels bonded together...



And now with the bus-style folding double doors added on behind...



It feels good to have made a start on this project after so long on the wish list.

Some Tree Surgery Required?

Himself has been joining in with some horticultural vandalism - others call it gardening - on the real FR, and his efforts lead me to wonder whether we need to make some alterations on Dduallt.

Last weekend the lineside gang removed the prominent fir tree which had grown up inside the spiral at the Porthmadog end of Rhoslyn Bridge.



As you can see, it restores the view south from the station to something approaching how the area looked in the 1970's and 80's.



Our model of Dduallt is nominally set in 1988. That was relatively current when we began the project more than 20 years ago, and our fir tree in the corner is a mere sapling compared to the monster it developed into.

If you're having trouble locating it, it's just behind the B Wagon in the headshunt...



And here it is again, apparently sprouting from the Darjeeling tank's smokebox...



So, the question is, should we move with the times and pluck ours out? Answers on a postcard - or if you can't afford a stamp feel free to use the comments box below.

Standard Gauge Diversion

The 2012 exhibition circuit begins for me this weekend close to home in Glasgow with Bron Hebog's 4mm scale, standard gauge stablemate New Mills.



This West Coast Main Line themed layout is being shown at Model Rail Scotland at the SECC - now spread across 2 halls - with 1960's stock, the era when steam was giving way to diesel and electric power.

I first operated this layout as a school boy more then 20 years ago when Himself was one of the team building it at our local model railway club and, like a fine wine, it is getting better with every passing year.

If you're coming along to the show please do say 'hi' to the team - me, Himself, the Artistic Director & the Guru - and let us know what you think of our blogs.

Thanks to Chris Nevard for letting us use his excellent photo at the top of the post. You'll find more of them in a feature on New Mills in the current March edition of Model Rail magazine.

And you can keep track of developments on the layout by reading the Cooper Hire MRC blog - click on the link at the top right of this page.

MOTW - Russell

This week it's time to set the record straight.

I was ticked off recently when I described NGG16 number 87 in a Model Of The Week post as the flagship of the restored WHR.

'Surely', wrote a correspondent, 'There's only one WHR flagship, and it's Hunslet 2-6-2 'Russell'?'



It's an interesting point, but I'm sticking by my original statement for a couple of reasons.

Firstly because this blog is almost exclusively concerned with the FR-controlled rebuild of the WHR but also because a flagship, in a naval employment of the word, can be switched from vessel to vessel, or as in this case locomotive to locomotive.

Russell, I would argue, is in an altogether different and more prestigious category. The sole surviving NWNGR locomotive is the icon of the WHR.

Our Russell, the one seen here, is a second generation model. The first was a Chivers whitemetal kit running on a semi-scratchbuilt chassis. The chassis is still going strong running with another Chivers body representing the loco in 1930's cut down form. (Good for winding up the audience at exhibitions.)

This one is a Backwoods Miniatures kit. It runs as well as it looks and represents the loco the first time it ran on the FR after restoration in 1988.

Of course on that occasion, and since, it has never ventured further than Rhiw Goch, but we don't let such minor details as the fact it couldn't squeeze through Garnedd Tunnel deter us running it on Dduallt.



Let us hope that when Russell's current overhaul is completed (and the appeal is still open donations) relations between the FR and the WHHR at Gelert's Farm will have thawed even more than they already have in recent months and we will not be straining credulity when we run our model on Bron Hebog.

Rear View

With just over 50 days to go until Bron Hebog gets presented to the paying public again Himself has been stepping up the grass planting around Beddgelert station.

A couple of weeks ago I showed you pictures of the base layer of dyed carpet underlay being applied to this board.

Now, not only is that complete, Himself has also added a second layer of foliage including a lot of static grass in the field behind the station. (On the right of the picture)



The view you're seeing here is the one the operators get from behind the layout - although eventually there will be another two rows of scenic boards behind this which will show the first of the S bends on the climb towards Rhyd Ddu.

Getting the trackwork right on this section is going to be critical because if a train were to derail in the middle of the layout it will be out of reach from any direction!

The Signs Are Good

Himself writes: I have been making some of the plethora of signs and signals that have sprung up at Beddgelert. It's quite a task because none of them are anything like standard gauge railway signals so there's nothing available commercially which can be adapted.

(The 20 pence piece is there just to give you a sense of the size of the signs)



We have been fortunate to have been given the signalling schematic drawings which enabled me to scan each sign individually and reduce them to 4mm. I then laser printed them onto photo paper, which then has to be sprayed with 'Crystal Clear' to protect the print, and then they are bonded onto 20 thou plasticard, which is in turn glued onto the posts and painted.

The most difficult ones are going to be the 'ladybird' signals which are illuminated by two amber lights positioned where the top and bottom black spots would be.



This will require some experimenting to find the best way to make them work - either fibre optics, grain of rice bulbs or LEDs - the maximum size for the light hole is 1.8 mm. I suspect the fibre optics strands will like the sharp 90° bend down the post so that option may not be a goer.

The other signal to make is the point indicator light which is in the style of a single lamp traffic light.