Update on all fronts

Vale of Ffestiniog - the ‘fake’ bogie sides have now been added to one side of the engine and one of the upper parts has been test fitted to check dimensions. It looks good I think. Please note this idea of using a split bogie side arrangement is not mine but is near enough a direct copy of that produced by the Wallers for Dduallt, and as featured in the model railway press. Thanks, once again, are due to them. I didn’t make my own springs though, instead using springs included in the parkside FR bogie kits, which are pretty similar and were spare it the ‘bits box’!

I have also soldered the roof in place, not without trouble I must say as the tolerances are very small indeed (as well as it being far too long!) and much filing and messing about was necessary. In all that, tacking on and off and on and off again, I managed to solder it on with the roof vents facing the wrong end. D’oh! However, I have decided not to bother messing about taking it all off again, so I may either fill the holes and make new ones (square!), or not worry as only the rivet counters would notice! The most relevant hole is that for the exhaust, so I might just create one new hole for that and be done with it.

The ground frame is in place as a former really, the sides of will be faced with stone and the area around it and its top face filled with ballast (as per the real thing). There is also a small handrail to go on.

Talking of handrails, here are the two for the Tro Ffridd sheep creep. I couldn’t make them stand up for a photo, so the flying bench is doing its best.


3 ton slate wagons – 5 of these are now complete, 2 are braked. For slate waggon spotters 3 are of the BL variety and 2 of the BM2 stable.


The weather has been better of late and so the spray painting season has started. Before I start on the monster process of painting carriages, I did some practice on fencing and slate loads. Here are a load of loads(!) – both the 2 and 3 ton varieties of resin pieces marketed by Chris Veitch, they were sprayed in primer and one in the image has had a different shade of grey dry brushed on top. They have now all had this treatment and a third shade of grey will be added soon to add realism.

The plasticard path from the steps/ramp up to the platform area has been painted and fencing is ready to be added asap.

Here is a shot of the previously mentioned level crossing, the gates are just leaning but the rest is stuck in place. I have also started looking at the boards to sit in the 2 foot and also the anti-pedestrian 'sawtooth' bits.

Two new trees (smaller pines from the hornby skale scenics range) have been added, can you spot one of them in the image below?


In the Cheltenham workshop, the FR gunpowder van (Long variety) has been completed by Dad. His theory that the reason these kits are so fiddly is because they have been ‘shot down’ from 7mm makes sense indeed, why didn’t I realise that before? I wonder if the England kit suffers from the same problem? I understand it contains a drivetrain of 10 gear wheels! A reason indeed to wait for the impending release of a version with a RTR chassis! Below is an image of the van alongside Merddin and behind are the two 16mm waggons I mentioned previously.~


Finally, another oddity. I have had a hornby portaloo that came in a set for a while. At the weekend I got another from the Bachmann range, thinking they would be similar – look at the size difference!

Colin