Titbits

I have invested in a new soldering station.  My antex was increasingly showing it’s age and will now be retired for purely electrical soldering and my cheap variable temp iron was just that, cheap and nasty so this will be filed under B for bin.  The new one is provides a temp controlled iron with digital readout from 150 deg (for low melt solder) to 400 (for some serious, some might call it ‘extreme’ soldering) and 60W of power – plenty for 009!

There are a myriad of bits you can buy, but for now I have a pointy detail one and a bevel bit.  I may well invest in a blade style bit soon too.  So far I am very happy with the build quality and it looks to be a sensible investment at about half the cost of an ersa.

The other project is a way to avoid the damp of the garage, by moving major parts of the layout into the loft, which is boarded nicely ready.  However the hatch isn’t big enough to get the 2ft wide boards up there, so I had a look tonight and discovered that widening it won’t too difficult – a weekend project I think.

24–the latest box

Carriage 24 is now a box with a floor, and seats installed.

This is how I add flux and keep it square when soldering – I also sometimes use a square, but this trusty block has built all my carriages.

87 continues a pace too and nears the finish line.  K1 will be attended to next, with better matched motors hopefully meaning it can move to the ‘ready for service’ section soon too.

I’ve also ordered new Alan Gibson wheels for the fifth Garratt (these were loose from their plastic centres when I bought the kit half completed off ebay) and brass rod for the new water tower base construction (replacing the way too flimsy plastic previous attempt).  The 5th Garratt (4th NGG16) was to be NG109 (Pete Waterman’s loco), but I may well find it hard to resist making it into NG143 in green and converting my current black NG143 to NG109 when it appears (it is expected to be outshopped in lined ‘LNWR’ black, so the conversion may not be too difficult).

Twitter

Should have said long ago that Rhyd Ddu is on twitter : @rhydddu and also Facebook.

Twenty four seven

Work has been completely crazy recently, with very little time available for modelling, but I have found a little time to start on carriage 24.  This is the replica full height summer carriage (i.e. NWNGR).  It runs as a ‘lock up’ carr at the end of most WHR rakes and so is a vital model.  I had a kitbash version – a plastic Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol carriage – but it just didn’t cut the mustard next to the cut down summer carr (23).  I was able to persuade Allen of worsley works to do me the etchings (he couldn’t believe there was another version of the summer carrs that he hadn’t done already). 

Progress so far has seen the footboards folded up and soldered in place, extra vent pieces (very small indeed) superglued above the doors (using my favoured powerbond), and the construction of a set of seats for the carriage from parkside ‘narrow gauge coach seats’.

In a slight departure from normal methods, I have this time soldered bolts to the floor as the bogie pivot and will add the nut underneath (I normally do this the other way around, but on balance this may turn out to be a better way of doing it as the seats can sit over the bolt without the bolt protruding into the carriage necessitating a hole in the floor to be created.  The nuts can be loctited onto the bolt and the excess snipped off.

Now I just need to find time to solder the sides to the ends and the floor to the ends before I need to think about the roof (I already have some curved brass ready), truss rods etc.

24, along with the replacement 2043 and 100, 102 and 14 will be the last batch of carriages through the semi industrial process and I thus hope to have them all running for Sparsholt.

87 update

The power bogies for 87 have taken a leap forward at the Cheltenham works. One bogie is complete and works well, it just needs painting. The other has been stripped back, problems solved and now just needs the valve gear reattaching. Best to paint it too though prior to reassembly, so that is the next job.

The tanks and body are already 95% complete and painted with just minor details and the off White lining to complete.

So we shall certainly gave black, red and blue garratts ready for Sparsholt.

Telford

Attended the Telford NG show today, here are some shots:

Calstock (Cotehele) in 7mm was nicely done and friendly – the periscope lent to Thomas was great fun.  The original England loco was great too. 

There appeared to be some kind of diorama competition.  These three caught the eye… Manod quarry art storage, Duffield Bank and Fairbourne…

and I’m always impressed by the detail and scenics of american layouts even if I’m not that bothered by the stock…

Had a good chat with Pete at Backwoods.  I fancy a Darjeeling B class tank sometime, but it’s clear that finding a place for a DCC chip might be a challenge – look where the motor has to go!

and I also picked up the etches for 24, the NWNGR replica summer carr as running on the WHR today.  I had previously made a kit bash attempt to model this, but it didn’t stand up to the other etched kits so Allen nicely etched this for me.

A Prince amongst engines

Today we made a trip to the Telford exhibition (report to come) and on the way back visited Prince, who having been declared “Hors de combat” currently resides at the Engine House museum, itself a part of the Severn Valley Railway setup at Highley.

The main reason was to take measurements and check colours etc. for Dad’s 7mm and 16mm versions (hence the measuring tape).  Whilst there we spotted a few st****rd gauge locos too!

Semi industrial processes restart

Today I took a day off work to kickstart a few areas of the project.

8 carriages (vans 4/5, 104, 106, 112, 116, 122, 124) were cleaned, primed and once dry (with the help
of the hairdryer that melts Baldwins) ivory was added for the windows and black for the underframes.

That means they are now ready for seats to be painted, people added and Han painting of roofs, ends etc.

Harlech and criccieth castles had a few tidying up jobs completed and then too were primed.

Brass was rolled for the roofs of 2043, 100 and 102 (plus 24 to come soon). This used the patented newspapers, mousemat and tube method.

The situation with Locos was appraised and a priority list created. 87 is next for attention.

The new green 143 was studied (especially the new bunker!). As was my part built kit for 109. Perhaps that should be built as a green 143 and my black 143 altered to 109 in time? In considering the one nearly complete power bogie for 109 (built by another, bought from eBay) 4 wheels were seen to be loose (caused by heat when soldering flycranks on I suspect). So the first job is to remove rods and the cranks to assess the wheels for either reuse with the new plastic bearings we have or to source new wheels.

Finally we proved that the new motor bought for k1 is a far better match than the one previously installed in the front tank. The two motors are now much closer matched which should go a long way to explain the running problems.

Mucking about

Tonight I added a lot more weathering to the Romanian ballast wagon. The ballast load was completed, a bit of extra lead weight added inside, general stray ballast added to the low level ballast doors and to crevices around the model, some rust highlights dry brushed on and the bogies reattached. Once final touching up is complete this needs a coat or two of matt primer.

Earlier in the afternoon the new turnouts for the hidden sidings were pinned down into their correct positions and plain line track laid out to show the look of the eventual track plan - the shot below was taken standing on a chair above the board and even then I couldn't get the whole 6 foot board in shot!

Bushcraft

Various bushes have been added today plus the final batch of tidy up ballasting. Painting the rails/sleepers with sleeper grime (railmatch) will be done tomorrow.

Rom-com

Below is the culmination of many painting sessions (30 mins at once) with the Romanian ballast wagon made for me by Boston Largs Works (Rob Waller).  It took so long as I didn't have time to devote more than 30 mins at a session and also because there are so many surfaces to paint!  Also red really doesn't cover well so that took a few coats too.  However I have enjoyed painting it as it is kind of therapeutic.

This is where I'm up to - body painted, initial weathering applied but with rusty lower level highlights to come.   A simple plastikard insert to hold a ballast load is ready for its ballast to be glued on and the tie down cleats also need adding once the yellow paint on them is dry - holes are drilled ready.

Then all it needs are some transfers!  Bogies are done and wait for final varnishing before I reattach them. 

I expect tomorrow to be able to paint the track on the new extension piece after cleaning any stray ballast off the rail faces.

And we continue

The ballast was dry, so stage two commenced - full depth ballast added around the track, and then using a dropper, woodland scenics scenic Cement was added to seal it in place.

Tree cover

I have now rewired the extension (and as it happens found the source of the expong shorting on the way).

This means that tonight stage one ballasting (an initial drop onto pva glue) can commence.

Alongside all this I purchased five gorgeous hand built Anita decor trees from international models. This have now also been placed and they look perfect. The key for me is to use as many different tree suppliers as possible to create extra realism.

Reconnected

Both tracks are now reconnected and I have made a few test passes of bogie carriuages with good results.  Now to reattach the feeds and put back the water tower base...

In other news the Romanian ballast wagon has had its steps and balcony meshes added, been primed in red oxide and now awaits painting plus the addition of the tiny tie down cleats which I have finally decided I will in the end add to the model. 

A trip to the wrong end of Wales

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to Railex to see the Dduallt action this weekend as we had a family holiday booked.  Alongside the usual beach activities, gardens etc we managed to fit in trips to the Brecon Mountain and Teifi Valley railways.

The Brecon Mountain was scored as the 7th best line in the UK and using this track below the ‘soon’ to be opened 2 mile extension would likely push it higher. 

The Baldwin ex SAR No.2 was our loco (good choice indeed).  What a model that would make!  It was previously owned by Mike Hart and expected to run on the WHR but is a little underpowered perhaps? 

Other things we liked: the balconies allowing views like this…the viewing platform allowing you to see the works and the play area for the kids.

The Teifi Valley scored as the 17th best in the country on a par with say Launceston.  It was all a little ramshackle, with various huts and sheds meaning a rather disjointed experience and the carriages were really showing their age.  The two steam locos they have are well looked after though and the line has a good deal of potential if only they can solve the missing bridge problem (below).  The guard reckoned £200k was needed and that raising that would be a stretch – gosh have some imagination (!) -  £28m found for the WHR!  However as you can see from the shot, the abutment on the far side is in a bad way and the bill could be way more than £200k.

On the one wet morning we visited the Swansea waterfront museum and (unexpectedly) we ran into some FR related bits.  Firstly a beautiful model of a Porthmadog slate ship and in the adjacent displays… a 7mm double engine and a video of Porthmadog past and present. 

Further into the exhibition and I also found this collection of model locos…