Hi all.

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates recently. Various things have conspired to prevent much visible progress with the layout since the last entry here so there isn’t much more to show at present.

That said, the tree factory is slowly churning out more examples for along the top of the embankment, meaning that once the ground work is completed, it will be a fairly quick task to get them all planted in position.  Also all of the wood for the first fiddle yard has been acquired and this will be assembled in the near future.

In lieu of any real Ropley progress, this blog entry is going to take a quick look at the recently released Graham Farish WD 2-8-0. This didn’t really feature on my shopping list, but I like the prototype and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that 90733 on the KWVR will one day make the trip south for a gala.

Although the prototype is something of an unremarkable type, the model represents yet another stage in the development of N gauge steam power, being the first Farish release to be powered by a small coreless motor housed within the engine, rather than the tender drive seen on every Farish release since the Poole legacy V2.

I’ve never really been a huge fan of these tender drive mechanisms, finding them to be quite variable in performance from model to model and never matching the excellent running qualities of Farish diesels. I have a Black 5 which runs like a dream, smooth at low speed and almost silent, but also a 4MT that is noticeably jerky at lower speed. The recent A1 rests somewhere in between the two. I wouldn’t describe any of them as really poor runners, but when you are running them at a scale 25mph or less, any deficiency in the mechanism becomes more apparent. For me smooth slow running is quite an important requirement for all engines running on the layout, and I have to say the new mechanism in the WD blows all the tender drive models out of the water.

Straight out of the box it was almost a perfect runner, if a little jerky at very very slow speed as you might expect for a brand new model. However after running in, the fitting of a Zimo MX621N chip and the tweaking of a few CVs it now runs silky smooth and is virtually silent at low speed. The two videos below show slow running out of the box and after being fitted with a chip. The slight pause in the second video was the result of track which hasn’t been properly cleaned for quite some time!

The motor itself is contained within a cast metal split frame which takes up the whole of the boiler space and the smokebox is completely filled with a second weight, so those looking to add weight to aid haulage will have to be a bit creative with how they do it. My example easily hauled the 5 Mk.1s it will be expected to deal with. One plus point to the loco drive is that there is plenty of space in the tender for the DCC chip and a small speaker for those who wish to add sound. Another nice feature is that the plastic coal load is removable to reveal a fully detailed bunker, something impossible with previous models.

I was quite surprised that only one axle is driven by the motor. I was expecting a full gear chain when I removed the keeper plate to add some oil as recommended in the instructions, but on reflection I suppose it’s not necessary to add lots of gears when you have valve gear to do the job for you instead.

Detail wise the WD is just as good, if not better than the most recent releases, although not knowing enough about the prototype I can’t really pass judgement on the accuracy of the model. Comparing it to photos, it certainly looks spot on. Supplied for the modeller to fit are front steps and a nice set of tools for the tender.

It will be interesting to see how the forthcoming STD5 compares to the WD and if Farish can maintain the high standard which has now been set by the WD, but perhaps more interesting will be watching how, or indeed if, Dapol respond. Whilst they have shown that the supercreep motor is capable of impressive slow running, the ones I have seen in the flesh sounded like they were grinding ballast through the gears, so the opportunity exists for Dapol to further improve on that aspect of their models if they wish to take up the challenge now set by Farish.

Finally, it’s the Mid Hants Autumn Gala  on the 7th/8th/9th September so more research is on the cards to fill in some gaps, particularly for the footbridge and area around the Carriage and Boiler shop.

Cheers all,

Tom.