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Afternoon All! Welcome to this first edition of the Derails Diary! I hope this will become an informative, informal, fun diary surrounding interesting things going on here at a retailer; a little bit behind the scenes, but mostly use messing around! This first post revolves around the garden railway side of our business and our visit to the UK's largest (and best, in our opinion) Garden Railway locomotive manufacturer, Roundhouse Engineering Co of Doncaster. Leaving the Forest at 8am on Sunday, after a traffic and road-work free 3 hour trip to Donny we pulled into their car park. They're based on an interesting industrial estate, with a fishing tackle shop on one side and a gym on the other! The Roundhouse 2019 model is the iconic Ffestiniog Double Fairlie, never produced 'en masse' in 16mm scale form before. The prototype loco's were designed by Robert Fairlie in the early 1860's and despite what you might think, they weren't actually first seen on the FR - standard gauge versions were produced first. The first Narrow Gauge variant 'Little Wonder' was delivered to the FR in 1869 and Fairlies have been in constant on the railway ever since. The Roundhouse model is a £4100 fully working model, gas fired with a twin-boiler setup. The only common connection between the two boilers is the steam regulator and the gas regulator, both of which consist of one central valve controlling both boilers - in fact you are effectively steaming two locomotives. Now I've been asked a lot how Roundhouse loco's are actually built and my answer has always been the same simple one liner; "Hand-made in Doncaster Sir" - but now I can elaborate further. So here is a simplified production timeline surrounding one of the new Double Fairlies! Step 1 - Design! A - Design Shop by Derails Models, on Flickr Design is done in a 3D format on a CAD software from scratch, only using measurements and 2D line diagrams - no scanning parties here! Once design is completed the designer will head into the machine shop and start to make the prototype model himself. If you look on the screen on the right, you can see a more advanced stage of production - setting out the etchings. These have to be sent in 2D format to the etcher for production. Step 2 - The Machine Shop! B - Machine Shop by Derails Models, on Flickr C- CNC Machine 1 by Derails Models, on Flickr So, in our simplified version of production, our prototype model has been extensively tested and any changes have been made. We're now producing our first customer model! Here, the CNC machines are running almost autonomously, machining all of the parts needed to build the models. Above, we see the Cylinder Stretchers (nope, I don't know what they do either) for the Double Fairlie being machined from a block of brass - this machine can produce this part in 1-2 minutes! Here's the finished piece: D - DLG Cylinder Stretchers by Derails Models, on Flickr There is a vast stores of parts here, here we see cylinder blocks and thousands of wheels! E - Cylinders by Derails Models, on Flickr F - Wheels by Derails Models, on Flickr Step 3 - Part Assembly Cylinders by Derails Models, on Flickr Individual parts are now assembled into working parts of the model - items like the cylinder. The pic above shows the seperate parts and the stages required to machine them, and the finished item at the bottom there. At this stage the body etches (which we saw earlier on the design screen) are delivered to the factory and soldered together. Step 3 - The Paint Shop G - Paint Shop by Derails Models, on Flickr This room is where the parts that need to be painted, are painted. Roundhouse use an industrial grade two-pack paint that is very durable and gives a great gloss finish! Here we see a Double Fairlie body being painted into Crimson Lake. Step 4 - The Chassis Man H - Frames by Derails Models, on Flickr I - Chassis Testing by Derails Models, on Flickr I've always though that the Roundhouse Chassis assembler must be a skilled man! If you've seen my other blog, you'll know I'm building a loco using their chassis. Can I get the timing correct? No I can not! Here we see some Fairlie chassis being constructed. Due to the small size, these are tight loco's to build and Marlou (the chassis man) informs us that they are incredible fiddly! Step 5 - Final Assembly J - Final Assembly by Derails Models, on Flickr K - DLG Assembly by Derails Models, on Flickr L - Derails Alco by Derails Models, on Flickr Where all of the hard work pays off! Four gents sit around a table and hand-assembled the finished loco. In the first pic you can see the layout including the "Lazy-Susan" of parts in the centre. Pic 2 shows a Double Fairlie in various stages of construction. Last but not least, you can see an Alco with the body on and one with the body off. The Alco on the left, wearing the War Department livery, is actually a loco bound for us here at Derails - we'll be welcoming it into our stock in a couple of weeks time! In fact it was good fun going around the factory and seeing our name on different cards.... Step 6 - Testing M - DLG on Track by Derails Models, on Flickr Each Roundhouse Classic Series loco, such as the Fairlie, are steam-tested to ensure all is well. Here we see one such locomotive on test on the showroom track. The loco is towing an estimated 20lb, and was handling it with ease! At this point the loco is cleaned, packed up and label before the dealer is informed it is ready. We then arrange delivery to it's new owner, and the process is complete! It was really good for us to meet to meet the guys and girls at the factory and seeing how things were done, seeing things behind the scenes and finding out how much work actually goes into one of these locomotives - in-fact, even if you're not really that interested in Garden Railways, if you're in the area around their next open day I really would recommend going along. There's a buffet lunch too, if that's an incentive...... The return trip istelf was uneventful (apart from the fact we may have driven into one of Doncasters 'bus-gates' - here comes a fine!) and we arrived back in the Forest of Dean at around half-past four; enough time for a cup of tea before dinner! We hope you've enjoyed reading this, and we'll be back soon with our next tale! Cheers!

Scenic work is not something I am very good at, but there we are a gap filled. I wanted it to look like one of the old estates that got enveloped by the progress of Glasgow to the west but has yet to be developed. The result is some lengths of very old boundary wall in some odd locations if you dig about in the area. Anyway, it fills a gap. If you are going to have a gate, you might as well have a working one. Modelling time will be a bit restricted for the next few weeks, house decoration is needed. I’ll be overcome with emulsion, as they say.

I’ve just finished a rather depressing read, from the Chairman of a club of which I’m a (mostly absentee) member. I dare say that quite a few readers will already have gathered that the 2019 Exhibition was cancelled due to severe vandalism the night before opening. I can’t really add to any of this. People directly involved have taken action to progress the situation, the police are involved and I’m sure that long correspondences with insurance adjusters will ensue. Clubs and individuals have responded with offers of help, donations and messages of support. For once, I’m lost for words.

This is Tim, the Domestic Overlord. Paul died last Wednesday. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to come on and post this before. We were together for a long time, and I know just how much he loved modelling and loved being able to get things just as he wanted them. I'd like this blog to stay up here if that's okay by the administrators.