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Llanforen, GWR in South Wales


88C
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First of all, thanks for all the likes.

 

Thanks also to gismorail for your comment about the space, I don't like to crowd in too much track and as I usually use 3 link couplings tight curves are not an option in fact I'm pushing it with what I've got. I am not bound by a particular time period, I run what I like. On the whole I have amassed a decent collection of motive power and freight stock but I will be the first to admit that coaching stock is poor, I will go into more detail in a future post along with more photos. Over the years I have never found building coaches as appealing as locos, but I have built a couple of rakes of Barry six wheelers. Sorry about that ChrisF!

 

I will be at Nottingham over the weekend with a club layout Sutton in Ashfield Town so if you're there feel free to say hello. Being in a club has many benefits but it does divide the modelling time. By the way if I'm asked what class is that Eastern Region 0-6-0 I'll no doubt tell you that I don't know, they all look the same to me.

 

Brian

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 Over the years I have never found building coaches as appealing as locos, but I have built a couple of rakes of Barry six wheelers. Sorry about that ChrisF!

 

No apology necessary!  I imagine that if a train of Barry six-wheelers were to roll out of the mist today it would be seen as heaven sent after all those Pacers.

 

Chris 

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Nice. I suppose it's the style of layout I should be building these days (but in P4) to accomodate all the locos I've been building recently.  I like the GWR rebuild of the 0-6-2 tank.  Is it homegrown or kit etc.?

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I have been a member of RMWeb for a while now and have enjoyed reading about different layout, in particular and in no order, A Nod to Brent, Much Murkle, Porthkerry Viaduct and Little Muddle so I thought it about time I posted my layout. Model railways have been my hobby for all of my life so in that time I have built up a decent collection of models both RTR and kit built with a few scratch built efforts. My user name should explain my inspiration and apart from a few years modelling 7mm narrow gauge I have now returned to my roots.

 

Once both my wife and I had retired the opportunity to put a layout into the garage became possible thinking that I would have plenty of space. Wrong, the usable space is roughly 10' x 10' so out went the pipe dreams and I settled for a single track with a passing station with a goods yard, there is also a junction with lines going to different destination. The line is supposed to be an imaginary ex Barry Railway branch somewhere between the Barry main line (not the Cardiff line!) and Llantrisant so the site would now be covered by the M4. All very unlikely but it is somewhere to run trains. I must admit that I spend much more time building stock than running and although the layout is basically complete it does need a lot more detailing. For those who are interested the control is analogue and uses Peco code 75 track with points operated by wire in tube via slider switches, I have tried to keep things simple.

post-22878-0-65756500-1521057960_thumb.jpgattachicon.gifP1040217.JPG

 

I hope the photos give you some idea of the layout.(Assuming that my first attempt at posting photos has worked).

 

Brian Hunt

 

What engine type is crossing the bridge?

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Sorry about the delay in replying to your question OntheBranchline, I've been out with a club layout at Nottingham all weekend. As for the engine on the bridge it is an ex Barry class K built by the Cooke Loco Co. in America at a time when British firms had full order books and extra motive power was needed quickly. This particular model depicts a loco that had been re-built with a standard GWR boiler after the grouping. It was built from a C L Lester kit around 1990, the etches are now in the hands of Redcraft.

 

I'll try and post some more photos later this week.

 

Brian 

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Looking good, 88.  I imagine it to be more or less in the vicinity of the current Junction 33, so not far along from the Barry Main Line.  I have assumed that we are looking away from Barry in the photos from the orientation of the locos and the water column which will get more trade from uphill bound trains.  If I might make a suggestion, that water column needs a tank to provide a head of pressure for it...

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Thanks Johnster, your observations are spot on, a single track with a junction is highly unlikely but the compromise needed gives me a variety of options for operating depending on my mood. The water crane is one of the items that have been recycled from earlier layouts, there is not one on the down line. The photos were taken a while ago and it has been too cold in the garage recently to stay in for long, even with a heater, and looking through the few that I have taken there are many features of the layout that I haven't photographed especially at the junction end. In the meantime, here is another shot of 194 held at the signal on the approach to the junction.

 

post-22878-0-97018500-1521638971_thumb.jpg

 

Brian

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Another photo here, this time a passenger service. As I mentioned earlier my coaching stock is not as good as it could be, hence the old Farish suburbans. I have been modelling since I was at school, as a pupil and throughout my teaching career, so I have some locos dating way back and here is one of them. It is a rebuilt Taff Vale A class, I think it was a Cotswold kit, it is very heavy and very reliable. Generally I find whitemetal kits usually perform well so I always try and make brass locos as heavy as possible.

 

post-22878-0-51070400-1526389612_thumb.jpg

 

I have been busy painting loco crew recently and I am now going to put some of them to work.

 

Brian

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Now that it has got warmer I have had chance to do a bit more on the layout. Some time ago I bought some cheap tree armatures at a local train fair and I have finally had time to get some foliage on them and trying to find the best site for them.

 

A couple of pictures showing the latest additions to my Barry fleet. First a B1, it must be a Sunday as it is on passenger duty, no doubt a special to Barry Island.post-22878-0-38948300-1526988882_thumb.jpg

 

Next an A class has escaped from the docks and is in charge of a works train.

 

post-22878-0-20391400-1526989037_thumb.jpg

 

The A is scratch built using a Redcraft chassis. Must check the roof is seated properly in future. We are constantly told to work from photos of the real thing when making models, not easy when I only have two pictures of this class in Barry condition.

 

Brian

 

 

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Very nice!  I automatically approve of any South Wales modelling, but this is an unusual prototype and period, and your evokation of Cardiff's northwestern hinterland is wonderful.  

 

More of this sort of thing, please, 88.  The Grafar coaches don't look too bad, but might I suggest you work them up to get rid of their LMS grafariness; cutting the tie bars off from the bogies, removing the guard's ducket, and changing the rainstrips and possibly the ventilators for roof top ones will make a massive visual impact, more of a sort of generic pre-grouping small railway buying in stock from third party manufacturers look.

 

The rebuilt 'A' is indeed Cotswold; I have one awaiting a chassis which I may get around to one day,  though Cwmdimbath is a bit off-piste for them.  Dyffryn had a couple that might conceivably have made it into the Tondu valleys, though.

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I like it. Lots. You can always replace the old coaches when you get round to it. Personally, I don't think they're that bad. Love the Barry pre-group stuff, but it's all great.

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Thanks for the replies, as I've mentioned before, coaches are my weak spot for the GWR era and maybe one day I will build some better ones. Johnster, your ideas for modifying the Farish coaches are fine, but I feel the time would be better spent working on a kit. Apart from that I still have some more loco kits to build and I have started planning for a Barry D class, then I will have models of all classes of Barry locos. Nothing like a target to inspire, although deadlines are another matter.

 

As always time can be a bit of a problem, recently a lot of my time has been spent on building wagons and modifying and painting figures for a club layout which is going to the Great Central in June.

 

Brian

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Good point, 88; your locos show that you are not afraid of the odd kit build now and then.  I tend to view things from my own perspective, and have reached an age where I am sort of aware of being on the 'home straight'; I'm not quite drain circling yet, but have decided that kits are no longer for me as I want to spend as much time as I can operating.  So my default tends to be to look for time saving solutions, and as a pensioner I like to use resources I already possess.  Anyway, as Poggy says, the coaches don't look all that bad!

 

You may be interested in my 'working up' of an old Triang 'shortie' clerestory (see 'South Wales in the 1950's topic, I'm getting fed up typing this and may change it to 'Cwmdimbath'), still sitting happily on it's original bogies which I have removed the tiebars from and fitted footboards to.  Nobody is pretending that these butchered Triang BR1 bogies are Dean 8'6", but they pass muster at normal viewing distance as one's eyes are drawn to the footboards, and such coaches would have certainly worked on the Barry main line in the 20s, and it might be worth looking at converting one to an auto trailer, Diagrams G, G1, and H, which are also appropriate for the route.

 

But you have plenty on with the loco kits and club layout committment!

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When I had a small photo session earlier this week the rake of 6 wheelers was derailing regularly in a couple of places so the next chance I had I decided to try and trace the problem, back to backs, couplings etc. They ran perfectly! Perhaps the slightly different arrangement of coaches cured the problem, who knows?

 

Anyway here is another picture from that session.

 

post-22878-0-39861100-1527252601_thumb.jpg

 

Not much progress to be made next week, Railex on Sunday and then preparing for the Welsh Railway Research Circle AGM on 2nd June. 

 

Brian

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Always good to see another S. Wales layout and yours is superb. I shall follow this with great interest.

 

Are Redpath etches still available, I think they did some Romney types that I’d be interested in too.

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Thanks again for the kind words, I doubt the scenery will ever match Little Muddle but I'll keep doing bits when I feel inspired.

 

As for the Redcraft kits, I believe that they are still available as etches only. Don't forget that they date back to the late 80s so they are not an easy build and may not be as accurate as some modellers now expect, personally I am happy if the kit is a good impression of the real thing. I have always found Derek Harris very helpful, for example, the A class in the pictures uses a chassis from the Barry F kit and I also have a chassis for the H class which I plan to use to scratch build one of the D class tender locos. If you e-Mail Derek at Redcraft@ntlbusiness.com (lower case r) I'm sure he can let you know what is available.

 

Brian

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Not a lot of progress on the layout this week but I have come back from Railex feeling inspired and with a few bits and pieces from the shopping list. It was an excellent show and good to meet a few fellow posters for the first time.

 

Anyway, I have not been idle this week, I have been preparing Llanforen Shed ready to take it to the WRRC meeting at Rhiwerin on Saturday. All locos tested, layout inspected and a few minor repairs done. This will be my third weekend with a long drive but sometimes you just have to do it to make the most of the hobby. So if any of you out there are WRRC members please make yourself known.

 

In the meantime, here is a taster of the layout, I'll try and post more next week.

 

post-22878-0-87109100-1527679454_thumb.jpg

 

Brian

 

 

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It was good to meet you on Sunday, Brian - and the modelling in this thread is very worthwhile. Less-common prototypes often yield a more interesting model, and the Barry Railway is no exception. Good stuff!

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We'll the WRRC meeting didn't go as planned! After an early start I arrived at the venue just after 9:30 and got the layout set up fairly quickly but by then it turned out that the room had been triple booked and after compromises had been made we had to have the room clear by 1:30. With the deadline approaching I had to start packing up when the AGM was still under way, fortunately I was at the back of the room. Sadly some members didn't get chance to see the layout but sometimes these things happen. To sum up, six hours driving, the layout on display for about an hour and limited chance to talk to like minded people, oh we'll.

 

I did get chance to take a few pictures and I will try and post some tomorrow.

 

Brian.

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