Cwm Prysor - 'The Bala Branch'

[Pteremy]

Thanks Pteremy

I do indeed, as I gave the can of it  to Jonathan Wealleans for painting.

Halford's Ford Rosso Red. Very pleased with the colour.

 

 

Thanks - will give it a go. 

[Revolution Mike B]

A few years ago, this topic wouldn't have interested me in the slightest, but after the pitfalls of building my first ever layout, and a trip through Bala on the way to the Ffestiniog Railway, I'm caught like a rabbit in the headlights. It looks amazing Tom! 

 

Mike

Edited September 7, 2018 by scoobyra

[Tom F]

A few years ago, this topic wouldn't have interested me in the slightest, but after the pitfalls of building my first ever layout, and a trip through Bala on the way to the Ffestiniog Railway, I'm caught like a rabbit in the headlights. It looks amazing Tom! 

 

Mike

Thanks Mike!

 

It was when I first saw a tackbed up there I thought, what a place for a railway. It was between Arenig and Cwm Prysor. It was damp and the cloud hung low...it was wonderful!

[Regularity]

My very first Railway Modeller, May 1975, had as “Railway of the Month” a rather nice layout based on Bala called “Penllyn”.

It even had, as part of its backscene, hardboard cut to the outline of Arenig Fawr - such that when I was on a trip that way some thirty years later I impressed my travelling companion by recognising it.

 

Anyway, this line has interested me ever since, and this is a lovely model. And just like Penllyn, a great example of how 00 can produce a realistic layout.

[Tom F]

My very first Railway Modeller, May 1975, had as “Railway of the Month” a rather nice layout based on Bala called “Penllyn”.

It even had, as part of its backscene, hardboard cut to the outline of Arenig Fawr - such that when I was on a trip that way some thirty years later I impressed my travelling companion by recognising it.

 

Anyway, this line has interested me ever since, and this is a lovely model. And just like Penllyn, a great example of how 00 can produce a realistic layout.

 

 

I'll have to check that out Regularity, (1975 is 10 years before I was born, but that's now excuse!) 

Arenig Fawr is such a beast of a mountain....and will be part of my backdrop too! 

 

Here is Arenig Fawr and Moel Llyfnant at Cwm Prysor, over Llyn Tryweryn at 8 am in late October, two years ago.

Edited September 7, 2018 by 9793

[Northmoor]

It was when I first saw a tackbed up there I thought, what a place for a railway. It was between Arenig and Cwm Prysor. It was damp and the cloud hung low...it was wonderful!

The Somerset & Dorset has more preservation schemes along a single route than any other, but Ruabon to Blaenau Ffestiniog runs it close: the Llangollen, the Ffestiniog through Blaenau, an embryonic scheme between there and Trawsfynydd and just off the route, but shortly to use a short stretch of it, the Bala Lake.  Must be the scenery.....

[Regularity]

‘Tis a magical place.

 

If only they had run 16xx tanks on it as well (and they did run the original small Wolverhampton tanks way back when) it would possibly be my idea of heaven in railway form...

[Tom F]

‘Tis a magical place.

If only they had run 16xx tanks on it as well (and they did run the original small Wolverhampton tanks way back when) it would possibly be my idea of heaven in railway form...

Well I do have a 16xx! Built by Tony Wright as a test build for the reintroduction of the kit from South East Finecast. It is doubtful that it ever got this far....although they did work to Llangollen...so who knows I must get it weathered!

 

[bgman]

A Pannier rarely offends no matter where it is !

[Tom F]

A Pannier rarely offends no matter where it is !

Never a truer word spoken!

 

Must admit, the 57XX 8750’s are my favourite. Before I forget I’ll post some photos of my 74XX variants (made from Bachman 64XX locos) later today.

[Captain Kernow]

If only they had run 16xx tanks on it as well it would possibly be my idea of heaven in railway form...

 

 

Well I do have a 16xx! Built by Tony Wright as a test build for the reintroduction of the kit from South East Finecast. It is doubtful that it ever got this far....although they did work to Llangollen...so who knows I must get it weathered!

Gentlemen, it's quite simple.

 

You only have to invoke 'Rule 1'.

 

Lovely bit of work by Tony Wright there, Tom!

[Captain Kernow]

By the way, Tom, presumably you've got the book 'Rails Through Bala', featuring some great views of the line?

[Downendian]

Great to see your high quality modelling back on RMweb Tom.

Neil

[westerner]

Totally agree about a pannier not offending, a prairie also comes to mind. When I was a lad in Gloucester Panniers were known as Matchbox tanks, I suspect this had something to do with not only the shape of the tanks but England's Glory matches were made in Gloucester

[Tom F]

By the way, Tom, presumably you've got the book 'Rails Through Bala', featuring some great views of the line?

 

 

I do indeed, plus the older version fo the book (Rails to Bala I think). I probably have most of the books on the branch, but I still crave more information! 

I do have some exciting work, a new book is going to be released shortly on the Branch, which I suspect will be the definitive book. Written by Martin Williams, who wrote the superb 'Ruabon to Barmouth' book and Derek Lowe, known for a number of titles on railways in Wales. Both of them I'm lucky to call friends and have been very helpful in my research on the branch, and Cwm Prysor.

 

So to my 74XX(s). I currently have three and will probably do another one (7403).

 

I did write an article for Railway Modeller about two years ago which some of you may have read. Essentially it's a case of cosmetically altering a Bachmann 64XX. I cut the curved bunker flaring away, using some microstrip to reinstate the lip. I removed the overhang on the cab also. Autogear was removed and further cosmetic fettling (etched lamp irons from Masokits). You can reduce the size of the over scale splashers if you so wish, but they never particularly offended my eyes.

 

7414 was the first one I did. Primarily because of a superb photo of the loco at Trawsfynydd in 1957. In that photo you could see the Croes Newydd (84J) shed crew and scribed GWR into the grime....which I decided to subtly recreate on the tank sides.

 

7431 (another 84J loco) was the second I converted. All my locos use Pacific Model number plates. I think they capture the look well. I also modelled this one with the hatch open on the cab roof and rear.

 

7428 was a rather special 74XX, as she retained GWR livery through to scrapping. By this period the BR green and become more BR Grime but shed crews had continued to pick out the GWR on the tank sides.

 

As I say, I have a couple more spare 64XX models, and I intend to model 7403 next. Although all locos on the branch were Croes Newydd (Wrexham) engines, they were rotated and subsheded out to Bala, and Trawsfynydd for working the Branch.

Edited September 8, 2018 by 9793

[Captain Kernow]

I cannot say how much I admire your 74XXs, Tom, they are wonderful.

 

Not having seen the RM article, I don't suppose there is any chance of you posting some notes on RMWeb somewhere, that could give just the gist of how you did things like removing the cab lip (did you completely dis-assemble the cab, for example?) and the removal of the auto gear from the buffer beams (how difficult was that and did you have much 'making good' to do?).

 

Many thanks.

[Regularity]

No plans to reduce the splashers in size from those appropriate for the larger wheeled 54xx, or do the 00 flanges preclude this?

 

Edit to add link: http://llangunllo1.rssing.com/chan-51234596/all_p3.html#item47

Edited September 8, 2018 by Regularity

[46444]

I cannot say how much I admire your 74XXs, Tom, they are wonderful.

 

Not having seen the RM article, I don't suppose there is any chance of you posting some notes on RMWeb somewhere, that could give just the gist of how you did things like removing the cab lip (did you completely dis-assemble the cab, for example?) and the removal of the auto gear from the buffer beams (how difficult was that and did you have much 'making good' to do?).

 

Many thanks.

Hi CK,

 

You’ve seen my 7427 on loan to Robin of this parish on ANTB.

 

I followed Tom’s excellent article in the Modeller and converted my 64xx. For me carving the cab lips off was the part of the conversion I feared the most. Thankfully it went well and just a bit of filler required to tidy things up. I think I used some Archers rivets around the top of the cab.

 

As far as I can remember the buffer beam auto gear was not a problem to remove. Tom does some nice detailing in cutting the ? the battery box in half for the ATC gear I seem to remember.

 

For a man of your modelling prowess CK I would envisage you would be fine..

 

Really enjoying this thread Tom. That 16xx fits right in to the Pannier roster nicely.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited September 9, 2018 by 46444

[Brinkly]

Excellent work on your pannier tanks Tom. They look very nice.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[kandc_au]

Hi,

I haven't had time to look up Toms article but here are some links for those interested in the conversions.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104912-Bachmann-64xx-conversion-to-74xx-how-hard-can-it-be/

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130355-gwr-74xx-pannier-tank-from-64xx-whats-different/?hl=74xx

 

http://www.gwr.org.uk/no-64xx.html

 

Khris

[kandc_au]

Toms article is in the Railway Modeller Feb 2016 pages 98 - 101

 

His Blog description is here: https://tfmodelling.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/74xx-in-the-making/

 

Khris

Edited September 8, 2018 by kandc_au

[Tom F]

No plans to reduce the splashers in size from those appropriate for the larger wheeled 54xx, or do the 00 flanges preclude this?

 

Edit to add link: http://llangunllo1.rssing.com/chan-51234596/all_p3.html#item47

 

 

It's something I considered, but found to my eyes they do not detract too much, and a case of weighing up the time and effort. I also figured I would be working in a tight space and if it didn't look as good as the factory finished splashers, then it wasn't worth the effort.

 

It's like the chimney, that too doesn't bother me. Geoff did a great job on his though, so it is certainly possible!

Edited September 8, 2018 by 9793

[Captain Kernow]

Hi CK,

 

You’ve seen my 7428 on loan to Robin of this parish on ANTB.

 

I followed Tom’s excellent article in the Modeller and converted my 64xx. For me carving the cab lips off was the part of the conversion I feared the most. Thankfully it went well and just a bit of filler required to tidy things up. I think I used some Archers rivets around the top of the cab.

 

As far as I can remember the buffer beam auto gear was not a problem to remove. Tom does some nice detailing in cutting the ? the battery box in half for the ATC gear I seem to remember.

 

For a man of your modelling prowess CK I would envisage you would be fine..

 

Really enjoying this thread Tom. That 16xx fits right in to the Pannier roster nicely.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Thank you, Mark and also Tom and also Khris for the information and links.

 

I've been fortunate in that my black 64XX has responded to some prolonged time on the rolling road and is now running sufficiently well for me to be happy to use the chassis.

 

It is indeed a great comfort to have access to the experiences of others who have done this conversion.

 

I was already aware of the processes that Geoff Forster and Paul Marshall-Potter went through to arrive at their respective sublime results, but it is always useful to have more angles on the matter.

 

I must confess to being very wary indeed about taking a scalpel to the cab roof overhang without first detaching the roof portion from the front and rear spectacle plates, so this is what I shall plan to do.

 

Like Tom, I am happy with the splashers and whilst replacement (as Geoff has done so well) is certainly possible, they also don't 'grate' on my sufficiently either, so I will probably leave them be. Likewise with the chimney, I think.

 

I was wondering about the effect of forcing the auto gear box from the buffer beams and have some Archers rivets at the ready.

 

I will probably also fit replacement, sprung buffers on mine. All will probably feature on a blog post or two in due course, but it seems likely that the Hattons 14XX will be jumping the queue in terms of having it's new chassis built.

 

Thanks again, Tom, this is a highly interesting and satisfying thread to read and I look forward very much to seeing the layout develop.

[Regularity]

I was already aware of the processes that Geoff Forster and Paul Marshall-Potter went through to arrive at their respective sublime results, but it is always useful to have more angles on the matter.

 

Like Tom, I am happy with the splashers and whilst replacement (as Geoff has done so well) is certainly possible, they also don't 'grate' on my sufficiently either, so I will probably leave them be.

They are more noticeable that the cab overhang and square versus round corner to the bunker. But if they are required for the wheels in 00, fair enough.

It’s a shame Bachmann got it wrong, though.

[Regularity]

Lovely picture exposing the cab/bunker join and cab roof (and the splashers catch the light):

Edit: look at all the other detail, too. Dents in the balance pipe between the tanks, the way the cab footplate has a metal angle/bevel to provide a footstep (or at least, a toehold) on the footplate, the cab shutters, the slaking pipe hanging over the side sheets, the rivets, the dust patterns, etc...

 

The pic is at Snowhill in Brum, and linked from the Warwickshire Railways site run by the estimable Mike Musson of this parish.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Regularity