Firecracker

And following the usual impressive service from Railtec, the transfers have started to go onto the 8F. I don’t know if this one carried the yellow stripe, but I like it, so it’s staying. On its fictional survival, it was scrapped at Cashmores, so in my reality it ended up on a Woodham’s tender list instead. Also, it ran on the line at some stage, I’ve found a photo of it running through Ingleton when it was allocated to Carlisle Kingmoor, so it’s gained a 68A shedplate as well (as an aside, a lot of the fleet have gained fictional 12 J plates, as Sedbergh MPD). Owain

Another bundle of goodies arrived from Steve this week, here’s some of the results on a Hornby 8F (another custom job turned round in record time) (I do like the 3D number plates and shed plates!) Owain

A bit more on the 8F, transfers for the renumbering have been ordered from Railtec and the body’s had a session in the ultrasonic bath to remove dust and grease. On the chassis, it’s had a Zimo MX600R decoder fitted and addressed. Kaydees have been fitted, on the tender by securing with an existing screw and on the pony by drilling and tapping the casting 8BA and securing with a suitable countersunk machine screw. Owain

Right, I’ve managed to unearth the book I mentioned earlier (Penmaenmawr Rails of Granite, by Mike Hitches, Irwell press). It didn’t add much, two standard gauge diesels being received from Avonsides in 1931, with the pug following in 1934. The whole lot being replaced by lorries in 1949. Reading between the lines I’m with Quarryscapes, there’s a reference to the introduction of the lorries saving the frequent moving and relaying of the tracks (which gives you an idea of the tonnages of rock being moved). Also the standard gauge fed the primary crusher with rock then being taken on to the mill in 3’ gauge wagons each carrying 3t, so I also wonder if the use of standard gauge was also to allow larger individual lumps of rock to be moved from the face, hence reducing blasting required and breaking up dislodged rock further at the face. Owain

According to JIC Boyd’s ‘Narrow gauge railways in North Caernarfonshire-Vol.3’ Also a plan of the quarry(s), again Boyd. Somewhere in this house is a book on Penmaenmawr and it’s quarries, when/if I can find it I’ll see if it’s got anything to add. Owain

A new arrival at Sedbergh, in the form of an 8F. So the tender rolled off the lowloader into the car park and following a inspection by one of the fitting staff, was tripped to the shed by the class 15. Here’s the new arrival on the test track (it came from a further slim down of the collection of the mate I got the 56xx, the class 15 and the W&M railbus from). It’s being renumbered as this, the last steam loco to be overhauled at Horwich Works. Incidentally, the bloke in the light suit to the right of the mayor (avec chain) is a great uncle, one Roy Yates. Owain

Something slightly different, as mentioned earlier the railway has acquired several modern air braked wagons for pway work (replacing older life expired wagons in the process). So the 47 (itself on loan, although that didn’t stop the moaning about the state of the paintwork) trundles north with a short rake, then returns Southbound with a second for some drainage works around Ingleton (it’s acquired the Queen Mary brake because a) there’s a gang of volunteers to transport and b) the lowmac’s a swinger). Owain

On the subject of wagons disappearing, a tale I’ve heard from an ex Stratford driver I work with. This is BR, pre TOPS. There was a scrap yard locally where the regular trip was 16t minerals, empties in, loaded out full of scrap bound for a steelworks somewhere. When TOPS arrived, it was discovered that the yard were in the habit of occasionally regarding the odd empty wagon or three as a benevolent donation from BR, cutting it up and sending it out as scrap. Apparently it had been going on for years. Owain

Whilst having a furtle in some drawers (as is my wont), I discovered the remains of some Cooper Craft station nameboards (to be precise, two incomplete sprues of lettering). So, the station’s finally gained a name board. The board itself is made up of Evergreen styrene sections and considering there wasn’t a ‘B’ or an ‘R’ on either of the sprues (but there were several ‘P’s’and a ‘X’) it hasn’t turned out too bad. It’s standing slightly too high, but it’s a start. Owain

Finally got round to fitting the custom destination blinds to the 101 DMU (thanks Railtec!). Ended up popping the existing head code out, removing the text from the rear of the glazing block and refitting it. The transfer was then applied on top and a strip of clear acrylic applied over the top, secured with a dab of ‘Glue and Glaze’ Owain

And speaking of 3612, where did that end up? Oh yes, some of it went into that NCB pannier with the knackered block at Llangollen....thinks..... Hang on lads, I’ve got an idea. A bit of the old background detail. The tank wagon chassis should be straightforward. Anyone got a pannier body they don’t want? (photo cribbed from http://www.llangollen-railway.org.uk/sloco7754.html, credit (I believe) John Rutter) Owain

(Snipped) That is a fantastic bit of work, I knew of some, I never knew Billy Butlin had his eye on a king, or the patriot, or that the SVR got several 15xx’s (which are lovely locos). That’s given me a lot of ideas and was very educational into the bargain. Thanks for that. Owain

(Snip) That was one candidate. I’m not quite sure why I plumped for an ex. LT example over that, but heigh ho. Yes, you should, I’d certainly be interested in reading that. I’d like to pretend there was a great plan and locos were carefully chosen with an eye to how they could have survived, but apart from the standard mogul they weren’t. They are what was available at the right price that I liked. Bit like the process on the real thing, really.... Owain

Having actually now done some research, rather than just picked a number at random, I believe you’re right. Didn’t know about the clearance issues, but that makes perfect sense. Isn’t the first time I’ve leapt before looking, won’t be the last. Such is life. Owain

That’ll teach me to research things properly! Leave it with us. Wonder if LT swapped cabs around? Did they overhaul themselves or have BR do it? EDIT - I reckon it was changed in preservation, probably at its first overhaul, to give crews more headroom. What I should have done is researched first, so a copy of John Scott-Morgan’s ‘Red Panniers’ is now on order from Bill Hudson. Owain

A bit of transfer work today, an order from Railtec (with their usual swift service) arrived during the week. First up, these two modified coaches got their wheelchair symbols. Second, was a custom pack to renumber the pannier. This included their 3D plates (both smokebox, shedplate and number), which are stunning in the flesh. Their BR emblems are better than the Bachmann efforts, so those got replaced as well. The Bachmann efforts were removed with a cotton wool bud soaked in white spirit. First time I’ve used these 3D plates, very impressed and they apply with the usual ease of Railtec’s products. Just don’t use any decal setting solutions, Railtec say explicitly int he instructions not to and they’re dead right. Owain

No bother, sorry for the delay. Text is 1.7mm tall, plate overall is 2.1mm tall by 6.8mm long. Edit - here they are applied, along with one of the custom shedplates. Application was the usual effortless effort, only thing I did was trim the moulded rivets off the original before the transfer went over the top. Owain

More goodies arrived from Railtec today, including some custom destination blinds and these absolutely stunnng custom GWR loco plates and custom shed plates. I hadn’t seen these 3D transfers in the flesh before, the photo definitely doesn’t do them justice. With a turnaround of 8 days for a custom order, what can I say? Further superb service Steve, long may it continue! Owain

A bit more progress, mostly electrical. A few last irritations have been dealt with, a couple of loose connections aren’t any more and the last two point motors on the north crossover have finally gone in (they’ve only been sat wired up and ready to go since June). Ignore the trap switches on the control box, that isn’t getting a motor, the plan changed after the box front was assembled. The back scene will follow when I can get hold of some foamcore board. A visitor from the KWVR has arrived and gets a session on the rollers, a suitable decoder is on order. Finally, whilst wrangling the electrics, here’s a couple of photos from the ‘operating’ side. Owain

In the absence of the original supplier, anyone happen to have a set or two of any of these they fancy parting with? Think the original part numbers were 2007, 2008 and 2010. Owain

A job that’s on the agenda is covering/replacing the plastic coal that’s in loco bunkers and tenders. One of my associates supplied me with a suitable lump of genuine steam coal. Might need breaking up a bit... Owain

No comment... For what it’s worth, I’ve done just that today. Put the order in on the site (also including some custom shedplates and destination blinds), Steve emailed within an hour of the order to get the details. Steve - if you’re reading this and trying to work out what on earth I’m modelling, there is a plan (honest!) Owain

And the Frankencoach returns (or departs the bench for the penultimate time). So, the interior has been painted and modded to suggest the wheelchair access (also added a second lavvy compartment, to justify the extra windows in the body side and the extra length between the brake and the passenger compartments). mentioned above. Then it’s got lightly weathered with Mig washes. I’ve deliberate left the bogies alone, to suggest it’s recently ex works. The lavvy compartment windows have been whited out and the awful glazing in the brake end replaced with something a bit more flush. Just needs renumbering and (if I can find some) some wheelchair transfers on that set of double doors. Owain

Recently the bench seemed to have accumulated a collection of coaches all needing couplers. There was that LMS frankencoach, a Mark 1 RU and a random BG. Now on the Bachmann coaches I originally used the close coupling NEM pockets as made, however they’re slightly too high and stuff randomly uncoupling gets on your wick after a while. So what I do now is because a lot of the coaches run in fixed rakes I use the close couplers within the rake and on the ends or coaches that aren’t in a fixed rake fit something different. Now I’ve previously modified the bogie mounted tension locks Bachmann supply on some mk1’s and spare bogies for this, however, I’ve run out of those, so It’s plan B. I prefer to fit an NEM pocket where I can, so any future conversions are easier. Following a bit of experimentation, I found a NEM pocket secured to two scraps of 0.060” square evergreen styrene was at the correct height (use Cyano to secure the pocket to the styrene, solvent adhesives won’t touch the plastic of the pocket). The bogie frame might also require a minor tweak with a pair of side cutters to get clearance as well. Because the frankencoach is on a BG chassis, it gets the same. So the LMS compartment rake grows. Owain

Right, thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far. I’ve now got a lot of ideas, know more than I did when I started and have several post covid trips in mind! Think that’s classed as a result. If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, it’s a spin off from the Hornby and Hattons generic coaches, followed by a lot of poking around the database of The Railway Heritage Register Carriage Survey Project, followed by my inner engineer wanting to know if what I fancied in 4mm:1’ was possible in 12”:1’. Anyway, here’s the first, a reconstructed LMS brake lavatory third (built out of remains of a brake third and a compartment third recovered from Aberdeenshire) on a chassis from a mk1 BG (for anyone who’s wondering exactly what the point of this is, I’m modelling a ‘might have been’ preserved line). Next up, a Hornby/Hatton generic body on a Chivers LMS fish van chassis. Owain