Beardybloke

Thanks Nick - I did consider the AG Salter valves but as I couldn't guarantee that they'd look right on the Fairlie I took the simpler option! They're probably nowhere nearly as fine as the Gibson ones, but it looks reasonable from normal viewing distances so I'm happy. Thanks for the info about the 100 degree solder too - I've been using that for the whitemetal rather than the 70 degree stuff that I've also got, but didn't realise that the 100 degree solder would adhere to brass without tinning with 145 degree... it's a very useful thing to know.

Thanks gents! The safety valve really is pretty small - it's made from 0.6mm rod and 1.2mm o/d tube, which means that on my monitor the bottom image is about 3 times life size! However, being that small hides a multitude of sins and I haven't even tried to represent some of the smaller bits like rings around the main rod. The installments will eventually slow down as I write up the backlog of progress, but if people are still interested, I'll keep writing them up as I progress...

Now, a chimneyless, domeless loco isn’t really going to cut the mustard – I don’t think that even the Ffestiniog cut down the ex-NWNGR stock to quite that extent, and I certainly wasn’t the man to go down in history as having mutilated a Vulcan Fairlie to an even worse degree. Job one, fitting the dome and chimney actually went far more smoothly than I expected based on my previous experiences attempting to fit the chimney to Taliesin. It seems that the mouldings on the Chivers kit are slightly crisper and there’s a better fit by the locating lugs into the holes on the boiler and smokebox – on Taliesin, I couldn’t seem to get the chimney to stay vertical whilst the araldite set no matter how many methods of securing it I tried. When I go back to the latter, I suspect that I’ll be drilling out the base of the chimney and fitting a new lug made from brass rod or similar rather than attempting to mummify the loco. At the same time, the sandboxes were fitted in front of the tanks in the lower position (they’ve moved over the years, so a photo is essential if you want an accurate model). At this point, hopeless optimism misplaced perfectionism hair-shirtedness kicked in again. Having gone to the effort of hacking away areas of whitemetal that could have no conceivable use apart from providing structural integrity to the kit, could I really live with a moulded smokebox dart? The answer almost certainly should have been “Yes†as filing an Alan Gibson smokebox dart intended for a standard gauge loco down to narrow gauge dimensions requires both patience and a wide and varied vocabulary of profanities to see you through the times when bits snap, slip in your fingers or the jaws of the pliers, or, indeed, ping off into the near oblivion that is a living room carpet. Still, eventually, a comparison of the finished product against the moulded smokebox showed that the brass version compared favourably with the cast dart which was then carefully carved away, avoiding the hinges, and drilled for the new part. The results can be seen below: Nose job? So, with a new etched smokebox dart ready to be fitted, the whistle and safety valve must come next. The kit doesn’t come with a whistle, so with much research of very small and pixellated photos of Markits whistles, a close match was hit upon in the form of a GWR Whistle (short type) or somesuch. [Why does nobody sell a specific whistle for a NWNGR Single Fairlie c.1906, I ask you? There’s quite clearly a market, I’d buy at least two] The safety valve was a different matter – one was included in the kit, but it looked a little on the chunky side to me (mainly, I suspect, because it's very hard to represent the original, very spindly Salter type on the prototype in such a comparatively coarse material as whitemetal) and I’ve developed an aversion to gold paint representing polished brass wherever the former can be avoided (yes, yes, hair shirt, I know). However, with the prototype simply looking like a rod running through a tube with a bit of bar coming off at 90°, I was certain that I could find something in my bits box that looked like that. Dimensions were checked against a reasonably-sized profile photo and a trial piece was soldered up, with a piece of fret thinned down to fit onto the recess at the top of the dome. In the event, the test piece looked good first time, which I was rather pleased with! However, comments are welcome on the end result below: When the loco is painted, the brass will be polished up and varnished with gloss, in the hope that it will stay fairly shiny... A little more effort was required for the next stage, coming close to (horror of horrors) scratchbuilding. The kit doesn’t supply a cab backsheet as the locos were (I believe) originally delivered without them, but as I would be modelling a loco c.1906, a backsheet would most definitely be required. A rectangular piece of brass was cut and soldered in behind the bunker (a little messily, admittedly, but some paint should cover that) and a replacement roof was made from brass. The new roof was intended to give a finer appearance than the supplied whitemetal, and also to be removable so that I could build an interior and be able to see it if I so chose. To this end, I've soldered a couple of bits of scrap fret on either side of the roof to provide locating lugs and the roof should just drop in. With both new brass bits in place the backsheet was cut to the approximate size and filed to the roof profile shape. Measurements were again taken from the photo and holes for the spectacle plates were cut and filed out. Unfortunately these look like the work of a deranged badger wielding an oxy-acetylene torch, but the rough edges will hopefully be disguised by the etched spectacle plates that I’ve acquired. With the latter as-yet unfitted the backsheet was (again, messily) soldered into place and the cab roof placed on for effect. I suspect that getting hold of some scrap whitemetal from somewhere and attempting to learn how to solder brass to whitemetal properly will be in order before long. The technique that I used was rather slapdash and involved the use of normal 145° solder and a standard 25W soldering iron, used very quickly. This was mainly through laziness but also through lack of practice at the proper technique – as far as I know, what I should have done is to tin the brass with 145° solder and the whitemetal with low-melt, and then solder the two together with low-melt solder. If someone can confirm this, or indeed, correct me if I’m wrong, then I’d be grateful! That leaves the loco substantially complete at this point. Drilling will shortly be commencing for the fitment of detail parts such as handrails, blower pipes and all of the other assorted gubbins that make it look like a loco rather than a pastiche of one. Couplings are now on order, although I suspect that some experimentation will be taking place before the loco enters service. I've not used Microtrains couplers before, and apparently they can be a bit of a sod to fit to certain locos. I sense that you’re waiting for the cock-up. You won’t be disappointed, although it is linked to the previous one. Don’t try to solder brass parts into whitemetal next to a very, very thin area of the latter. It tends to go a bit runny…

Looks very good, Frank - I was wondering how to do the riverbed on my layout, so I might very well have to pinch your idea! I bet those brushes weren't much cop at the end of that though...

Mine's the same - it may be that the later ones were lowered and needed additional clearance? Or it could have been to allow them to traverse sharper curves, I suppose... If I ever get around to having a working standard gauge layout, I'll make use of this method if my 12-wheeler needs it - thanks!

Looks very promising! What are you planning as the setting?

Very nice work - I do like the Worsley Works kits, they seem to go together fairly well once you've got the hang of them! The only problem that I've ever found with them is working out what some of the parts on the etch are for...

It's good to see Isle Ornsay progressing, Tom! It's making me want to start getting Hafod Las into running condition, but I think I need to finish the locos first... I've just done the same as you too, and updated my blog for the first time in nearly 2 years...

The first new loco on Hafod Las’ roster since the interlude is a Single Fairlie. “Shurely shome mishtake?†I hear you cry, “You’ve already got one of those, and what an unmitigated disaster it turned out to be!†Well, you’d be right, but so am I: the new loco is one of the original North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Single Fairlies – I’ve diversified from my original Ffestiniog Railway interests (admittedly not by very far) and have started on some of the stock from the WHR and its predecessors. If I’m entirely honest, the kit was more acquired as a test-bed for my whitemetal soldering skills – having never used low-melt solder before and remembering the hash that I made of brass soldering on my initial attempts, I decided that I should get something rather less expensive than the £120 Parkside Linda kit complete with hand-built RTR chassis on which to hone my skills. The Chivers Finelines kit of Snowdon Ranger fitted the bill of both being inexpensive and something that would have quite feasibly run on my might-have-been NWNGR based layout. An Arnold 0-6-0 chassis was duly purchased from the fount of all tat that is eBay, the loco body kit was bought from Railex 2010, and both then promptly sat in a box for 10 months. Step forward to March 2011 and the advent of some nice weather (and the impending arrival of Linda). A variable temperature soldering iron was purchased, along with some 100° and 70° solder and the appropriate flux and neutralising rinse. I say ‘nice weather’ as until I was used to low-melt soldering with the associated nasty chemicals I intended to do it with as much ventilation as was humanly possible without having the air intake for a turbojet sat next to me, and as far away from anything on the inventory of my rented house as I could get… well, you should all know how clumsy I am by now. Reasonable success was, surprisingly, encountered when soldering the combined footplate, tank sides and cab sides together. The Chivers kit required very little fettling to get it to fit well, and the two sides were soldered up quickly (and squarely – rather surprisingly for me) to the front footplate spacer and the rear bunker sheet. The latter did need some filling to give a uniform depth across the back of the bunker (with the centre piece being recessed slightly) but that may have been down to my early ineptitude with the soldering iron. It took me a couple of attempts to get the measure of low-melt soldering, eventually being solved by increasing the temperature of the iron slightly, using more flux and generally by being quicker. Due to the size of the castings, they dissipate the heat from the soldering iron rather quickly, and as I was reluctant to hold the iron in one place for too long lest I find a molten pool of whitemetal where once a side tank sat I frequently ended up with solder that looked like badly-set icing. I also found that the soldering iron cooled down rather quickly, and rapidly left me with something that was incapable of melting solder unless I let it re-heat for 30 seconds or so – the subsequent problem being that the melting point of low-melt solder increases once it has been fused to whitemetal. The solution which I found to this was to simply tack the pieces in place and then run a fillet along when I was happy with the positioning. However, I’m sure that I’m not the first person to come up with that idea! With a square(ish) arrangement of tank sides, cab sides and front, and bunker back set up, I then started my inevitable deviation from the original kit. The cast blanking plates in the cab doorways were removed, and possibly I should have done this before soldering up the sides to enable easier access and make the hackery a little neater. However, the remaining thin piece of cast whitemetal that remained on each side attaching the bunker to the tanks had a few hairy moments before the cab floor was soldered into place and, on reflection, perhaps I did the right thing by soldering it up first rather than detaching the rear of the loco accidentally! The second cosmetic deviation was the removal of the inside of the ‘top’ of the cast coal bunker, leaving only the flared lip around the outside – the piece was soldered in place first before the centre was removed to make sure that I didn’t irreparably damage another bit. This will allow me to give the impression of a hollow coal bunker rather than a few pieces of coal plonked on top of a couple of planks. Of course, this would now necessitate the addition of a lower-half cab backsheet so that it wouldn’t be quite as obvious that the crew should, by all rights, be knee-deep in coal! The next change was rather more than cosmetic, and nearly resulted in yet another of my trademark catastrophes. The more that I looked at the Arnold chassis with its pizza cutter flanges and no connecting rods, the more I thought “even I can do better than this… probably.†So, without further ado (and a brief hiatus in construction to await its arrival) a Dapol 45xx chassis was summoned to chez Beardybloke. Now, the 45xx chassis is a little larger than its steamroller-wheeled antecedent and a little higher, so some judicious filing, milling, scraping, gouging and praying was required to both the chassis block and the inside of the body kit. Once again, I can’t lay claim to this idea as my own, having acquired it from the Bethania blog. The one disadvantage is that the coupling rod is on the centre driver rather than the rear (and the wheels are spoked rather than disc) but, frankly, I can live with that for now – at least until the misplaced perfectionism kicks in again. Unfortunately (and predictably) I rather over-thinned the inside of the boiler just in front of the cab and managed to make it look like a well-abused Barry wreck – except shiny instead of rusty. Thankfully, a bit of filler and some filing seems to have hidden this (despite it getting knocked through at one point) but I suspect that a coat of primer will show how bad it really looks. The state that the loco was in at this point can be seen below: Note that at this point, I hadn’t actually removed the material from the bunker top, but it can hopefully be seen why a backsheet to the bunker will be necessary! With disaster averted and the chassis fitting inside the body, the boiler and tank-top piece was soldered to the assembly, as well as the tank fronts and smokebox. A very brief test run was undertaken on the one bit of the new layout that was laid at the time and didn’t require any more wiring than a couple of leads poked under the rails – and it worked. Huzzah! As an added bonus all of the weight is carried on the powered ‘bogie’ rather than the trailing bogie, so the loco should hopefully have a reasonable amount of adhesion. Bearing in mind the rapidly increasing length of this post, and mindful of the fact that you’re all probably falling asleep, I shall leave you here with the mental picture of a chimneyless, domeless, bogieless loco trundling up-and-down a short curve of track on a bare board. Not exactly the first train on the layout, possibly more a well-used contractors’ loco! Still, at least you got to read about another of my numerous cock-ups, and have learned a valuable lesson – if whitemetal looks like it’s bubbling outwards with no heat applied, it’s probably because you’ve made it paper thin…

The offer's still open if you want them! I didn't seem to get on too well with the S&Ws, but to be entirely honest I think that's more down to my skills (or the lack of them) in assembling them consistently. I'm looking at Microtrains N and Z-gauge couplers (the latter for the good stock if they're compatible with N gauge ones if set at the same height) in the vain hope of coming up with a working autocoupling system!

Thanks for the welcome back, gents! Frank, I had a (brief) look at your latest layout blog at lunch - it looks very promising! There'll be a few updates coming in relatively quick succession, but then they'll probably slow down a little as the source of already-complete material dries up a little. Due to other commitments, my modelling can be a little sporadic at the best of times... Still, it might be some incentive to get some more done on the layout too!

Well, as it’s now rapidly approaching 18 months since my house move and nearer to 20 since my last update, I suppose that I’d better write something! Progress has been by turns non-existent, considerable and backwards over the last year and a half, with a heavy emphasis on non-existent. That’s not to say that I’ve been idle, but taking up running and reducing my chin-to-face ratio from 2:1 to 1:1 as a consequence took up rather a lot of my time – especially in the early days when I was running myself into the ground enough to pick up an injury and was ready for bed rather early on in the evening. Couple this with a commute that changed from a 20 minute walk to over an hour in each direction and hopefully I will be somewhat excused. Anyway, enough waffling about car journeys and my quest to stay off the pies – that’s not why the three people who used to read this blog are here (if indeed, they still are – hello, if so!) but I suspect that you’re reading this in order to learn how not to do things. Certainly, going from my past track record, I excel as a bad example… So, to the update. Hafod Las Mk. II is no more, a protracted stay in the garage having an unpleasant effect on the state of the plywood board edges, with the track being lifted. If I’m honest, it was probably repairable but the layout was a little limited in scope. A semi-modular layout has replaced it, and is almost at the same stage as HL2 was at the point of the last post – that is to say, the track’s laid and each board is wired individually, but there’s no control panel, no switches and no jumpers between the boards. Nothing’s run on it yet, although an old bogie carriage and a 4-wheel van have been used to check curvature and clearances. I’m intending to merge the moribund Hafod Las Mk II thread in the 2010 Challenge forum with this blog, so I’ll go into a little more detail on the layout in a subsequent post. There has unfortunately been no change to the status of Blanche from this blog post, but plans are afoot to get her into running condition. It appears that the coupling rods are very slightly longer than the wheelbase which will have a significant impact on the quartering! Apart from (obviously) replacement coupling rods, I’m looking at sourcing some replacement axles and cranks and will be checking that the wheel centres are still concentric after the escapades with soldering and a bowl of water. Finally, I’m intending to make the gearbox removable rather than a permanent fixture on the axle (trapped by cranks soldered to the outside) and to make both axles gear driven if possible so that the connecting rods and quartering are purely cosmetic. I lay no claim to the above ideas as my own, but I will document my progress so that you can all learn from my mistakes! An initial rebuild attempt was made at the power bogie of the Single Fairlie (documented originally on RMweb3 here) but has resulted in only slightly worse running; I’d managed to seize the layshaft when gluing it into the chassis frame – due to me cutting it slightly undersized, something of an excess of cyanoacrylate had been used and it was glued in wonky to boot! This was replaced with a longer one, and (if I remember correctly) with bushes used to mount it correctly. However, there’s still a serious lump in the motion with the motor attached, and a more substantial rebuild is required, possibly stripping it back down to components. Thanks to Nick Welch’s excellent book ‘A Festiniog Odyssey’ I have another cunning plan of how to get this running and if I’m honest, the book has rather re-enthused me to get things running. Taliesin can be seen in current form below, but is very much in a non-running state: However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Two locos in the works are nearing completion (both using RTR chassis – lesson learned, for now at least) and some more rolling stock has been built up. One of the new locos should be visible as the header image, if I've managed to figure out how to work the new software, and my only completed carriage (apart from couplings) is below: The major stalling point now (apart from my time) is couplings – I’m currently awaiting a Microtrains starter set on back order, and as I’ve been waiting since November, I’m not looking forward to ordering the rest of the couplings once I work out which types I actually need as at this rate they may be delivered not by the postman but by four dodgy-looking blokes on horseback… With the planned new blog structure in mind (i.e. actually giving it a structure, rather than it simply being a stream-of-consciousness) and also the length of this post, I shall leave it here for now. The next updates will cover the current loco projects, and then the rolling stock and eventually the layout. Fret not, because there are plenty of cock-ups in there that you can learn from! Finally - if anyone does actually read my ramblings, please feel free to comment, ask questions, give me any hints and tips or, indeed, tell me to go back in my box - I suspect that this blog is not one which will hold people in awe and so any help and advice would be much appreciated...

I'm using the 2mm S&Ws, though at the minute the couplings are attached to the coaches themselves rather than the bogies to see how well they work like that - so far, the only potential problem is that I may need a larger loop part of the coupling, and some of the coaches may be coupled a little too far apart for my liking due to bogie clearances for the drop of the rear part of the couplings... I'll see how I get on with them. I've been considering ebaying my rake of 5 Parkside wagons (or putting them up on the classifieds section of here) - if you want to double your collection in an instant, they're yours for a token sum and postage as you feel appropriate! They all run reasonably freely as I recall (though I'll check that first) and are permanently chained together. I need to get rid of some stuff as I'm moving to a smaller place, so they might as well go to a good home

Post-Railex, I spent a boring couple of hours soldering up some Spratt & Winkle couplings for the newest rolling stock - the WHR Ashbury, slate wagons and sundry other freight stock. There are still quite a lot to do, but many of the older wagons still need weight fitting and it's a somewhat mind-numbing task, so I keep allowing myself to be distracted! However, with the fitting of couplings to No. 23 and wire loops to Prince in place of Bemo couplers, Hafod Las now has its first complete train (barring transfers, vac pipes and touching-up. The interiors are all accessible to have some passengers added at a later date: and the remaining two slate wagons that I had in hand have been built, giving me a total of 12 in various states of completion - 5 are coupled, 10 have been weighted, and 5 have been painted, and 5 primed. Working out which is which from that lot is a bit of a Sudoku really... The full train can be seen below, with a two-balcony brake van that needs S&Ws fitting still. There are a pair of 3T slate wagons in the rake that don't look quite right to me - I think that the lip around the top of the wagon is far too wide, so they may have a bit of filing done on them. The Knightswork kits (which these are), whilst more expensive than Parkside ones, also look and run far better so I'll be sticking with them I think... A house move is pending in the next couple of months, so what is already a slow crawl of progress may become positively painful. I've heard nothing back from Backwoods yet about replacement parts for Blanche, so they may have simply decided to cut their losses with me but I've started the process of acquiring some transfers from Peter Blackham. However, I have got another project in the wings - I've acquired an Arnold 0-6-0 chassis from eBay, and have a Chivers kit for it on order from Parkside... watch this space

That's a cracking model, Simon - don't know how I missed you doing that! I may yet get around to making a might-have-been NWNG Fairlie - it all depends if I can get hold of an Arnold 0-6-0 chassis

I won't be designing any new ones... but given that the NWNGR was originally intending to have about a dozen Single Fairlies, I've seriously considered a Moel Siabod to go with Moel Tryfan and Snowdon Ranger - a quarry on the side of Moel Siabod would have been served if (as assumed on my layout) the NWNGR was completed to at least Betws-y-Coed. Damn... now I'm thinking of buying a Chivers Fairlie! I'm sure I'd be able to justify another Double Fairlie or two to handle the switchbacks at Roman Camp and an extra England engine to shunt at Betws... No! Stop it!

Well, the badly-bodged carriage 11 was stripped down completely and resprayed from scratch - I could have lived with the slightly raised nature of the ivory paint compared to the green if I hadn't then noticed that it was a distinctly yellower shade than on its sister! That taught me a lesson - clean the syringe thoroughly between paint shades, and you can actually see how much you're picking up The ends have been sprayed in BR early (pre-1965) bauxite, and seem to look okay. The next thing on the list (apart from painting the roofs) is sundries such as vacuum pipes and picking out the handles in brass - I'm not confident enough of my ability to scrape away the paint on them without damaging the rest of the paint job that I've finally got right! To save on masking, I'm intending to glaze them after they've been varnished... so I need to get some transfers ordered! I'll be getting transfers for several others at the same time, as I intend to make myself a model of the late 1950s "Flying Flea" relief train made up of Bug Boxes put back into service to cope with the traffic to Tan-y-Bwlch. I've not been watching paint dry, however... whilst the paint was drying on the two composites, I've built a third coach - FR No. 23 as currently running on the WHR. As the sides provided in the scratch-aid kit were as it is today (i.e. with full height doors) I couldn't bring myself to paint it in green and ivory... as you all should know, I'm no rivet counter and studiously work to the 3ft rule; but that would have been a step too far! (Think running an LNER-liveried B12 with BR blue Mk1s if it will help you visualise the point ) Anyway... here's a photo of the latest stock for HL2 - more will follow when I can afford them!

Sorry for the delay, chaps... found myself in the pub post-work! Here's Bramhope: and here's the next square:

Bramhope Tunnel, just north of Horsforth on the outskirts of Leeds. At work at the minute, I'll put up the next one when I get home chaps

Thanks chaps Jam - all it is is a cheap airbrush and making sure that you've got plenty of paint and thinners to try to perfect the spray pattern/pressure etc.... and lots of light coats The respray of No. 11 didn't go so well - quite a bit of green managed to leak under the masking tape, and there's a couple of bits where the paint lifted under the masking tape. I'm debating about whether to go back and strip down and start from scratch with that one... J - I'd be very, very grateful if you can find a copy of that list for me - I've got a few tins of Precision's FR colours, but if I can't figure out what the closest to FR loco green is, I'm going to have to order a litre of the stuff

I'll be honest, I've made absolutely no progress with Blanche - I can't face filing a coupling rod from scratch just yet, and I'm seriously considering making Pete and Jen at Backwoods believe that I should never be let near etched metal with a soldering iron ever again... and they may be right. I've not been completely idle however: the new goods stock has been primed ready for painting, and some airbrushing of the two scratch-aid bogie carriages has started... though one needs a respray and the one in decent nick (No. 12, below) is in need of some touching up. Not bad, I reckon though, for a first attempt at airbrushing and with canned air and a Model Rail subscription gift airbrush at that! Criticism, advice and tips are, of course, welcome It's painted in various Precision colours; the green and ivory 1950s livery being based on LNER tourist stock, those are the colours recommended in the range to provide a good representation of the livery. The green looks about right to me, but having used the cream before on the Victorian vehicles it seemed a little too yellow to me, and so I experimented: I made up a matching card with increasing proportions of white mixed into the cream and made use of a variety of colour photos that I have in my FR library (to allow for differences in lighting and film quality). What I arrived at was a mixture of 3:1 white:cream, as I found that most of the photos had it looking white rather than cream, but... Oh well, I'm reasonably happy with the appearance, though I await with bated breath for someone to shoot me down The ends are to be red oxide, and I've been told that P630 is the way forward... but I can't find it anywhere on the Precision website! I ordered a tin proclaiming 'red oxide' from the interweb along with the rest of my bits and bobs, but it seems to be more maroon than red oxide! What I may try is BR freight stock bauxite, unless anyone has any better ideas? Transfers will need to be ordered for it, along with a job lot of other FR stock at the same time, methinks. Now, onwards to respraying No. 11!