Recently one of the followers on our Facebook page posted a comment asking if we'd ever considered connecting together our two Festiniog layouts Dduallt and Minffordd . It's an interesting question, and the answer why we probably won't includes a number of hurdles we would have to overcome, so I thought it might make the basis of a decent blog piece. I have to say it's a beguiling idea, and one…
I've been neglecting the blog a little while I was away on holiday in Wales with Himself and The Trainee. If you follow the Bron Hebog and Minffordd page on Facebook then you'll have been able to follow the narrow gauge adventures we were getting up to, with many photos and video snippets. One of the missions to be accomplished during our stay in Porthmadog was the collection of a model from the…
We've tried a lot of new things as part of the Minffordd project, such as moving to DCC control and sound, and smaller code track. It's also the first time we've tried weathering on any of our rolling stock, having always kept anything we bought - or made - looking 'box fresh'. But like with any new skill you have to practice and develop, but that's a scary prospect when you're dealing with the…
It's been quite a few weeks since I've done any work on the NWNGR replica replacement carriage. A couple of nights ago while half the household were out for the night taking in some of the action at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow I ran out of excuses and put in a couple of hours. I drilled the holes in the chassis where the bogie will go and then tackled the roof skin. As I described in detail…
I'm delighted to be able to report that Moelwyn has returned unscathed from its 800-mile round trip in the post. Our vintage Meridian-kit model of the FR's venerable Baldwin Tractor has undergone a surgical operation for a motor transplant and a digital 'pacemaker'. In other words it's now DCC sound fitted. The operation was carried out by our respected surgeon, Sven, at Tramfabriek , and I cannot…
I've been swithering for many months about the best way of getting a 45XX Small Prairie tank for the Minffordd fleet. First World problems, and all that, I know... Although outshone in the popular imagination by the Manors, Duekdogs and Collett Goods, they saw a lot of use at the northern end of the Coast line, working from Pwllheli and Portmadoc sheds, and often entrusted with the Cambrian Coast…
I never expected model railways and politics to collide in such a media spotlight, but here we are, and it's happening in, of all places, Clacton. Many years ago, before anyone beyond private school alumni and city traders had heard of Nigel Farage, I was starting my career in journalism in that corner of Essex. And like all well-trained reporters I do my research on the candidates in a…
I am not one of life's gamblers. If you needed to stick a label on me it would definitely be the one marked 'Risk Averse'. So you can probably imagine it was a 'moment' to entrust our precious Moelwyn to the care of our elite posties for a 400 mile trip across the UK to see a man who's kindly offered to help convert it for DCC operation with sound for use on Minffordd . Were it a model one could…
If you'd wondered about the lack of posts in the last fortnight I hope you assumed (correctly) that I was on a summer holiday - rather than having another hissy fit and ceasing blogging. While I was away there some bits and pieces being done which I can update you on. One of those was putting the finishing touches to our new tow-around Princess. This Hornby antique, now without a motor in its…
I did mention a while back that there would be an exhibition date for Minffordd in England later this year, and that it would hopefully be convenient for the greatest number of people. Now the embargo has been lifted we're at liberty to say where and when. We're very pleased to have been invited to bring the layout along to this year's National Festival of British Railway Modelling at the NEC in…
My company is in the process of moving out of offices we've occupied for more than 40 years. It means decades of paperwork is being slung out, and with it a lot of storage devices which are increasingly a thing of the past - the humble box file. There are many uses which can be found for these for the railway modeller who has an urge to recycle. For example, slice up a redundant shoe box and you…
If you've been reading this blog over the last couple of months you may recall I have started work on building a second model of the NWNGR replica carriage 24. I never did say why, and that was quite deliberate. Because I was keeping a secret. A few months ago Himself and I were approached by a director of the FR Company - the world's oldest independent railway company, as I'm sure you know - and…
I'm not the only one who's been having ideas about some one-off conversation pieces as part of the trains we run on Minffordd at exhibitions. As the towable Princess project has progressed so Himself has been casting wistful glances in the direction of our Lowmac wagon. It looks rather at home in the siding against the 'quay' where the FR tracks run next to the goods shed, doesn't it. For what…
More of the essential modifications to turn our antique Hornby Princess from a locomotive into a piece of unpowered rolling stock have been completed this weekend. Himself has very neatly cut out out the moulded plastic coal load in the tender and fitted a fake sloping top to the water tank. In order to do that some significant changes have been required beneath. The most of the metal block of the…
It is just possible that some of you have been waiting with baited breath - not too baited, I hope - to find out the results of the gauging trials with the Princess. The one you see in the picture is the 'reasonably priced Pacific' I bagged from the well-known auction site a couple of weeks ago. After being adapted to tow-only mode by the surgical removal of gears from the tender drive it was…
After a long pause there's some progress to report on our project to build a modern day James Spooner from a Backwoods kit. As you can see above, Himself has started the process of painting the superstructure. It's had a coat of grey primer and the black has started to be applied. This model has taken many years to build. In fact it has been test running on the layouts since before we started the…
Once I get an idea for a model I usually like to make a start on bringing it to reality. Which is why a very reasonably-priced, antique Hornby Princess arrived on the doorstep within days of us carrying out the first gauging trials on Minffordd, pictured here on my home test track. The tooling for this one dates back to the 1980s, so it is less sophisticated that the version I was showing in the…
Now we're truly time travelling with plans for another curiosity piece to run on Minffordd, depicting one of the most unlikely trains to traverse the Cambrian Coast Line. I have surrendered to a temptation to recreate the liberation of Princess Royal class 6203 Princess Margaret Rose from captivity at the former Butlins holiday camp near Pwllheli. After withdrawal by BR the huge Stanier pacific…
If you're reading this, then the click bait has worked! The deliberately (but only slightly) misleading title refers to a property advert which was drawn to my attention the other day. Back at the very start of the layout project more than 25 years ago we decided that it would be underselling the scale of what we were attempting to call it merely 'Beddgelert'. That's also been done before, which…
This is not a groundbreaking development in the world of model railways, but it is a classic case of us being late adopters. Himself is experimenting with magnetic couplings for the intermediate connections on our carriage sets. We use Kadees for the primary coupling to the locomotives but had kept tension locks on stock which is intended to run in fixed formations. On a layout with a small…
Body sections for the 'replica of the replica' of carriage 24 have been cast with moderate success. This is the first time I've attempted to cast a large piece with quite so much detail as a traditional compartment carriage with matchboarding. The side your see here are the third and fourth attempts. One the first the mix was not quite right and it never quite hardened properly. The second was too…
We had an unexpected new item of rolling stock to play with - The Boat! For those who are not familiar with Festiniog Railway heritage this is, indeed, a genuine vehicle, and at special events you can still see it being used - or at least a modern replica. The original 'Boat' was a whimsical inspection car designed by, and for, the Spooner family's use. Mostly it gravitated down the FR line in the…
I didn't see this one coming but I've spent the last couple of weeks working on scratch building a carriage again. What you are seeing in the picture is one side and one end of carriage 24, a replica of a North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways 'Summer Carriage' which was built at Boston Lodge almost 25 years ago. If you've been following this blog or have come to see Bron Hebog in the years when it was…
Perhaps rather like an artist attempting a self-portrait, taking good pictures and videos of your own layout is surprisingly hard, in my experience. I suspect a lot of that may because after years designing and constructing it you are simply too familiar with the subject. Someone who is seeing it for the first time may find the viewpoints and angles which you have overlooked. (They may also have…
The best part of exhibiting a layout a real place near that place is hearing the comments and stories from the people who have a connection with it. That's one of the reasons we were so much looking forward to bringing Minffordd to Porthmadog this weekend, as well as the chance to catch up with old friends on the FR. One of the people watching today pointed at the Wickham trolley and told us his…