Railway Research Trip; Barmouth Viaduct

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Cambrian Coast Railway. Mainly the hate is because I think this is a criminally under-valued, over-rationalised and neglected railway line. For many years, it's been pretty sterile- it went from having regular holiday excursions, steam specials, and cared-for stations to being picked as a test-bed for the European digital signalling scheme, after which it became limited to a few tired Class 158's, a slippy timetable with long journey times, next to no excursions and absolutely no steam. Long delays, overgrown stations, cancellations, and a threat of closure whenever the infrastructure needed mending.

I was stunned when Barmouth Viaduct was not just repaired, but repaired this well. Replacing the ironwork like-for-like! When they did the Penrhyndeudraeth road/rail Toll Bridge further up the line, it became a soulless concrete viaduct (which the cynic in me noted would be very easy to lift the rails and put an additional road deck on instead). There was a lot of talk of Barmouth Viaduct getting rebuilt in concrete, or being turned into a road bridge with a railway afterthought. But no, it looks glorious.

This was a disappointment- I wanted a nice bright backdrop for some shots for a model I'm making, and it was gloomy as hell.

The refit of the viaduct included keeping and re-installing a lot of the details, like the controls to swing the bridge (even if it wouldn't ever swing again).

Lots of people on the bridge getting in the way of the shots.

Still, always nice to see a train on the bridge. Having somewhat taken the 158's for granted for a while (and until the refits, the ones on the Cambrian were a pain to travel on and very knackered), their imminent replacement by soulless plastic tat 197's has encouraged me to want to record them whilst I still can.

Look at it- so nice and shiny!

So yeah, a useful trip, even if the weather was a bit shocking. More coming up soon on the blog on the models this has resulted in...

 

In the Micro Model Railway Dispatch; Star Lane Sidings, 000 gauge- a folding shunting puzzle

The Micro Model Railway Dispatch The Home of The Micro Model Railway Dispatch – Just another WordPress site is an excellent source of inspiration for anyone looking to build a small railway. People from all over the globe showing their layouts, and they tend to be very much on the achievable end of the spectrum.  There's a lot to be said for doing a mini project, as opposed to working on some giant layout that takes years and years.

The editor put out a shout for people to submit articles on 'Inglenook' shunting puzzles- this is a type of model with a fan of three sidings, usually 8 wagons, a single loco, and you select a train of 5 to make up in as few moves as possible (you usually select the consist by shuffling cards with the names/pictures of the wagons on).

I'd had a plan to make some sort of portable, folding puzzle layout, and this brief fit the bill nicely. 

Here's the box that would be used for the project- an old wooden art box, no contents.

The hinges would need moving to the ends of the box to make a longer layout- one half for the sidings, one for the headshunt (and integrated storage for the rolling stock).

The original plan was for two longer hinges, hence the blocks either side of the end joints, but in the end the original hinges were good enough to re-use.

The removable cover for the tunnel/bridge to hide the line going off-scene.

Standard Lone Star 000 track was used, with the rest of the scenic details a mix of packing foam, plaster, offcuts of plasticard of various types.

And here it is; scenic work was very simple, a bit of scatter and some very basic bog-brush trees.

The donors for the rolling stock; Lone Star 000 models (these very early predecessors of N scale) tend to turn up in this condition. They're good, solid, but tend to have very battered paint finishes.

A bit of repainting, to keep them distinctive; Citadel acrylics to recolour them, then washed over with nuln oil to bring out the relief details.

The buildings are mainly some old Bluebird Thomas the Tank Engine playset items; a derelict station, a signal box, a water tower, and a crane (this latter was an original Lone Star item, taken off its wagon which was too long to be shunted on the layout).

I liked the idea of everything being contained inside the box, to keep this a portable playset; two wooden pencil boxes formed the storage, disguised as a car park...

Lined with foam, they -just- contain a set of stock to run the puzzle. The plan eventually is to remove the centre spine and fabricate a new lid, that would give room for a few more wagons for a bit of variety.

Showing just how portable the layout is- it can even be used outdoors (because these are push-along models, no need to worry about power supplies or controllers).

And here it is, in the mag.

This was a fun little holiday project in the end, even if it was a bit of a challenge to make something away from the workshop. It could do with some finishing touches, but that's something that can be worked on.

 

Garden Railway Saturday; P.S Models flat/open wagons

As the Engineers Train grows, a couple of flat wagons seemed like a good addition. And once again, operating on a budget, we turned to the excellent range from Phil Sharples. Partly because they'd match the two vans we'd already done, and partly because they're fun, simple kits that reward a bit of extra detailing.

As with the other vehicles we've built, we added extra rivet details from stick-on gems. A bit overscale, but it adds relief and keeps the stock looking consistent.

You can get some excellent detail parts 3D printed... or you can do what we did, and buy a big box of secondhand playmobil stuff very cheaply off eBay, which seemed to work just as well.

The train set up at my (Ben's) parents house, as our layout wasn't looking good enough to photograph on at this point.

And in the mag.

 

Railway Research Trip; Return to the Vale of Rheidol

We did the Vale of Rheidol Railway a few times this year and last, but only in the sense of calling in to visit the stations (and eat in the cafes). This summer, we thought we'd actually ride the line.

You absolutely cannot deny, this is a stunning line... as long as you're sat this side of the train.

This loco was both a blessing and an annoyance. I (Ben) had been really looking forward to the BR Blue tank loco, but it was in the shed. Still, the Garratt is always an impressive beast. Plus, for shots out the window on the way back down, it was really rather impressive.

One positive of the heatwaves having finally ended, the trains were actually running with steam haulage instead of the two diesel shunters.

No fancy pants first-class for us. But equally, we weren't tempted by the open-sided coaches we'd initially toyed with. Wisely, as it turned out.

Devils Bridge Station itself was a little bit barren; previously there's been things like 'driver for a fiver' experiences, a shop, a privately run cafe, but the place is in the midst of a massive re-build. If they get it to the same standard as the impressive facilities at Aberystwyth (and frankly, the toilets at Devils Bridge which they'd already finished are the best I have ever used at any preserved railway), then it will be pretty magnificent.

Waiting to depart Devils Bridge. We didn't get many pics on the way up, as the train was quite busy and we were stuck next to one of the non-opening windows.

As I said, we'd toyed with the open-siders, but decided we'd have one of the near-empty regular coaches for the way back down, as we could poke the cameras out the windows on either side. And this turned out to be the right choice, as the heavens utterly opened just before we got the right-away.

Moody; might as well have been shooting monochrome.

Then back down through the woods. This could almost be a line in the tropics, or something like the Puffing Billy in Australia.

Waiting for an upcoming service- you can sort of see the rain hammering down.

What you can't see in this shot is the crammed carriages, especially the open-siders full of half-drowned tourists.

Thoughts?  Disappointed we didn't see the BR blue tank loco, but it was a lovely ride. When they finish the rebuild of Devils Bridge next year, we'll be back for another go.