Bron Effans

I had my birthday at the start of March and decided to treat myself with my birthday money. I had been toying with purchasing some of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway carriages but I could not think which ones I would choose. Ultimately the decision was made by the availability at the time. I ended up going home with a plain Indian red brake carriage and a Southern Green composite coach. I thought that I would do a little review to share my thoughts on these admirable little models as I am very impressed with them. The red Brake carriage is a very sturdy and well built model that has a very good level of detail. It is light and fits around the awkward point work at the station throat. The Peco couplers work with any and all other coupler types on the layout.  In terms of detail, the red carriage I feel is a little sparse compared to other examples of these carriages. It has steps on the end and the brake pipes are all present. There is some good detail around the windows b...

I have finally begun the construction of the western end of the layout in order to create a backscene to hide the fiddle yard. I had been putting this part of the layout off for some time, owing to me not being able to make my mind up on how I should disguise the portal to the yard. Originally, I envisaged a simple portal in a board which could be hidden with a simple footbridge over the cutting. I couldn't figure out a way to make this look convincing especially due to all efforts to build a footbridge resulting in wobbly and misshapen disasters. Inspiration struck me when I found a suitable portal on a well known auction site. This resin fascia looked very similar to the ones on the Moelwyn tunnel on the Ffestiniog railway and, given the reasonable price, would be perfect for the entrance/ exit on the line.  I mounted the board to the layout and attached the fascia to see how it would look with the cutting. I added some cardboard over the gaps between ...

I have often considered buying another Ready to run locomotive as they are often more reliable that models that use older motors and motion. I already have the Bachmann Baldwin "590" which is one of my favourite locomotives. Hovever, two things have put me off buying anymore Ready to run and they are: Cost The cost of the average ready to run model is around £120- 130 which is considerable when you are trying to build a railway on a tight budget.  Choice It is apparent that 009 modelling is becoming more mainstream however choice, at the time of writing, remains rather limited to either a Heljan L&B locomotive, a Baldwin of some form or the Bachmann Thomas the Tank Engine range. There isn't yet a lot of variety to choose from, but that will soon change.  My mind was changed recently thanks to some very generous family members who bought me two very fine examples of RTR stock. I was given a Bachmann Baldwin in GVT livery and a new example of Skarloey to conve...

Whilst perusing a well known auction site, the other day, I noticed that someone was selling a kit for an open toastrack style carriage which looked a little like one of the carriages that is used on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. The only issue I had was that it looked like it could be out of scale for the rest of the fleet but I took the plunge anyway. The outer structure of the carriage during construction. Upon it's arrival I was fascinated by how simplistic it was to build. I estimate that it took me about an hour or so to build the outer structure and a further two hours to basecoat it ready for final painting.  The end result was that I now have an open carriage that I can substitute on trains in the summer months. A member of the 009 group has suggested that I name this carriage "Dennis" after the storm that was raging whilst it was being built. I will get hold of some passengers for it in the distant future; for now my focus needs to revert back t...

The conversion of the Bachmann Rheanas has come on in leaps and bounds with the removal of the original chimney and the replacement of a more authentic looking chimney.  Rheanas looking rather bald.  Removing the chimney took a great deal of effort which required me to invest in some needle files to remove the spare material from the base of the chimney.  Once the smokebox was added I decided to keep the original cab from Rheanas and began the process of basecoating the locomotive. Presented in the basecoat ready for the delivery of the paint for the final coat. I am in the process of procuring a new shade of red paint for the locomotive that will set it apart from the other red locomotives in the fleet. I have LMS Crimson Lake in mind which would set it apart from the Indian Red I have favoured thus far. Time will tell.

I have been dabbling in enhancing the Pullman carriage and have set about building the gangways for the ends of the model. I made the ends out of styrene and tried my best to ensure that the ends of the gangways look straight. At the moment I think it is noticeable that they are not, but that can be rectified with liberal use of sandpaper down the line. I am waiting for the glue to set properly before I attack the next stage of this project which will consist of the final lining of the xterior and then I can set to work on the interior. 

Yesterday, I finally finished my background on the passenger rolling stock on the line as a new page on the blog. It is completely fictional but I don't see the harm in a little creative licence with my own creation. I feel that it brings something inanimate to life. The photos show each carriage in the condition it is in at the time of writing, so there are missing windows and the odd paint mark but it's still a work in progress.  The link is shown below: https://broneffans.blogspot.com/p/passenger-r.html Just one example of the carriages mentioned in the new page.