Bron Effans

I apologise for not posting as regularly recently. I am on my summer break from work and that has meant that house jobs and other things have come to the fore. I am working through the list of summer jobs for the layout and those for my house.  After several weeks of pondering and debating on what to do with the newly acquired carriages, I took the plunge and set about the refitting of the Austrian carriages. The initial plan was to repaint them into BR Blue and Grey however something was holding me back from travelling down that road. I decided to go down the more traditional BR Maroon route after seeing a picture online that showed a maroon dining car. Image taken from Google. This image prompted me to begin the process due to the recessed doors looking the part. I took the carriage to pieces and set about removing the printed on details using a fibre glass scratching brush. I then used Railmatch BR Maroon spray to add two coats on to the carriages.  I masked off the carriag...

I have been quiet of late with various bits and pieces related to my return to work. It has meant that I have not really had a good deal of time spare to do any building or painting. I have begun the refit of the new European bogie coaches, with a view to anglicising them somewhat.   Unfortunately, due to the lockdown, paint has been in extremely short supply. My desire to use the aerosol paints on the carriages has meant that the repainting of these carriages has been set back some time until the shops get new stock. I am still intending to use BR blue and grey on these carriages just to add a bit of variety to the stock on the line.  I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain this new example from someone on the 009 Facebook group. It has been heavily cut down and carries roughly the livery that I am intending to use on these new carriages. This example is heavily battered and has definetly seen better days. With that in mind, I shall be using...

I have several diesel locomotives in my collection but there has always been one that I have wanted to build above all else. That was my very own version of 'The Vale of Ffestiniog'. This rebuilt Funkey diesel has appealed to me since the day I set eyes on the Ffestiniog as it was a glorious looking machine and it has stood out in my memory of the railway. I wanted to build one from the Worsley works kit, but was put off by the serious lack of suitable chassis for it. I found mine that had been put on sale by a friend of mine, who I have shared advice and held many in depth discussions about the railway. I made him an offer and I waited by my front door. When it arrived I realised just how much of a scratch aid kit it was. There were literally only enough parts to produce a bodyshell. I was going to have to learn and employ some serious thinking outside the box to complete this model and do it justice.  Some of the handmade detail The kit was assembled and I used brass ...