Bron Effans

 Life has returned to some normality now and I have been able to find some time to work on the coaches. The Dundas Vale of Rheidol Carriages have languished on my "to-do" pile for some time since I started the process of changing the kit bogies for the more reliable Peco RTR examples. My original rationale for using these bogies was to give the coaches more consistent running and to rationalise the couplings across the whole fleet.  I had originally just drilled a 4mm hole in the floor which helped but I had not accounted for the excess material on the original axles. I filed the material away and constructed new collars out of styrene to mount the bogies into. I re-drilled the holes to 5mm and added the 4mm collar melting it onto the floor with poly-cement. My hope was that it would be more secure.  Coaches 2 and 3 were given this treatment and the carriages were finished with glazing and the rooves being attached. Coach 4 was an attempt that had not gone to plan with my...

I found some spare time one rainy sunday in June and set about the repainting of my new diesel. The intention is to repaint it into a livery reminiscent of the Romanian locomotive owned by the Corris Railway. I purchased a Liliput diesel locomotive that I wanted to convert into my own version of Number 11.  I dismantled the locomotive and followed guidance from Youtuber Mattymidland how to repaint the locomotive.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBscpi7ZVvk I made sure to remove the light fittings and set about removing the transfers using a fibre brush, using gloves to protect myself from any errant pieces of glass fibre. I then primed to bodyshell and gave it a first coat of BR black using Railmatch paints.  I als set about construction of my version of Carriage 38 which was assembled and sprayed BR Maroon.  These have both been left overnight to dry and I will set about finding some time to complete the paintwork on both of these...

I dispensed with my old Vale of Rheidol carriages a few months ago and instantly missed having the "Welsh" style stock on the layout.  In all fairness they weren't the best looking carriages in the world but they were some of the first few models that I built. I decided that the new versions of these carriages would be built and painted simultaneously and given a much simpler livery. There is not really a lot to differ these carriages from the others save the livery so cue the montage of construction images. As you can see, they are near completion. I am waiting for some passengers to add to the interiors to give them a feel of being in regular use. I am happier with how these carriages have turned out. The simpler livery really sets them out amongst my other items of stock. I am hoping to complete them before long. This will take my carriage fleet to near 20 examples. I think I have enough now.

I found some time in the morning to work on those jobs on the to-do list with the fleet, that I had been putting off for some time. These are the sort of jobs that I know I should complete by once I have a piece of rolling stock that can travel in a train I just leave them as they are. I will be open with you, I hate glazing carriages. It just does nothing for me and the potential for getting it wrong is great. Making a mistake with the glazing can ruin a carriage, in my opinion, which is why I constantly put it off. Anyway I decided that it was finally time to finish the Dundas observation carriage Kit-bash for the eastern end of the Short Bogie Rake. Add caption I cautiously fitted the glass and left the glue to cure. I only use a few small dots of plastic glue on windows so that it does not smear everywhere and ruin the windows.  Whilst this was setting, I noticed that I hadn't painted the roof of the carriage during construction, like I normally do. I took the opport...

Progress has continued apace on Bron Effans over the last few weeks. I have sourced some miniature people to populate the carriages with and have added them to the Bro Madog Carriage and the observation carriage. I bought some cheap pre-painted figures off a well known auction site as a quick way of getting multiple figures. I was concerned about the size of them, when they arrived, but they don't look too out of place in the carriages.  I have never used figures on my layouts before but I am glad to be using them now. They seem to add another dimension to the tiny world that I am trying to construct.  The observation carriage with two families travelling inside it. A rather busy Bro Madog Carriage The finished Observation carriage There are still a few people that I wish to add to the Bro Madog Carriage. However, I have been able to stick the roof onto the Observation Carriage which means that one rake of carriages is complete. I just need to add the be...

I bought a Bro Madog Eistedffod Carriage kit to replace the larger observation carriage that I had purchased as a restoration project. I have to say this is a really good, if fiddly, kit from Dundas. It has an excellent level of detail and looks great, even after only one coat of paint.  The seating sprue. I built the kit in a day and added the seats the day after. The seating was unlike anything that I had built before, owing to there being two different sizes of seating and an aisle. After some minor damage inflicted on one or two of the bars by my clumsiness I managed to create convincing looking seating in the carriage. I plan to make this my new observation carriage for the NWNGR rake on the line. It will be paired with my Carriage 24 to represent rolling stock that is used on the Welsh Highland Railway. I must say that I am proud of the way this kit has turned out. I just need to add some extra details to it to make it stand out and then it will be ready to enter traf...

I have finished the Guard's van for the Vale of Rheidol rake on the railway. I am very happy with the green and how the whole thing has come together. I must confess that I found it a bit more tricky to build than the two carriages, but I am incredibly happy with the results.  I just have a little bit extra to do on the roof lining and then I can finalise the detailing on the carriages. I have a set of figures on order that will be used to populate this busy tourist train. 

The observation carriage has finally been completed and it is one of my favourite pieces of rolling stock on the line. If i do say so myself. The smaller Dundas carriages, to me, evoke the victorian heritage of many Welsh narrow gauge railways and I could not pass up the opportunity to add another of these fine examples to my collection.  I have once again painted it in the matching mock carmine and cream livery to go with the other smaller bogie coach that I have. The glazing was completed very quickly, owing to the small size of the carriage. I have gone to town with the detail on this carriage there is a 'newlywed' couple in a loving embrace in the main observation compartment and there is a section of seating at the back for the guard and other staff to make use of. I plan to add a handbrake wheel to this section and a guard figure, when it arrives.  Here is a picture of the carriage running as part of a small passenger train hauled by '590'...

My previous post described the rolling stock and an outline of the rakes that I was planning to run on the railway. I mentioned that I was tempted to replace one of the Budget Model Railways carriages and acquire a Dundas observation carriage with a guard's compartment. Well I bit the bullet and bought it and have begun the process of constructing it.  I love Dundas kits but there is something especially charming about these smaller freelance kits. They give me the look that I am seeking and allow me to develop my own fleet of rolling stock without fear of causing offence at interpreting something in my own way.  So I present to you the latest of the passenger fleet. I have adapted the kit slightly so that it would fit in with the rest of my carriage fleet. I am not a fan of carriages with balconies. I have just never warmed to the concept. The issue with removing the balcony was that there would be no access to the guard's compartment.  To that end, I cut dow...

I have espoused the virtues of the Dundas Vale of Rheidol Carriages for some time now. I had decided that the third one would be a rough representation of Coach 24 from the Welsh Highland Railway. This smartly presented carriage boasts a wonderfully deep red livery, which I have tried to replicate.  Fresh from the paint bench I have finished the layering stage of the painting process and will soon begin adding the seating to the interior of the carriage.  The roof requires a few flourishes to ensure that the coat is even, but this has turned out very well. I just need to achieve a similar finish with the observation carriage and the B set will be complete for the railway. On test with the VoR set. Testing of this carriage has revealed that Platform 1 of Effans Uchaf can comfortably hold 3 of these larger carriages. I have three full carriage sets that are more or less complete and can be utilised together. I intend to focus on the completion of these ca...

When the observation carriage was purchased there were several other items of rolling stock in the lot. There was a second carriage and two goods wagons. A large van and an open wagon, similar to the ones on the Lynton and Barnstaple railway. In a rare twist, I do not want to repaint them and feel that their appearance is perfect to represent some well worn goods vehicles. The problem is that they only have one bogie each. I am simply going to purchase some new bogies for them and reattach the brake pipes, so they can be included in mixed trains maybe.  I have begun the process of re-bogeying the goods van with some bogies from one of the budget model railway carriages. I will need to source some Dundas bogies for the open wagon, as I don't want to be drilling through the floor of the wagon too much.

I mentioned the other day that I had purchased two Vale of Rheidol Carriages and a Brake van to make a complete running set for the railway. They were very simple to construct and I have customised them slightly, so that they fit in with the running gauge and the look of my line.  I have built the carriages without the vent duckets on top of the rooves and given them a custom Cream and Green livery. I was intending to try and paint them in a West Highland style livery, but I thought that the Brunswick green gave it a very classy exterior.  I have also made sure that the carriages have a suitable level of detail, as they now form the main running set on the line. One carriage is near completion, the other needs the layers of cream adding and the seats putting in place. I have made them slightly different to each other in that their exteriors have a different finish. Carriage 1 as it will be known will have a cream interior and Carriage 2 will have a brown interior. I...

  I have finally started my summer break from work. The warm weather has meant that going outside isn't perhaps the wisest choice so I have retreated to the cool of the man cave to build on Bron Effans. There has been a lot of progress this week and I am going to break it into four sections. The railway I have finally completed the track work for the layout. I have changed the plan slightly to give myself two sidings at the station. One at the extreme end of the station for rolling stock storage and another at the entrance to the station for Locomotive storage. I have yet to work on the conductivity of this section as I have found that there are a few hiccups with the first siding. I am going to try Electrical paint on the joints between all pieces of track to try and encourage efficient running.  The station and fiddle yard are now complete. I am, at some point, going to build a traverser for the fiddle yard. I just want to get the visuals of the layout sorted...