Bron Effans

I found myself a real bargain the other day in the form of a RTR brake coach in Southern Green to compliment the composite coach. I was a little downhearted when I realised that it was missing the footboards and the rear window of the guard's compartment. I considered sending it back. However, it was the start of the 'Lockdown' to combat the Covid-19 virus. I thought that I would take advantage of a time of crisis and alter this carriage to become a First Class Saloon Car for one of my rakes.  I began by removing all of the Southern detailing and spraying it in black to give it a solid base. I also spruced up the interior to emulate the interior of a Pullman carriage.  The exterior was given a coat of the same livery as 'Dulas' the Pullman carriage on the WHR rake. I removed the windows and the duckets on the guard's compartment. It is looking very promising. There are some issues that I need to fix with regards to my sloppy paint...

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. 

After my purchase of the European Carriages I decided to convert one into a Pullman style car.  The carriage before the process begins.  I tried to emulate the look of Bodysgallen on the Welsh Highland Railway to pair up with 2070 and 2080, the other two converted European carriages. I took time to build up the layers of cream and have experimented with a different type of Games Workshop paint for the Brown of the carriage. Basecoated bodyshell I did a basecoat and then used the new paints to build up the layers on top to recreate the Pullman livery. Unfortunately in my haste I used the wrong type of masking tape and it ended up ripping some of the paintwork off the side panel. The damage after the tape incident. Some hasty painting later and it appeared to be sorted. All that remains to be done is to get the lining and find a way to do the lettering on the pullman.

Happy New Year to each and everyone and welcome to the new decade! In the last post I promised that I would give an update on the carriage situation and explain what I intended to do with the burgeoning fleet of carriages that I had acquired over the last few months. As I explained in a previous post, I was planning on running carriages in fixed rakes so that there would be a theme for each train that I ran. At the time of writing I own 15 carriages in varying stages of completion. They can be formed into 5 rakes that can be accommodated at Effans Uchaf. They are named: VoR Set. Consisting 2 Dundas Vale of Rheidol style carriages. NWNGR Set. Consisting 1 Dundas Vale of Rheidol carriage and a Bro Madog Observation Carriage.  Short Bogie Set. Consisting of 3 freelance bogie carriages. Bug Box Set. Consisting of 5 Bug box style carriages of various builds.  WHR Set. Consisting of two Liliput Carriages 2070 and the new Pullman Carriage( Name TBD) The hitherto unnam...

I have recently had the opportunity to acquire a pair of Liliput European Narrow Gauge bogie coaches. I bought them from a fellow member of a 009 group on a popular social media platform. I bought two with the intention of creating my own version of Bodysgallen and a rendition of Coach 2060 on the Welsh Highland Railway.  I have so far reliveried one of the carriages into my own rendition of the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway livery, using Indian Red and Cream. The pictures below show the carriage in it's basecoat before I add the first layer of Indian Red.  Side by side with Vale of Elan to show of the differences in size. Sat in the station, ignore the large red splodge. The brush slipped. I still need to make some alterations to this model as the WHR coaches have gangways to allow passengers to seamlessly transfer between the carriages.  The more astute amongst you will be aware that my carriages are actually too long to be accurate r...