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 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 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 was gifted a Bachmann Skarloey, for my birthday, and I wanted to do a conversion that was unlike any of the other locomotives on the layout. I decided that it was time I added a green locomotive to the passenger fleet. I decided that Skarloey would benefit from a GWR green colour. I decided to go with this instead of BR Green as I have rolling stock in that colour and felt that the Locomotive needed to stand out from the stock a little bit more.  I started by taking his face off and removing the old lining from the bodyshell.  I basecoated it in my usual style with Games Workshop green paint. Once that was dry I began to start the layering process with the GWR enamel green paint.  I need to order a new smokebox door for the model and finish off the details on the sides. The new locomotive will need a name, but for now it will be known as Fletcher No. 3.  On a side note, I am tempted to purchase another Skarloey model to make as a replacement fo...

I set out my vision for this year on New Years Day where I mentioned that my fleet of 15 carriages needed attention. To that end I undertook work to finish some detail on one of the VoR carriages and also my copy of Coach 24. I must confess I am a little annoyed with myself for the way that I have treated this model. I bought it with every intention of doing a good job and it has unfortunately languished by the side of the layout for at least 5 months with only the basecoat of paint on it.  I have taken my detail brush to the droplight windows and have touched up the drab brown and made it look more like wood on the frames. I think they’re looking a lot better now and I have also turned this new colour on the interior of the carriage. I hope this will look better on the layout. 

I have reached the point of finishing the exterior of my first Zillerbahn carriage conversion. This one is my interpretation of Carriage 2060 from the Welsh Highland Railway. This carriage was originally from Romania I believe and needed some alteration for use on the Welsh Highland Railway. I have created my own homage to this carriage using the Carriage with the rounder windows. It is longer than 2060 so I have given it the moniker of 2070 and will build an interior in the future. Carriage 2070 on the right of the picture before conversion and relivery. I have tried to replicate the livery of the Welsh Highland using Indian Red and Cream to mimic their livery. I started the process off with my traditional undercoat using Games Workshop layering paint as a primer coat for the new livery. The Carriage in it's new base coat using paints from the Games Workshop paint range.   I then began the process of applying the new livery which was a very time consuming process...

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...