Bron Effans

  I have had a fairly productive summer break from work. My time has been divided by various jobs on the layout and catchup repairs from the lockdown period. Ultimately, I had set myself some targets for the summer period to improve the running of the layout and to sort out the ongoing issues with the rolling stock. I have managed to finish the vast majority of these jobs and have finished a few other extra things that were not in the original plan. The biggest of which is the new retaining wall at the west end of the line.  I have been trying to give the layout a more unified look and feel that reflects the location that I am trying to model. I found some inspiration from the creation of a group on Facebook concerned with modelling the Corris Railway. I took ideas from this group and set about building a retaining wall along the northern slope to disguise the poor effort on the slope. The first layer of styrene is laid. I used styrene to make thin slabs and built them up with...

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 finally sourced my replacement for Dolgoch and it arrived the other day. I had decided to replace my version of Dolgoch as I didn't really want a version of it with a green livery, I have designs on another locomotive in green. To this end I have obtained a Bachmann Rheanas which I am going to convert into a Fletcher Jennings using the Narrow planet conversion kit.  I am planning to use the new funnel and smokebox on the boiler and add the additional details from the box. I don't plan on utilising the cab as I feel that the current cab exhibits sufficient detail for my needs. The replacement cab will be retained for a future project... watch this space.  Anyway here are a couple of quick photos of Rheanas, before he goes under the knife, please excuse the blurriness of the pictures.