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...

Now that the station layout has been completed, I have been looking at ways to build a convincing narrow gauge station in a remote location. I had intended on building raised platforms for better access. In my head a height of 6mm would be adequate and it looked the part with all of my trains. However, the construction of the Funkey diesel has caused me a rather large headache in terms of the running gauge of the line. When running around or entering platform 2, the shorter of the 2 due to the points, it would foul the platform.  To remedy this, I intend to build lower platforms from 4mm ply that should alleviate the fouling issue. I am going to decorate this with a layer of textured plasticard to emulate paving stones. I just need to cut it to shape and get it added to the layout. I am hoping that this will solve the fouling issue.

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 ...