Bron Effans

I was very fortunate to be able to purchase a U class locomotive from a good friend in the 009 group. It is an old liliput model and was one of the mainstays on the layout, when I first started. However, age caught up with it and it stood dormant on the layout for a good 9-10 months due to a major failure that constituted it coming to an abrupt halt with a horrid stench emanating from the chassis.  I left it to one side for a while and did some research on how to service motors and also fix them. I will be honest and say that electrics and mechanics are not a strong suit of mine, so I took my time.  So to the efforts of last friday, when I set about trying to get her going again. I started by taking the chassis to pieces to inspect it's condition. The motor looked in a good state but the sheer amount of muck and grime that was caked on the gearshaft, pickups and gears was alarming. It took me a good half hour of careful cleaning and scraping of the gunk....

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...