Bron Effans

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 have finally begun the construction of the western end of the layout in order to create a backscene to hide the fiddle yard. I had been putting this part of the layout off for some time, owing to me not being able to make my mind up on how I should disguise the portal to the yard. Originally, I envisaged a simple portal in a board which could be hidden with a simple footbridge over the cutting. I couldn't figure out a way to make this look convincing especially due to all efforts to build a footbridge resulting in wobbly and misshapen disasters. Inspiration struck me when I found a suitable portal on a well known auction site. This resin fascia looked very similar to the ones on the Moelwyn tunnel on the Ffestiniog railway and, given the reasonable price, would be perfect for the entrance/ exit on the line.  I mounted the board to the layout and attached the fascia to see how it would look with the cutting. I added some cardboard over the gaps between ...

I have been continuing to work on the DMU as it has been a really interesting project for me. Both cars are now more or less assembled and the first few layers of paint have been applied. I have had issues with the Railmatch BR Green paint owing to the fact that it is water based and has taken several layers to get right.  Both cars are shown below. The few people that have seen it have been impressed with the initial efforts, some commenting that it has the look reminiscent of a Class 319. There is still a long way to go with this model, as I am waiting on delivery of the second Kato chassis so that it will have a consistent look and will be able to fully move under it's own power with ease, Car A is currently on an ambulance chassis. I need to sort out some front skirts for both cars to replicate battery boxes and form snowploughs for the front, just like a BREL sprinter which is the look that I am aiming for. The lead car is currently on an ambulance chass...

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...

Over the last few weeks, I have been trying in vain to sell off the bodyshell of the Green Arrow observation coach. In my mind this has been a totally fruitless task as it would seem nobody wants to take on such an involved restoration, which I suppose is fair enough.  Mid restoration - The first time I have therefore decided that I am going to give it one more meaningful shot at life on the railway. In the coming weeks it will have it's external livery removed and I intend to paint it in a mock Pullman style, which will hide some of the imperfections more effectively and also possibly rebogie it. The previous bogies having been donated to the bogie wagon.  The carriage as it is at present - Minus the bogies. All this is up in the air at the moment as I seem to have created a massive 'to do' pile of rolling stock and scenery for the layout.  At present I have no plans or desires to purchase any new rolling stock for the line. At last count I now own 15 car...

In my last post I mentioned that I had acquired four bug boxes for the railway. In addition to that, I managed to get hold of one that had been built and painted. However, it was in need of some restoration, which is what I favour in my builds. So I purchased the little green quarrymans coach and set to work.  The coach pre-restoration I began by removing the original plastic windows and applying the paint stripper then leaving it for an hour or so.  Below are the results so far. As you can see there is another layer of paint underneath the original which will still need removing. More on that later.

I have pursued the construction and restoration of my GEM model bug box carriages. Today, I completed another two examples. The first being the Quarrymans coach that I have been restoring for some time and the second being an Ashbury style compartment coach. The Quarryman's coach has been an exceptionally involved process. Considering that I started the restoration about four/five weeks ago, it has taken me much more effort than I first thought it would.  After stripping back the first layer, I discovered that a second layer of orange/ brown paint lay below. I attacked it with the paint stripper today in order to properly relivery it and complete it.  The Quarryman coach with the final layer of orange underneath.  I have also taken the liberty of adding some adhoc seats for passengers to sit on. I wasnt too fussed about the detail of these seats as the windows are so small on this carriage. To that end I made use of some spare carriage steps from one of the Dunda...

You may remember that, a few months back, I had made the decision to convert the A1 diesel locomotive into a Perma-quip style vehicle that would be used on permanent way workings along the railway. I did not like the outcome of the first time I painted it. The yellow looked disgusting and I was not at all satisfied with the overall quality of what I had produced. So I took the decision to strip this paintwork off and start again. Research and discussion led me to the conclusion that yellow is a very tricky colour to get right and I could not rush into it.  I stripped the paint back and have made use of some basecoat paint from Games-Workshop, which would act as a good primer for future coats of yellow. Below are two pictures; one of the 'primer' coat and one with the first layer of yellow. I think you will agree that it looks better already. I have also began the process of transforming the N-gauge wagon chassis into a trailer vehicle for the main ve...

When I purchased the Green Arrow observation coach off a well known website, I knew that it would require some restoration work. I have so far, strenghtened the sides of the carriage and managed to strip away the vast majority of the paintwork so that I can apply a new livery to the bodywork without concealing any of the wonderful detail that is on the carriage. It is going to dry overnight and I am hoping to begin the process of giving it a livery tomorrow. Another thing to note in this post is that I have added a picture of the Prince tender and the Banana permanant way locomotive after they have been treated with the stripper. I really was not happy with the yellow livery, it looked rather comical and the paint had not dried evenly, probably due to my bad painting. However, watch this space as I have a rough plan forming with regards to a new livery for this locomotive.

The Langley model of Prince was in need of serious completion and restoration. The locomotive was not quite complete and the tender had been started but was in need of some repair and repainting for it to fit in with my railway. I was disappointed to learn that some people viewed this particular white metal kit as being inferior. I must say that I have changed my opinion of this kit whilst I have been restoring it. It really is not my favourite kit to work with and on that account I agree with the detractors of this model. However, given some time and patience I have finished the construction of the model and have set about the restoration of the tender. At present the locomotive is sat on the layout in a basecoat of red. I have found that if I use a cheap acrylic basecoat, the railmatch red looks alot crisper and yields a better finish. I am going to finish the restoration of the tender in the next few days and apply the livery to the whole locomotive at once.  ...

The restoration of the observation carriage is coming on quite well. 12 hours in some paint stripper and the gentle application of sandpaper has yielded some of the original metal of the model. Thanks to the power of Social Media, I have been able to ascertain that the kit is possibly an old Green Arrow kit, which is rare apparently.  I have strengthened the sides of the guards compartment, repaired the damage to the Guard's compartment and will construct a new roof from styrene when I get back off my summer holiday. At present the carriage has been undercoated in the usual black undercoat and will be painted to match it's partner carriage.  Which brings me onto the fourth large carriage of the fleet. I purchased another Vale of Rheidol Carriage with the intention of emulating Carriage 24 from the Welsh Highland Railway. I was considering making it from scratch but I enjoy constructing the Vale of Rheidol carriages too much. I am not in the business of accurately re...

  I have finally started my summer break from work. The warm weather has meant that going outside isn't perhaps the wisest choice so I have retreated to the cool of the man cave to build on Bron Effans. There has been a lot of progress this week and I am going to break it into four sections. The railway I have finally completed the track work for the layout. I have changed the plan slightly to give myself two sidings at the station. One at the extreme end of the station for rolling stock storage and another at the entrance to the station for Locomotive storage. I have yet to work on the conductivity of this section as I have found that there are a few hiccups with the first siding. I am going to try Electrical paint on the joints between all pieces of track to try and encourage efficient running.  The station and fiddle yard are now complete. I am, at some point, going to build a traverser for the fiddle yard. I just want to get the visuals of the layout sorted...

So I have nearly finished my work on the two Budget model railways carriages that I bought in May. I have to admit I am struggling a little bit with the roof on one of the carriages. It has warped a little bit and does not fit snugly into the cavity at the top of the roof. I am pondering employing my wife's hairdryer to remedy the issue and it should sit more flushly with the line of the roof.  In terms of painting, there has been some good progress made. It has taken several coats of paint to make it appear as solid as I want. The bodyshell is quite porous so a lot has seeped into the gaps. Overall it has been quite a straightforward kit for my railway and they do look quite good. The picture below is from a couple of days ago but it does show how I have started to line the detail on the carriages. The mock "Carmine and Cream" livery looks quite effective from a distance.