Bron Effans

I have finished work for the summer and have decided that it is high time I spent some quality time on the layout. There are a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to make sure it is fully functional.  Electrics I find myself being haunted by the ghost of poor electrical fidelity. There is a weak link in the circuit around the points. I am intending to solve this using some proper track cleaning materials. The track has not had any proper use due to there being a considerable lack of power to the northern platform and the siding. This all stems from my over exuberant use of pva glue when I ballasted the track. I plan to get some proper track cleaning solution to sort this out and hopefull restore the running to what it used to be like. I am guilty of neglecting this aspect of the railway but due to lockdown I haven't been able to go out and purchase the items I need to resolve these issues. Carriages I have been looking through the very large selection of...

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 been quiet of late with various bits and pieces related to my return to work. It has meant that I have not really had a good deal of time spare to do any building or painting. I have begun the refit of the new European bogie coaches, with a view to anglicising them somewhat.   Unfortunately, due to the lockdown, paint has been in extremely short supply. My desire to use the aerosol paints on the carriages has meant that the repainting of these carriages has been set back some time until the shops get new stock. I am still intending to use BR blue and grey on these carriages just to add a bit of variety to the stock on the line.  I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain this new example from someone on the 009 Facebook group. It has been heavily cut down and carries roughly the livery that I am intending to use on these new carriages. This example is heavily battered and has definetly seen better days. With that in mind, I shall be using...

I found some spare time one rainy sunday in June and set about the repainting of my new diesel. The intention is to repaint it into a livery reminiscent of the Romanian locomotive owned by the Corris Railway. I purchased a Liliput diesel locomotive that I wanted to convert into my own version of Number 11.  I dismantled the locomotive and followed guidance from Youtuber Mattymidland how to repaint the locomotive.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBscpi7ZVvk I made sure to remove the light fittings and set about removing the transfers using a fibre brush, using gloves to protect myself from any errant pieces of glass fibre. I then primed to bodyshell and gave it a first coat of BR black using Railmatch paints.  I als set about construction of my version of Carriage 38 which was assembled and sprayed BR Maroon.  These have both been left overnight to dry and I will set about finding some time to complete the paintwork on both of these...

I have opted to signal my layout in a similar style to that of the WHR with the ladybird style signal boards. I am not going to add movement or lighting as the signal is intended more as a sort of warning board, than an actual signal. I have used components from an ARB ModelCraft Ffestiniog Railway Disc signal kit. These are intended to move once a train has passed. I decided that I would have it as a static signal. This is mostly because my layout will be operated on a one engine in steam principle so I don't need an excessive amount of signalling. I have made provision for two train working by using this board as a warning measure to not proceed unless the road to the platform is clear. I do need to get a point indicator signal in the future, like there are on the WHR, but that is something I need to educate myself on.  I used the cast base and the pole to assemble the signal and glued the disc onto a piece of wire at the top with an endcap to make it look more presentable. ...

I dispensed with my old Vale of Rheidol carriages a few months ago and instantly missed having the "Welsh" style stock on the layout.  In all fairness they weren't the best looking carriages in the world but they were some of the first few models that I built. I decided that the new versions of these carriages would be built and painted simultaneously and given a much simpler livery. There is not really a lot to differ these carriages from the others save the livery so cue the montage of construction images. As you can see, they are near completion. I am waiting for some passengers to add to the interiors to give them a feel of being in regular use. I am happier with how these carriages have turned out. The simpler livery really sets them out amongst my other items of stock. I am hoping to complete them before long. This will take my carriage fleet to near 20 examples. I think I have enough now.

I was very fortunate to acquire a Five79 Tattoo locomotive kit for a very good price. I have set about building this little locomotive with aplomb. I have a special affinity for these little locomotives. There are three known examples of this locomotive in preservation. There is Stanhope, Edward Thomas and the Tattoo locomotive on the Corris Railway. I had decided that I wanted to model elements from all three of these locomotives to present a 'what if' example in service on the Bron Effans Railway. The kit lent itself to directly represent the bodywork and features of Edward Thomas. I chose the working gauge to be 2ft to match my railway and a red livery to emulate that of the Corris example.  I decided to go all out for this construction and treated myself to a N-Drive chassis to give reliable performance. This also negated the need to search for a second hand Bachmann chassis that may not have been reliable due to their age. The N-Drive chassis arrived very quickly and I...