Fablewood (Coed Y Chwedlau): March 2020 onwards

Been too long since our last visit to Fablewood, so it's high time we called round again!

To be truthful, nothing much has happened recently. That is until the start of March, and then right up to this moment of national crisis, when things began to pick up again. What follows is a brief explanation of what has been going on.

Fablewood had its first (and so far only) 2020 exhibition outing over the weekend of 6th and 7th March, at Rainhill which is the exhibition hosted by my local model railway club. The show I'm happy to report, was a considerably great success despite the numbers being low (though that was partly to be anticipated, and very timely given the situation at present). A majority of the Fablewood regulars came out to play, as well as a few new additions making their debut. Here is a selection of scenes taken over the weekend...
























Some will have noticed the Welsh Ambulance and Eddie Stobart van. These are Oxford Diecast models, fitted with working lights by Culcheth Model Railway centre. Both are powered by a 9v battery fitted underneath the layout. The eagle eyed among you, may have also noticed the Oxford Diecast bubble car sat atop a Five79 flat bed wagon! The fencing around the hills, station car park and goods yard, have been upgraded with Ratio fencing (both LMS & GWR styles), spray painted in brown.

 

(Continued)

There are two new additions to the motive power stable. The first is a Langley Models 'George England' 0-4-0STT of the Ffestiniog Railway. This particular one runs on an Ibertren 'Cuckoo' 0-4-0 chassis, and is decked out in dull London Midland red livery by Phoenix Precision paints. A good runner, the only issue so far is the tender chassis which is causing haulage problems. This will shortly be rectified with the fitting of a plastic chassis.








Next is a GEM 'Barclay' 0-4-0 based on the Talyllyn Railway's 'Douglas', albeit with a few customised parts (namely the chimney and brass dome which were sourced from another kit) and modifications. This engine runs on an Arnold 0-4-0 chassis, and again, is painted in dull London Midland red.

 

(Continued)

With regard to rolling stock, a Wolsley Works Ffestiniog 'Flying Bench' joins the roster. This was my first ever brass kit (bent and soldered together), and is also coloured in the London Midland red livery (almost in an echo of the real 'Flying Bench' on the FR back in the 1990's). There are couplings to be fitted and seated passengers to be found, otherwise, not a bad attempt in my first foray into brass kit assembly!




Onto buildings now. the old 'Hornby' waiting room has been replaced with a more subtle looking design, in the form of a Scenic Route Models laser-cut waiting room, of wooden construction with a brick base. The roof has Metcalf Roof Slate card glued on. The building was decked out in Humbrol 'wood' and red, but the doors and windows had yellow spray paint applied. The choice of colour seemed poor on reflection, but hey ho.




A more appropriate looking water tower is also a Scenic Route Models piece, occupying the end of the 'island platform' by the signal box. Just needs weathering, the inside of the exposed tank painted and filled with resin, and pipes fitted (particularly an old piece of wire with covering on, to act as the 'bag').




Complimenting the waiting room is a small laser-cut kiosk from Scenic Route Models, which is to act as a ticket office (the sign being from Sankey Scenics). On the side is a noticeboard from Scale Model Scenery (check them out at http://scalemodelscenery.co.uk). It is intended to place the kiosk on the platform, when all the space has been planned out.






To finish, two bus stop signs and a bollard are also from the Scale Model Scenery stable.




Still a fair bit of work to be done, but I hope you like the progress I'm making so far. Comments welcome as always.

 

29/03/2020

More work on Fablewood, around the station area...

With the ticket kiosk complete, the fencing by the car park was chopped and adjusted slightly to accommodate the new building, set permanently into place. As an additional feature, a set of double noticeboards (from Scale Model Scenery) were fixed on the outside wall facing the car park. The gentleman previously waiting outside the telephone box, now stands looking up from his papers and reading the notices...




Speaking of the telephone box, it (and the man occupying it) has been moved to the other side of the station building.




To conclude, a lady and her grand daughter stand at the ticket kiosk, as a member of staff tends to business. It is intended to add another standing passenger, reading the noticeboard on the side.




Still a bit more to do. Comments welcome as always.

 

Thanks Toto. Nice to be working on this again!

 

06/04/2020

More bits and bobs to keep me busy (and sane)!


Another addition to the passenger carriage fleet is this Dundas 'Ffestiniog' semi-open 3rd class carriage, based on Carrs 37 & 38. This is a work in progress piece, as seated passengers have yet to be found before the roof can be painted. The seat 'backboards' were made up from spare off-cuts from the roof. The carriage is decked out in Midland crimson, with black ends.




Presenting the biggest and bizarre piece of rolling stock on Fablewood, a cattle wagon from an exclusive 009 Society kit. This may well accidentally be the first 00n3 vehicle I've assembled, but the wheel span does fit the 9mm track. Please excuse the current lack of roof braces, as there's the small matter of finding cattle to load up the vehicle with first! There are two views of the vehicle, each showing the braking gear. The cattle wagon looks likely to be paired with the Five79 Baguley diesel, when finished...








Finally, another look at the Langley 'George England' and the GEM 'Douglas'; the latter now complete with footplate crew (who I suspect will have stiff backs after the end of their shift!)...








Comments welcome as always.

 

08/04/2020

While a few other projects on Fablewood are ongoing, work has also been taking place on another passenger vehicle, in the form of a Ffestiniog 'Hudson' semi-open passenger bogie carriage. This is an exclusive 009 Society kit which had been in slow progress for a couple of years, but has seen fair advancement during this 'lockdown' period.

While assembly of the body has been straightforward, the fitting of the brass running boards proved tricky. Inevitably, the thin support bars snapped, rendering the running boards useless. However, I managed to come up with a way around the problem. Taking a sheet of card (thin enough to be used), I cut a pair of strips made to the right width and length. Next, I took some 0.45 wire, and shaped them into supports. I tried putting them underneath the vehicle, but they played havoc with the bogies which obviously need room to turn on tight corners. I gradually settled for drilling small holes in the bottom corners of each side, and gluing the supports into position. I then glued the new running boards on top, and voila!

By way of enhancement, I used the same card material to create backboards for the middle seats. These were cut to the right length, and the width as close to the side handles as possible. While this may not look prototypical on the real thing, the boards will at least offer the passengers a little extra comfort!

The bogies have certainly not been neglected; tabs made from the card material were glued on, ready for Bemo couplings to be added.

The body has been sprayed in grey primer paint, and the main painting process is about to start. The livery is likely to be 1920's style green with red ends. That, and there's also a matter of finding passengers before gluing the roof on...

More to do on this kit, but I hope you like the progress so far. Here are a couple of shots of the work achieved at this stage. Comments welcome as always.

 

Thank you Pete! No doubt a bit more to do, thanks to this lockdown extension...

 

May 2020

Lock-down work on Fablewood continues at a slow but gentle pace, and one area of the station has seen a transformation.

For some time, I toyed with the idea of putting a locomotive plinth in place of the old flower bed; the idea being inspired by the numerous times I saw Welsh Pony on display at Porthmadog, back in the 1990's and early 2000's. The pinth was constructed using brick sheeting cut to the right height and length (with cream paint rubbed into the linings to act as cement), and plastic were strips used to act as corner pieces. Bits of balsa wood were glued in to act as a base for the track, and fresh ballast laid down. The track piece was Peco 'Crazy' track cut to length, and painted accordingly. My Bachmann 'Peggy' was chosen as the display loco.

Before the work began:



During:












After:




In motive power news, the railway's resident Garratt has had new buffers fitted, in the form of RT Models 'Penrhyn' style couplings. The old buffers were carefully removed, plastic pieces glued on and painted to act as beams, and the new buffers glued on and painted as well.




And finally for now, Jones the window cleaner (courtesy of P&D Marsh Models) has turned up on his daily rounds, and has been giving the yard manager's windows a good scrubbing...

(Incidentally, anyone know how to make 'flash' for the roof joints and edges, and what material is best for weathering cardboard buildings?)





Comments welcome as always.

 

06/06/2020

An update on the rolling stock and motive power fronts.

The passenger carriage fleet is bolstered even more, with a Dundas 'Ffestiniog' style, 4-compartment bogie carriage. The coach, complete with passengers, was from a kit I had lying around for a while (amazing what this lockdown malarkey can make you do!), and is decked out in dull Midland red. It is expected to be pressed into service soon.




While having a mooch around on Ebay, I came across a 3D printed large Hunslet body, based on the Dinorwig Railway's 'Cackler'. Looking at the photograph, I saw it was mounted on a Fleischmann 7000 chassis. And having one already spare and in working order (left over from an abortive attempt to fit it under my Langley 'George England' earlier in the year), I thought, I quite fancy that! Incidentally, it's my first 3D print since I first got started in the 009 genre. And although I've long since moved on to kit building and using ready to run models, there's no harm in featuring a 3D print sometimes. If anyone wants to know who sells the body, give me a PM.

Anyway, here is the body in question.






It should be noted that some weight will be needed in the front to make it more stable (hence a paint-brush propping up the loco!), and some of the leftover flash carefully removed. Otherwise, it looks really splendid. A name and livery are yet to be decided, but plain black looks likely. And although Cackler was a Dinorwig engine, it is planned to use my spare pair of RT Models 'Penrhyn' couplings as a customised feature for this model.

Comments welcome as always.

 

12/06/2020

An update on progress, in regard to my freelance 'Cackler'.

Over the last few days, painting the body of this 3D printed loco has taken place. Some primer was applied (Expo dark grey), before the frames, smokebox, dome, spectacles and cab interior were painted. Yesterday (11/06), a coat of Black Satin was applied. Fluid lead was glued in the tank to add weight to the body (courtesy of Eileen's Emporium), to make it more sturdy when the chassis was put underneath. A bit more tweaking and a bit more painting are required, but she's gradually beginning to look the part. Here are some snaps, charting the painting stages...











Comments welcome as always.

 

Thanks Toto! Quite a good find on Ebay too.

 

Didn't realise I'd been picked again; not been checking in much recently. Thanks all the same; hope to come up with another cracker soon!

Can't think of any alternative. But the liquid lead is straightforward to use, just as long as you use ordinary poly cement or superglue, not PVA (the latter has a nasty habit of making the lead explode, or so I'm told!).

Thanks for the comments gentlemen!

Moving on...

02/09/2020

While work on 'Cackler' is on hold (pending a rear pony truck being lashed up and 'false' frames added), another new locomotive is in the process of construction. Following a random mooch around on Ebay, I was successful in acquiring a Five79 Vale of Rheidol 2-6-2 tank (in original form). After the kit arrived swiftly in the post, no time was lost in getting down to work. The side tanks and cab have already been glued together, the chimney, dome and safety valves added, and the front end will be put together shortly. The bogies will be assembled at a later date, when a Minitrix 2-6-2 chassis can be sourced and acquired. The livery is to be decided, though BR blue may be tempting as artistic licence (had this particular VoR tank not been 'Swindonised')...

Progress, thus far:



More to report soon. Comments welcome as always.