Cwm Prysor – Fully Wired!

Good Morning all! Very brief update. The layout is now fully operational! I’m extremely pleased I’ve managed to do it (wiring was something I didn’t think I’d be able to do) and with some advice from Ken Gibbons and Andy Jones, the process wasn’t as difficult as I thought. Below is a quick video I …

Enjoying the Hobby

Apologies for the rather ‘basic’ title of this blog, but it sums up how I’m feeling at the point. I have now finished the landscaping on the other board that runs behind the railway. I’m rather pleased with the results from this, which was probably the hardest task landscape wise. The landscaping in front of the …

Vintage LMS

I’ve said it before, but I do have a thing for LMS Vans. The high sides and shallow roof profile make for a distinctive looking van. These two are both kits from  Cambrian Models. Both of these van’s represent slightly older variants of rolling stock, than the more common ratio van diagram. First up is …

She’s home!

With the weather finally dry last night, and with the help of a friend, Cwm Prysor was transported from my workroom, along a narrow landing and down a narrow flight of stairs. I’d forgotten how light the boards are, even at 5ft each so the moving through the house wasn’t as bad as I had …

First Train of the Day

Ok, the bleak whiteness does make it look like it’s still been snowing up their since Christmas! The bufferstop has now been made, and the siding partially laid. At 7.17am, 4645 passes the former loop, now siding….with the 6.45am off Bala, due at Blaenau Ffestiniog, 8.36am.

Merry Christmas

As a post script to yesterday’s post. Cwm Prysor arrived this morning. Very happy indeed. A typical week day working, 5742 with a train from Blaenau Ffestiniog approaches what will be Cwm Prysor.   7428 sits in the loop preparing to shunt. Merry Christmas all! 🙂

Prysor for Christmas

Good tidings to all at this festive time of year. In the last couple of days I’ve been preparing the work room for the arrival of the layout. Tim Horn has worked exceptionally hard to bring my rough ideas into reality. From here, the real work can begin on turing this into an operational layout, …

Building E147…progress continues….

This wasn’t what was originally planned as an entry today. Instead I was going to be doing the follow up post to the visit to Wales, and location spotting for the Cwm Prysor extension. I’ll do an entry on that later in the week. In the meantime, I recently visited Mr Tony Wright for some …

Building my first etched coach, Comet Models E147

Work is going well with my first etched coach kit, ex GWR ‘E147’. Strictly speaking, this isn’t a coach that I believe worked on the Bala-Blaenau Branch but it a variety of Non Corridor Brake Composite. The two most common coaches used on the line are not produced in model form, those being the Collett E157 …

Toad in the Hole

I’ve finally got around to working on that very Great Western of all things, a Toad Brake Van. This isn’t anything fancy, it’s just a simple repaint with minimal detailing. Previous models I have found have been a pain to get into and due to excess glue, I have snapped stanchions off the body, so …