Bridge

I got slightly sidetracked with the Christmas shutdown projects. Once again my thoughts turned to having the smallest possible loop layout for the 009 stock to run on and after spending a good afternoon fuelled with tea and chocolate yule log I realised that, by utilising the leftover Welsh style buildings from Corrillyn, I actually had all the components to be able to make a homage to a small layout I've admired for some time. 

The only thing I didn't have was a small 'rail over' bridge. Luckily, there was a Peco N gauge set in the stash to use up...

Once again, pinching an idea from Chris Ford (This time from the December 2024 Railway Modeller) the bridge portals were transformed from humped back to straight parapet, along with a reduction in both height and width.

It's one of those projects that looks complex for the novice modeller, but is actually deceptively simple. Without going into too much depth for fear of plagiarism, the basic concept is to hack the piece into component parts and reassemble them again.

And at the end of the day, with both portals finished, interior walls added and even the top deck glued in situ. The Peco 'Glyn Valley Tramway inspired' brake van gives a good sense of just how much width and height has been cut from the sides. It is perhaps quite a wide bridge at 50mm, but this is going to be placed on a sharp 6" curve, so even with short four wheel stock a bit of wiggle room is certainly needed.

I'm really pleased with how this looks. There's a very strong urge to get at least three n gauge bridge kits and make a straightened and cut down narrow gauge viaduct. I don't need one, but it's certainly an idea to put on 'the list' for if it ever takes my fancy!

B Set Coach

I mentioned that I seemed to have several coach based projects for the festive break last year, here's the results of the first:

A very light bashing of an Airfix 'B Set' coach, using the guide by Chris Ford in his Modelling Great Western Branch Lines book. It's one of those projects I'd been wanting to have a go at for a while now for the still somewhat embryonic GWR layout, and given a good majority of this upgrade is paint job based it was a good way to ease into the Christmas break. It still needs a light wash to bring out some of the moulded details but my supplies of earth brown have exhausted themselves.

The above shows an earlier moment in the build, and reveals that I actually used a mixture of two different coaches to reach the finished bash. Browsing a local 2nd hand market stall by chance I came across the two coaches bundled together, one had a good body but was missing a bogie, the other had a complete chassis but two deep grooves on the roof that look suspiciously like someone left a soldering iron resting on it! I couldn't grumble at £5 for the pair though, it was the perfect starting point.

The body shell surprised me. Unlike ever other coach I've encountered the roof is moulded into the sides and ends. I'm assuming this practice was dropped pretty quickly by Airfix, the later GWR autocoach I have in the stash does have a separate roof piece. It does need to be said though, it makes the bodies very rigid!

One down, a few more posts to go!