Insurance Value and Locomotives

Today, I decided to figure out what’s the real insurance value of the layout, before I thought of £500, with a few locos, wagons, transformers etc, BUT I didn’t include a laptop which I am going to make a power point presentation on about the layout, so that figure has easily rose to £1000, but again, I’m going to get all of my exhibition stuff together, and add up all of the values, I don’t know what I have to do then, do I have too multiply by a certain percentage or what? I was on John de Frayssinet’s website County Gate (www.cd2.009.com) and he evaluates his at £50’000, WITHOUT rolling stock; they are an additional £12’000 on that! Looking at his ‘how we built…’ pages, there are a few useful things in the layout, some may (over time) find their way too Traeth Mawr.
Also I figured out what locos will be doing what duties, for example, Livingston Thompson (Taliesin wasn’t on the etched nameplates I got with the double fairlie) will be a ‘mainline’ loco, along with eventually a Linda, a Funkey and maybe Prince. Whilst I will have other locos for goods/P.W work, such as Harlech Castle (soon to be re-painted) with possibly Cricieth Castle and a Meridian Models Baldwin Gas-Mechanical.

Double Fairlie (Taliesin)

A few days ago the Double Fairlie off eBay arrived, the body was complete but two shafts where missing, luckily these weren’t very hard to make, a simple piece of brass tube, with a small length running square to it at either end, works like a charm! But, I then tried to fit the rods.... I knew something needed to go wrong! Luckily the rods are still intact in the fret, but I couldn't say the same about the bogies. The cylinders where already attached, and one was on the wrong way, so I started to take a screw out... it snapped, didn't matter I had a spare, but then I realised that if I attempted to put it back on, a part on the bogie will snap. So I din some looking on the internet and I found a shop that sells replacement parts for the Bachmann GP50, $1 for shafts $3 for a bogie and about $4 for a motor... might replace the lot! ($9 isn't too bad compared to a good £30 for a new chassis!) So, I’ll be buying some new bits and pieces, I want the Fairlie (soon to be named Taliesin) to be very reliable and smooth running (the mainstay of the fleet) Pictures will follow shortly.

Traeth Mawr Railway Album

If anyone is interested in seeing some pictures of Traeth Mawr, there an album on my Facebook profile. Here's the link;

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31144810&id=1068402201#!/album.php?aid=2051554&id=1193474665

It's a Fairlie good deal!

I was browsing through eBay earlier on when I found this;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110534639071

It's a Langley Double Fairlie AND a Bachman GP50 Chassis, for £41 all together, considering the body alone is £56, and the Bachman GP50 £27, I think its a good deal! even if I will need to buy a new chassis, I still would have spent almost the same as what the body would cost, also in the post today was the plans for the S.A Railways Type B-6 Wagon, I immediately went to convert the drawings to 4mm-1ft, then made a first version on the computer, and built it!, I only need some bogies for it now, my plans are to make these to scale weight as well (so it will be more reliable) I know that a fully loaded (with coal) S.A.R Type B-6 is roughly 36 tons, so scale wise its approximately 60grams, maybe I will make it a bit heavier, not sure yet.

My Wish List / future plans

Rolling Sock wish list
• Double Fairlie(s)
• Hunslets
• Railcars County Gate Glenthorne Harbour Type view here http://www.009.cd2.com/albums/nervard/15.html
• Garratt (K1 or NGG16)
• ‘Fairlie Mallet’ (I’m thinking of scratchbuilding it. see below for first ‘version’)



Operating Wish list
• Tortoise or Hoffman Point Motors
• Ffestiniog Style (working) Disk Signals
• DCC (very unlikely unless I win the lottery)

D-Day!

Today was D Day! I Destroyed the rear fiddle yards and Dismantled the station tracks, in the nice hot sun in the back garden. I've added some pictures of what I’ve done. I'm planning now on making all the boards independent, except the Cob, what I will do is ad a switch on both boards that can make the panel either control the board its built for or the entire layout. Some thinking still needs to be done! I also kept myself busy yesterday by building the shed you see in the pictures, it took over 2 meters (ish) of card about 2cm wide being cut into tiny squares, then glued onto each other like what they would have done. I think it looks very nice (even if the doors and windows are a bit wonky!!) My plans are to put two point motors in there, hidden by overgrowth or somthing.

Some major changes

At the exhibition I found that the fiddle yard and 'ramps' leading up to the scenic sections where very inconvenient, so I’m adjusting the layout a bit. This is the new track plan for 'Harbor Station'. I'm happy with the Boston Lodge board, and the cob. The other change is the fiddle yard in the back. I'm planning on removing the long rear board and removing the ramp from the board behind the works and replacing it with a sector plate/cassette system.



The new Station will cover both the ‘Harbour Station board and the board behind it, it will include the Harbour Station Building, Goods Shed, Small Loco Shed and maybe ‘the hole’ similar to what’s in Minffordd Yard http://www.frheritage.org.uk/wiki/Image:25-5-70_Minffordd_exchange_sidings.jpg

FR Coaches

At the exhibition I bought a book called 'Ffestiniog Odyssey' by Nick Welch, I was reading through it and he said that the first two FR coaches he had where Triang 00 gauge coaches, he simply butchered the sides to match the FR Bowsiders scale size and re-assembled. I might go along this line for a while, buy a few cheap 00 and N gauge coaches, butcher the 00, and place on the N gauge's frame; it’s a fairly cheap idea to get some good rolling stock! also in the post (hopefully) are some plans for the South African Railway's Type B mineral wagons that are on the WHR and FR, I will then attempt to make some out of plasticard (I’ve seen some etched stuff by Warsley Works, but my soldering skills aren’t good enough to start doing things like that!

Porthmadog Narrow Gauge Exhibition Report

The exhibition was great, there where plenty of superb layouts and locomotives being shown and sold. I've only added some details of the best (in my opinion) Layouts.
Layouts...
In my opinion three layouts where at equal first, which is Kingston Regis (009)0 by John and Jane Jacobs, Port Penrhyn (009) by Peter Midwinter and Cothele by the Hull MRS. I've included some pictures to show the quality of the layouts.
The only problem I had was a father with a 'it will go in if I slam the door hard enough' attitude that broke the three pieces of track that went from the scenic sections to the back, thus I couldn't use the back. But fortunately I found a length of n gauge track to repair one length of track. Also I bought a few things, firstly was a POLYPEN (suggested by a operator from Hull MRS) which does wonders cleaning wheels and track, also I bought two books, first 'Ffestiniog Odyssey' by Nick Welch and 'Creative Scenic Modeling By Peter Parkinson, which happens to live a few streets away from me, is a scenic guru and gave me his email :D Also a few carriages, three goods wagons and four locomotives found their way into my collection (for only £10!!!!)
Whilst operating I found a flaw in my layout, at the back there’s just too much track! So, I’m thinking of removing the fiddle yard, and replacing the two end boards with traversers or small fiddle yards. Also I found that the control board was too large (compared to others! that where as little as 3 inches by 4!!) Not sure yet... might replace that too.