*Fy Merlen Bach*

Winter is coming…The phrase that spawned hundreds of cringeworthy internet memes. To me it means that any model making I do will be confined to the basement of our little house. There will be no baseboards built, and no models spray painted. Because it will be too cold to work in the garage. There will be days when it will even be too cold to walk down to the garage, let alone work in it. 

So, like a student cramming for an exam. I need to get some things ready for working on in the dark days of winter. First up, is “Merlod Bach” or Little Pony. My version of the LocoRemote “Tiny” that I was inspired to buy whilst reviewing the real thing at the National Railway Museum in York, whilst on vacation in the UK.

I decided to go with a new name. A Welsh name. Principally because I had been inspired by the foundry at the National Slate Museum in Llanberis, and wanted to keep the Welsh theme going. The Ffestiniog Railway has Welsh Pony, and I thought Little Pony was an appropriate name given the diminutive size of the real thing.

With the temperature being a balmy 55 degrees on Sunday I gave the main body parts of “Merlod” a coat of primer.

And so it begins

Tiny comes 3D printed in Black, and I am certain that I don’t want a Black locomotive. If steam locomotives aren’t Black, then they’re Green. 

As you know, I’m in America, so the chances of buying a can of GWR Brunswick Green are next to impossible. Even more vexing was the fact that my local hobby shop only had Tamiya Green paints. Dark Green seemed the simplest colour to go for. So the boiler and water tank were sprayed Dark Green, the other parts Black. Then it started to rain, curtailing my painting activities for the day.

Colours.

Only the major parts were sprayed as I’ll test fit the other parts before I decide when, how, and what colours to paint them.

But with the main body parts sprayed I couldn’t resist the temptation, and I just had to test fit them to see how “Merlod Bach” was going to look in Green.

I think it’s going to look quite good. Don’t you?

*My Little Pony*

Taking (my) Stock

Now I’ve got a layout ready to go to an exhibition, I need a box to carry and protect the locomotives and rolling stock that I’ve accumulated. But what to make it from and how to make it? My woodworking skills are certainly not good enough to make anything.

But I run, I ski, I wear boots and shoes. I could make a stock box from a shoe box. They aren’t just for building micro layouts in. 

I have lots of shoe boxes around

All the boxes were different sizes. I just tried a few for size to see how the stock would fit best.

Not quite right.

This looks pretty good.

It only took to the second box for me to find a comfortable arrangement that would be easy to make.

I just cut some dividers to size and glued them in place. Easy peasey.

I’m quite happy with this fit.

A little padding in there might not go amiss, but things are in there pretty snugly, with a handy dandy spare pocket that for now will take coupler tools, couplings and other loose bits and bobs.

LocoRemote Motor Rail 12HP

 It’s been a while since I last updated this blog, so please excuse a couple of rapid entries as I get you back up to speed on the project.

First up, the LocoRemote Motor Rail kit. 

As you well know, my enthusiasm for Chris Rennie’s kits knows no bounds. They have introduced me to a whole new world of railway modelling I didn’t know existed. If you would have told me before the Covid epidemic that I would be modelling in 16mm scale. I would have laughed at you and asked where I was getting the money from to run live steam in the garden. But Chris’s products have shown me otherwise. I’ve said previously that working on 16mm scale micro layouts fills me with the same kind of excitement that I got from the early days of Gn15, all those years ago. It’s all down to these kits that give me little locomotives full of character, for about $100. 

A loco with a working headlight that sits on your hand in 16mm scale.

The unique boxy lines of the prototype are well captured.

The kit is as simple as the Huddy and Brush Amberley loco’s that I have. So there’s little else to say about the construction, other than they go together perfectly. I decided not to add any little bits and pieces to it in the way of detailing like I did with the Huddy. There’s barely any fettling to do to get the parts to fit together. The LocoRemote control unit and battery fit snugly in the engine compartment and the on/off switch is invisible, mounted so that the switch is under the chassis. In fact the only problem I have is my impatience with the glue setting. Revell Contacta professional is recommended, and it’s a fine glue, that when set makes good strong bond. It just takes a long time to get there. Too long, when I want to be getting on with things. Some of the superglues I’ve used previously also take a long time to set for me. So I must just be too impatient for the material to be bonded together.

The loco now sits awaiting primer and paint. Winter has been especially long this year in Minnesota. I’m not complaining as it has given me more time to cross country ski. But it’s also stopped me going down to the garage to spray paint all the projects I’ve accumulated over the past months. As I write this the snow has gone. But things are not warming up much. So painting is still a few weeks away.

A new addition to the roster.

Say “Hello” to Amberley

After all last weeks activity, I decided to take a brief step back from the layout. Things have been going pretty well, but I need to think about a few details and consider what the best way to do them is. So I decided to build one of the LocoRemote kits I had in stock. It’s the Brush battery electric number 16303 from 1917 loco that ran at His Majesties Explosives Factory at Queensferry in North Wales. 

All the Brush b/e locomotives in preservation are rather unique/ugly in appearance (depending on your opinion) and when Chris Rennie at LocoRemote announced his intention to release a 3D printed kit of the models in preservation I couldn’t decide which one to buy. In the end I went to for the Amberley one. It’s called Amberley because that’s where it’s preserved. I like the curved battery compartment covers over the more angular ones of the version from Manod. 

I shan’t give you a blow-by-blow account of how I built it. Just to say that it is to the same high standards as Chris’ other kits. Everything fits perfectly together, and there’s only a few parts that need to be glued. The battery and control unit are under one of the battery compartment lids and weights under the other. Both are hinged to open, you will need to get at the LiPo battery to change it when it needs to be recharged. The on/off switch for the power unit is in the side of the compartment but is very unobtrusive.

The cab is rather cramped, and as a consequence, the figures that will fit in there are limited. Clavey Models in the UK make a couple but as the shipping for a single driver is over twice the cost of a figure, I won’t be in a hurry to get one. Perhaps wait until I need a few and get a bulk shipping rate. Besides, the loco needs painting, and it’s going to be a couple of months before the temperatures here in Minnesota warm up enough to go down to the garage and spray paint things.

Anyway, there you go. A great little model. One that makes me glad to be working in 16mm.

Amberley hogs the spotlight, Huddy lurks in the background

Amberley looks tall but still just fits under the door

Overall, a pleasing addition to the fleet.