Glyn Valley Bridge

The July BRM has a second article from me - the build of the Dapol kit for the narrow gauge girder bridge. This is based on the design used on the Glyn Valley Tramway, three of which took the railway across the Ceiriog river, and at least a couple of them still stand today.

The kit uses laser-cut card in the same way as the loco shed which I featured in the April BRM. Careful neat assembly paying close attention to the instructions results in a nice structure. I think the planked deck works particularly well, with gaps between the planking. After painting, it's hard to recognise that this is made of card. 

I was also rather pleased with the river, which I modelled on the Ceiriog at Dolywern where one of the original bridges is just visible from the road bridge. It uses the same heavy gloss acrylic medium I used to add waves to the stream on Hexworthy, with the waves formed using the airbrush. 

Of course, you don't need to model the Glyn Valley Tramway to make use of this kit!

It's great to see the trade supporting 009 with suitable structures.

Whittingly in print

The July Railway Modeller, which features the new Rapido Manning Wardle on the cover, also includes an article on Whittingly Hospital. The magazine has been following up the Rail200 competition by featuring some of the finalists which were at the National Festival of Railway Modelling at the NEC.

Whittingly is presented in the Micro Marvels feature over four pages, and makes excellent use of the photos that the editor, Craig Tilley, took at the NEC and which show the model really well. I was glad I'd taken some stock along to pose on the layout, as the Peckett and the few wagons do add life to the scene. The lights were still working at that point too, although the batteries expired later that Sunday!

It's great to see the layout in print, but it does remind me of my plan to turn it into a working layout!

Quite by coincidence, the July BRM includes a piece I wrote on building an industrial warehouse using Wills materials. Look familiar?

It was actually quite a simple build and so made a good scratch-building example. Using the Wills industrial windows and brick sheets with the openings ready takes care of the more daunting aspects of modelling buildings. It also shows how scratch-building is the best solution to filling a specific gap.

Of course, if I extend the layout, this low-relief structure will need to be extended!

Manning Wardle L Class

Last week I got a parcel - my Rapido Manning Wardle L-class arrived!

Posed on Loctern Quay it looks great, quirky and characterful like a narrow-gauge loco. However, clearly it's not for Loctern, I ordered it with Whittingham Hospital in mind, so I pulled the diorama out the garage...

The question is, how does it run? Well, Whittingly isn't yet wired up, so some creativity was required. Taking the power supply from Loctern, an adaptor lead for the old club layout, and a pair of crocodile clip wires, I powered up the front track for a short test run. 

It ran very smoothly. The mechanism is a little noisier than most modern mechanism, but not excessively so. Feedback needs to be switched off though!

It's a very small loco, so I thought it worth comparing to other small locos. It's a little longer than the Peckett but not a lot (~6mm), and considerably shorter than a Terrier. I think it will fit in well with the short trains of Whittingly. 

It's barely longer than 4-wheel wagons, and slightly lower than a van. 

It will need a little weathering, but first I just need to crack on with turning Whittingly into a layout!