Dyfrdwy tramway in 7/8ths: a start on stock...

I've been collecting parts for my 7/8ths railway, and have mainly shared progress on planning the Simplex 40S, but as well as that scratchbuild project I picked up some kits from Model-earth...

The first pair I have tackled are probably the more 'complex' of the pair - not that this sort of modelling is particularly difficult - just large! On the left we have the Welsh flat 'slab' carrier, and on the right the Budget range small van. Before I show more of the former, it's worth reflecting the similarity between the van and that drawn in Brian Clarke's book 'Slate Railway to Churchwater', describing a ramshackle charming 15" narrow gauge tramways in the Welsh borders north of Hereford. Although a work of fiction, Brian illustrated it beautifully and it's this charm that actually was one of the inspirations behind the 7/8ths project. I obviously don't have space for my own small tramway, although I did toy as I've said before, with the idea of a 7/1/14" gauge line, so this project using 32mm track to represent 18" gauge in 1/13.7 (or 7/8ths of an inch to the foot) scale is about as large as I can reasonably go... In Brian's book the forestry commission build a few spurs during the interwar period for plantation establishment - and the van belongs to them - I intend to model mine in a scruffy condition, and may well letter it for 'Forest Spur Use Only' in a nod to my inspiration. This was quite easy to assembly - a simple one piece chassis, and four interlocking walls with a single piece roof. The roof is only balanced, the chassis and body just a tight push fit, and the axle boxes only glued on one side! The flash cleaned up pretty easily with a knife, razor saw, files and some sand paper. I glued the walls with thick superglue.

The Welsh chassis with slab carrier parts looks great - I wanted one of these before Si stops making them - I've built mine the opposite way up to his instructions because I was looking at the drawings in 'Slate Quarry Album' and noted the couplings seem to be mounted to the underside of the chassis, rather than the top - so we'll see if that works! This took a little more cleaning up, with more pouring sprue on the main chassis casting and the axle boxes too - but it went together easily. The plastic parts supplied cut to length fit perfectly - it's a joy to work in such a large scale, especially with such well designed kits.

Here the pair are shown with the larger Swift Sixteen flat wagon - which has the look of a modern Hudson or Motor Rail product. My intention is to build a Motor Rail 'estate' coach on this chassis in the style of the open coach with tramway style seats on the Dalmunzie estate - I'm just not sure yet how I'll do the bodywork, but should probably make a start on the seating as that will actually be the harder part! Still to build are a Modelearth budget flat, and a Modelearth budget flat with barrel load. I'm wondering about another slab carrier body for the budget flat, like the ones used on the Corris railway. We'll see...

The final photo shows the brass Talisman couplings that form part of the Welsh chassis kit - a pleasure to assemble - they are shown with forthcoming 006.5 prototypes, Royal Arsenal one plank wagons! More soon...