Prototype: Moel Fferna in 7/8ths...

On my walk up to the quarry at Moel Fferna today I stumbled upon a few things that I'm now planning to recreate for my own Dyfrdwy Tramway in 7/8ths scale...

The first item, and somewhat easier project, is this frame, that I think could possibly be from one of the 2ft gauge wagons used within the quarry itself... both slab wagons and waste wagons used a similar chassis according to photos, the wheels would have been outside of the frame, I need to study some more photos to see whether to build a waste or slab wagon, and in 7/8ths 32mm gauge it might end up too narrow to be feasible for a slab wagon. We'll see...

The other discovery was of this rather poorly rendered view of the Ruston they quarry purchased in 1938. The order number is listed in the Oakwood Press book 'The Industrial Tramways of the Vale of Llangollen', but there were no other details. This photograph shows it to be a 11/13hp variant, the smallest Ruston produced. I've got a drawing for a 10hp which was a very similar size, so will use this as a basis of building a model next year.

There is also this rather lovely photo of the Bedford lorry, lettered up for the quarry. This machine would have had quite a job to get to the quarry, the last stretch of the road is very broken, and little more than a farm track. I've enquired with PDF models to see if it would be possible to print some of their 16mm lorry in 7/8ths scale.

Once home, I dug out my Ruston book which was the source of this photo, to confirm the type of Ruston in the photo above, as well as providing some drawings for the 10hp model. More soon...