Model Railway Forum

It's probably time I posted some of my progress here.

Just a bit of background. The WW&MUR stands for West Wales and Midlands Union Railway which is my ficticious Pre Grouping company. It is a post 1860s merger of a few smaller companies to create a mainline running from the Northamptonshire Ironstone deposits to the Ironworks and Coalfields of South and West Wales. Financed largely by those in the iron trade its fortunes wavered between convincing its customers it could offer a cheap way to transport ore overland and drawing tourist traffic from the two big boys in south wales (the LNWR and GWR) with liberal help from both the Midland and later the GC.

In terms of modelling it allows me to not only use standard off the peg builders locos but it also gives me free reign over the drawing board in terms of in house designs.

For the mean time I have been focusing on a Dragon Models Taff Vale Iron Mink kit as the Taff Vale is one of the welsh neighbours. A truly terrifying experience as it is my first ever brass kit, however with a few sessions it has turned into this

Well done. It's coming along nicely.

Cheers pal. Its truly one of those horrifying experiences as my first true go at soldering was the brass underframe on Dragon Models resin Cambrian Van and that was extremely messy.



A little more within my expertise is this scratchbuilt south wales pattern 6 ton PO coal wagon. Its based on a Met Cam drawing and some pictures of Dowlais and Rhymney Iron Co wagons.





Lastly here is potentially the first WW&MU loco class to be designed and built fully (physically, not canonically). Its a hornby caley pug with the body and chassis cut down to represent and 1860s saddletank loosely based on ramsbottom LNWR 0 4 0s which share a lot of dimensions with the hornby 4 wheeled chassis. Unofficially I'm calling it a Desmond class until I can actually come up with a legitimate classification system.

In addition to the above post.

Its taken a week to the day and several sheer moments of terror but it is over.

Looks as though it was worth the effort. Well done. R-

Nice to know you are enjoying the hobby.

Wagon looks really good.

Oh I enjoy the hobby as much as a cash strapped millenial with a penchant for modelling the not so ready to run aspects of the steam era railway can

Building the Taffy mink is a huge step up for me in terms of what I can achieve now. Not so much "I can do it" as more "it can be done under duress".

Cleaned and undercoated now. Distinct possibility I may be able to get moving on painting tonight.