Welshpool & Llanfair

by Malcolm Savage

Photographs by the author.

Railway Modeller - Nov 1985

Reproduced courtesy of Railway Modeller

'The Countess', finished in her original lined black livery.

The prototypes
The Welshpool and Llanfair Railway was unusual amongst Welsh narrow gauge lines in that it was not constructed to serve quarries. It was a good example of a narrow gauge secondary railway serving a predominantly agricultural area, linking the market town of Llanfair Caereinion with Welshpool and the standard gauge Cambrian Railway. Up to the end of its working life in 1956 it continued to perform its main function of carrying general goods. The line was opened in 1903 and was worked by the Cambrian Railway from the start.

Running over the embankment with a down goods train.

Two locomotives were provided, The Earl and The Countess, and also three carriages and forty-eight wagons. The locomotives, both of which have survived to the present day, were built by Beyer Peacock and Co Ltd in 1902. They are six-coupled tank engines with a remarkably long rigid wheelbase of 10ft 0ins for a railway that has so many sharp curves. Both were rebuilt by the Great Western Railway in 1929/30 and at that time received standard Great Western chimney, dome, safety valve and top feed.

The wagons were all four-wheeled vehicles and the stock originally consisted of two brake vans, four goods vans, two cattle trucks and 40 open wagons. Shortly after opening, six bolster wagons were also supplied as well as five open wagons for Messrs J. Lloyd Peate and Sons, coal and lime merchants of Llanfair. The main dimensions of these private owner wagons were the same as the Welshpool’s own 4 ton opens, but there were several detail differences, principally the provision of only a 3ft 0ins long drop door instead of the full length drop sides of the Welshpool wagons.

The carriages, which were scrapped in 1936, five years after the cessation of passenger traffic, have not yet been modelled.

The models

The Countess was the first 5½ mm scale locomotive that I had made with a properly constructed six-coupled chassis. It has a wheelbase of 10ft which meant that making it able to go round curves down to a radius of 18ins was difficult. I did not want to fit flangeless centre wheels, and so a considerable amount of sideplay was necessary on the centre axle with all the problems which that entailed. Extra clearances were necessary around the valve gear, and the pick-ups had to accommodate the extra movement. This was achieved without too much difficulty, although a lot of adjustments were required before it would negotiate sharp curves without derailing. It is powered by an early K’s motor from the late fifties through Romford 40-1 gears on to Jackson 14mm spoked tender wheels. It is extremely good at crawling down to a scale .06mph but unfortunately it is also rather noisy though I have never found out why.

Threading the small cutting above the embankment with an up goods.

'The Countess', bolster and brake van, at the station on author's layout.

The body was fairly easy to construct. This was the first locomotive that had a section of polystyrene syringe for the boiler which has made the body much stronger. The dome chimney, safety valves and other small fittings have all been made from metal. The model is finished in its original livery of black, lined red and yellow. I attempted to fit couplings at the same height as all the other models, but the effect was so peculiar that I decided to fit them at the correct heights This does of course mean that Welshpool and Llanfair stock cannot be mixed with any other stock, but it is not a decision that I have regretted.

A considerable number of years passed between the building of the locomotive and the building of any rolling stock but a set of ten wagons was provided at the end of 1983. These predictably are made almost entirely from Plastikard although one new feature was tried for the first time in these Wagons, and that is resin cast axleguards. These have proved to be rather more fragile than I had hoped but certainly make wagon construction easier. They are fitted with brass bearings in which run 10.5mm wheels. Another 'first' on these wagons was the fitting of all bolt head detail made from 10 thou cubes of Plastikard.

Fitting over a thousand of these was a laborious task but well worth the effort. The wagons were sprayed light grey, then all the ironwork was picked out in black. All lettering \vas hand painted in white. The private owner wagon is maroon, also with black ironwork and white lettering.

The only Work done on the coaches so far is to produce some resin castings for the bogie side frames.

The outside framed goods brake van.

W&L cattle van under construction.

W&L brake van under construction.

W&L bolster under construction.

PO wagon, brake actually works.