As Tony’s Forest is designed to fit into a car and is relatively compact, you would think that it wouldn’t need much rolling stock. However, I have been planning this layout for about 25 years and have accumulated quite a selection of stock. This means that I should be able to ‘ring the changes’, although I haven’t worked out how yet. I might choose specific time periods like the 1930’s/40’s or the 1950’s/60’s.
One thing that became clear though – I did need to build some locos and rolling stock!
I have generally split this section up into individual pages for each loco and separate pages for the coaches and goods stock.
All four locos on display
Whilst I knew that I needed to actually finish the locos, I have a tendency to take them so far (ready for testing) and then start another one! I hoped that when the layout was wired-up and running that I would be able to test the locos to my satisfaction and then finish them.
The choice of couplings has been a challenge for me. The trains for Abergwesyn were largely proprietary and ran in fixed rakes. The trains for Dyffryn used the original Stephen Poole hook and link couplings and ran in fixed rakes. I needed something different for Ashcross which was clearly going to be a shunting layout so I adopted the Spratt and Winkle design that Roger Brown used for his Syreford Station layout. These are designed for double buffered stock and are ideal for the Tal-y-llyn Railway style wagons and coaches.
I had been experimenting with Kadee couplers on Ashcross and whilst these looked good on the larger wagons and locos they didn’t suit the smaller Hudson style wagons. Initial trials with Microtrains ‘N’ scale Kadee equivalents proved encouraging until I tried to get reliable uncoupling. Thoughts moved to the Greenwich coupling, the loops of which are recommended for the KB Scale Hudson wagons, but I am just too ham fisted to be able to get the pivot hole in the right place. I think that degrading eyesight and working with black plastic is just too much for me.
I finally adopted the standard 4mm scale Greenwich couplers either mounted in a cut out in the Hudson chassis frame or in the original link and pin coupler pocket. I also experimented with a larger 7mm scale version, very kindly supplied for trial, for the main line stock. The 7mm scale couplings were much easier to work with being 1.5 times bigger and work using the same button type magnets as the 4mm scale versions. However, the benefit of a standard coupling, particularly on the locos eventually led to the adoption of the 4mm scale Greenwhich couplings as standard.
The passenger stock have their own couplings but most of the goods stock runs in short fixed rakes with a coupling at each end of the rake.
Individual Loco pages:
WDLR Dick Kerr Petrol Electric