3D Printed Talyllyn Wagons in NG7 / O-16.5

After discussing the 3D printed Talyllyn models that Andrew Naylor was developing at Narrow Gauge NoW show in October, we carried on the discussion after the show, with me being handily placed in Tywyn to provide a few measurements and drawings to fill in a few gaps for Andrew in the Talyllyn Brown Marshall carriages and Loco No 4 that he was developing. Following this, Andrew asked whether I would be willing to test build a couple of wagons for him, an offer which I gladly accepted. 

A few weeks after, the post lady delivered this rather neat box from ‘Sandy Lane Works’ and inside were kits for two and three bar Talyllyn slate wagons and a covered van. This has led to my first prototypical Talyllyn modelling for almost thirty years. As a teenager, I had intentions of building a Talyllyn style layout (I say style because even then it involved some changes to the accepted history of the Talyllyn).

 

Very little contemporary information is available about Talyllyn wagons pre-preservation other than in photographs. The most prolific type of wagon was naturally, the slate wagon. The Talyllyn possessing both two and three bar examples, photographic evidence suggests that the two bar example was in the majority by as many as four to one or more. Photographic evidence suggests that by the 1940s, only the two bar variant remained in traffic.

There is a photo in Boyd’s history of the Talyllyn (page 74) taken in 1905 of a fairly full Wharf yard including three covered vans, all with slightly different roof profiles. There are also two photos of covered vans in Abergynolwyn village yard so it is fair to assume that these wagons were used to convey the more perishable supplies needed in the village and there is talk that these vans may also have conveyed livestock or chickens. After being taken out of traffic (in 1932 according to Boyd) the last van rested in the lee of the overbridge at Rhydyronen for over sixty years before being rescued and the metal work reused for the recreated example seen running today. Your scribe being part of the working party who retrieved the van and returned it to Pendre. 

This seems an opportune moment to mention the restored and rebuilt original Talyllyn wagons that were restored and rebuilt largely by the late Don Newing. Using metalwork salvaged from long rotten wagons, from places found around the railway and quarry tramways. Or in some cases, the stream at Nant Gwernol where they’d come to rest after running away on the incline. These include the covered van and both types of slate wagon and whilst under the custodianship of the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust, see occasional use on the railway. The railway's Young Members Group have recently embarked on a project to recreate one of the gunpowder vans, the last one of which ended its days as a sand store at Pendre.

 

So, what was in the box? The covered van is to the correct length, longer than the slate wagons and is formed of a one piece body and chassis frames with separate wheels, axle boxes, bearings and brake gear. The slate wagons have separate body and chassis prints in addition to the other separate detail parts. 

 

The 3D prints are to a very good quality, they are straight and square with virtually no printing lines evident. There was a small amount of support structure attachments, all on the underside of parts so away from view, which took a few minutes with a file to clean up. No more than the flash you’d get with white metal or injection moulded kits, if anything, less. 

The kits come with printed, clear and easy to understand instructions. However, such is the way with these things, I immediately deviated from the way Andrew had intended. 

Rather than reproduce the prototypical hook and ‘D’ link couplings, Andrew has, like many before him, to fit coupling hooks for use with three link couplings. My intention is to use steel three link couplings worked by a magnet on a stick like I do in my standard gauge models and so I wanted three link couplings that were fixed in the shank of the hook with just one end free. Drilling the small hole in the hooks looked quite difficult, so I took the easier option of removing the printed hooks and replacing them with metal hooks from Smiths fitted by drilling through the chassis frame with a 0.7mm diameter drill. A job made easy by the use of soft resin. 

One of the last jobs in the instructions for the slate wagons is to join the two halves together. However, I did this first. The reason being is that I wanted to spray primer and paint the wagons bodies first before adding the axle boxes, wheels and brake gear to make painting easier. Having done so, there is no reason why you should not follow the instructions and assemble the kits in the order intended.

To join the two halves of the slate wagons together, the chassis have indentation marks for the body railing spacer bolts / spigots to locate in to. The two bar slate wagon chassis needed these indents cleaning out with a 0.8mm drill so that the two halves mated nicely together, but the three bar slate wagon did not. Once I was satisfied with the fit, the two halves were super glued together. These were then washed, dried and primed whilst I got on with the running gear. 

Individual axle boxes require a top hat bearing inserting and glueing in to them. The instructions state to be careful in carrying out this process, ignore this instruction at your peril as they are quite small and fragile. For this reason, I would recommend fixing the bearings in before cleaning up any print sprues because they’re much stronger with the bearings fixed in than without.

With the bodies and axle boxes painted, it was time to affix these parts together. The wheels are a nice touch, Talyllyn wagons had a mixture of curly, straight and open spoked wheels, I had a pair of each type for my three wagons. They appear to be 3D printed wheels on metal axles, not something I’ve used before, but the amount of running my stock gets I can’t see that being a problem.

Brakes handles and pivots are provided, the brakes on the real ones are a band brake across the top of the wheel and mostly hidden by the wagon framing. Unsurprisingly, these parts are omitted! The instructions suggest that one in ten wagons were braked and Boyd suggests one in four. The Talyllyn was a relatively flat railway and with grease (or originally fat) lubricated axle boxes, suspect that the brakes were mostly used for making sure that the wagons didn’t fall off the edge at Wharf. I fitted brakes to these three wagons, so have plenty of unfitted wagons needed to balance them out. 

Finished off with a spot of weathering and couplings fitted, the wagons were complete. The slate load in the photo is a Port Wynnstay one designed for the Wrightlines version. I’ve got a reasonable supply of them so at least I won’t need to make any slate loads. 

 

Overall, I’m very happy with these Talyllyn wagons. They went together very easily and they have captured the prototypes very nicely indeed. Being 3D printed they are quite light, but reckon some liquid lead could be used should I want to add some weight. Even without any extra weight, they coped well with the uneven track on my layout. The coupling hooks I’ve fitted stand proud of the end buffers, which meant they weren’t as happy being propelled. That is something I would look at solving should I use these on a layout.

It is only natural to make comparisons with the Wrightlines versions of these wagons that were once available. Whilst excellent for their time, I felt that the Sandy Lane Works version had crisper detail whilst been finer in their dimensions. I also found the Sandy Lane version simpler to construct and whilst I might prefer the weight that white metal construction gives, I can add some weight if I wish.

One other benefit of the Sandy Lane range is that all variants of Talyllyn wagons from pre-preservation days are available. Including the three bar slate wagon and covered van which were omitted from the Wrightlines range. The kits are priced at £15.99 for the open wagons and £17.99 for the covered and gunpowder vans, complete with wheels and are available from Andrew’s website www.sandylaneworks.co.uk

Recent months have seen several manufacturers producing 7mm scale narrow gauge wagon kits and these make a fine addition to these ranges. My only issue is that I had no intentions of modelling the Talyllyn again, but now that’s another temptation to add to the others. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t resist getting the ‘Talyllyn’ I built back as a teenager and seeing how it looked with these wagons.