Author: Simon Wood

Lecturer in medical education, lapsed mathematician, Doctor Who fan and garden railway builder. See simonwood.info for more...

First job: RC Boulton


No 5 recently arrived on the Moel Rhos.

I’ve been eyeing up a Boulton for a while – the Moel Rhos needed a heavy battery loco for line clearing. With just one operational battery loco during lockdown (No 1 Gannet) reduced to 2 WD after the belt snapped – the urgency for the new loco increased. What if No 1 had a failure? The consequences would be catastrophic (i.e. locked down and having to wait to get up steam every time I want to play trains).

I’m delighted with the Boulton which is fully capable of hauling a dead Millie plus train. But it’s not as geared down as I expected and reacts to the sharp curves and even the minimal inclines on my line. If it stalls you can’t just wait for it to brew up like a steamer. Inevitably this occurs in the tunnels or the cutting. I feel it needs to be driven on my line, so RC needed. Fortunately I’d planned to do that anyway and had already ordered a Deltang Rx65c.

Next job is to fit it. Providing I can find my soldering iron…

The End of a Weekend of Trains!

Moel Rhos No. 3 emerges from the tunnel in the Easter Monday evening sun and toots her newly radio controlled whistle.

Thanks everyone for your photos this weekend (almost 50 posts comprising over 130 pictures!) it’s been wonderful seeing them all. Posting is closed for now, but the site remains open for viewing.

If, as seems likely, we’re still in lockdown – shall we do this again for the VE Day Bank Holiday weekend 8-10 May?

Simon (Rheilffordd Moel Rhos)

my sm32 weekend

Hi Simon,

not a garden railway but to show what I have been doing over the holiday weekend. This is a shunting puzzle layout I’m working on in sm32 and over the last three days I have ballasted the track, there is some colour variation as the furthest away board has quite wet glue still. Peter and Julie have seen the pre-ballast stage as I took the layout to the group they attend in Carmarthen before the lockdown. I intend to bring it along to a group session when we are allowed to play trains together again. Will also send a picture of it with the rolling stock I’ve been working on once I can get it cleaned up from gluing.

Best wishes,

Phil.