2017 not only marks the 15th year of Rhos Helyg Loco Works, it also marks my 30th anniversary of becoming involved with 16mm/foot-scale garden railways. This all happened on the Paddock Railway at Hampton Loade station on the Severn Valley Railway where I was introduced to the delights of meths-fired live steam by two chaps who were soon to become good friends. I have a lot to be grateful for to them! In 1988 one of those friends sold me my first steam loco (which I still have), and recently it was an absolute delight for me to do some work on one his locos for him. His Roundhouse Pooter came here for some bodywork repairs and, in a homage to its original livery, a full repaint in to Bronze Green with orange lining and black detailing.

This Roundhouse Engineering Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes No. 24 is a Mark 1 variant and was starting to show its age. The paintwork was worn and scratched and the rings and glands in the cylinders were not at their best. The loco was completely dismantled, had many years of accumulated muck removed, received an overhaul to cylinders and valves and was then partially stripped of its old and all-over gloss black paint. A repaint in to satin black with graphite smokebox, red oxide cab roof and green cab interior (a very common feature on American steam locomotives) followed. Although I've had several gas- and coal-fired Mark 2 No. 24s here, this was the first Mark 1 to come here for work. The change from Mark 1 to Mark 2 production occurred in 2003 with the major alterations being a completely different method of boiler cladding and cab construction, removal of the tender water tank and hand pump and introduction of sprung driving axles.

Another Accucraft Baldwin, fitted with 2-channel radio control and given a dose of weathering.

Named after the owners' granddaughter, ISOBEL is a Roundhouse "Linda" finished in Festiniog Railway-style of green with red lining and black edging. This work has been deliberately completed with the future in mind as it would only take a few minutes to replace the name plates and apply a pair of FR crests to the tender, but not at the moment and rightly so. The loco also had its 40MHz radio control replaced with a Peter Spoerer OMNI Tx-3.0 STEAM 2.4GHz system while it was here.

This Accucraft Joan came here in citrus-inspired gloss black. It had a repaint in to maroon with black detailing and at the same time lost the excess red (edge of footplating, backs of buffer beams, firebox/ashpan, etc.) in order for it to resemble as closely as possible the full-size Joan based on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway here in Wales.

MAMMOTH is a Shawe Steam Services coal-fired Roundhouse Jack. It was painted and assembled here back in 2003 but 12 years later the owner decided to part with it. It was returned to Shawe Steam Services where it received various repairs and then re-sale to its second owner. The new owner decided he would like radio control fitted, but this would have been impossible to install with little available space on the loco in its original configuration. The answer was to fit a tender that could carry the radio equipment and a larger water supply. For ease of use, the hand pump was moved from the cab to the tender tank, with the loco now taking the supply for its axle pump from the tender and the saddle tank now used to top-up the tender tank. The owner built the Roundhouse George tender and my work then involved almost complete replacement of the loco's pipework in order to provide the three tender water connections (axle pump supply, bypass return and feed from saddle tank). The loco body was then stripped of its old paint and it and the tender received a coat of satin Victorian Maroon lined in cream with black edging.

Assembled for a customer in the USA were eleven Atropos kits representing various types of Penrhyn Quarry wagons. There are five Fullersite wagons (used for carrying bagged slate dust) of diagram 061 with hinged sides, 062 low-sided with lift-out sides and ends, and 063 high-sided with lift-out sides and plate ends. The six slate wagons are diagram 071 with metal bodies and wood underframes. These kits just ooze quality from the moment each individual component box is opened but they take some time to assemble simply due to the number of components that make up each wagon. For example, the diagram 062 Fullersite wagon comprises no less than 120 individual parts.

The bodywork from a Worsley Works "Scratch Aid Kit" representing one of the Walker Brothers 0-4-4-0 diesels used on the West Clare Railway in Ireland was assembled here. The completed body then took a trip down the Welsh coast to Friog Railway Services who built a superb chassis for it which incorporates radio control and sound. It then came back to RHLW for finishing. The first thing to do was to strengthen the buffer beams so that they were capable of taking a buffing load without deformation. Then came fitting of Swift Sixteen chopper couplings, glazing the windows with glass, and fabrication and fitting of handrails, horns, exhaust pipes, marker lights, radiator fillers, cab roof, vacuum brake pipes, end steps, cab steps, fuel tanks, fuel tank fillers and the driver's desk - phew! The bonnet-top headlights work and these (and the dummy horns) were kindly supplied by Essel Engineering, and I thank them for their assistance. Paintwork was a shade of green chosen by the owner to match that carried by the full-size locos, followed by a good dose of weathering. Walker Brothers (Wigan) Ltd. works plates for the bonnet ends were specially made by MDC and completed the job.

A history of the full-size locos can be found here.

BONIFACE is a first-edition Roundhouse "Jack" that had been in storage for many years. With the owner's new garden railway under construction the time came for it to be revived and updated. The following happened while it was here:
 - Fitting of SSP SloMo device.
 - Modification of valve chest covers to allow fitting of cylinder covers.
 - Modification of smokebox to allow easier removal.
 - Fitting of Summerlands FX chuffer pipe.
 - Replacement of gas tank and burner with current design to allow use of butane/propane mixed gas.
 - Construction of a “George” tender kit.
 - Manufacture and fitting of loco to tender fall plate.
 - Relocation of radio control from loco to tender.
 - Replacement of 40MHz radio control with 2.4GHz.
 - Stripping of paint from loco body.
 - Repaint in Sapphire Blue with red/black lining.

A Roundhouse Stanley from the latest batch which came here for lining in cream with black edging, and a satin finish to all of its paintwork.