A Cacophony of Wagons

O9 wagons have been something of a theme during January. As hinted previously, there were already a couple of wagons in the paint shop before the latest builds were completed, a flat and a 'Tops' wagon.

The 5ft flat is (I think) one of my earliest Black Dog Mining chassis, having been the flat with two oil drums in a previous life, then an open and now a simple flat using a Black Dog body - but not a flat, it is a much cut down open wagon - don't ask! It is finished in a well-worn wooden state.

The open 'Tops' wagon body is the scratchbuilt one that had been transferred to the ex-Shifting Sands generator wagon in that exchange that we don't mention any more... Reunited with it's original Black Dog 6ft chassis, which has been stripped and repainted to match the body.  Internally a repainted floor was required after work to remove the glue marks left by the last load. Finished in worn grey with a weathered wood interior.

On to the new-builds, the single-plank wagon, technically a refresh of the ex-Shifting Sands generator carrier, has emerged in pretty much the original colours of grey body and black solebars, with a weathered wood interior (and rather a lot of sand dust!)

The new two-plank 'Tops' wagon has an overall weathered wood finish, in contrast the to weathered grey of the previous example. I've used different shading underneath colour washes to try and give the effect of different types of wood on the body planks and underframe areas.

The three-plank drop-side wagon is painted in Humbrol red/brown with a weathered wood interior and weathered black hinges/strapping. I painted a wagon converted from a Chivers O-16.5 kit in this colour a few years ago and rather liked it. The eagle-eyed will spot that I have used a brown MicroTrains coupler, which is a very similar shade.

Judging from the short testing session after taking the photos it may be necessary to have a coupler 'Grease-em' and adjustment session, but that can wait for another day!

Colin

Three Wagons Roll

The three new wagons seen in my last post have now received a coat of primer, doing it's usual wonder of making everything look a lot better. It also allows us to look at the wagons in more detail.

Firstly this is hopefully the final incarnation of the (ex) Shifting Sands 1-plank wagon. You may recall that this 6ft Black Dog Mining chassis gained a 2-plank 'Tops' body not many months ago with the original load transferred... we'll pretend that didn't happen... that body is heading back to it's original chassis and the load will go in another of the more miniature railway outline wagons in the fleet. The chassis was stripped of old paint and this new body uses one of the floors from the planned batch of wagons and one plank recovered from intended sides and ends.

Next is a fairly standard (for me) 'Tops' wagon on a 6ft Black Dog chassis. Another floor from the intended batch build and sides cut down to 2-plank (spare planks went to the body above). End handrails are recycled from the similar body that became the 009 Christmas present wagon, which was a shorter body intended for a 5ft chassis so I haven't gone totally mad! 

That 5ft body had been intended to go on the chassis of the last new wagon, a Sidelines Gnine chassis. This is the same length as a Black Dog 5ft chassis but with a longer wheelbase and taller from rail level. I had acquired this with a mine tub body as it was all Steve had at the time. I reduced the chassis height by about 1mm some time ago and had originally created a 'Tops' body for it. But it never looked balanced right in that form and the chassis seemed to look better with a flat or 3-plank body. As I have another 5ft flat in the works I opted to use a shortened set of 3-plank sides intended for the batch build, with a newly marked up floor. I used modified Grandt Line hinges again but only a pair each side rather than three, which looks a lot better balanced for a shorter wagon in my eyes.

 

They'll now join the queue for the paint shop (there are already be a couple of wagons in there to complete first).

Colin

My Oh-Nine

Last year I tentatively started work on a new O9 project, based on Julian Andrews brickworks plan. More information can be found under the 'Getting Something Moving' tag. I had an aim of using some of the commercial models that have become available since I built 'Shifting Sands'. To this end I completed the MG Models 'classic' diesel, started converting some KB Scale open wagons to O9, as well as reviving a Black Dog Mining wagon larger than my usual stock with an eye on perhaps representing an 18" gauge line. 

It all ground to a halt, it started with problems with the loco build not least painting it twice, followed by my less than successful attempts to re-gauge the KB Scale wagons resulting in wobbly wheels (some would say it was prototypical!). Disheartened I diverted my attention to other projects...

More recently I started scratchbuilding 3-plank drop-side bodies to fit Black Dog Mining chassis, putting together enough parts to build a batch of 2 or 3 identical vehicles beyond the initial prototypes. I eventually hit on the use of Grandt Line door hinges (on the left) rather than using Slaters embossed rivets.

But they still didn't hit the spot, perhaps looking too 'main line' for a 15" gauge line, as I now envisaged the project. The more I thought about it I realised that the issue was simply that I had my own style of O9 modelling that differed a little from the commercial offerings I had initially tried to use. I used to joke with Steve Bennett of Black Dog Mining that commercial O9 models were all made to be as big as possible for the gauge (the mythical scale 4ft wide), whilst Gn15 seemed to be about making things as small as possible for the scale! My O9, on the other hand, is rooted more in the average prototype 15" gauge outline and a width of approx 3ft 6ins.

I also realised that I owned a fleet of O9 wagons that rarely saw the light of day on 'Shifting Sands' that with a couple of additions and changes I could create a fleet to suit a 15" gauge railway built to miniature railway proportions but with some sort of purpose. 

So I've started on a few additions (so much for identical!)...

Now I just need to find that purpose!

Colin