The Humble Van

One O9 wagon that has ducked the limelight is my very simple 4w van, built back in 2012 and never really used that much. At the time it was built I described it as a "quickie build using a spare Black Dog Mining under frame and some Parkside Dundas 4mm scale van doors. The pointed roof is just to be different!". The Black Dog chassis was swapped out for a Peco chassis and Black Dog chassis adaptor not long after being built, which actually had the effect of lowering the whole wagon down, as I omitted to leave the Peco weight above the chassis. As the N gauge axleboxes were largely hidden I did nothing about hiding them. 

Whilst creating the wagon fleet for the project I wanted to include the van but also wanted to add a little more height - it is to large 15" gauge dimensions so not as big as commercially available O9 vans. By popping out the Peco chassis I was able to reinstate the weight, and add a little extra above the chassis as well. Overall I have only added 1mm to the height but it does make a visual difference, of course the knock-on effect of this was to require a change to the coupler position. With the axle boxes now exposed I have repurposed what was left of some RCL Hudson boxes used on a previous Peco conversion.

Paintwork has been matched with the original and the whole van given a fresh coat of matt varnish - apart from the roof where I had created a pleasing worn metal finish in places that I wanted to preserve the gleam of! 

In other news the more recent of the 5ft wagons was running awfully on test and after investigation has had its fake Black Dog style axleboxes removed and replaced by Wizzard/51L HRC001 Highland Railway grease axlebox castings - I had made the previous joint between axlebox and chassis frame too solid to get the wheels in freely, the new ones are only fixed to chassis so can move to allow the wheels in/out. The new fittings were painted and weathered to match the existing paintwork.

The Chivers R&ER Theakston wagon has now received MicroTrains 1023 couplers which look a lot better balanced than the 1015s fitted originally. I opted to retain the 7mm Bemo wheelsets rather than replace with smaller Peco examples.

Colin

 

An afternoon at the races

Back in September I went to a small local exhibition and was quite content with being at a smaller show. I wasn't planning to go to the much larger exhibition at Doncaster racecourse but after some thought decided at about 11.00 on Sunday morning to make the short trip to the show. My plan was to concentrate on the layouts and to try and ignore the trade...

The layout I really wanted to see was the smallest there, Michael Campbell's Loctern Quay, and I wasn't disappointed! I managed a couple of snaps on my phone:

Not long after taking the pictures Michael's phone rang and I was handed the controller(!) With a Minitrains loco and MicroTrains couplers it was very easy to operate, with photo-card tiddlywink computer to generate the trains. I liked the interaction where Michael asked members if the audience to pick cards and he says this does sometimes result in them hanging around a bit longer to watch "their" train being formed.

I think I spent more time in front of this layout than any other at the show, so thank you Michael for braving the trip North!

One thing that struck me were several layouts that placed the railway well in it's landscape. 'Loctern Quay' does this well in an urban setting, but one of my favourites was 'Blueball Summit' in 2mm finescale - possibly the finest scenic modelling there, I overheard someone say what I had thought, that is was almost a smaller scale 'Worlds End'.

I did spend a little money in end, as it had died down considerably after 3pm I had another walk around and a quick look at the trade stands, where I picked up a secondhand but unopened Parkside Dundas 009 chassis kit - largely because it had the old style wheels in it, which are useful if you ever need them for scenic purposes as they blacken up easily. I also picked up a secondhand but new-in-box Peco 009 point, looking online once home I found I had paid about 1/2 price for both. There are bargains out there for narrow gauge modellers...

Colin

All tooled up with no place to go...

Last seen a few weeks ago, the rebuilt tool wagon is now completed, varnished and weathered. The project suffered a setback midway through painting and had to be stripped, re-primed and a fresh start made. As a change from the original grey the new colour is Vallejo blue-grey with strapping and underframe in black-grey and the roof in a slightly lighter mix of the same.

Sadly the lighter colour and photos seem to over-emphasise that the roof section of the wagon does not fit as well as it should do and there are a few gaps, especially along the edges of the lifting sections. This is acceptable as they are meant to be separate parts but also annoying as I should have spotted the fit issue before painting, especially after the strip down! Here I've posed the tool wagon with the open wagon that shares the same underframe design, showing how the rebuilt wagon now fits in with the new builds.

Sneaking through the paintshop and the last of the post-New Year wagon projects is an additional plank added to a Black Dog style 'Tops' wagon in the style of an improvised local modification. In common with the drop-side wagons the strapping joining old and new is made from cut-down Grandt Line fishplate mouldings. The extra plank and corner supports were constructed as a separate unit, painted and then added to an existing wagon built last year. The timber shade is deliberately different to the original wagon to emphasise the "add-on" nature.

With the completion of these two the paintshop is now strangely empty, but rumour has it that the engineers are looking for some more wagons to tinker with...

Colin

Anchor-esqe in O9

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a new O9 locomotive from John Flower at A1 Models. He had advised that something was on the way and I had mis-read the email thinking it would be etched, imagine my surprise to receive a 3D print and for it to be a proper 15" gauge miniature railway outline locomotive!

Now of course that shows it after a bit of treatment as I forgot to get a decent shot of it as it came, but you can get an idea from John's pictures on eBay (and indeed buy one). The print quality as it comes is smoother than the last Alan Keef loco, but not quite to Shapeways FUD standards (but not as brittle).

The design is based on 'Royal Anchor', built by Charles Lane of Liphook at the pub of the same name, tested at New Romney and then resident at Ravenglass for many years before moving to Carnforth and subsequently to California. Dimensionally it is pretty spot-on, to be hyper-critical the cab front should be gently curved across the width and the front windows maybe a touch bigger but I don't find that too distracting. The doors really ought to be flush with the sides and by John's own admission he has forgotten to add the bufferbeams! I will be completing the model as a freelance 'inspired by' machine, typical of a 1960s miniature railway style.

The first job was to prepare the print, as the roofline was a little ridged I actually went over the curve of the roof with an emery board to start the smoothing process, then after a clean up sprayed red plastic primer as the initial coating, as seen here:

That tends to make things look worse than they are! After 24 hours drying, 400 grit wet and dry was then used to smooth back the finish, using home made sanding sticks. After another clean up, yellow filler primer was then sprayed and after another 24 hours drying, 800 grit, used both wet and dry used to smooth a lot of it away, resulting in a Wisconsin Central/EWS camouflage finish (!)

After a further clean-up I then opted to spray the roof and cab window areas in another coat of filler primer, and after another 24 hours smoothed everything back with 1200 grit, used wet, ready for a last clean and then a coat of grey primer.

The print slips nicely over the cheapest Bachmann US N gauge bogie diesel chassis, in my case a U36B. It will also fit over a range of other suitable chassis in a similar mould. I've posed it on the Bachmann chassis but I will check how well it performs before making a final choice as I have an Atlas chassis that would also fit which has the advantages of flywheels and maybe smoother starting. I suppose it depends on how much it will actually get used... 

More as the project develops.

 

Colin

Snailbeach - at a Snail's pace!

I received a couple of Dundas Snailbeach wagon kits as a Christmas gift from my Dad after I mentioned that I might get a couple of the Peco ones when they came out. What I had forgotten to say is that the reason I was interested in them was based on them being RTR and that the kit had something of a "reputation"... 

Between Christmas and New Year I started to build one of the kits, which has been an interesting build process to say the least. Any hopper wagon in kit form will be tricky, more so from what must be among the oldest moulds in the range. I probably took away too much material on the insides of the joints, you can see some of the styrene strip infill on the inside. A few mistakes have been made, such as scribing plank lines into the inside of the upper sides, thinking the old tooling just didn't feature them... before discovering that the real wagons had metal linings, and having to fill the lines back in! 

I paid particular attention to the ends of the chassis, refining the shape, adding a 5 thou overlay wrapped around and adding new bumpers from Evergreen channel section. I have added some deliberate distressing on some of the planks and some very dubious looking brake gear, with the proviso that it isn't a Snailbeach wagon but one supplied to the Old Quarry Line. 

One area where I did make a change was at the left hand end of each upper side, trimming the corner plate back by approx 1mm to line up with the plate on the angled section and also making each end section equal in length. I have had to add new bolt heads harvested from another Dundas part that was redundant. All painted up in primer it looks OK, and you can see some of the distressing I added to the planking. 

Wanting a finish that would differ from any future RTR companions I applied a weathered wood effect, including some planks in "wood" colour and some in grey, black-grey and brown washes. The ironwork has been painted black-grey with brown/rust washes. The interior metal plating is finished in a base rust colour with various stippled effects. The hopper is seen here after varnishing but before weathering.

Once varnished the additional weathering and finishing work was completed. This is largely dry-brushing on the exterior using a grey/cream colour in an attempt to represent a wagon that has been in a quarry environment, along with some gunmetal dry-brushed on the axleboxes.

Unfortunately the lighting has picked up the plank lines I scribed and thought I had subsequently filled, you cannot really see them at normal viewing distance.

Inside the wagon I have added a representation of load remains, starting with the leftover mix of the acrylic paints used for the dry brushing and a dab of household filler. Once dry weathering powders were added to vary the colour a little and spread the effect further up the wagon sides.

Greenwich couplers have been added at ether end, I could perhaps have moved them in by another 1/2mm but wanted to ensure that the loop did not have any interference from the bumpers when lifting.

No doubt the forthcoming Peco model will be quicker to get into service, but a lot less individual!

Colin