Confessions of a rubber gauger

Following on from the last 'Up-cycle' post I realised that I hadn't uploaded a photo of the completed test track board with track in place...

The varnish on the cork did not work out so one Sunday morning I took the power sander to it and removed the varnish and evened out the surface finish. Its still a little messy around the edges but that just adds to the charm, so I tell myself... 

Trackwork is Peco code 100 for the 16.5mm gauge section and Roco HOe for the 9mm. Both lengths are made up from oddments.  The selection switch to power one line at a time sits in one of the original point switch locations, it was a lot easier that way as there was already a hole in the plywood underneath. The 9mm gauge line features a Micro Trains magnet for coupler testing.

The 16.5mm gauge track may be needed at some point if I ever get around to building a O-16.5 loco to pull the latest occupant of the workbench. This is the first of the five secondhand Chivers open wagons purchased via the NGRM Online forum classifieds to be refurbished.  I felt that this 4-plank wagon was the most in need of attention as it had a solid mass of ballast in it and no wheels or brake gear.  Having soaked out the load and stripped the paint in Phoenix Paints 'Superstrip' I gave it some careful attention, including careful removal of one end and both sides, adding brake gear from a new Chivers kit in my stash and reconstructing the mounts for Kadee couplers. The plan was that this would be a prototype for my own future builds from new, plus refurbishment of others in this batch.

I have made two enhancements to the basic kit. The first, unseen here, was to texture the floor planking with wood grain, the second was to alter the shape of the brake lever where it goes past the guide, angling it inwards.  This can be seen in the underside view below, along with the strip connecting the guide to the W-iron:

The wheels have been pinched from a 2-plank wagon in the batch.  This isn't a design that really features in my plans and having now stripped the paint off a cunning plan is being developed that may be 'on topic' for this blog...

Colin

Some trains are made to be played with...

Last year I received the gift of a handful of tinplate OO gauge wagons as a wedding anniversary gift/joke from my wife.  Do what you want with them she said...

I'll be honest, tinplate is not really my thing, but I gave the contents of the box a good looking over to see what could be done.  First impressions weren't good, but the closer I looked I realised that two of the wagons weren't tinplate at all, but litho printed card overlays on wooden bodies, with cast metal chassis.

They are certainly not the best examples of the breed and I suspect have no heritage value, but the mazac cast chassis of the one on the right looks like a potential 7mm scale narrow gauge underframe to me.  The one on the left is very curious, cast whitemetal with rather fine wheels (though on plain-end axles), but the wheelbase is 35mm - that's 10 feet in 3.5mm scale rather than 9 feet in 4mm scale - is it actually to HO scale?  The body is rather warped and appears to be some sort of fibreboard in places rather than wood. At some point I'll try and use the useful bits of these wagons.

The Hornby Dublo wagons were very battered, this brake van is typical:

The eagle eyed will notice the rather shiny wheels, they are modern Hornby examples!  As the body on this was beyond repair they have been reclaimed for the spares box, the chassis frame may go on eBay as a spare....

A totally non-conservation approach was taken to the best of the battered tinplate wagons. Two open wagons became one (more modern Hornby wheels reclaimed); I swapped some other wheels about amongst the interesting 2-rail conversions and the oldest length of Peco Streamline track I could find seemed apt for display:

Colin

In Toby we Trust

After a period of minimum gauge inactivity I had some spare time yesterday and put together the basic structure of the MG Models 'Tram' kit, an interesting exercise in soldering.  I can think of five different interpretations of this loco design on 15" gauge (many on Lister undeframes) and whilst the kit is not really representative of an individual loco, it is certainly characteristic of the breed.

I have chosen the option of fitting grilles to one side of the body, various different panels are provided and the kit can also be built as a brake van if desired!

Since taking these photos I have filled in the doorways with styrene planking, in the style of the Lister tram loco that used to run at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway.  These will hide the workings of the Kato chassis.

Hopefully this will be a fairly quick build as there really isn't much to it (he says...).

Just in case you wondered what I have been up to in the meantime, I have been dabbling with a little bit of O-16.5 in the form of a couple of scratchbuilt wagons, simply to prove to myself that you can build wagons on 00 gauge chassis without the end result looking exactly like a 7mm scale body on a 4mm scale underframe.  The one-plank wagon is freelance, with the body built in styrene; whilst the open wagon is a fairly close model of a Vale of Rheidol ex-Plynlimon & Hafon Tramway wagon with the body built in basswood.

Whilst a O-16.5 project is some way in the future, the direction for wagon building is now established and the chassis donor stockpile is growing at minimal cost.

Colin