Double Jointed

Not only is the world-famous Ffestiniog the home of the articulated steam locomotive it also has a rather special double-articulated infrastructure wagon, which I am busy scratch building for a second time for a customer.

Yesterday's task was the tricky business of making it bend - in two places - which is why I waited until I was in the mood to tackle it.

The challenging bit of the process is to hold a 10BA nut captive in styrene.

This is quite simple when you're working in brass because you just solder it in place, but soft styrene is a different matter.

What I did - and I'm trusting this will be a long-term solution here - was make T-shaped sections to fit in the bottom of the boxes which make up the main body of the wagon and ream a hole that was tight enough that the nut could be pressed into it, but not so tight as to distort or crack the plastic.

The hole was also lined with a smear of super glue and then another piece of styrene - with a smaller hole - was fixed on one side to prevent the nut being pushed out and disappearing inside the body of the wagon.

With these fitted in the place in the boxes what I did next was make up the bar which connects the two vans and forms the spine which the central platform is fixed onto.

When you turn it the right way up the result is what you see in the picture at the top of the article.

The next stage will be to fix the Hudson skip wagon chassis underneath the two boxes so it can sit on rails for the first time.

Cubed

Modelling time I've had this week is being taken up with working on a commission for a copy of the model we made of the FR's S&T tool van.

This is a double articulated wagon (if that's such a thing) with large box structures at each end which are redundant bodies from former BT road vans.

I've been working steadily on these since the weekend and the sides and ends have been fixed together into their boxes now, with a roof fixed on top.

This will each sit on a former Hudson skip wagon chassis and be connected by a flat platform which pivots at each end.

Bendy Wagon Project

One of the things I'll be getting on with in the next few weeks (although how much time I'll have amid covering the chaos of the Cop26 climate summit is questionable) is a commission to make another model of the FR's very bendy tool box van.

You can read more about the story behind our scratch built version here.

Now I've just got to try to remember what I did and make an exact copy.

My customer has already provided me with a pair of Dundas Hudson skip wagon chassis which are the basis of the running gear.

The two wheels under the central platform are non-rotating dummies which have had their tyres removed.

I suppose it would be possible to find a way to make them work, but you only really notice they're there when you turn the thing upside down, so there doesn't seem to be that much point in bothering.

Which is all very amusing when I reflect on how some people contributing to certain online forums appear to have me ranked as a rivet-counting perfectionist for my - I thought quite balanced and fair - critique of the new RTR England locomotive.

If they ever looked closely at any of my models they'd realise nothing could be further from the truth!