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.

Sole Man

After a visit to see Himself - and his vast collection of leftover kit parts - have in my possession the bits I need to complete the chassis master for the tank wagon kit.

As with the version I made for our layouts it's going to be based around an extended Dundas FR 3-ton slate waggon chassis.

I intend to fit the extension bits to the floor plate in styrene and cast that piece in resin, but to complete the rolling chassis I'll be using the solebar and axlebox mouldings from the kit, plus the wheels of course.

Hopefully later this week I'll have the first example completed.

Flat Share

The tank wagon kit has been a diversion from the project I'd intended to be getting on with this summer, which is a request I received to make (and reproduce) some models of the modern ex-MoD flat wagons in the FR fleet.

The body should be relatively straightforward but the challenge is going to be the bogies.

These wagons were produced by Hudsons and share the same wheelbase as many of their older designs, but these ones are very beefed up and have a very chunky horizonal handbrake lever stuck on one side.

The plan I have in my head is to try and produce a casting which will somehow glue onto, or slip over, the plastic bogie frames produced by Dundas.

Resin is a poor material for casting the entire bogie as it doesn't flex as much as injection moulded plastic, and that makes them liable to break at the weakest point when fitting in the wheelsets.

I have a spare set of Hudson bogie parts to begin experimenting on, I just need to summon up the motivation....

Convertable Garratt

The great thing about the blog is that I don't have to issue orders, I simply hint at something here and it happens!

Himself has provided a few pictures of the dismantled Backwoods NGG16 on its DZ transporter wagons marshalled into a train.

We have options with the boiler.

It can be towed around the layout in its cradle mounted on ambulance bogies.

Or it could be mounted on a flat wagon propped up by sleepers.

Himself tells me he has fitted some discreet pins in the bottom of the boiler to locate it securely on the wagon, but won't prevent it sitting on its own chassis either.

It's going to make a very unusual feature, whenever the day comes that we can take the Bron Hebog out on the road again.

Tool Van Varnished

Now that Himself has access to his extended workshop once again he has been able to get his airbrush out again. (The boss won't allow it in the house.)

First in the queue for a coat of varnish is my model of the WHR tool van which was built up on a DZ wagon chassis which has been given one of Himself's excellent paint jobs.

I'm particularly impressed with the way he's picked out the edging of the cupboard at the back and the running number transfers on the blue panels.

This tool van will be one of a number of new items of rolling stock you will get to see if you make it along to visit us at the WHR Super Power - Great & Small event at Dinas next month.

MOTW - Fuel Tank Wagon 66

It's Model Of The Week time once more. Comes around quickly, doesn't it?

This is another example of a scratch built model of one of the less-glamorous, workaday FR wagons, but one which is essential to the running of the railway.



These wagons carry fuel for the shrinking fleet of oil fired locomotives on the FR as the line moves increasing back towards coal firing.

Today wagon 66 is generally filled with much lighter and more refined products than the waste motor engine oil which was being used in the early 1970s when it was built.

The basis of the real wagon is a 2000 gallon oval tank recycled from a road vehicle so I adopted a similar solution for my model.

I spliced together two tanks from Cooper Craft plastic kits for a 4mm scale lorry tanker.

This was fixed to a scratch built chassis fabricated from 'I' section styrene strip and mounted on bogies knocked up in styrene to represent the ex-Polish State Railways plate frame bogies.

I used fine etched brass mesh from Scalelink for the walkways on top of the tanks.

The red stripes were done using thick lining from Fox Transfers and the word OiL made up using pieces of big white letters such as L's and T's.

If you look carefully at that word OiL you'll see how it's designed to look like a steam engine. The O is the cab, the i the boiler with the dot representing a dome and the L the smokebox and chimney which is emitting some spherical puffs of steam. It always makes me smile.



The actual wagons are mostly seen parked at the fueling point beneath the water tower at Harbour Station or at Boston Lodge Works. If you're around at the right time you might see the empty ones being taken away or full ones brought down from Minffordd Yard.

How then do we justify running this model of Wagon 66 on Dduallt?



Our excuse is a special trip-working to Glan-y-Pwll to service a steam loco which has been based there for a short season of workings, for which there is a precedent.