Spreading the load

With both wagons now at the same stage, with all the external struts in place on the hoppers, thoughts turn to what to tackle next.

I think I'll go below decks and start on the doors that spread the ballast. I never took any measurements of these so there's going to have to be a lot of extrapolating from photographs and the known knowns, as well as a bit of trial and error to begin with.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Most of the struts and straps are now in place on one of the wagons.

I think it's starting to take on a convincing look of the real thing, no?

Jig Time

Being geometrically challenged (see previous post) making the angled support struts at either end of the hoppers could be a potentially time consuming and frustrating business, resulting in a lot of wasted styrene strip with multiple attempts to cut pieces to fit.



So I've come up with this wee device which I hope will help with the fabrication of these struts (and there are 8 of them on the 2 wagons) and with a bit of luck they'll come together in jig time.





I won't be able to put this jig to the test until I get my hands on the 'I Beam' Evergreen strip I need. It's currently caught up in our wonderful modernised postal service, who have so conveniently moved delivery times towards the middle of the day when you can all but guarantee there'll be no one in the house to sign for recorded delivery items such as the aforementioned styrene strips.

It's progress apparently.

Getting Lippy

A start's been made on adding some of the detail to the hoppers, begining with the pronounced angled lip at the top.



The top edge of the hoppers were filed down at a 45 degree angle and 15" x 60" strips were attached.

I've never been too hot on geometry so it took a number of attempts to get the angles right at the corners so they joined without a gap. I have the same problem when trying to make hipped roofs on buildings.

Hop 2 It

Another session with the South African ballast hoppers today, at the end of which I have two frames and the basic shells of the hoppers completed.



I've built the hopper shells out of 30" styrene, but as extra insurace against warping the sides have been backed with pieces of 60" sheet. I'll be damned if that will lose its shape!



The backing pieces won't show up on the finished wagons because I'll be representing them both as fully loaded.

So far they've come together very swiftly but, on these two especially, the devil really is going to be in the detailing.

Heavy Freight

Next up on the workbench will be what have arguably been the two most vital items of rolling stock during the project to rebuild the WHR - the South African AY ballast wagons.

Drawings of these vehicles have proved illusive, so I'm going to be relying on measurements I took myself and there is considerable scope for error. However, (finescale followers avert your eyes) I shall fall back on my modelling maxim that if it looks right it is right.

I think I shall make both at the same time, because previous experience suggests that if I make only one, by the time I come back to do the second I'll have forgotten what I did with the first!

Stage one is to fabricate the main frame / chassis.

Table By The Window?

A free hour before leaving for work. A sheet of 60", scalpel, ruler and a bottle of Mek Pak and that's 103's table's sorted.

The snagging list shortens.