Stacked

Many years ago when we built up our rake of slate waggons I made loads for them the hard way - what's new?

I cut hundreds of pieces of slate-sized styrene and glued them in rows onto a length of thin strip and repeated the process dozens of times until I had a unit which filled neatly inside one of the Dundas wagons.

Over time - and we're talking decades - the plastic on the wagons has become brittle and Himself is renewing some of the fleet and is looking for more loads.

I was asked whether it might be possible to cast them this time, so I've brought one example home and am about to cover it in RTV and see what happens.

In theory it should be a good way to reproduce them, but my only concern is how well the deep, narrow valleys between each of the slates will be replicated?

Ovaltime

I've reached a landmark moment in the Maenofferen Tank Waggon.

There are many details still to be added to it but it's looking the part now.

After adapting the chassis the next key job was to make the four cradles for the tank, for which I chose to make a master in styrene and cast copies in resin.

The next stage will be to add the distinctive metal bands which hold the tank in place.

Green Agreement

It's a rare day when Himself and I are as one on the question of colours - especially greens!

But we had a rare outbreak of unity in choosing the paint shade for our Backwoods Lynton and Barnstable Lyn which is now being finished off.

Himself bought a selection of Southern shades from the Railmatch range and what we decided on was a 50/50 mix of Light Olive and Malachite Green which best seemed to marry up with the photos we took at Dinas a couple of years ago.

Himself held off with painting this loco because he was never quite satisfied with how it performed - it always had a very pronounced waddle.

The solution has been to disable the compensation on the front driving axle, locking it in place with a new bearing. 

Years ago we had to do the same on the Backwoods Ladies which we could never get to run right as the designer intended.

3 Ton Plus

The plan for the Maenofferen tank waggon was always to try and use a 3 ton slate waggon chassis, the question was always whether the wheelbase would be right or if it would need a lot of hacking about to make it fit.

Himself provided the chassis after purchasing a pack of Dundas waggon kits to renew our fleet and when I compared it with the drawing I was delighted to find the axle boxes in precisely the same place as on the regular waggons.

The tank waggon, is longer, however, but all the extra length is at the ends rather than in the middle, so it wasn't difficult to add some styrene extensions.

The other thing I did was to thin down the main base of the chassis as it was a little too thick, just by rubbing it over fine grade sand paper.

Fortunately the wagon doesn't have anything as sophisticated as brakes, so there's very little that required to be done underneath except extend the frames.

Up top, on the tank, I've made up the tank filler using my ever-handy selection pack of styrene tubes and formed the domed top of the cap with a drop of resin.

 

Saloon Primed

Himself has made quick progress on 2048.

It's been given a coat of primer and the holes have been drilled in the top of the seats for the handrail knobs which go on the inside edges.

It's a very minor detail, which is probably a little over the top, but since we've included them on all the carriages so far so I suppose we'll just have to carry on,

The vacuum pipes and holes for the grab rails either side of the doors are also done.

Stacking Rings

Having got 2048 off the workbench I've decided to crack on with a 'nice to have' project which I've been itching to try for some time - the Maenofferen tank waggon.

Being me I've elected to go about it in a really labour-intensive way!.

The tank on this wagon has a very unusual squashed profile and replicating that is going to be crucial to getting it looking right.

My first step was a scale a drawing to 4mm and cut out a template which I glued onto 15 thou styrene sheet.

I cut that out with scissors them added a strip of styrene around the perimeter before making a rubber mould and casting a copy which was now 60 thou thick.

Then, I ran off a few more castings and half of them here hollowed out.

Four of these hollow ones were them glued together, with filler used to blend out any obvious ridges where they joined.

Now I had a barrel which was around 1.5cm long.

This was used as a master for yet another mould which was also cast from four times.

These were then bonded together and two of the solid pieces put on each end.

Rather than try to smooth these over I elected to wrap it in very thin (10 thou) styrene sheet before blending the edges at each end.

So now I have the basic tank shape.

The next stage will be to obtain and adapt a Dundas 3 ton slate waggon chassis.

Ready For Handover

The last of the styrene construction work on 2048 has been completed and it's ready to be passed over to Himself for the final brass parts to be added and then painting.

The roof was skinned using the rolling pin and kettle technique I posted about a couple of days ago, and I do believe it looks a little smoother than when I have previously stretched a flat piece of styrene across.

One of the last jobs was to complete the underframe detail which is quite prominent on these latest WHR carriages which don't hide it all behind a skirt like the first generation did.

For this I make use of some spare parts from my SAR wagon kits for the vacuum cylinder and the brake gear rigging.

There's nothing more satisfying that a spot of recycling, is there?