Floor Plan

So now I've got the sides of the DZ's more or less sorted, and a batch have been cast with reasonable success, it's time to turn attention to the rest of the wagon.

I've decided to try making the floor as a one piece casting. This is not so much because it's tricky or time-consuming, as the dented side doors are, but because I've already had a number of people enquiring about whether I would be willing to make some DZ's for them too.

I figured it would be no trouble for me to make the four floor units I need for my own fleet from scratch, but if I end up mass-producing these wagons (OK, perhaps I'm exaggerating slightly there) it would be so much easier to make a single master and cast others as required.

As you can see above, I've taken this a stage further by attempting to include as much of the underframe detail as I can, which in this case means a vacuum cylinder and a reservoir tank.

The cylinder is one of the unusual fluted types that the ex-SAR wagons on the WHR seem to have, which I have attempted to replicate.

The tank is a little but of a cheat. Because I'm not very experienced in this casting malarkey I'm only using one piece moulds at the moment, which means one face of the master has to be flat and you can't really have undercuts which means a fully cylindrical tank is out.

So instead this one has flat sides at the bottom - in cross-section is it an arch shape - but it's mostly hidden by the frame of the wagon and unless you actually picked up the model and turned it over I don't think anyone would ever notice.

That's the theory anyway. We'll have to see whether I get away with it...