B Prepared

The last few weeks have seen me concentrating on another production run of kits to send to Light Railway Stores, after the last lot flew off the cyber shelves in record time.

I sent a selection down south this week, but they didn't include any B wagons or ballast wagons because I am waiting on a resupply of the brass bogie frets.

However, I am trying to get ahead of the game and getting the casting done so that as soon as the bogie parts arrive they can be packed and despatched.

B Is For Best Seller

 The reason that not much new modelling is appearing on this blog is that for the last week - and for a few weeks to come - my time's being used to cast parts for my range of wagon kits to restock our friends at Narrow Planet, who kindly sell them through their webshop.

I've not kept a detailed log my if I had to guess I'd say the versatile ex-SAR B wagon is the kit I've sold the most of, and I began by casting a batch of them before moving on to the smaller DZ wagons this week.

One consequence of the pandemic - which has caused offices up and down the land to remain empty -is that I've run out of supply of the very stiff fibre card which I used in the packaging in the kits to help keep the parts flat.

I obtained this for free by recycling the bottom part of the boxes which come into our office containing packs of binding cases for sales presentations.

Now the sales team are all working at home none of these boxes are being used any more and I'm having to hunt around for suitably stiff cardboard to repurpose instead.

New Year (Same As The Last)

I find myself beginning 2019 much the same as I ended the previous year - casting another batch of wagon kits.

Sales of my SAR range at Narrow Planet have been brisk again leading to a request to produce more stock to be sold on the website.

The turn of the year is traditionally a time to make resolutions and my intentions for the next few months are that I would definitely like to build up my stock of WHHR carriages to have a more representative rake to hang behind Russell and the Baldwin.

Himself is coming towards the end of his project to build Garratt 143 and when that's done I'll be giving him plenty of encouragement to start on 130, which I fully expect to see entering service in Wales this year.

I know that he's also keen to make progress on the second FR Observation Car 152 which has been in abeyance for a number of months now.

I cast and assembled the majority of the body but I'm waiting for him to make up the brass roof and the solder the front pillars into position before I take it back and add the interior.

He's also been mentioning to me that he'd like to build some models of bowsiders 17 and 20 in their current liveries to bring our vintage sets up to date.

So, all in all, there's plenty to be getting on with.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

October

So to the final post of the year.

Dduallt was making yet another comeback, appearing at our home club's exhibition over two days in Greenock, and there will be more outings in 2019.

Himself hadn't wasted any time in getting started on the first of the new Garratt kits, which we decided would be 143.

He was making very rapid progress on the power units - here's the front one.

We were also taking apart our eldest Backwoods Fairlie, Merddin Emrys, to try and get to the bottom of its very poor performance.

It turned out that what it needed was new brushes for its Mashima motor.

Fortunately these could be fitted by twisting the motor round in the mounting, because it's impossible to remove it without deconstructing a lot of the locomotive.

November

I was making more progress on superbarn 120 which was having its underframe detail added by this stage.

Himself was adding the valve gear to the first of the Garratt bogies, which was being test run.

I had taken on the job of making up some wagon kits as repeat business for a customer.

December

Progress on 143 had got the point where both power units had their vale gear fitted and much of the detail was in place on the boiler unit as well.

As I write it has yet to be joined together or pick-ups fitted, so there's be no test running so far.

The ballast wagons and B wagons were completed and delivered to the customer ready in time for Christmas, even though there was no deadline on the contract.

Thanks to you for reading the blog in 2018 and all our best wishes for 2019.

Ready For Christmas

With just the small matter of the bogie frames to clean up and fit it didn't take long to finish off the wagons I've been making for a client.

Time now to package them up and despatch them by reindeer and sleigh in time for Christmas.

Last Of The B Wagons

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a picture of the final Worsley brass B wagon which Himself had finished tarting up, now it's been painted and is ready for lettering and a coat of varnish.

It's the extra little details he adds which really make these models for me, such as the footsteps which hang down and are picked out in yellow, and all the grab handles along the side of the frame.

Put together with all the resin Mk2 designs I've produced we now have a very long string of SAR freight wagons which look very impressive running together behind one of our Garratts on the layout.

Come and see for yourself at Superpower next month - all the details are on the Exhibition Diary page.

Engineering Possession

For the purposes of checking the alignment of the board joints Himself has been testing them with what prove to be our most derailable stock: the B Wagons.

Or to be more precise, my resign cast B Wagons.

This, I'm sure, is just because when running empty they are absolutely featherweight, unlike the Worsley Works kits for the earlier, flat-ended design, which are made of brass.

I suppose one idea might be to fill them with some removable loads of loco ash, as these wagons have made quite regular trips up the WHR carrying all the clinker generated at Boston Lodge to be used as infill.

At any rate, I saw them sitting parked on the layout on the usually inaccessible S-bend and thought they made a good subject for some arty shots which also show off the ruined barn well.

Review Of The Year - Part 4

For the last post of 2017 I'll bring our modelling review of the year up to date.

October

Himself was steadily getting on with the top coats on the Superbarn 118 between other jobs.

He had many tasks on the go including fixing the last two bungalows in place and beginning the task of landscaping around them.

It was such a relief to have finally got all the houses built - a project which had taken many years to bring to fruition.

We also got round to purchasing a chassis to put our 3D printed Lilla body on.

At this stage it still needed some material cleared away from beneath the saddle tank which explains why it is sitting at a very racy angle.

November

There was still the need to paint the bungalows before they could be fixed in place on the layout.

The last of them was the most challenging of the lot because one wall has stone cladding which was very well represented by Himself.

The only shame was that this effect is mostly hidden from the viewing public at exhibitions because this is the side which faces the operators.

There was more work on Lilla.

The Minitrains chassis was improved with some new slidebars from RT Models and Himself also carefully filed down the fly cranks to remove the very large balance weights.

While he was doing all that I was busy earning a little money fulfilling a promise to build some of my resin SAR wagon kits for a customer.

December

As we moved into the final month of the year Himself set to with the task of painting Lilla which we're going to finish in its Penrhyn Quarry Railway lined black livery.

Currently he is engaged in the very careful and patient task of lining it out.

The project on my workbench at the moment is to bring our WHR carriage fleet up to date with the latest of the saloons 2047 which I am building from scratch in styrene.

So all that remains is for us to wish you all the best for 2018 and thank you for visiting the blog or keeping up with what we're up to by following us on Facebook or Twitter,

We'll be taking both Bron Hebog and Dduallt out on the rode during the year ahead and we look forward to seeing you there - full details are on the Exhibition Diary page.

Yellow Lines

It's only a few brush strokes but the bits of the SAR wagons which are picked out in yellow make all the difference to how they look.

The most challenging bit is the stripes on the end of the brake van.

It takes quite a while to mask it off, and then inevitably there is some touching up to be done afterwards.

(The photographs are still cruel, though.)

Primed But Not Ready To Go

The weather conditions have, at last, materialised to allow me to spray the SAR wagons I'm building for a client; dry, mild, calm and low humidity.

Being calm and dry is most important because the models have to survive the journey to and from the nice warm house to the garage, to be sprayed, and back into the house again to dry.

If it is windy at all then there is a serious risk of them being blown off the tray that I'm carrying them on.

The problem with the rain is obvious.

There are some details to be picked out in yellow, such as the brake wheels and the handrails as well as the stripes on each end of the guards van, but that's about all I can do at the moment until the new supplies of wheels turn up.

In the meantime I need to get casting again because I've received a request to replenish the stocks of kits at Narrow Planet.

Waiting For Wheels

Nearly all the construction is done now on the batch of SAR wagons I've been making for a customer.

Since I last posted I have made up the roofs for the two brake vans, added the handrails, all the brake gear below and the footsteps.

At this stage the roofs are just resting in positon because they will need to be painted inside and have the glazing fitted before they can be fixed on.

There's nothing to stop me spraying them their red oxide colour, but I have not done so yet because I was waiting for slightly milder weather as I usually do it out in the garage, and this week has been rather cold up here.

I am also waiting on the delivery of the Romford wheels to fit to the bogies which the reconstituted Dundas Models (our preferred supplier) are expecting to get back into stock imminently.

Brake Bits

You have to look hard at most narrow gauge wagons to see whether or not they have continuous brakes.

In most cases the main giveaway will be the vacuum or air pipes at each end.

The monster wagons of the SAR two feet system are very different, however sitting high on their bogies with all the gubbins on show underneath for all the world to see.

That's why when I was designing the kits - with more than a little help from the clever chaps at Narrow Planet - we came up with an etched brass fret which includes the bogies and all the hangers and other bits and pieces which can be cut out, glued into place on the body and the chassis to look something like the brake gear.

It's not an exact mechanical representation, but it looks good enough when the wagons are running on a layout I reckon.

The best bits, in my opinion, are the handbrake wheels, with their distinctive dented rims.

Two of those get soldered onto a bit of wire and fixed onto each end of the wagon.

You can just see them if you look carefully at the left hand side of the picture.

They'll stand out a treat when they're painted yellow against the red oxide colour of the wagon body.

Getting A Handle On It

The wagon bodies glue together very quickly but there are lots of other details you can add which take a while longer, if you choose to put them on, like the grab handles which run along the frame of the B wagons.

There are small pilot holes in the master which show up on the casting and it's simply a matter of drilling through and then folding some pieces of 0.5mm brass wire to insert into them.

In reality it takes quite a while because there is a universal modelling law which states than when handling such small pieces at least one in every five will ping out of the jaws of the tweezers and land in the most unlikely place in the room.

You can follow the sound of it landing, or bouncing off something, and spend the time crawling around on all fours looking for it or you can just sigh, pick up the tools and make another one.

I usually opt for the latter strategy.

Needless to say, when I'd finished inserting the last one I looked around the desk and at least three of the errant ones appeared as if by magic.

I suppose it's all part of the fun of making models, eh?

Lumps And Bumps

The basic wagon bodies have been glued together now.

One of the distinctive features of the SAR wagons is the pressed panels in the doors which have the big dent on the outside and the bulge on the inside face.

When designing the kits I represented this by casting the inner bumps as small detail pieces to be glued onto the flat back of the wagon sides.

I've found it's best to do this before fixing the sides together so you can make sure they line up with the indentations on the outside and, in the case of the DZ wagon, that they're aligned properly.

Then it's a very quick and simple job to glue the parts in place on the floor / chassis and the shape of the wagon emerges.

Component Parts

I'm having a little pause between personal modelling projects.

I had a customer approach me a couple of months ago explaining how he'd seen some of the wagon kits I made up and painted for a friend on his South African-themed layout and asked if I could do the same for him.

I said I'd do it after I'd got the last of the houses for the layout built, which is why this week I've got the resin out and cast and cleaned up the parts for a couple of B wagons and a DZ.

Wagon-spotters will notice that this DZ is being done with the high sided ends which make them look a little like mini B wagons.

I think they look rather nice like that but in Wales the FR has been going through a process of fitting its own design of ends which are hinged and fold flat to form a bridge between wagons running together in a rake.

I also have a couple of brake vans to make as well.

Once these are done I'll be turning my attention back to the carriage fleet and making the latest WHR saloon 2047.

Best Of Both

The list of future projects has grown now I've finally got some pictures of the unique BZ wagon.

This is a hybrid that's been dreamed up at Boston Lodge combining the most desirable aspects of a B Wagon (the fixed sides) with the best bits of a DZ (its more user-friendy height).

There's just the one been made so far and it's currently sitting in the new heritage storage shed being used as a place to leave bits of Blanche.

You can see in these pictures that it has been designed with the fold-down, drive-through ramps at each end which are also being retro-fitted to some of the DZ fleet to assist which delivering small diggers and various other pieces of self-propelled equipment to work sites on the lines.

So I think I shall inevitably have to build one.

The question is whether I scratch build it as a complete model or create masters of a kit of parts I can cast?

Will they be making any more?

If they do, will they be identcal? (Stop sniggering at the back!)

And would there be any demand from other modellers for a kit?

What I will do will depend on the answers to these questions.

Two More For The Fleet

The two most recently-built B wagons have been varnished and are ready for service.

Quite honestly I've begun to lose count of how many of these we have now - and the real F&WHR for that matter, too.

I think we're quite well off for this later design, which I can knock out quite easily in resin, but I suspect we have not yet got a full compliment of the other type which are built from a Worsley Works scratch-aid kit.

Rather that take a boring picture on the work bench I thought I would pose them on the section of the layout which is up in the garage at the moment for the fence post installation.

The difficulty was that - like the real location - there is a fierce gradient around our S bend and I had to resort to placing a discreet blob of Blu Tac on one of the rails as a makeshift stop block to prevent them free-wheeling into oblivion while I took the snap.

Man Of Letters

The nice autumn weather hasn't done much for Himself's productivity this last week.

(And neither has a new leather reclining chair which he's bought and placed next to the big picture window in his lounge, for that matter!)

However, when he has found time to tinker at the workbench he has applied the lettering to the new pair of B wagons.

He has taken great care to study pictures of these vehicles after they arrived from South Africa his patience - and eyesight - doesn't extend to adding transfers for all the Tare and Load figures on the right had end.

And who can blame him? Not I, certainly.

Domestic Distractions

By his own admission Himself has not had one of his more productive weeks.

He's been having other tasks and activities set for him which have kept him out of his modelling den, although he did find the time to coat a couple of B wagons with red oxide primer and add on the yellow highlights.

There's some lettering to add before they can be given a coat of varnish.

Brass Bits On The B

The latest B wagon is ready to be sprayed in its red oxide colour scheme.

There are lots of bits that Himself has added in in to bring the basic resin kit alive.

The most obvious is the step which hangs down from the right hand side of the frame and the piece of brass in the centre which is there to stop the door damaging the brake hanger when it is dropped down I suppose.

As usual he's also added the vacuum brake hoses and the pipe work which wraps itself around the reservoir and seems to be a feature of the alterations made to this particular wagon at some point in its life.

Because the paint job on these wagons is ludicrously simple I don't suppose it will be long before it's ready to join the fleet.