Fake Frames

More progress to report with the WHR Tool Van.

I've started faking up the framing on one of the sides.

Why do I say fake?

Well, it's another one of those occasions where a model is made in completely the opposite fashion to the prototype.

On the real wagon the volunteers began by forming a framework out of metal angle section and then installing the walls behind, whereas I have started with the walls and added the frame on top.

Because I am cheap I have used channel section styrene and sliced off one side rather than investing in a pack of L angle, but it looks effective enough.

Its propped in place for the photo, hence the presence of the bottle of correction fluid.  (No brand names for non-modelling products here!)

Mock The Wagon

I've begun work on the WHR tool van.

As I have no measurement for the van part of the wagon I've had to work it out from photographs using the known dimensions of the DZ wagon chassis on which it sits as the starting point.

Because my maths skills are not the most reliable I started out cutting the blank pieces for one side and end to see if they looked as if they are reasonably right size when mounted on a flat wagon.

I have concluded they are acceptable, so I shall give myself permission to press on with the project.

You may notice that the frames on the wagon chassis are very plain.

This is because I have used pieces of plain styrene rather than the cast sides that come with the DZ flat wagon kit which have the remains of various hinges and brackets attached to them.

The tool van chassis had most of these gas-axed off when it was converted, except for a few at the platform end of it.

I had intended to shave and file these details from the castings but soon realised it would be far simpler to add a few details to plain sides than attempt to remove lots of them from fully detailed ones.

Pic Of The Week 12

It's downhill all the way as we approach the end of this series of pictures from Chris Nevard's shoot for Model Rail magazine.

This one shows our gravity train descending the spiral.

In a still shot like this it's much easier to spot where the motive power comes from than it is when the waggons are running on the layout.

They are a mix of Parkside Dundas 2 ton and 3 ton kits.

The loads were made the hard way with hundreds of small pieces of rectangular styrene glued together in neat blocks to fit inside the waggons.

This is an authentic scene because on very special occasions gravity trains are run from the summit of the Deviation route behind the power station at Tanygrisiau.

The Bron Hebog team were honoured to be invited to ride one of the trains from Dduallt down to Porthmadog a number of years ago.

It was a fantastic experience, and the journey up behind Palmerston was wonderfully authentic and atmospheric as well.

If you too love the unique spectacle of the FR's gravity trains then please consider making a contribution to the FR Society's Waggon Tracks appeal to provide covered accommodation for these these humble Victorian relics so they can continue to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Blank Page

Don't worry, there is something to read. It's just another one of my appalling puns.

While the first of the Oberon Wood houses is still at an early stage, and in two bits, I have taken the opportunity to use it as a template to cut some blank sides for the second house.

I'm not going to do any more to these until I've had the opportunity to take the first one down south and try it out in position on the layout to check that we're all happy with the way the Artistic Director has scaled the design.

Only then will I do any more to these pieces because its such a time-consuming business to cut out all the windows that its not the sort of job you want to have to repeat it you can avoid it.

The Extension

This is the other half of the house I showed you at the weekend.

As you will see it is the most complex half of the building.

The Oberon Wood development was built in the wacky style of the 60s and 70s and the properties have many bits that stick out or are arranged at a jaunty angle.

This is how the halves are going to look when they are joined together.  This is the view from the back, or, if you perfer to orientate yourself this way, from the train in Goat Cutting.

And this is from the front where there is the road access to the houses.

Although it may look like it now the upper storey is not suspended in the air in this fashion. There is an entrance porch to be built underneath which will support it, but it is faced with stone and that's going to take a lot of scratching with a sharp tool to replicate in styrene and I've yet to get around to that yet.

 

At first glance the buildings look pretty complete but in reality there is a huge amount still to do to complete them.

 

It is satisfying, though, to see such substantial progress early on.

 

I shall be taking the house down south in a couple of weeks to check it in position on Bron Hebog to ensure we're happy with the design and the scaling of the buildings before I crack on with the second one.

Pic Of The Week 11

I make no apologies for another shot featuring the Earl of Merioneth.

As a child of the 80s I've always had a soft spot for it. You cannot deny that it always makes an impression on you the first time you see it, and Himself did a fantastic job scratch building the body onto a Backwoods Ministures kit for a traditional Spooner Fairlie.

It is taken from what is probably the classic view of Dduallt with trains going under and over Rhoslym Bridge.

The Earl's train, of course, is very much out of era with the condition of the locomotive by as much as 20 years.

On the line above is the permanent way diesel Harlech Castle with a short works train including the mess coach 1111 and the tool van wagon made up of a pair of BT van bodies.

Scrap Building

It's true what they say - there really is a market for everything. Even for my casting catastrophes.

A few days ago one of my regular Boston Largs Works clients, who is building a model of the South African NG, wrote to ask if I had any reject castings he could obtain to make some models of scrap wagons.

He was in luck.

Being a natural hoarder I do keep aside most of the casts that go wrong. Often it is possible to slice bits from them to graft onto other imperfect examples and make one good one from two bad ones.

This wagon floor was beyond hope because of a gigantic air bubble that developed beneath the perspex sheet that sits on top of the mould to give it a smooth top and I don't know why I kept hold of it rather than putting it straight in the bin...

For whatever reason I did keep hold of it, and when the customer told me he was looking to have wagons positioned with vegetation growing out of them I realised I would be able to find a use for it after all.

I also have some dodgy B wagon sides and ends in the scrap pile and I've been able to gather enough bits to make up 2 wagons which have had their central doors removed.

A quick blast from a can of red oxide primer and these will be done, ready to be sent down south to be distressed further by their new owner.