A Bit On The Side

I've been puzzling for a while - and putting off - how to tackle the very prominent brake levers which are on the sides of the bogies on one end of the MOD flat wagons.

Much as I would like to it's clear that it's not going to work to cast them as a one-piece fitting to be glued on, so what I've decided to try is making a second set of bogie frames which include all the anchor points and then making a separate casting for the levers themselves.

To do this I cast another set of the basic side frames and added the extra pieces in styrene.

There will be a lot of fine details which I won't be able to feature - such as the saw-toothed ratchets that the levers pass through - but sometimes in this scale you've got to accept some compromises.

Flat Bed

It's always satisfying to do a first cast with a new mould and find it works well.

This is the prototype for the MoD flat wagon kit with two pieces for the chassis and the deck which hide the heads of the nuts for the bogies.

I've assembled them to see if it works as designed.

Based on the first cast I think this is good to go, so it's just the bogies left to complete.

Modest Progess

I'm glad I decided to switch the focus on the MoD flat wagon project onto the main body section because its given me the feeling I'm getting somewhere with it.

It only took a couple of sessions to get the parts ready for a trial casting.

I'm attempting to make it in two pieces - a lower part which is the main steel body and the wooden deck.

The reason for doing it this way is to so that the bolt for the bogies can be counter-sunk into to the top of the lower casting and will be hidden by the deck above.

My only concern is that all the detail of the girders at each side cast reliably.

It's not very thick, and also quite wide, so it should be possible to get access in there with a cocktail stick when the resin is poured.

I still have all the handbrake detail to design for the bogies, which will be quite challenging, but the project is definitely moving forward.

Desperate Times

It has come to pass.  

Himself has been left with no choice but to carry out this threat to open up the collection of animated dioramas built by the late, great Steve Coulson and give them a wee overhaul.

If you've never heard of these, they are quite marvellous examples of Steve's robust and pragamatic approach to engineering, which made use of various recycled components from expired household machinery to the internet access CDs which once upon a time used to pour through our letterboxes as junk mail.

He's begun with the drift mine diorama. 

To get it working again he's replaced one of the fishing lines which control the bucket hoist via a series of  tubes and wheels. 

He reports being very pleased at managing to thread this thin, transparent line along its path.

For anyone interested in how this model was built Steve wrote an entertaining article in Narrow Gauge and Industrial Review issue 57 in 2004.

Multi-Coloured Waggon Show

Himself is getting perilously close to running out of modelling projects.

If the situation does not improve he may have to resort to overhauling the collection of Steve Coulson animated dioramas, with all their fiendish cams and fishing line mechanisms, which is a task he's been putting off for years.

The last job on the To Do list is to paint the latest 3-ton slate waggons which have been brought into the fleet to replace some very old and brittle Dundas waggons.

This time he's decided to liven up the fleet by finishing them in an array of authentic, contemporary colour schemes, all to be matched their their correct running number.

Sounds like hard work to me, but it should lived up the gravity trains on Dduallt no end, shame they'll never be used on Bron Hebog.

Second Prototype

My revised idea for how to cast the bogie extension for the MoD Flat Wagons seems to work.

I've had to beef up the frames at the sides but that's probably no bad thing.

And in putting together this first one I followed my hunch that you'd get a better result if you glued on the side pieces before cleaning the flash from the main frame part.

The very thin film is effective in disguising the joint and, I hope, makes it easier to assemble what are quite small parts.

The last part of the bogie to design is the very chunky brake levers, but I might leave those to one side for the moment and concentrate on the body of the wagon instead.

Second Attempt

It seems my design for the beefed-up Hudson bogie was a little two ambitious.

Two failed casting attempts from the new mould have convinced me that it's not going to be reliable enough for a production run.

If I just needed to get a couple for myself I could persevere until some came out properly but that's not viable. 

The idea of having a one piece casting was a nice one but the axle box parts are too thin for the undercut details to cast properly.

I poked a cocktail stick around when the resin was poured but was never possible to chase out all the air bubbles.

So I've reverted to Plan B which is to cast the side frames and axles boxes as separate, flat pieces to be glued onto rather basic skeleton.

I'll be a little more fiddly to put together but I'm hoping it'll be just as effective.