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Musings on the forthcoming modelling season


JDaniels

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As readers may know from my earlier blogs, I treat modelling as very much a winter or at least dark evening hobby. As the days are getting shorter, (yes really) I am thinking less of gardening, holidays and walking and more about modelling.

 

I have completed a couple of the POW sides private owner wagons. I was conscious that on a prototype based in Somerset the wagons should be from collieries in that county and POW sides do have a number of examples.These are based on the excellent Slater's kits, to date I haven't had any with transfers that seem to have caused some problems. I also managed to purchase a second-hand Coopercraft GWR open wagon with tarpaulin rail at a fair at Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell line to replace the one I had damaged beyond repair. I think modellers of the more vintage railway scene underestimate just how common sheeted opens were.

 

Over the summer I have accumulated the parts to build three super-detailed GWR four wheel coaches. These will be formed in the normal set (BrakeThird , Composite, Brake Third) but the brake thirds will use the Shire Scenes sides. Regrettably when Ratio produced their kit they elected to model the rare two compartment brake third rather than the three compartment that was far more common (and the ones used on the Wrington Vale). I have also purchased the Mikes Models kits which include everything but the sides. The composite will use the standard Ratio sides but I will need to replace grab rails and door handles to get a better match with the Shire Scenes article.

 

I currently have two sets of the Ratio four wheeled coaches, one in fully lined chocolate and cream to represent the 1902 period, the other in the simple livery to represent the late 1920's. I do though find myself drawn to the immediate post WW1 era (say 1918 - 1922) and the coaches I will be building will represent that period. At that time the "official" livery would have been the magnificent lined lake but I'm afraid I balk at the idea of all that lining. On a chocolate and cream coach the lack of the gold lining is not so apparent, on a coach in crimson lake it would be more obvious. I think that if poorly applied lining spoils the appearance more than if not attempted at all. However, I have a get out clause. During the Great War the GWR painted many of their coaches unlined black or khaki. A khaki set, and four wheel coaches would certainly not rank important enough for special treatment, would make an interesting if uninspiring change. Similarly the less important locomotives were turned out in unlined green, my 517 0-4-2T being one example.

 

With regard to the painting, I do have a number of the Ratio coach sides in a spares box and I might just experiment with lining to see if I can get to an acceptable standard. I have tried the Staedtler pens for other applications but for my purposes even the finest line is too thick. It does strike me though that this would be an easier solution than a bow pen where the consistency of the paint is critical. Have any other modellers any thoughts on this?

 

Finally, I am very conscious that my trackwork is not of an acceptable standard. By this I mean the appearance, the stock runs reasonably well despite my cavalier interpretations of the various clearances and dimensions although the point tiebars keep coming loose and require continual re-soldering. Only this morning I was reading the EM Gauge Society's notes on the subject and found out for the first time that when using their three legged track gauge the single leg must always be on the inside of any curve! (To give an element of gauge widening). In future too I'll never use PVA glue to bind the ballast, you may as well cement it in and it completely negates any cushioning from foam underlay. I believe from an earleir blog that Copydex is better.

 

Part of the problem is that when it comes to trackwork model manufacturers seem to assume that all track was to main line standards with chairs. Many light railways used flat bottom rail spiked directly to the sleepers, the sleepers themselves often split and worn. The copper clad sleepers used on Blagdon do not in any way convey the right appearance and the FB track is too heavy. The EM Gauge Society do market ply sleepers which with a lttle attention with a knife would convey a more careworn appearance and these also have holes for a rivet to which the rail is soldered. However the FB track they market is for main lines, I need to find something less heavy (Code 75?).

 

This trackwork once under way will find it's way on to a diorama of Wrington station, a few stops down from Blagdon. I had thought of doing something completely different, a diorama based on the Porthywaen quarries or a station on the Hemyock branch for example, but having accumulated so much stock specific to the Wrington Vale Light Railway I can't face spending more years (and money) building up stock for a different location.

 

I'll keep readers up to date on my efforts over the coming months.

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In 2011, the best half and myself did the trip of a lifetime to the UK. Timed for York amongst other shows. There was a chap there, demonstrating signwriting PO wagons and also lining of the coaches of which you speak.

No idea of his name but he made it look so easy.

He was using a long haired brush that just flowed.......like signwriters used to use all those years  ago, except smaller.

 

Khris

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In 2011, the best half and myself did the trip of a lifetime to the UK. Timed for York amongst other shows. There was a chap there, demonstrating signwriting PO wagons and also lining of the coaches of which you speak.

No idea of his name but he made it look so easy.

He was using a long haired brush that just flowed.......like signwriters used to use all those years  ago, except smaller.

 

Khris

 

Thanks for your response. I will have a go at using a fine brush. Lining out panelling is difficult, even Larry Goddard who painted most of my locomotives wouldn't do my steam railmotor. Khake coaches, even if accurate, would be somewhat dowdy and I've always liked the GWR lake. As I mentioned in my blog, I'll have a got at painting one of the spare sides and see how it goes.

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