What's that you say? Another GWR 4-planker? Haven't you had enough of those? Well, if you're sure...

 

 

This is 41211, freshly turned out in 1908 style: grey paint with 25" lettering, axleboxes upgraded to oil types, and a sheet supporter fitted. All the latest features of a truly modern merchandise wagon of the new century, in fact - Swindon has played its A-game. Not so, unfortunately, the folks who have loaded it. The rather filthy sheet has been put on crooked, obscuring the wagon number, and it hasn't been tightened properly, so risking the formation of puddles, should it rain.

 

 

A look round the other side offers a clue. The straw sticking out of the door suggests it was shut rather hastily - perhaps there is some kind of crated livestock inside, or some other troublesome load? We will probably never know...

 

––o0o––

 

The construction of this wagon follows similar methods to those I have shown in previous blog entries, so in part this post is a recap, with one or two new features, and some photos of stages of the process not shown in the earlier posts.

 

The starting point of course was the Peco (ex Webster) kit - in this case, one picked up second-hand as a 'fixer-upper' - already built but not painted, and with broken brake gear. I began by removing the remains of the old brake gear, and giving the wagon a good clean. The new brake gear was made up using a spare moulding from a Slaters (ex Coopercraft) kit - one of the benefits of modelling the first decade of the 20th century is most wagons had only single-sided brakes, so there are often left-over parts from kits that provide for either-sided brakes.

 

The vee-hanger was an etched brass component, and the cross shaft follows my now standard method, with an thin inner wire and sections of brass tube to make up the full diameter. This way, the holes in the various components only need to be the size of the wire, not the entire shaft.

 

 

I didn't fit the brake lever and guard at this stage, as they are prone to damage during the rest of the construction. Next was the sheet supporter, following the methods used for the empty 4-plank and sheeted 5-plank wagons already described:

 

 

The supporter was made in two halves, from 1.6mm brass wire. The ends were filed down to take a strip of nickel silver, to form the flat section:

 

 

Pins were soldered in, to fit into holes in the wagon ends to hold everything in position. It's perhaps worth noting that the pivot mechanism on this wagon is fixed to the bottom plank, unlike the previous 4-plank wagon, which had it fitted to the second plank up. This means the verticals of the supporter need to be a different length - the rail should land exactly on top of the sides when tilted over. One motivation for this difference was to get as much variety in the height of the bar between this and other wagons with sheeted rails - both the 5-planker already built, and others planned.

 

The supporter bar was assembled with additional strengtheners in the centre:

 

 

The mounting points for the rail were made from plasticard and glued to the wagon ends:

 

 

The rail was mounted in position, with the inner vertical supports held in plasticard blocks glued to the wagon floor. It is important the rail is firmly fixed, as it gets a lot of handling during the fitting of the sheet.

 

 

You can also see in this picture the formers, which help the sheet form the shape I wanted. These were made from 20 thou plasticard, and I made a paper template for the curves to ensure they were the same on both sides. The formers in the centre of the wagon have a dip in them, to get the sense the sheet is fairly slack, and hanging under its own weight.

 

I'd learned my lesson with the semicircular guides, this time making them from T-section instead of L-section. This ensures the material doesn't try to twist as it is bent round a former (in this case the handle of a tool, which happened to be the right size). Once bent to shape, one side of the tee was filed off, leaving the required L-section.

 

 

The guides are attached to the wagon by spacer blocks - wood on the prototype, and plastic section on the model. Brass wire pins add strength, and I drilled the holes for these in the guides first. The guide was then held in position and used as a template to mark and drill through the blocks, so small errors in the positioning of the holes in the guides didn't matter.

 

 

 

Once the wire pins were in position, the joints were flooded with thin CA glue. The pins were cut off and filed down, leaving a small amount protruding to represent the fixing bolts on the prototype.

 

The trapezoidal-shaped plate and the latch pin at the top of the semicircular guides were made from plastic sheet and rod. I didn't bother with the detail on the plates on this build, as they are almost completely hidden by the sheet.

 

The tying-off hooks on the ends and curb rails were added as before, made of soft iron wire.

 

 

The brake handle and guard were from Ambis etched parts, and safety loops and door springs from nickel silver strip:

 

 

For the straw coming out of the door, I prised open the door that had been glued shut by the previous owner. Before I could add the plumber's hemp, I needed to paint the wagon, which I did with a grey mixed from Vallejo black and white acrylics, over an undercoat of matt black aerosol spray.

 

Lettering was from the waterslide transfers supplied with the Slaters GWR wagons, which I prefer to the Peco ones. 4-plank wagons aren't high enough for full-size 25" GW letters, so I used the 16" version intended for the later livery. These are a bit too small - they should reach almost to the top of the sides - but given they are almost completely hidden by the sheet, I didn't worry. The whole lot was given a coat of Vallejo matt varnish, which actually gives a nice sheen suitable for a newly painted wagon.

 

 

To hold the straw in position before the door was shut, I added a small piece of plasticard inside the wagon, at right-angles to the side and just inside the door opening. Lengths of plumber's hemp was glued to this and the wagon floor before the door was shut and glued in place. Finally the straw could be trimmed to length.

 

 

The sheet was made as before, using Ian Smith's artwork printed onto 60gsm paper with a laser printer:

 

 

The back was covered with aluminium tape:

 

 

The artwork was printed with a lower contrast, rather than a full black and white, to give a head-start to the dirt effect. Weathering powders were the next layer, applied with a wet brush before the sheet was cut out and fitted.

 

 

Fitting was as before, starting at the ridge, using thick CA glue applied with a cocktail stick. The sheet was deliberately attached slightly of centre, and not quite square to the wagon, to give an asymmetric effect. I worked down each of the curved formers, gluing as I went and ensuring the sheet followed the curve to give the sagging look I wanted. The end folds were formed last.

 

Once the EZ line ties were attached, the sheet was touched up (the laser printing tends to flake a little at the folds or with handling). Final weathering was applied with powders and paint washes, until the writing was just barely visible, as often seen in photos. I applied minimal weathering to the wagon itself, as I wanted the contrast between newly outshopped wagon and grubby sheet.

 

The 4-plank open was the mainstay of the GWR wagon fleet in the late 19th and early 20th century, and most loads required sheeting to protect them from rain, soot and the risk of fire from cinders. This build, then, is about as typical as you can get for my 1908 period. The straw poking out from the door (based on a prototype photo) adds a little intrigue to this otherwise commonplace wagon.

 

 

 

 

Nick.