Netherley Goes With A Bang...
Entry posted by REC Farnborough
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This will be an 'occasional' blog - mainly to prove that I can build the 'roundy-roundy stuff' - when pushed, and when the moment takes me! One basis for the blog is the unfortunate habit that club members have of passing to the 'great model-room in the sky' - and this means that sometimes unbuilt kits become available. Without being ghoulish, this can actually be a way of honouring an old friend and at the same time helping to provide direct financial support to their loved ones. Right, that's enough of that save to say that I have a 'Small Prairie and a 'B Set' plus various wagons in the 'Wundy Box'...
However, the subject of this build was actually a proprietary purchase. 'Netherley' provides the main line link for 'Lord Loft's Quarry' and his stone wagons ad a 'workmans train' appear at irregular intervals in the sequence. Quarrying stone sometimes needs 'gunpowder' (or it's early 20th-century equivalent). The need at present is served by a converted 'Midland Railway' van, but I felt that a 'pukka' GWR van was needed as a change. Hence the purchase of the WEP Models etched brass kit at Telford.
The kit makes up a 'Z1' variant of the standard GWR 'Iron Mink' and many were converted in batches prior to both World Wars. The front page of the instruction sheet gives running number details & livery etc.
Whats in the box (or rather, bag)?
A single sheet of (I think) 0.015 thou brass, neatly etched, with the rivets half-etched, 5 pages of instructions including separate exploded views of body & chassis, and a small bag containing whitemetal castings for axleboxes and buffers (they'll be replaced...). The chassis allows for compensation via 'inside bearings' and the requisite brass bearings are in the pack.
A closer view of the main item!
Okay, on with the build. This means RIVETS - hundreds of them... I'm not a 'rivet-counter' by any means, but I thought I'd try. Lost count after the first hundred or so!. It's just a case of flog on until they're done. Being impatient to put heat to metal I was ALMOST tempted to do them piece by piece, but common sense prevailed and I rivetted all the parts in one sitting. Took about two hours with my trusty 'drop-hammer' type rivetter. There's some distortion of the sheet, but I reckon it will come out. Some rivets lie very close to slots and edges - after dropping the first couple I made a point of angling the head away from the edge and this seems to have worked.
Right, off to bed to recover my sanity and prepare for day two at the REC Exhibition in Woking. Obviously the GPV will NOT be there!
Regards
Ian
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