Wenlock's Blog

Fab.

 

Jim's kits are lovely to build. He's said on more than one occasion that he prefers to draw the artwork for wagons rather than locos, so I wonder if we should raise a petition for him to produce an outside-framed covered van?

 

I've got one of those WEP AA16 outside framed TOADs in the 'to do' pile. Interesting comments, as like Connoisseur kits, WEP kits usually to go together very well. So thanks for the tip about square brass tube which I'll bear in mind if it goes all pear-shaped.

 

The figures are nicely painted too.

Fab.

 

Jim's kits are lovely to build. He's said on more than one occasion that he prefers to draw the artwork for wagons rather than locos, so I wonder if we should raise a petition for him to produce an outside-framed covered van?

 

I've got one of those WEP AA16 outside framed TOADs in the 'to do' pile. Interesting comments, as like Connoisseur kits, WEP kits usually to go together very well. So thanks for the tip about square brass tube which I'll bear in mind if it goes all pear-shaped.

 

The figures are nicely painted too.

Hi Adrian, I'd certainly be up for a petition to Jim, perhaps we should organise a poll of wagons we'd all be interested in.

 

Apart from my "issue" with the outside framing, the rest of the WEP kit goes togrther beautifully. I've built a couple of his Mink kits, one iron and one wooden and they were great. I don't want to give the impression that Wep kits are a problem, because they're most definitely not!

 

Dave

Hi Dave

 

Yes I agree, and wouldn't want to denigrate the brand; WEP kits are lovely things to build - a couple of my most recent ones can be found here and here - but I completely understand that getting that second fold square is potentially an issue.

 

I've seen some kits for outside framed vans build the framing up with multiple laminates, though that takes a lot of clamping with heat sinks to prevent distortion, and there's an awful lot of filing to make good the edges.

 

Adrian

Hi Dave

 

Yes I agree, and wouldn't want to denigrate the brand; WEP kits are lovely things to build - a couple of my most recent ones can be found here and here - but I completely understand that getting that second fold square is potentially an issue.

 

Adrian

Hi Adrian, I had a look at the links to your wagons. Very, very nice indeed! I particularly like the weathering on the Mica, beautifully done.

 

Dave

The AA16 could probably benefit from a depot branding (in script letters), and maybe a tare weight branding as well. (I think in the era depicted, they were still 10T.) *

 

* Hmmm. Looks like goods brakes didn't get marked with their weights until after WWI.

John Lewis is of the view that goods brake handrails did not begin to be painted white until sometime during WWI.

Hi Miss P.

 

Where abouts did the depot branding appear on the brake van? Can you recomend any pictures or books that would illustrate this? Interesting information about the handrail colour. Any information gratefully recieved, still trying to get stuff right!

 

Dave

Depot branding appears on the 'middle section' of the van, on the plank adjacent to the midpoint of the bracing. It's shown on plate 624 of the Atkins et al GWR wagons bible. Here's a pic of Dave Perkins' 4mm model:

 

http://www.gwr.org.uk/gallery3/dave011.jpg

 

On this side of the van, the branding is on the right of the bracing midpoint - on the pic of your AA16 above, it would appear on the left of it.

 

The original depot branding was an italic script. Quite when the later standard non-script lettering (as your AA3) was introduced on new vans is not clear, possibly 1900 (on AA1s), but there would have been no great rush to re-letter in-service vehicles of course.

 

Incidentally, I couldn't find a 12039 in the AA16 diagram lists, but that doesn't mean to say there wasn't one.

Hmm, need to find some nice italic script, I'm fairly sure my hand writing isn't up to the task! Does any one do appropriate transfers? Also can I assume that the wagon could stray a considerable distance from it's original depot during its life? For example could a van branded "Bristol" be found down in Cornwall, or up in Shrewsbury, or was there a method of vans returning to base?

 

Lots of questions again!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

I'm not aware of available italic script transfers in any scale. (Unless your brakevan home happens to be a place called 'Tare' !)

 

As for brakevan travels, I'm not qualified to judge. I think most modellers tend to turn a blind eye to that sort of thing, and just use whatever branding transfer they get in a kit. Brakevans were returned to their base depot to ensure the location didn't run out of them. Depots were usually the large mainline yards, and some locations are given in a file at the bottom of:

 

http://www.gwr.org.uk/nobrakes.html

 

For a branch line, the same brakevan was often used year in, year out, and might be branded e.g. 'Wenlock Branch'.