LL1060

One minor variation on the typical 16-tonner I've found interesting was the use of a U-channel bracket to hold the body to the frame. About 1500, maybe more, received this treatment in the tail end of 2798, and continuing through part of lot 2799, both built by Metro-Cammell. Pictures are available at Paul Bartlett's remarkable gallery, and that's what made me decide to model this variation. I took a Parkside Dia. 1/108 kit and assembled it as normal, except for the brackets. Those were to be replaced with small cutoffs of what started as a piece of aluminium 3/32-in. square section. (If I could have acquired the same size material as a channel from the first, I would have, but no luck.) Next, much Dremel work ensued - opening up the side of the channel, cutting a piece to length, rounding off the bottom corners, and then removing part of the top surface to clear the upper solebar. This was a delicate process, which had to be done eight times over in all. Immediately supergluing each bracket in place made sure none got lost! Part of me wants to do another one, but between how subtle a modification this is and the amount of effort needed for it, I'm somewhat hesitant. This in-process photo was the only one I've taken that showed the work clearly enough.

I've done it, I've rebuilt Percy to my liking. Here's what I did, which really isn't that much. First, however, I had to disassemble him. Once I had Percy sufficiently apart, I sawed off the molded-in tension locks and opened up the ends of the chassis. You can see the gap at front in the above picture (to the left, that is). Here I've epoxied in a decent amount of lead to the rear void in the chassis, as well as a Bachmann mini tension lock. Now with both couplers and more lead in the chassis, and a little bit more inside Percy's boiler. All this was then left to set overnight. Again, I didn't measure how much weight I added, but it should help traction decently. All the bits, ready for final assembly. I used a TCS KAM4 decoder, on account of its small size for being equipped with a keep-alive. I figured the keep-alive would be really helpful since Percy only has 4 points of contact to track power and a short wheelbase. There was no way I was getting any other decoder setup inside without some radical modifications. I also found it odd that the only solder connections made in this whole chassis is one capacitor bridging the motor contacts (which was clipped and discarded). All I had to do to isolate the motor was turn it upside down. Almost seems too easy. Very gently on go the first pair of contacts. These were soldered in place, quickly and with the help of a dab of flux. Red to the right, black to the left. This fine wire is a challenge to trim and strip. I gently scraped the insulation with a knife blade until the metal showed through. It seems far too flimsy to subject to a wire stripping tool. With motor in place (and, finally, thankfully, the stupid motor retaining spring - I must have put that on backwards three times before I realised why it wasn't holding properly) on go the motor wires. I wanted the leads short enough that I wasn't wrangling them into the cab space trying to hide them all, but long enough that if I ever needed to take him apart for service, it wouldn't be inconvenient. I think I made that work. Here's how the decoder fits into Percy's bunker. A couple of bits of mounting tape hold it in place, and I actually turned it around to better control some of that wire. Now that that's done, just needs a test to make sure all my soldering worked out... And then a Bachmann Toby arrives in the morning. *sigh* So I'll have one more round of this, but I think Toby will be much simpler both to add weight and a decoder (same type, I think - eventually Thomas will get one too) ; and then I'll have the whole branchline crew. Which is not a coincidence - instead of a layout based on Elsbridge, I've been considering putting together Ffarquahar, the end of Thomas' branch line. I even have a track plan in my head and some of the necessary Peco points cheap from a friend. But that's enough about that.

To inset the doors flush with the sides was my thought. Apologies for the confusion. I really should try my hand at bodging one or two of these in some fashion. I might end up with one that's in a job lot I'm looking at on A Certain Auction Website.

So, about those Lima minerals... I've had them kicking around since my first toe in the OO gauge pond about a decade ago or so. I just wanted a few appropriate wagons to run with my Hornby Thomas set that my grandfather had bought for me visiting London with my grandmother (with a one-day excursion to Paris on the Eurostar - a Hornby model of which he got for himself and I still have). I ended up with an handful of various wagons and makes thereof - including a pair of Lima 7-plankers, which were forgotten for a while. I hauled that small collection out of storage after acquiring (but before chipping) my 'DCC Thomas' and started paying closer attention to what I had and what was prototypical. Now supplied with better knowledge (from reading this forum and some other books and websites) I decided that they fell short. I think most of us are familiar with the failings of the underframe Lima used on these. But the bodies seemed to me salvageable despite being made to 17'6" length to fit a univesal frame. Most wooden-bodied minerals (especially for private owners) seem to have been built on wooden frames, but a wooden underframe kit of sufficient length for these didn't seem to exist. Scratchbuilt frames were the way to go, therefore. Here they are, fresh out of storage. Away with those awful frames and pizza cutter wheels! I actually had these running on some friends' joint layout, and noticed that on one section of track, these particular opens began to bounce like mad - the flanges turned out to be riding on the moulded spikes instead of the tread on the rail where it belongs. That was my clue that something had to be done. First job was to start on the underframes. Here we have the first step - I've used some thick Evergreen strip for the frame members, except for the door end headstocks on the red and yellow wagons - these were spares from Cambrian undeframe kits, specifically with end plating to hold in the floor of and end-door wagon when tipping. I used the kits they came out of on wagons without end doors, and they came in handy here. The plastic loops that held the bodies to frames were carved off and the whole area sanded flat. At this point, all wagons have buffers using my favored 3d-printed housing and H&A head combination. More Evergreen strip for the solebars. Spacing was determined by placing the solebars and a pair of w-irons in their approximate locations, and then gluing the solebars in place. The next step was to measure and mark the proper location for the w-irons (Comet RCH pattern, BTW) and epoxy in place. They come with parts to add compensation, but I don't think it's going to be necessary for these wagons. I also picked up the black wagon cheap on account of a damaged frame in the meantime to add to the project. And now quite a lot more has been accomplished. Brakegear is all spare Parkside items. Couplings were added on a small card runner similar to the method used on the cattle wagon above, except for a gap left in the middle. Originally, this was where the weight would have been attatched, but my usual ~2cm square of lead sheet turned out not to fit between the brakes. Instead, I cut 4cm x 0.5cm weights and superglued those on top of the coupling runners. Again, however, I find myself short of some necessary parts to finish these as well. The hobby shop I must place an order with won't be available to me until August, so these join the cattle wagons on the back burner. I also thought I had some styrene bits prepared to add some frame detailing and I can't for the life of me find where I stashed them... *sigh* I'll stumble on them sooner or later.

The sides remind me somewhat of Milwaukee Road's horizontal-rib boxcars. The size really does imply 'gunpowder van'. One idea I've had would be to give them basic MoD o.d. and lettering, and get a more appropriate frame underneath, e.g. a Parkside 12-footer (PA10?). Another thought I had was that the doors look like they could be used for an insulated or refrigerated van. Cut them out of the sides and reset them flush, coat of white paint (or ice blue, depending on era), and there you go. That said, my favorite idea for refurbishing one of these would be to cut one down to 18 scale foot length, add a couple mm each width and height, and paint as a 'North Western' (that is, Sodor) steel van.

I've made some progress on a couple of projects recently. A couple of (relatively) quiet weekends and one or two early mornings have proven productive. Months ago, I bought a pair of Cooper-Craft GWR cattle wagons, assembled but in rough shape. One was decent enough, but the couplers were mounted on random stacks of plasticard and looked terrible. It was also obviously overweighted, but the frame was in decent shape. The other turned out to be a real sow's ear, and turning it into a usable purse let alone a silk one seemed impossible. For starters, when I removed the plastic wheels two of the axleboxes simply crumbled. The frame had also been weighted down with steel shot, just applied in a layer over everything. I was not happy. It seemed that drastic measures would have to be taken. The first step was to remove the bad floor from the worse van; I had to remove one side completely to get it out, but fortunately nothing much was really damaged aside from the lengthwise top side supports when removing the roof. Those would be replaced with plastic strip later. Here we see the new floor, cut from .030 plasticard ready to be installed. Back together, with floor installed and some of those damaged roof supports removed on both wagons. Slight digression: at this time I had a Parkside Dia.1/109 mineral in progress when taking this photo. I'm using a set of 90-deg clamps to hold the sides together, and these have become one of my favorite tools for building kits. If anyone wants to know the make, I think I have the packaging around here someplace from the mini version I bought not long ago. No connection to the maker, aside from being a satisfied customer. Starting to fit the new underframe components to the new floor. There's already a square of lead weight inside the wagon, so no need to worry about where to attach it underneath. (That was a slight issue with my scratchbuilt 13-tonner above - the weight proved slightly more thick than the support for the plasticard runner which thus bowed down slightly. Made fitting couplings interesting.) Comet w-irons and a pice of styrene u-channel are being test-fit here. The u-channel turned out to be taller than the headstocks, so I trimmed one side and turned it into l-channel of the correct height. I don't think anyone will notice the missing lip up underneath the body. As seen in the background I also soldered bearings into all my remaining w-irons to progress another project we'll come back to - putting decent underframes on some Lima 7-planker bodies. Turns out these have an 11-foot wheelbase. I think I'm going to have to scratchbuild at least part of my brake gear as a result. I've used the 13-tonner's method of attaching the couplings here - card runner with supports cemented to the floor (bridging the w-irons), to which the Parkside mounts were then cemented. I should also point out that to attatch the w-irons, I've used epoxy here rather than superglue. It's a bit easier to get in the right place before it sets, and I suspect that it'll hold better in the long run. And this is about as far as I've gone on them - with some strip replacing damaged roof runners, and on the super rebuild, replacing the missing guard rods with some brass wire. Next step is some brakegear, axleboxes and springs, paint, and perhaps a cattle load in one? I couldn't find an easy way to remove the divider from the lefthand one, so perhaps it'll get an appropriate load. Next I have a moment, more on those Lima mineral wagons...

That's a standout! Aside from blue being my favorite color, I've always liked blue on a steam locomotive and this is brilliant work. Shame BR discontinued 'Express Blue' so soon.

Modeling time has been tough to come by for a while now, but I've found a few moments to get some things done. Among things keeping me away from the desk has been the return of steam to the East Broad Top Railroad. The brief version is that we had a lovely day, and the new organization now in charge of the railroad has quite ambitious plans which will hopefully keep the EBT preserved well into the future. But I digress. I'm quite proud of one thing tht I've thrown together over the past few weeks. The cener wagon above is a scratchbuilt steel 13-ton mineral wagon, based on the handful of Cambrian-built wagons of the type just before the war. (Link to Paul Bartlett's photos of 13-tonners) After spotting one in an old film (which I'm certain was posted somwhere in the mammoth 16-ton mineral wagon thread) I decided I ought to add one to the railway. I don't believe anybody makes a kit for any of the 13-ton steel wagons; and I had some spare side and end doors from a Cambrian LMS 16-tonner kit that seemed to be right; so I started a scratchbuild. The other two wagons above, by the way, are a Cambrian LNER riveted 16-tonner (with a repair done from part of the spare LMS end door - I initially assembled it wrong, then damaged the end door in disassembly) and a 21-tonner using two old Hornby bodies cut-and-shut to get a wagon with a single door each side and two end doors. Now with bufferbeams, side and end stanchions, spare Parkside brakes, and solebars salvaged from the aforementioned LNER kit. Based on the packaging, the LNER must have been quite an old kit - some of the frame bits didn't take well to being removed from the sprue and simply shattered. A replacement frame kit should be on its way soon. Next came some Comet Models etched w-irons, which was a new experience for me. Brass is not something I've worked in. Taper bearings soldered in, then folded and supplied with Gibson 3-hole disc wheels, shimmed and superglued in place. The photo is of the axleboxes clamped in place while the epoxy dries. I tried supergluing them, but they wouldn't stick for some reason. Possibly not enough surface area. Inexpensive 2-part epoxy did the trick, though. I also added a small square of sheet lead for weight. Finally, to mount the couplers, I used a thick styrene shim at either end, and ran a strip of .030 card down the middle cemented to those shims. Parkside NEM mountings were then attatched to the card runner (the alternative would have been to superglue the NEM boxes to the w-irons, but I just wasn't sure I trusted such a bond) with appropriate height Bachmann couplings, and spare Parkside brake levers completed the model. So here we go. Ready for painting and lettering, which, now that I have Vol. 2 of David Larkin's 'Acquired Wagons Of British Railways' series will make numbering easier. I'll have to get cracking on the PO 21-tonner above as well. It, like a couple other unmodified Hornby 21-ton wagons, just need a Parkside underframe and are back in business.

The weathering job on that tanker emphasizes the 'beaten' in 'weatherbeaten'! Looks brilliant, Nile.

Ever felt out of place? I'd like to give everyone an overview of what I've done to update my 'character' Thomas. I haven't done any major cosmetic work, merely a few tweaks and mods to enhance his functionality. The first and most involved was to fit DCC. This was actually a very simple matter; all I really needed was a couple of parts and a little time to do the work. If you want to see the process, this video by YouTuber 'LazerJet' shows the necessary steps. But it's really simple. Remove shell, unscrew old motor, install new plug-fitted motor (Hornby part X8809DM), plug in decoder (Hornby part R7274), carefully fit everything back into shell (a tip: tuck the plug into the void behind Thomas' face, it keeps most of the wiring out of the way) and close, job done. I don't have any images myself for that process, but one extra task I added was to cover the decoder with heat-shrink tubing. For some reason, it's supplied as a bare board with bare components. I didn't like the idea of it just rattling around completely unprotected right next to the motor, so I added that just in case. Also, I was informed that '0001' would not be a valid address for a locomotive, so my solution was to implement Class 98. Sort of. We programmed Thomas as '9801' and off we went. Not much to say about this next improvement, but I figured that the boy could use some weight. Shown above is the addition of a decent amount of lead to his side tanks. I don't know offhand how much, but he's become 'Thomas the Chonk Engine' as a result. Last but not least, I took a moment to fit him with replacement couplings. These are Bachmann tension locks (the 36-025 short screw-ons) modified to fit the Hornby 0-6-0 underframe. At first, I merely cut two grooves in each one either side of the screw hole to fit around the coupling guides (more prominent on the rear) but this caused the couplings to warp upward from a poor fit. I then trimmed them properly to width, which caused them to droop instead! *sigh* But some very small washers between the screw and coupling fixed that issue, and now they're right where they need to be. A comparison with the original Hornby coupling at right. Looks much better to me. I also have a Hornby Percy to do similar work to, but that's going to be a challenge as DCC fitment will have to be hardwired, I believe; and his coupling loops are molded as part of his frame and can't simply be swapped out like Thomas. I'm going to have to get creative. And he's got some serious pizza-cutter flanges - but for that issue I have a clever plan (I think).

I received a box of bits just before the new year, for various projects of various scope. Let's take a look. Clockwise from top left: -an older Bachmann 3-plank wagon that was supposed to be a simple swap of couplers and wheels, but has now turned into a replacement of everything from solebars on down....I bungled a repair, and the previous operator had already decisively replaced the original couplers with Kadees. -two Triang Cemflos. I know others have cut & shut these into scale length versions, but I'm content to just give them proper paint and lettering. -two Airfix mineral wagons. These have already been sorted out. The builder correctly painted all underframe bits black, but then glued paint-to-paint - thus they fell apart in my hands. Sanded all the gluing surfaces clean; reassembled the underframe to Dia1/108 standards; and installed new couplings and wheels/bearings. -three Triang van bodies. The initial idea behind purchasing these was to individually give each a roof and running gear, and letter as ex-NWR fish vans... but I think now, I'm going to do a cut & shut - two bodies to make one longer van akin to a GWR 'Bloater' fish van. Thus a fourth van body is en route. -two Hornby 21ton steel wagons. I planned to cut & shut these into a different private owner version, with two end doors and a single side door. However, the mould must have been modified slightly over time as there are small detail differences that might look a bit odd in combination. Upon further inspection the differences are slight - two little tabs that can be dealt with easily - and all's well. I plan on using a Parkside underframe for this bash as well as two more I've merely repainted. -and lastly, two tanker wagon bodies. The plan here was to cut each one down and build a twin tank wagon with Cambrian's 'open' underframe kit. But as with the 21 tonners, there are some detail and construction differences that have me debating how to proceed. The Shell body is molded as two halves joined lengthwise; the United Dairies body has one end cap as a separate part. I think the rivet detail is different, as well. Hmmmmm...

I note that on Cambrian's website, it mentions acquiring the 4mm vehicle and lineside ranges as well as the wagons. I hope that means the CC moulded station and signal box lettering sets will return.

Meanwhile, across the pond... Received one of my three just before New Year's (naturally the only one I got a tracking number for...), the other two are still out there somewhere. Any insight as to how international parcels are affected by this mess? Based on the replies here, probably about the same?

That's an impressive roster of conversions. Very nice work.

One project I completed (more or less) earlier in the year and documented rather well was my transformation of a couple of Airfix-GMR LMS-pattern vans into a different, visually distinct diagram such as D1891 or D1897 (after some reading through Essery's LMS wagons vol 1). Seemed an easy enough task, and for a first attempt at such a modification I think I did decently. Let's take a look. Both vans were in fictitious (AFAIK) private owner liveries, and I figured that would be no great loss to turn them into proper BR vans in the end. The first step was to carve away the old solid side supports and the angled bracing. Here's the first van partway through. One thing I might have done differently was to use a shorter chisel blade for my hobby knife; I think that may have been easier to control and woudn't have nicked the plastic as often in places I didn't want damaged. All side stanchions removed; on with the new ones. Diagrams D1891 and D1897 both use a u-channel support, which was made from a Plastruct styrene part. And then there were two. I had initially planned to do just the first, but decided to do a pair after noticing I had enough replacement u-channel to do more than one. Now for a coat of paint. This is near the end, after multiple coats of thinned-down brown. The color is just something I had in my paints box that looked close enough to BR bauxite to do for now. It's not too far off, compared to some of my other RTR wagons. The light grey of the roofs (which will need some weathering, I realize now) was again a color I had close at hand. I believe I took this photo before touching up the roof edges with a microbrush (a product I now swear by, they were essential to painting the PO wagons detailed above). I've put them back on their RTR chassis for now, which, after another scan through the Essery book, I notice is not the correct type, but that can be remedied at a later date. As of today, they are still waiting on lettering; once I make a list of Fox products I'm likely to need, I'll place a big order all at once. I also have one more of these vans that might become another similar conversion - although I'm considering doing one that's received vertical door planking and has diagonal strapping - Plate 92 in LMS Wagons Vol. 1 (on page 47) is a good example.