The Fatadder

After fitting the remaining brake pipes, the final step on the first FAA build was to fit the bogies. First the etched frames were bored out to 3.5mm diameter holes giving space for the wider wheelbase of the side frames. Before gluing together and test fitting on the model. the bogie mounts as they come result in the wagon riding far too high so they required removing and modifying per below photo it still needs wheels, but for now it’s ready for painting (unless I decide to remove the twist locks and document cage and replace with prints…) So it’s onto the next one. With the exception of the long pipe that connects both ends, it wasn’t as bad a job as I was expecting

A start on the pipework, most of these short lengths are pretty straight forward, the long one which connects both end platforms is a little more involved. looking at the prototype it mounts onto 8 brackets on the under side of the wagon (surprisingly enough Genesis didn’t bother with adding them). My current thinking is to use these to enable me to split it into two parts joining on one of the brackets. In theory making the forming of the angles a bit easier. The bogies are also a bit more of a pain than i thought, the bogie on these is about 0.8mm longer in wheel base than the y25 the etch is designed for. The solution on the last build was to oversize the holes in the etch by 0.8mm diameter, drill out the holes in the bogie sides and use the bearings through the etch into the casting. The inner flat edges of the etch (and the bottom) both align to the casting making it easy to keep it square. I haven’t got any wheels yet so things are a little held up, worst case they can be built in p4 and swapped out later as an aside any p4 modellers who have surplus OO 10.5/11mm wheels who would like to swap out for some Keen Maygib replacements in p4 please drop me a pm, I’m in need of at least 20 axles worth, possibly more.

Not as much progress today as I’d have liked, but the edges or the river bed have been sealed with silicon and the baseboard given a coat of black paint. The best job will be getting it bolted together and marking up for the track laying.

For a long time I’ve been short of wagon buffers, something that’s been perpetually out of stock on Wizard Models. A lot of Brent’s wagons are currently fitted with oversized buffer heads intended for modern wagons that I had to hand. This size is even harder to get hold of so I’d quite like to get them all retrofitted. At Bristol I picked up a pack of H&A models buffer heads, as far as I can tell they only do the smaller size. these have now been fitted to 3 wagons in the WIP box (a Cambrian lner 5 plank and GWR steel open, along with an Airfix cattle wagon back dates to a GWR version. The two opens now need couplings and the cattle van needs a minor repair before they can enter service All have been fitted with ballast weights using scrap components from the Genesis FAA kits I’m building for Wheal Imogen. This leaves just 3 wagons left in the WIP box without buffers, a Coopercraft GW 4 plank, Ratio LMS 3 plank and iron mink. All Of which need full buffers and await an eventual LMS order My thinking now is to go back through the existing wagons that are fitted with the oversize buffers retrofitting with the correct part freeing up the bigger buffers for some 3d printed parts to use on modern wagon builds. (Will also enquire with H&A as to whether they could do the bigger ones going forward.)

more progress this evening with all the pipe brackets now in place (including the two I forgot to add to the wagon yesterday). This was followed by adding the final parts to the underside of the wagon. Next up is the hard bit, adding the actual pipe runs, though I’m half tempted to build the bogies instead… im using Jon Hall’s etches y25 inners rather than the rubbish Genesis moulded that pretty much requires lining up the two halves by eye! The original spacers have now been used as ballast weights in some wagons for Brent!

Trade wise it would have been nice to see more of the manufacturers there. I’d have thought being the big show in the south west the likes of Cavalex/Revolution/Bachmann/Accurascale would be there. Maybe the show still needs to grow a little more to be on the same scale as the other big Warners shows. Id agree much like Ally Pally there were a few too many box shifters selling the same thing (sadly not Ellis Clark and their brilliant rummage bins), but there were at least some specialists (H&A models have become a critical stop for me, the available of Phoenix painrs, turned buffers etc is always a big win). In wonder how much the big NEC show the week before put off the likes of DCC concepts (who were at Bristol last year), or more of the manufacturers attending. I enjoyed my time on the Demu stand, spoke to a lot of people and managed to drill lots of holes in my FAA kits. Look forward to next years show.

Had a delivery from Narrow Planet yesterday, so 5551 and 3335 now both have their new numbers. The Bulldog is now ready for weathering / coal, but the 4575 will still need decoder fitting. and I forgot to post this earlier in the week after painting the shed

A little more on the first of the FAA this evening, with all of the brackets now added. The plan will be to do the same on the other two wagons before starting work on the worst bit - adding the actual pipes. looking at the wagons again I am not happy with a couple of details on the sides, the container mounting points and the label clip on the side. I think I will file these off and replace with a 3d printed part if anyone has a clear photo of the white data panels on the either side of the central mountain point I’d love to see a copy. I’ve yet to find something that is square on and close enough to make out all the text

2213 retained them until nationalisation, I must sort out a chassis and finish off my model of it in 47

I had a good time at the Bristol show on Demu duties, caught up with a lot of friends as well as people interested in the demonstration. Have to say that was the best location we’ve ever had at the show right in front of the entrance. I’ve managed a fair bit of work on the FAA project, all of the drilling is now complete, the bufferbeams and buffers have been fitted to all three wagons and a start has been made fitting the brake details. Once the girls are asleep hopefully I can get a bit more done this evening. I’ve stocked up on handrail wire from H&A models along with getting some tie bars to finish off the Rudd (and a pack of metal buffer heads for some Brent wagons). More importantly I also picked up the Peco bulkhead flex track for Rosevean so I’m even closer to starting construction.

5% off at Rainbow Railways this weekend as well with the code May5

Work somewhat over ran today so I didnt make it to the DEMU stand until almost 5pm, but from what I could see so far it seems a good one. Will be back on the stand tomorrow so hopefully should be able to escape and get a better look round. Will be back to Genesis FAA building on the stand tomorrow

Assuming the photos on p1 are the production tooling (more likely than not) fingers crossed it comes apart fairly easily to allow for cutting out the missing window. looking at the Hattons cad they included the window

A little more work this evening, before packing my stock box for the Bristol show tomorrow. First up all the bufferbeam parts were cleaned up, and flattened ready for fitting tomorrow. while working on this I noticed one end of one wagon had not been soldered on squarely by the original builder. So this was removed, cleaned up and soldered in place square to the rest of the model. the final job was some more straightening of the bodies, this time squaring up the sides back to the vertical. it should now be ready to start drilling the holes for the end parts, hopefully someone at the show will be selling nickel silver wire as I’m going to need a lot of it! Will have a few finished wagons, and a couple of locos just need to finish work on time that I can make it to the show on time!

A start on another project that is not particularly useful for the layout… Ive always liked the EWS FAA container wagons (and intermodal wagons in general) however modelling Devon and Cornwall there has never been much of an excuse to actually use them. A couple of years ago I found a photo of a couple of FAA with 40ft refrigerated containers on a working heading towards Exeter from St Blazey, followed by finding a couple more photos heading toward Cornwall, following which I completed the Genesis FAA build that I had started back at the Bristol show in the mid 2000s. The build was a complete nightmare, bucket loads of flash, misshapen components (and eventually when I was finishing it off no instructions!) Since then I have had an ebay alert setup to notify me of more kits for sale, resulting in the purchase of 3 part built kits last week which were delivered today. A quick inspection and the parts quality is every bit as bad as I remember. Alas the original builder doesn’t seem to have straightened out the parts before soldering on the end platforms. The first was relatively straight and just needed a few tweaks, the second was curved along its length (but otherwise ok), the third was a mess with curves in all 3 axis. The end platforms are also bent out of shape, so will need checking to ensure that it’s a deformed part and not a case of being soldered in the wrong position. Normally on a second hand white metal kit I am pleased to see it has been soldered, in this case I think glue would have made my life easier the starting position with the main body of the wagon The badly misshaped buffer beam moulding On the whole the bogies don’t look too bad, I have Jon Hall’s bogie inner etches to use rather than the crude white metal rubbish Genesis included. The instructions are wrong in that they say to use 12mm wheels (they should be 11mm) I have 3 sets of instructions thankfully, so marking out the holes for the end pipework should be quicker this time. I wont risk soldering the bufferbeams on (the white metal is so thin), but I am currently debating if I just bin them and replace with brass as per the last build. how it should end up

ive done the same with one of their steel wagons, there’s a good reason my first faa build took the best part of 20 years to finish! Hopefully these don’t take another 20!

Thanks, will have a crack at them this evening. They are a second hand purchase from eBay (already started) with a fair bit of solder clogging up some of the holes. Would have been a lot easier to straighten the parts out first! one is at least fairly straight, the second is curved in one axis only while the third is curved in three axis and will be by far the most difficult to fix. I started building this one back when the kit was released getting on for 20 years ago (all be it I only finished it last year). Replacing a fair few parts with scratch built brass bits as the castings were so poor.

Could I have some white metal kit building advice please? I’ve just bought a trio of Genesis Kits for a modern wagon. Looking at the main casting they are very misshapen. The long flat centre of the wagon is anything but straight and flat and is out in all three plains. looking for so advice as to how best to straighten them. I guess the worst case I could unsolder the end platforms and replace the centre section with brass, but I’d prefer to try sorting what I have first

Im thinking do it per the prototype, driver switches it off with a function rather than anything automatic

A little work on a project that’s been in progress for many many years, a loadhaul Limpet. Bachmann originally released a Loadhaul POA but not a limpet conversion, so back around the time of its release I bought one and cut the holes in the side, but never finished the work. my chosen prototype was 390268, (I know Bachmann have since done this with their Limpet tooling…) this wagon has the even side rib spacing (like the model) and the multi rib end (not like the model). So last night the end ribs were partially removed and replaced with Evergreen 60by 40 strip. The holes left over from the ladder were filled and it’s now ready for some orange paint. Eventually it will get numbered along with the rest of the rake. I now have 20 odd wagons awaiting the repetitive messy / noisy job removing the suspension springs. First up will be the Bristol show, I will be on DEMU duties tomorrow / Saturday hopefully working on some Genesis FAAs.

Not many 1998/9 photos available to work from (and as far as I can tell none with both sides shown), however looking at the sightings and photos on Ontrackplant.com I think 81509/14/16/23 look to be the most suitable for me. 3 of which have the red weight lettering and one the black, I have gone for one of the former and will remove the BR arrows / Plasser logos and some of the data panels. Will be needing to commission transfers for the ear defenders H&S signs. edit: just noticed all the options I had been considering will need the jib support adding. Fortunately it doesn't look like it will involve much work to add. Ive wanted one of these for a long time, will be good to finally get hold of one.

A little work on some Bachmann PNA in advance of a renumbering exercise. I have a rake of 10 purchased when the model was released, I’ve seen a photo of a half rake on the sea wall at dawlish in my period. So far the work has included removing the tops panels in advance of fitting the new numbers. Along with removing the S Bachmann added to the Railtrack improving your railway branding on the sides. In both cases they just rubbed off with a cocktail stick. I also finished off a build of the alternative chassis version, using parts from a Cambrian SSA and some 247 developments brake handles.

I did spot that, and with Dapol’s usual removeable smokebox doors it will be a quick job to backdate…. My DJM has one final chance to start working. Maybe trying another brand of decoder may save it…. Else it’s on eBay and a Dapol will come this way

Certainly good news, I am pretty certain I have no way of justifying a 517 through Brent (it was hard enough justifying Newton Abbot’s 1470). But assuming they get it right I will be very tempted to get a wartime black example to upgrade my DJM 1470 to something that actually works

Right now it would be a better bet from Hornby seeing as they have a chassis with the right suspension for it at least. As for brake gear etc TTAs are a nightmare. no doubt when I finally finish printing my version one or other will release them…