Strand and its trains

[Brassey]

On the LNWR/GWR North to West joint line the LNWR initially had responsibilities for the signalling. This switched to the GWR around 1907. But the LNWR signals remained. About the same time the GWR took on the Pway. How much of it and when it might have been replaced is anyone’s guess. 

[Guy Rixon]

After a summer and early autumn away from model-making, I've acquired a wagon during a brief return to the workshop.

 

This is a mid-period D1327, built by Ashford works in 1883. It's rated at 10 tons load and has the ordinary, low-speed running-gear instead of the "express" type that became typical between 1885 and 1895.

 

The model is based on a one-piece print from the design of skinnylinny, realised in PU resin by DLS process. I got this, and its three siblings, by an indirect route and can't arrange supplies for anybody else. However, if you should be offered something equivalent I suggest grabbing it as the quality from this process is very good.

 

The original design includes axleguards and axleboxes, plus a pre-planted brake hanger, but not buffer guides. Mine got modified from that form because I lack the tools to finish the printed running gear. The printed bearings weren't a running fit on 26mm axles as received, and reboring to take brass bearings needs a special tool. It was quicker for me to remove the axleguards and fit Bedford ones than to acquire the bearing-boring thingy.

 

Changing the axleguards to sprung parts forced me to change the axleboxes, as it's hard to hollow out the printed ones to clear a moving bearing; PU resin is harder than polystyrene, but just as brittle. The printed originals were fine cosmetically, but the easiest way was to sacrifice them and replace with RFM prints. 

 

The buffer guides were home prints and the buffer heads (unsprung) by Slaters.

 

The brakes are the original parts, but I had to move the brake hanger firstly to clear the axleguard bridge and secondly to align with P4 wheels. It's quite hard to glue a resin brake hanger accurately into place, so I ended up making it into a free-standing assembly with plastic outriggers, placing that and CA'ing when it was aligned; seems to have worked.

[Mikkel]

19 hours ago, Guy Rixon said:

DLS process

 

That required a bit of reading. Light and oxygen, eh? Pure magic. And modeller's skill of course, yours and skinnylinnys.

 

It's interesting that the SE&CR painted the interior of the top bit of the rounded ends. I wonder if other companies did too. 

[Compound2632]

20 hours ago, Guy Rixon said:

I got this, and its three siblings, by an indirect route and can't arrange supplies for anybody else. However, if you should be offered something equivalent I suggest grabbing it as the quality from this process is very good.

 

Dear me, the murky underworld of illicit trading in pre-grouping wagon kits.

[Edwardian]

22 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Dear me, the murky underworld of illicit trading in pre-grouping wagon kits.

 

And, at the centre of it all ....

 

[Guy Rixon]

1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

 

That required a bit of reading. Light and oxygen, eh? Pure magic. And modeller's skill of course, yours and skinnylinnys.

 

It's interesting that the SE&CR painted the interior of the top bit of the rounded ends. I wonder if other companies did too. 

This is based on only one photo, mind. It's possible that one particular painter mis-read the livery sheet and got laughed at.

 

If the point of an unpainted interior is to avoid contaminating the load with paint flakes, there must have been some very specific logic to say that a load above the side sheeting isn't vulnerable to this. I speculate that loose loads had to be protected from contaminated and crated loads, or stacks of sacks, were considered immune.

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, Guy Rixon said:

This is based on only one photo, mind. It's possible that one particular painter mis-read the livery sheet and got laughed at.

 

If the point of an unpainted interior is to avoid contaminating the load with paint flakes, there must have been some very specific logic to say that a load above the side sheeting isn't vulnerable to this. I speculate that loose loads had to be protected from contaminated and crated loads, or stacks of sacks, were considered immune.

 

I had supposed that the reason that the interior of wagons were unpainted was twofold:

• the interior is less exposed to the elements than the exterior, with most loads filling the wagon at least to the rave and, in the case of merchandise, usually sheeted;
• the load rubbing up against the sides would wear the paint away anyway, so, not a question of the paint contaminating the load but rather of the load damaging the paintwork.

Certainly for mineral wagons that holds, and also for covered goods wagons. 

[Mikkel]

Would the visual aspect have played no role at all? Corporate identity etc. You paint what can be seen? I'm thinking here also of coach ends painted black etc.

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

I'm thinking here also of coach ends painted black etc.

 

... which on the whole they weren't until well into the grouping era.

  

3 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Would the visual aspect have played no role at all? Corporate identity etc. 

 

We usually see wagons photographed from a height of 4 ft - 5 ft above rail level; to the period observer standing on a station platform or overbridge, the inside of a wagon might be a more common sight.

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Compound2632

[Mikkel]

Right. The problems with my argument became apparent the minute I pressed post 

[Compound2632]

Just now, Mikkel said:

Right. The problems with my argument became apparent the minute I pressed post 

 

Only because you had the misfortune that I was on-line at the same time...

 

Sorry I think I edited my post while you were agreeing with it.