Jules' workbench - 2-axle ballast wagon upgrades

[EWS60065]

@Departmental203

Can't help with the 37 but the Kadees fit fine on my Hornby 60 if you use the cut out ploughs supplied. In my opinion you don't notice the slot too much and you'd end up cutting something of a similar shape anyway if you modified the full ploughs. 

I still have a Hornby HAA chassis I bought a couple of years ago before the accurascale MHAs came that I intended to scratchbuild on, probably inspired by yours 😂

 

Maybe I'll do an MAA type on it to justify the scratchbuild 

[Departmental203]

On 31/01/2024 at 20:15, EWS60065 said:

@Departmental203

Can't help with the 37 but the Kadees fit fine on my Hornby 60 if you use the cut out ploughs supplied. In my opinion you don't notice the slot too much and you'd end up cutting something of a similar shape anyway if you modified the full ploughs. 

I still have a Hornby HAA chassis I bought a couple of years ago before the accurascale MHAs came that I intended to scratchbuild on, probably inspired by yours 😂

 

Maybe I'll do an MAA type on it to justify the scratchbuild 

 

The 60 I bought was a secondhand version which was missing the detail pack including the ploughs. Hope wasn't lost as I found that a chap that goes by the name Rusty Rails does a 3D printed version of these ploughs which look quite good so I'll be modifying those anyway! https://www.rustyrailsmodelling.com/shop

 

For the MAA, I've seen two or three models of that and all of them to my knowledge used the early iteration of the Hornby MHA, which was basically too tall for the real thing. From my experience you can find them in exhibitions as I'm guessing Hornby produced a fair amount before realising they dropped a spanner in the works! Although, given you have a chassis already, the scratchbuilding route would probably be more viable as it's not too tricky as the body structure of those wagons isn't that different from normal MHAs.

 

I hope to get the Class 67 + MHA pack that Hornby did a couple of years ago which curiously has the early version of the MHA. My plan is one becomes an ex MAA and then the other two will be two more scratchbuilds of the later bodied version for consistency's sake!

 

Jules

 

 

[EWS60065]

@Departmental203

I was under the impression the 67 pack came with new type MHAs but with the old artwork on the box so just be aware of that. Seems like a good option though if you're after both the MHAs and a 67 for a discounted price 

[Departmental203]

11 hours ago, EWS60065 said:

@Departmental203

I was under the impression the 67 pack came with new type MHAs but with the old artwork on the box so just be aware of that. Seems like a good option though if you're after both the MHAs and a 67 for a discounted price 

 

Yes, my apologies, turns out that they use the new models but have the old artwork! Not the first time that's happened to Hornby but infamously, there have been cases where the artwork was correct but the model was wrong 🤔

 

In that case, I'll probably try to look for old/cheap HAAs/MHAs as donors for my last conversions (but never say never as they say 😁) so will be a case of looking for unboxed examples hidden away at exhibitions! 

 

Jules

[EWS60065]

@Departmental203 Good idea, trouble is I've found a lot of people sell them for the same price as the newer ones as it's not easy for everybody to tell the difference!

[Departmental203]

Hi all, it's been a little bit and quite a few things have happened in the interim period so I might as well give a quick update!

 

As some may be aware, I've made the decision to dismantle my current layout Torness Yard and now I'm planning to do a wagon repair depot, based off the one at the south end of Millerhill Yard. The result will be something much smaller in size but now the opportunity to run a variety of wagon types has arisen, something I've grabbed with both hands!

 

The result of this is I ended up spending over £100 in wagons at Model Rail Scotland and told myself "keep away from the locos!" Oh dear, the crazy things one can spend their money on, as we shall see later.....

 

 

 

Turned out to be quite lucky especially with the cement wagons, bagging 6 Hornby/Lima depressed for £20 complete with metal wheels and a Bachmann JPA for £25 (albeit in battered condition) that will hopefully one day be modified to represent the type seen working out of Oxwellmains. And the Cavalex BBAs are easily one of the best RTR wagons I have ever seen, I now seem to have 2 of them working into my possession! I've tried to represent wagons that are seen on a regular basis passing through Millerhill and it provides a nice variety to my hitherto uniform lot of engineers stock.

 

To recoup the costs somewhat and to accommodate the proposed new fleet of wagons, I have sold quite a few things, aiming at things that are out of period such as the Rudds and Sea Urchins that you may have seen on this thread. Well, now they are no more and have found new homes, it would be nice to see how the new owners take these on and hopefully they'll see a higher level of completion and more use! This extends to a few locos and a DMU since I don't do passenger stock anymore.

 

Rounding things off with the wagons, I managed to get my scratchbuilt MHA looking all pretty with the paint, decals and varnishing complete and now it's a matter of waiting for the varnish to fully cure for a few weeks before it receives the "engineer's treatment"! The lamp brackets were made from a piece of bent brass sprue soldered to a piece of wire to act as a mounting peg, which was pretty awkward to do.

 

 

Ok, now onto the "crazy things one can purchase...." basically, I've now got a farm with a couple of Class 37 purchases!

 

 

This one was bought from eBay at a fairly reasonable £95 given it has full working lights and 21 pin capability, this will eventually be reworked to represent 37254 but I need to do a little more investigation as to when it lost its Intercity colours in favour of the Colas house garb. As pleasing Intercity is, my image of this particular 37 is strictly yellow and orange so most likely I'll go down the latter route.

 

Next up is more interesting......

 

 

This is one of the first Bachmann 37s with the basic chassis that only has 8 pin capability, 2 driven axles per bogie and 4 wheel pickup. Rather backdated by today's standards and as you can also see, one of the corners of the bodyshell has broken off, which might leave you scratching heads as to why I bought it. This is another eBay purchase, from a person who clearly wanted to part with it. I wanted to challenge myself in seeing how far I can take this loco in terms of functionality and detailing and give it another shot at glory by giving it some desperately needed TLC, lights and extra details! I plan to swap the chassis on this model to one of the newer examples which has all wheel drive and pickup and the ability to support lighting but still only has 8 pin capability. I still haven't found out if the bodies and chassis can be easily swapped however there are strong similarities to both designs so I'm confident it's feasible. This one will become 37057 when it was famously seen around the network in its heritage guise, including (what it seems) a working boiler.

 

 

So far, a start has been made to repair the damage, I've used small pieces of 60 thou black plasticard cut into wedges and stuck together to follow the curve of the body and left to dry. I plan to use epoxy and brass etch to reinforce this piece as it's in a vulnerable area. As for buffers, Sutton's Loco works do some very nice ones intended for their Class 24 and 25 models which I plan to adapt to fit this one. For consistency, I have removed the original Bachmann buffers at the other end, now both ends of this model look equally distressed! Now, I'm trying to see if I can cleanly remove the moulded handrails at the cab doors in favour of homemade brass ones, one has been removed with a decent level of success so there's no turning back now!

 

More Tractor news, I have finally decided to take the plunge and I have bought one of the Accurascale ones, this one representing 37607 in it's initial DRS guise with the rectangular logos, I plan to eventually strip this off and put "compass" branding in its place, bringing it forward to my operating period of 2015-2018. However, I don't think that will materialise for a while given my fear of ruining a well detailed and expensive model! I was surprised that a few retailers still have a few in stock so one was snapped up as soon as my payroll came through as I don't think they'll be hanging around for too long. Inevitably, people are selling used examples around the £200 mark and beyond......😬 

 

Completing the update, I have pre ordered Accurascale's model of 37218 in it's "retro" repaint that was unveiled over a year and a half ago at Crewe Gresty Bridge and again, I plan to rework it into its prior appearance when it had the large DRS "fade" vinyls. I figured this one won't hang around with the retailers for too long hence the commitment, as much as I don't really go for the latest models, I can safely make an exception to this case! I've also done the same for Dapol/Rail's of Sheffield's Class 88 which slipped under my nose for months and put my deposit as soon as I knew about it! Rounding the loco side of things, I bought a secondhand Class 67 in EWS livery for south of £100, an opportunity which wasn't to be missed!

 

I'll be away for a few weeks with exams around the corner but I do have some pretty exciting things for the summer at least!

 

Regards, Jules

[EWS60065]

Amazing to see you back with a project here, looking foward to seeing more. Nice idea with the smaller WRD setup and trying to close up your era to a smaller period! Always helps get a good atmosphere. Sad to hear the sea urchins have been sold as I would have thought you could squeeze them in somewhere even if just rotting away in a siding 😆

[Steadfast]

3 hours ago, Departmental203 said:

This one was bought from eBay at a fairly reasonable £95 given it has full working lights and 21 pin capability, this will eventually be reworked to represent 37254 but I need to do a little more investigation as to when it lost its Intercity colours in favour of the Colas house garb. As pleasing Intercity is, my image of this particular 37 is strictly yellow and orange so most likely I'll go down the latter route.

Nice pair of 37s Jules, I always liked green 057 on the yellow coaches. 

37254 was repainted from Intercity to Colas in March / April 2017. I've got a Farish 37 ready to repaint into Intercity...when I get around to it!

 

Hope that helps

 

Jo

[Departmental203]

10 hours ago, EWS60065 said:

Amazing to see you back with a project here, looking foward to seeing more. Nice idea with the smaller WRD setup and trying to close up your era to a smaller period! Always helps get a good atmosphere. Sad to hear the sea urchins have been sold as I would have thought you could squeeze them in somewhere even if just rotting away in a siding 😆

 

Hi, it does feel quite weird coming back after a long absence but I suppose it's a good way to build up suspense I suppose 😉 well just the inevitable of life things taking charge. And it's a bit of a shame about the Sea Urchins but I really did want to diversify my wagon collection from all things engineers! Well instead of a rotting Sea Urchin, I'll probably have a Coalfish or PCA dumped with a hot box or similar.

 

8 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Nice pair of 37s Jules, I always liked green 057 on the yellow coaches. 

37254 was repainted from Intercity to Colas in March / April 2017. I've got a Farish 37 ready to repaint into Intercity...when I get around to it!

 

Hope that helps

 

Jo

 

Hi Jo, as thankful as this info is, it's put a little seed of doubt in my mind about 37254 as it's repaint came slap bang in the middle of my operating period! I'm still leaning towards Colas as it's how I remember 254 given I only picked up rail photography in recent years. But I won't rule out IC just yet though!

 

What surprised me though is I haven't seen too many people have a go at 057, given it's popularity when it was in green. I feel even Accurascale have missed an opportunity there but they seem to be buried with current day celebrities with all of their releases! I've committed to removing all of the moulded handrails but a trip to the model store is required since some of my blades have gotten too dull to make a clean job of it.

 

Well thanks for the kind comments/pointers gentlemen, I hope to keep providing some form of entertainment here! 

 

Jules

[virginhst539]

Almost bought that blue circle PCA myself. Ended up with a blue one for repainting and a MEA. 

 

If your needing any help with the Oxwellmains JPA drop me a message. I have all the obscure refrence pictures and knowledge anyone could never need on that fleet!

[Departmental203]

On 12/04/2024 at 20:16, virginhst539 said:

Almost bought that blue circle PCA myself. Ended up with a blue one for repainting and a MEA. 

 

If your needing any help with the Oxwellmains JPA drop me a message. I have all the obscure refrence pictures and knowledge anyone could never need on that fleet!

 

Haha, I ran across those PCAs on the Saturday and didn't have any second thoughts about it since they were complete and had metal wheels which is what I was really after! I'm sure given other exhibitions there's going to be a good selection of depressed centre PCAs kicking around a stand somewhere, even in 2024 where even wagons do lighten your pockets quite quickly 🤔

 

And yeah, thanks for the offer, like I say, I have little knowledge about the finer points of non engineers wagons, particularly the more modern bogie types so any help in that department will be much appreciated!

 

Regards, Jules