Hornby Series pre war Tank Wagons

[Bassettblowke]

I recently acquired two United Dairies tank wagons and a Colas Bitumen Tank all in decidedly sub standard condition at £16 each they were affordable albeit with faults galore but I took the plunge regardless as these in even average condition are beyond my pocket. The close up of the Colas wagons paint will give some idea of the rust problem, to the touch they have the feel of pebbledash render. The next few posts will document the struggle to make them presentable.

[Bassettblowke]

[Bassettblowke]

As you can see these were bought from an online auction site although these were listed as buy it now. As with all auction sites you are never quite sure what you have bought until it lands on your doorstep. My initial assessment on studying the pictures was that the United Dairies tanker at top right would be the best of the bunch, how wrong was I, peeling paint, missing parts and a dent in one end not forgetting the drips of what appears to be Dulux Non Drip brilliant white dabbed all over in a vain attempt to tart it up.

It was quickly decided to strip it back to the tin ware and start afresh the other two are destined to be conserved with hopefully just cleaning and a de rust operation. The breakdown to parts was relatively straightforward with only one tab broken, this had bent flat during assembly and when the attempt was ade to straighten it it quickly broke away.

Below is the stripped down Tanker after a dip in the hot caustic and a quick wash and brush up also the first replacement Buffer has been glued in place. Next step is the etch primer.

[Nearholmer]

Watching with great interest!

[Porkscratching]

A nice lot. I think the colas tanker looks great just as it is!

I wonder what sort of paint was used originally, its pretty robust and they didn't seem to use a primer, perhaps it was some kind of baked on process??

[Bassettblowke]

Yes the fact that it was a Colas tanker heavily influenced my decision to pretty much leave it alone, I am fairly sure given the nature of bitumen that back in the day on the real rails these wagons wouldn’t have stayed  bright and shiny for long. One buffer has been refitted  with a dab of Araldite and it  will need some new stays but apart from that it will not receive much attention.

A good scrub with soapy water produced a pool of rusty water this was followed by a blast with my wife’s hairdryer.  This sharpened up the livery but the surface of the paintwork whilst better than before is still rough to the touch. More head scratching before we progress.

On another note where the Colas transfer has lifted the original much brighter colour is evident this shows how much the rest of the paintwork has darkened either through ageing or the accumulation of grime.

Paint adhesion on the Colas and the surviving United Dairies is very good the other one that has been stripped you could brush the paint off it was very dry and powdery, very little rust underneath and the stripped tin was very bright. No sign of any primer and I would guess the poor paint adhesion was down to little or no prep prior to it being painted at the factory.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Bassettblowke

[Porkscratching]

I'd definitely leave it as it is, proper genuine weathering!

I've got a wel worn type 50 loco like that which I think really looks the part.

As Mr N says, I look forward to seeing your progress with the refurb milk tanker..

where can you get decals for this kind of stuff out of interest?

[Bassettblowke]

The HRCA spares supplement will be my first port of call but off the top of my head I think the person who took over the Late Rob Hortons Wessex Transfers business may be the man. This really should have been something I explored before chucking it into the stripper but in my haste to get cracking I neglected to check if anybody made replica’s.

[Il Grifone]

2 hours ago, Bassettblowke said:

omis

 

Paint adhesion on the Colas and the surviving United Dairies is very good the other one that has been stripped you could brush the paint off it was very dry and powdery, very little rust underneath and the stripped tin was very bright. No sign of any primer and I would guess the poor paint adhesion was down to little or no prep prior to it being painted at the factory.

 

I doubt they expected it to last 80+ years. Paint flaking is unusual though.

[Porkscratching]

I'd be interested in how you get on sourcing decals, I've got a couple of 'scrap' loco bodies I was thinking of painting and would probably be looking for some LNER livery...

Don't think any of my old odds and ends have flaking paint either, scratched, scuffed and chipped, but the remainder seems well attached, hence i wondered if originally they baked it on in some way after application.. The basic finish certainly looks to have been sprayed on initially.

[PatB]

Dry, powdery, flaking paint suggests uv (sun) exposure. Maybe it sat in a south facing window for a few years. 

[Bassettblowke]

That would make sense the inside  of the tank cylinder still had its paint firmly attached, the Colas although heavily pitted with rust is also still firmly attached in fact it survived being burnished with the Dremel with a brass wire brush attachment. Pictures to follow.

[Nearholmer]

I have a nasty feeling that the Wessex Transfers "artwork and intellectual property" may have gone into limbo since Rob Horton's passing.

 

If you do discover that it has passed to someone else, please post details here, because I know I'm not the only one in need of transfers.

 

Kevin

[Bassettblowke]

I will be compiling a list of wants shortly and will post the details of anything I manage to source, here’s a couple of snaps of the milk tanker after a degrease and respray with Halfords etch primer. I find this goes on quite thickly so a light dusting was the order of the day.

[brianusa]

There are plenty of photos to back up the use of begrimed stock especially in this case of milk tankers.  In the public's eye, these were supposed to be clean and washed considering their contents destined for all those babies amongst other drinkers of milk for our tea or coffee or cornflakes, etc.  They may have been on the inside hopefully as they were suppose to be cleaned out at the dairy.  Didn't some poor soul have to get inside to do the job?

     Brian.

[Bassettblowke]

The “Glass Lined” aspect has always puzzled me can anyone explain how you line the inside of a tank with glass unless of course it was a case of sealing a large glass vessel inside the tank and then sealing it up. Cleaning I would guess might involve high pressure steam I wouldn’t like to imagine some poor soul scrubbing it out by hand. I have also wondered how they fared when shunted heavily after all there isn’t much give in glass.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Bassettblowke

[PatB]

Wasn't the "glass" actually a vitreous enamel coating, akin to that applied to iron bathtubs and washbasins? 

[Bassettblowke]

Your right of course strangely enough I once worked in a washing machine plant that had its own vitreous enamel plant for the tubs, nowadays they are all plastic of course and definitely not made in  Kirkby, Liverpool. 

[melmerby]

10 minutes ago, Bassettblowke said:

Your right of course strangely enough I once worked in a washing machine plant that had its own vitreous enamel plant for the tubs, nowadays they are all plastic of course and definitely not made in  Kirkby, Liverpool. 

Plastic?

They must be cheapos, AFAIK stainless steel seems to be the norm.

Although our first front loader (1970s) had an enamelled drum all since have been stainless steel.

[melmerby]

10 minutes ago, Bassettblowke said:

Your right of course strangely enough I once worked in a washing machine plant that had its own vitreous enamel plant for the tubs, nowadays they are all plastic of course and definitely not made in  Kirkby, Liverpool. 

Plastic?

They must be cheapos, AFAIK stainless steel seems to be the norm.

Although our first front loader (1970s) had an enamelled drum all since have been stainless steel. Allwere british made but our latest machine was made in Germany)

[Bassettblowke]

The stainless part is the cylinder that rotates inside the watertight drum, the drum was a heavyweight item finished in vitreous enamel. Even the weights in those days were cast iron and the drum was suspended on quality springs with automotive style  shock absorbers. Once UK production ceased and they decided to stick the Bendix name on some piece of crap from Franco’s Spain the spares department was booming with truckloads of spares being trucked in every Thursday. The upside for me was continued employment in the spares dept for a further five years until the whole shebang shut up shop and was sold to Electrolux.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Bassettblowke

[Bassettblowke]

Sorry got my memories jumbled up it was in the mid 70’s to early 80’s when I worked for Fisher Bendix, Thorn and then Thorn EMI and time has taken its toll on the old grey matter. It was the Tub that was vitreous enamelled and the stainless steel drum with all the holes in it rotated inside the Tub. Fisher and Ludlow a constituent company of the old BMC made washing machines and various other domestic items such as sink units.  Eventually the domestic appliance wing became Fisher Bendix, they made top quality machines introducing automatic front loaders in the fifties these needed to be bolted to the floor. We were still supplying spares for these in the late 70’s until Thorn in their wisdom elected to junk all the old spares to make room for the crap from Spain.

Needless to say the great British public bought these new machines like hot cakes after all they came with a Bendix name it didn’t take long for grim reality to rear it ugly head as the Philco Ford product with a Bendix badge rapidly self destructed before there eyes.

The plant at Kirkby also made Moulton Cycles a highly successful product which was flogged to Raleigh for a song and promptly discontinued in favour of their own model. Needless to say Raleighs days were also numbered along with great swathes of British Manufacturing Industry which politics aside is hardly surprising when some of the Senior management decisions are taken into account. 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Bassettblowke

[Il Grifone]

Nice to see the blame going to senior management where it belongs, rather than the unions (and not let's forget the government - for example, subsidising foreign companies to set up factories, when they would have paid to get a foothold in the EU - watch the ones left go, if we don't get our 'deal' with the EU - as if we didn't have one already!). Forget the alleged one with the States....

"The best deal!  Best ever! Bigly!!!!"

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Il Grifone

[Bassettblowke]

The idea that  the plant paid for by central government grants would be flogged of in an asset stripping exercise and their jobs effectively moved to Franco’s fascist Spain didn’t sit well with the work force it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it infuriated them. Nevertheless the press rapidly came to label them as Bolshie militants out for their own ends. A substantial portion of the workforce were WWII veterans who had lived through the thirties and forties and for want of a better word could see the writing on the wall with a return to the bad old days,  although I think even they would have been surprised by the catastrophe that would hit Liverpool In the eighties.

[Il Grifone]

And who owns the press? The fact that the most  read looked at the pictures paper comic is the 'Sun' says it all!

 

Perhaps we straying too far into the taboo subject of politics here! I'll just add that '1984' was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual! I'm safe in Eurasia at the moment.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Il Grifone