Wild Boar 3D Cordon for bodgerigars like me

[The Johnster]

Ordered one of these which arrived this morning, good start to the day!  Not sure what to expect and having started the build (or more correctly finished the taking apart; this will make more sense in a bit), I’ve revised some of the opinions expressed earlier today on my layout thread (South Wales Valleys in the 1950s).  I decided to post an account of this ‘kit’ here, partly to keep my own processes in order and for the guidance of anyone interested.  

Cordons were GW wagons with gas tanks fitted to them.  In departmental stock, they delivered gas for lighting to locations that were not served by mains gas, and carriage sidings, where even after the advent of electrically lit coaches cooking gas was still needed for catering vehicles.  There were 2 basic types, a DD4 which had 9 tanks mounted crosswise in two layers, the type we are building here, and a smaller DD5 which had 2 tanks mounted lengthways side by side.  They were vacuum braked and ran as tail traffic on passenger trains in regular circuits. 
 

When you unpack the wagon, it is a few seconds or so before you realise that it is in fact a kit, albeit a simple one.  Being a 3D print, it is packed in 3 separate pieces joined by sprues. There’s nothing to read in the packet, but ‘instructions’ can be downloaded in PDF form.  The extent of the instructions is to show which pieces are the sprues, which is not immediately obvious when you unpack what might be mistaken for a complete print of a finished wagon., and a single instruction to remove them
 

Once you’ve removed the sprues, you have 3 pieces, the wagon body and deck, lower rack of tanks including the mountig rails that attach them to the wooden deck, and the upper rack of tanks including the framing by which they are attached to the lower rack.  Don’t make the mistake (guess who did!) of separating the lower rack from the wagon by cutting at the bottom, wagon, end of the sprues, as you then have to trim the pips where you made the cut from the fragile mounting rails that are printed as part of this piece; it is much easier to cut the sprues on the tank rack end and have the pips to be trimmed from the solid wagon piece with a fresh exacto blade.  
 

When the pieces are cut and tidied up, consider ballast.  The tanks are open on their bottoms and I stuffed mine with some Milliput surplus from another job that I’d made too much up for.  Any similar material can be used, but this job must be done now as the next is to glue the parts together and you won’t be able to get at the inside of the tanks once you’ve done that.  The kit is very lightweight and running will be hugely improved with a bit of heft.  It would be better placed beneath the wagon floor, but there is no detail there save for a rather pathetic rod shaped piece of print presumably to represent the vacuum cylinder.  I am intending to add some detail here, at the very least a decent vacuum cylinder, and would prefer to have the plain floor to drill fixing holes into than a metal ballast weight. 
 

And that’s the current sitrep for tonight; watch this space for the next thrilling instalment of...

[Gordon A]

Pictures please.

[45568]

Johnster, this topic details one I did earlier,from a Tassie supplier.

He is also offering this cordon...

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GWR-Cordon-Gas-Wagon-3d-printed/303707622688?hash=item46b6628d20:g:pFoAAOSwaENd1Mp7

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

Edited September 29, 2020 by 45568

[The Johnster]

23 hours ago, Gordon A said:

Pictures please.

Hardly seems worth it, how far wrong can you go with 3 pieces?

 

Anyway, part the next, current sitrep.  Next job, before all 3 pieces are fixed together, is to paint them.  Livery is claimed to be plain black for BR and black wagon with dark grey departmental livery for the floor and tank/frames assembly, but some claims are about that later GW livery was plain all over black as well; this may be an austerity livery, and few colour photos are available. Moreover, Cordons were usually filthy...

 

Out of stock of GW wagon lettering but have BR, both passenger and goods, so all over plain black will be fine.  I ordered the kit in sprayed matt black which I thought was a print finish; no, Wild Boar have sprayed the white plastic print matt black.  This means that they’ve missed bits under the tanks and where the tanks prevent spray from getting at the floor decking. 
 

I gave all 3 parts a light two coat covering of Halford’s rattlecan matt black acrylic (wasn’t he in Father Ted?), and then gave the wagon part a wash of weathering mix.  I also picked out the footboards in this. a little more strongly. I’ll leave the buffer beams until I replace the buffers (I’ve already lost one, they are very flimsy and will break off with a hard look!).

 

Now for the assembly. Do not use an instant setting glue for this, as you will need to ‘fine tune’ the positioning by eye.  There are no positioning marks or mouldings to guide you.  There is a box printed in to one end of the wagon floor which is of some help.  On the lower tank rack, the rubbing strakes underneath fit flush to the deck, which is why we spent so much time and care cleaning off the pips.  The strakes line up to the ends of the floor deck at each end, and must be fixed central and parallel to the sides.  Glue it by the central strake so that any blobby mistakes are hidden. 
 

Now, dry fit the upper rack of tanks on top of the lower rack.  These have shaped strakes underneath to separate them from the lower rack, and you need to see where these rest to know where to apply the glue, again apply glue to the central strake.  Before you commit to the gluing, make sure the piece is the right way round, with valves on the ends of the tanks the same side as downstairs.  Carefully line the curved ends of the tank frames up vertically with the strakes protruding from beneath the ends of the lower rack. 
 

And that’s it for the assembly.  You’re not finished of course, I’ve fitted a pair of NEM tension lock couplings, but the beastie needs brass flanged bearings as my tryout Bachmann 14mm carriage wheels are a loose fit in the print bearings and brass will rectify this, there is still the lettering and numbering to do, and decent buffers to be sourced, painted, and fitted, and below floor detail to add, plus drawhooks.  Then there’s the pipework on one side...
 

Numbering has flagged up an anomaly.  These were departmental vehicles and should, as such, have been numbered DWxx by BR, but photos show them numbered in the carriage series, e.g. W 53 W.  This makes sense if BR took them into coaching stock, and would explain the lack of XP branding; you can’t brand a vehicle to run with coaching stock if it already is coaching stock.  It’s not a duplicate of Auto Trailer W 53 W because that’s in the auto trailer series, and had there been a Railcar duplicate that would have been ok because it would have been in the Railcar series. 
 

There was some writing on the left hand end of the solebars, which might have read ‘Cordon’; I cant see the type identified elsewhere.  I cannot see any other lettering and until I know what this solebar end lettering was I will stick to just W 53 W, the photo am following.  
 

The box printed in to the wagon print is not visible in photos.  I’m guessing in lieu of better info that this contained 9 gauges showing pressure in each tank, and itwould be interesting to know if this was the case, and if they were enclosed behind a cabinet door or have to be modelled!

Edited September 29, 2020 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Been busy with other stuff today, but should be able to get a bit done on the Cordon later.  I'll try to take photos, but it's black and lighting might be an issue.  Next task is to gloss the area where the numbers go as I don't think the xfers are going to like the rough matt surface otherwise.  I'll matt varnish them to seal them when they are done, but I'm going to be applying small letters and numbers in a recessed location, so close your windows if you live in South Wales as there will be swearing...

[The Johnster]

Finished for now, in the sense that I'm waiting for buffers, vacuum cylinder, and bearings in the post.  It was double pension day Wednesday so a bit of retail therapy was indulged in.  I did the numbers, W 35 W, this evening, and it is frightening how my hand-eye co-ordination is deteriorating; only 8 characters, 4 each side, but I'm physically and mentally exhausted.  I ran the wagon in traffic today for the first time; it will appear every timetable Friday in the morning behind a B set and depart later in the day attached as tail traffic to an auto, spending the intervening 6 hours or so on the blocks in the platform road, which means that all trains entering this road have to be 'called on', so I must investigate the possibility of adding a calling on arm to the Dapol working junction bracket home signal.  It may not actually be a working calling on arm, but something needs to be done; I can't clear a main signal into a section occupied already!

Edited October 8, 2020 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Buffers and Bachmann coupler fitted, and a vacuum cylinder glued underneath, but you'll have to take my word for it.  For some reason, probably overbright lighting, the thing looks blue/grey, but is in fact black.  Job done!

Edited October 8, 2020 by The Johnster