Mol's MSC Wagons

[Mol_PMB]

Some Christmas Baubles - the rake of 6 anchor mount tanks are now complete!

Part 1...

Gulf 87 is a Dapol standard product, detailed and weathered:

DB998914 is a British Rail diagram 633 creosote tank. Based on the Dapol Gulf tank, with modifications to the brakes, ladders, data panels and plates added, then a repaint and plenty of weathering:

Burmah 15, based on the Dapol Midland Tar Distillers tank, a few details added and a repaint and weathering:

Since completing this model I've been frustrated to find a better photo of the original which shows that it was lagged. There was an unlagged one of these in Burmah livery but I'm not sure what number it was. Ah well, it's staying as it is now! Except having looked at this photo I need to add another coupling link each end...

[Mol_PMB]

Part 2, more modified Dapol anchor mount tanks:

Manchester Oil Refinery 127, a few minor details added and a repaint:

 

After the merger with Lobitos, some of these were repainted into Lobitos MOR livery like number 5 here, again just a few added details, repaint and weathering:

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Finally the one with most changes is another Manchester Oil Refinery tank, this time with added lagging as well as the usual treatment:

 

And a rake of three MOR tanks including an original Meccano/Hornby model of 114 produced at the time these were still in use:

For its time, it was a pretty good model! I've added finescale wheels and couplings so it can run with my other two. I hope @Nearholmer doesn't consider that heresy...

 

Merry Christmas All!

 

Mol

[Sweet pea]

MOL those tank wagons have come up really nice with the detail and weathering. The Meccano/Hornby tank wagon sits in nicely with the others and its a piece of history.👍

[Mol_PMB]

Following on from the small Class B anchor-mount tanks, I'm now working on four slightly larger tanks, also from Dapol.

 

The first is a large-diameter anchor mount tank. Most of these are sold as Class A in silver or grey livery. One of them is sold as a Class B in black livery, and actually has a product number in the small-diameter tank series. Nevertheless, it has a large tank but Class B details which is what I wanted. Here is the starting point straight out of the box:

My intention is to make it into one of these, but in a later livery:

Actually not too much to do, adding the heating fitting on the side, a tiebar between the W-irons, and a few other minor bits and pieces.

 

The other three large-diameter tanks I'm working on are from the earlier Dapol release of Air Ministry tanks. These all have large diameter tanks regardless of whether they are Class A or Class B (which is prototypically correct). Here's an example straight out of the box:

All will be detailed and repainted/weathered to varying extents.

 

The one requiring the most work will be the Kraft tank, which I'm backdating from the Esso tank. Today's job is adding the rivets using Archer rivet transfers. I have also changed the steam-heating fittings to an older design, and the underframe will need brake modifications and a tiebar.

Eventually it should look like this one:

Which will suit the other project on my workbench at present:

 

Anyway, I'd better get back to the workbench!

Mol

[Ruston]

The Fowler's looking a bit different now. I never realised how different those standard ones are from the GWR one.

[Mol_PMB]

6 minutes ago, Ruston said:

The Fowler's looking a bit different now. I never realised how different those standard ones are from the GWR one.

Yes, it's turned out to be a more involved project than I had originally envisaged. There are still a few compromises but I'm happy that I've captured the look of the 410 class and it's certainly distinct from the standard Ixion product.

 

The serious changes have been to the bufferbeams, the radiator area and the gearbox cover.

Also very many smaller detail changes.

Not long now until it's ready for a coat of 'Kraft blue' paint...

 

[Mol_PMB]

The paint shop has been busy over the last couple of days, but the mechanical assembly team claim they can't put it back together until the varnish has fully dried.

Thanks again to John Peck of Precision Decals for the custom transfers based on my artwork. They've come out very nicely as always.

As for the electricians, well their hands are tied because it needs a decoder, a speaker, and random other electrical bits, and hopefully I can get those ordered in the coming week.

Mol

[Ruston]

I saw this elsewhere on the interwebs and thought of this thread.

[Mol_PMB]

10 minutes ago, Ruston said:

I saw this elsewhere on the interwebs and thought of this thread.

Wonderful - I hadn't seen that before!

Here's an extract from the MSC Map from the early 1960s showing roughly the area in the photo, the view is from the middle left of the map, looking East:

The MSC Railway served around 30 different oil firms, many with multiple sites. Just in this little area were MOR, Regent, Gulf and SMBP.

I am considering developing the loft to give space for a roundy-roundy Trafford Park layout, with the curve of Ashburton Road and the many bridges over the Bridgewater Canal being a key feature. This is an earlier (1929) view from BritainFromAbove:

https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW027510

 

 

 

[woodenhead]

Barton Power station at the bottom there as well, they used to scatter the waste product from there onto Broadway.

[Mol_PMB]

4 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Barton Power station at the bottom there as well, they used to scatter the waste product from there onto Broadway.

Yes, and you can see the tipplers for the coal wagons feeding the power station. Although most of its fuel came by barge along the Bridgewater canal (also visible).

[Mol_PMB]

The Fowler is now in the early stages of weathering. A brief burst of winter sun encouraged me to put it together for some photos, though I wish I'd taken a few more moments to pose the rods and refit the missing buffer!

More weathering yet to do on this, also a crew and some oilcans have been ordered from Modelu, some headlights from a model car specialist, and a sound project from ngtrains.

 

In the meantime I have been working on the second batch of tank wagons, and have now reached the decal stage with the last of the four, the large diameter anchor mount tank. Shown here as a work-in-progress.

Anyone thinking that yellow isn't a valid colour for the star should use their time machine to go back to the 1960s and tell the Lobitos wagon painters.

This is the only colour image of this livery I've found, thanks to David Christie on Flickr:

The large anchor-mount tank No.124 in this livery is seen second in line here, in black and white:

https://hmrs.org.uk/-abk421--lobitos--ellesmere-port--line-of-14t-tank-wagons-stanlow-c1972-f3r.html

Definitely a good dose of weathering needed once the decals are on!

 

Mol

[montyburns56]

3 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Wonderful - I hadn't seen that before!

Here's an extract from the MSC Map from the early 1960s showing roughly the area in the photo, the view is from the middle left of the map, looking East:

The MSC Railway served around 30 different oil firms, many with multiple sites. Just in this little area were MOR, Regent, Gulf and SMBP.

I am considering developing the loft to give space for a roundy-roundy Trafford Park layout, with the curve of Ashburton Road and the many bridges over the Bridgewater Canal being a key feature. This is an earlier (1929) view from BritainFromAbove:

https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW027510

 

 

 

 

When I took pictures of the estate in 2007 I took this one and I always presumed that part of the bridge was used for railway tracks which your picture confirms, but I never realised that there were tracks on the other side as well.

[Mol_PMB]

Please be assured that work is continuing, with weathering being applied to the batch of 4 tanks, 4 underframes and 8 wheelsets, along with a splash on the Fowler whenever I've got the right sort of gunk to hand.

 

Having rebuilt a batch of 6 tank wagons before Christmas, and another batch of 4 since then, I'm considering scaling back my ambitions for the next few weeks. Back at work full time now I'll have less opportunity to work on big batches, fancy liveries and complex weathering. Once I've completed the batch of tank wagons, what I really need to do is knuckle down and finish a few half-finished projects before starting anything new, but as we all know there's nothing more exciting than starting something new! I'll try to restrain myself and at least complete some of the unfinished wagon projects during the rest of this month. These three would be a good start, which have all been like this for a year or more and only need a bit more lettering and some weathering to finish them off. Oh, and maybe a load or two:

 

The two tatty orange minerals are Lancashire Tar Distillers pitch wagons, used for carrying pitch blocks from LTD Cadishead to Partington coaling basin, where the coaling tipplers were used to empty the pitch blocks into ships. I'm not sure how they prevented the pitch blocks sticking together? This run was entirely on MSC Railway metals, and they weren't maintained to mainline standard, hence the 'internal use only' branding. One's a Parkside kit and the other is a Lionheart RTR. I chose to use these two different sources for very similar wagons because there are actually a number of subtle differences, such as the number of planks, the positioning of the end door hinge, and the strapping details. Both have had further details added to represent the design and condition of the particular prototypes. Here's the especially disreputable 33, but they weren't all quite as grotty:

The black wagon is a privately-owned vac fitted iron ore tippler; the livery is prototypical but presently too clean. It's modified from a now-discontinued ABS kit for the BR equivalent, as it's a long-wheelbase, low-body, roller-bearing fitted version that is very different from the readily available Peco kit. These wagons ran in block trains from the East Midlands ironstone quarries to the steelworks at Irlam. Strictly they would have gone directly into the steelworks at Irlam rather than via the MSC, so it's a bit of a stretch to have one of these on MSC metals, but the MSC did serve the steelworks and ran right past it, and it's a nice distinctive wagon to have.

Hopefully putting these photos on here will help me with motivation to finish them! I think they got put to one side because I ran out of HMRS transfers and they were unavailable at the time, but they now seem to be available again :-) I seem to be using a lot of the letters needed for LANCASHIRE !

 

Does anyone know where I can get a lump of that distinctive yellowish ironstone to load into my tippler? @rope runner, what do you use?

 

Cheers,

Mol

Edited January 7 by Mol_PMB
Added last sentence and corrected my own name!

[rope runner]

4 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Does anyone know where I can get a lump of that distinctive yellowish ironstone to load into my tippler? @rope runner, what do you use?

 

Hi Mol, 

 

I use the real thing as there is plenty lying on the ground at old workings. I get a big lump then shatter into smaller pieces with a hammer  - this gives sharper edges which is more prototypical as the ore was typically fractured with ANFO before being picked up by the excavators, particularly in the deeper quarries. It wants to be quite sizeable lumps in the 26ton Lancs Steel Tippler as these were directly loaded at the quarry face, the stone not being crushed or screened until it got to Irlam. If you're stuck for some please drop me a PM, though it may be some weeks before I can get some more. 

 

The colour varied quite a bit by location, but these Lancs Steel-branded tipplers used to run out of Glendon, Cranford and Desborough. Possibly other locations which I haven't come across yet if anyone on RMweb can add to that list? 

 

Paul A. 

 

[Fat Controller]

Pitch blocks . I recollect handling these somewhere. They were wrapped in heavy-duty brown Kraft paper.

[Mol_PMB]

18 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Pitch blocks . I recollect handling these somewhere. They were wrapped in heavy-duty brown Kraft paper.

Many thanks, that's good gen. These days they seem to be shrink-wrapped in plastic but it's good to know how it was done before. 

My understanding is that the blocks were made a bit like chocolate bars or icecubes - pouring the molten pitch into some sort of mould spread over a large expanse of ground, with ridges so the blocks would separate easily. 

I had wondered if a cruder approach to prevent them sticking would be to coat them in chalk dust or similar, but it wouldn't be as effective as paper.

Cheers,

Mol.

 

[Mol_PMB]

A little package arrived from Modelu this morning: a selection of loco crew, tools, oilcans and lamps.

It doesn't look much for nearly £50 but they are very beautifully moulded and I look forward to painting these up and fitting them to various locos.