Adam Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 The end is almost in sight! The last remaining detail parts will be a set of safety loops before moving on to reassembly and painting. So what's new? I've rebuilt the axleboxes (losing the nice moulded LNER lettering in the process), steps and some tiny door springs. Fiddly just about covers it, but I think it's worth it. Adam 9 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adam Posted January 29, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 29, 2021 And here's the near finished SE&CR hopper, in the paintscheme that I guess the real thing would have ended its days. All the pictures I have of them in the BR period were taken before 1952 and show the vehicles in well-rusted Southern livery which is probably pushing it for something that lasted until after 1960. So all over black it is. The straw lettering isn't, as you'll observe, BR Gill Sans as I strongly suspect a repaint would have been performed outdoors at Broadclyst or Meldon and the signwriting on BR(S) service stock often looks a bit crude. So my way of approaching this comes from the HMRS sheet for Scottish pre-grouping wagons (various types of fish wagons on the NBR and Caley had the yellow letters, I think). Being Pressfix this was *fun*, but the end result isn't bad at all and will be improved by weathering, but that's for another day. Note that the chassis had a bit of weathering before assembly because getting in under the hopper when it's in one bit is tricky. Will this do @Enterprisingwestern? Adam 12 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted January 29, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 29, 2021 6 hours ago, Adam said: Will this do @Enterprisingwestern? Excellent wagonry as ever Adam. Mike. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 The post has arrived, and with it, the latest MRJ, no. 282. Some great stuff therein, and the star is Hywel Thomas’s terrific Morfa Bank sidings, but there’s much else, including Karl Crowther’s take on Kentside and the Kendal branch and a proper sized mill chimney. Personally, there’s something more modest, but hopefully worthwhile, my model of a little prefab bungalow. Hope you enjoy it. Adam 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 My mother's cousin used to live in one of these, overlooking the line from Swansea to Carmarthen. Whilst not palatial, they seemed to be reasonably comfortable. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 The title is a quote or a paraphrase - from someone who'd moved into one from something less salubrious - and, when you consider that they were fully-plumbed and fitted out with hot water and electric appliances and compare that to some of the unmodernised 19th century (and earlier) buildings they replaced, you can see why. Interesting buildings anyway, recycled from leftover airframes. Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Benson Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Pre-fabs were part of the everyday scenery in ‘60s Bournemouth off Mallard Road, whilst the wilder parts of Greatstone near Dungeness had rows of the them. SR green seemed to be predominant, though doubtful if there was any connection but the Southern was always mindful of business opportunities. Stay Safe Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 I thought I'd seen that some were to be included in the 1950s town now building at Beamish, but there's nothing on the website. I'm sure I read a notice to that effect when we were there last summer, but I don't now recall what type they were. There were still some of these in East Anglia when I first moved there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 (edited) On 18/03/2021 at 15:55, jwealleans said: I thought I'd seen that some were to be included in the 1950s town now building at Beamish, but there's nothing on the website. I'm sure I read a notice to that effect when we were there last summer, but I don't now recall what type they were. There were still some of these in East Anglia when I first moved there. Yes, I remember reading that. Here, probably: https://beamishbuildings.wordpress.com/tag/airey-houses/ There were a lot of different types of prefab, and there’s a big thick book on the subject which lists all of them. For Jack’s benefit - the Larkhill road area of Yeovil originally had a few score of these AIROH bungalows (and there were half a dozen at Charcott, just over the hill from where I’m typing this, at one end of what had been R.A.F. Penshurst). Adam Edited October 23, 2021 by Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 1 hour ago, Jack Benson said: Pre-fabs were part of the everyday scenery in ‘60s Bournemouth off Mallard Road, whilst the wilder parts of Greatstone near Dungeness had rows of the them. SR green seemed to be predominant, though doubtful if there was any connection but the Southern was always mindful of business opportunities. Stay Safe Most likely painted with 'borrowed' railway paint.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 On 18/03/2021 at 16:48, Fat Controller said: Most likely painted with 'borrowed' railway paint.... I think that's unlikely - the green appears to have been one of the standard, factory colours (the other predominant one being light grey) and since one of the main factories was at Filton, the numbers involved were huge, and the life-expectancy of the houses relatively brief, repaints with locally 'acquired' paint are probably unlikely, at least in large numbers. Anyway, down at the bottom of the siding, beyond the prefab's garden: Adam 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Benson Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Toe curling? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 1 hour ago, Adam said: I think that's unlikely - the green appears to have been one of the standard, factory colours (the other predominant one being light grey) and since one of the main factories was at Filton, the numbers involved were huge, and the life-expectancy of the houses relatively brief, repaints with locally 'acquired' paint are probably unlikely, at least in large numbers. Anyway, down at the bottom of the siding, beyond the prefab's garden: Adam Looks like the Russian system when they were trying to stop the Germans using it, and then when the boot was on the other foot later on.... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Adam Posted May 31, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 31, 2021 Just to show that some things get finished and that I haven't vanished from the face of the earth - and as a thank you to @Enterprisingwestern for supplying the base material, here's the completion of the SECR ballast hopper project. Just a reminder of where we began: One Hornby Trout. Not a bad model, lots of potential to do all sorts of things, including this: The pressed steel doors have come out especially well, I think. Whatever, I haven't seen another and don't suppose I will. It's represented here right at the end of its life working out of Meldon. The rendition of the BR black livery is speculative - all the pictures I have in BR ownership show these in rusty SR engineer's red oxide - a bit of a stretch for 1960ish. Adam 11 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 (edited) It's been a while, hasn't it? Here's a recent project, a tar tank modelled on one of a fleet owned by William Butler of Bristol. It was sort of prompted by picking up a rather nicely finished Slater's kit lettered for that company, but ultimately by the availability of transfers for a Westcountry-based tar distiller from POWSides. The thing is that the fleet I know Butler owned weren't quite like the Slater's kit, charming though the original model - which I've lightly detailed - is: https://hmrs.org.uk/butler-wm-bristol-14t-rectangular-tank-no-73-tar-distillers-bristol-order-1619.html The HMRS Chas Roberts collection has a couple of useful images and these show a 1923 spec' wagon chassis and a heavily insulated tank which is pretty simple to make out of plastic sheet and so I have taken one Parkside underframe (the rest of the wagon will not be wasted): The size comparison is obvious - the scratchbuild is about the size of an SR 8 plank. Here's the complete, unpainted, article: Probably because of the lightweight cladding over the insulation these had catwalks on the top of the tank (just like a round one). I'm not quite sure what they were like so I've added a plausible guess: Time for paint. Adam Edited April 2, 2022 by Adam 6 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 57xx Posted August 27, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2021 1 hour ago, Adam said: Time for paint. I read that as "Time for a pint." .Right letters, wrong order. 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, 57xx said: I read that as "Time for a pint." .Right letters, wrong order. Well it is Friday night… 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 57xx Posted August 27, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2021 46 minutes ago, Adam said: Well it is Friday night… Clearly there is some subliminal suggestion going on! The tar wagon is looking good, quite different to anything I'm used to seeing. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 20 minutes ago, 57xx said: Clearly there is some subliminal suggestion going on! The tar wagon is looking good, quite different to anything I'm used to seeing. That’s sort of the point - though you can go too far with these specials and I build plenty of normal wagons too - but any layout in the steam era can probably find space for a tar tank as it was a byproduct of town gas production. That said, if you’re going to have one then it may as well be something more interesting than the Slater’s one: there were so many variations. Adam 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Nice job. I don't think mine had the walkways - you must have had a better drawing/picture than I was given. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 16 minutes ago, jwealleans said: Nice job. I don't think mine had the walkways - you must have had a better drawing/picture than I was given. No, just the HMRS images. The walkways are just visible above the top lip and can't really be anything else. The lid is hidden from view in all these works pictures, but you can make out the pressure relief valve: https://hmrs.org.uk/insulation-of-rectangular-tank-wagon-chas-roberts-wagon-built-for-wm-butler-tar-distillers-bristol-order-1619-1648.html The photos of the wagons as complete show them peeking over the sides. I'm not 100% sure about the inset top, but I can't think why else they'd be angle riveted to the cladding. See this image for the clearest view: https://hmrs.org.uk/butler-wm-bristol-14t-rectangular-tank-no-73-tar-distillers-bristol-order-1619.html All this detail is conjecture, I should add, because the photographer in Wakefield didn't think to bring his ladder. I'd love to be proven wrong because then I could get it right, but this is, at least, plausible. Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SP Steve Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 Hi Adam, your choice of tar wagon looks remarkably similar to one done for Bristol & West Tar Distillers which features in the revised Tourett volume and for which there is a line drawing. On this the walkways are a set of wooden battens spaced apart - the accompanying image also shows this. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 29, 2021 Author Share Posted August 29, 2021 1 minute ago, SP Steve said: Hi Adam, your choice of tar wagon looks remarkably similar to one done for Bristol & West Tar Distillers which features in the revised Tourett volume and for which there is a line drawing. On this the walkways are a set of wooden battens spaced apart - the accompanying image also shows this. Hi Steve - thanks, not a book I have and, by the sounds of it, I've guessed wrong. Not a catastrophic error and one I'll have to live with, I suppose, though I could replace the mesh with battens? Hmm. Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Zero Gravitas Posted August 29, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 29, 2021 47 minutes ago, SP Steve said: Hi Adam, your choice of tar wagon looks remarkably similar to one done for Bristol & West Tar Distillers which features in the revised Tourett volume and for which there is a line drawing. On this the walkways are a set of wooden battens spaced apart - the accompanying image also shows this. Apologies for the hijack - but exactly which Tourett volume is this, please? I’m suddenly slightly concerned there’s a wagon book I don’t know about :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SP Steve Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 32 minutes ago, Zero Gravitas said: Apologies for the hijack - but exactly which Tourett volume is this, please? I’m suddenly slightly concerned there’s a wagon book I don’t know about :-) It's the revised edition from 2009 as listed below: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Petroleum-Rail-Tank-Wagons-Britain/dp/0905878094 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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