Multiples of Wagons

[Clock O' The North]

Hello,

I pose a question, why don't any British manufacturers do multiples of the same type of wagon each year, for example 16t mineral wagons. This only came about after seeing that my friend received 16 of the same type of wagons in one delivery, all with different numbers. By doing some like this, for example 6 a year, a person could create a train quicker.  

[Fat Controller]

It's done to a limited extent, albeit in packs of three (often under commission by a retailer), but often the wagons seem to have three consecutive numbers, which spoils the effect somewhat.

Hattons often seem to do multiple-wagon offers, with appreciable savings, but the wagons all bear the same numbers- not a huge issue, as transfers are widely available.

[Mark Saunders]

It would be too simple for a production run to be organised to change the printed number every 200 wagons and create an instant limited edition!

 

Mark Saunders

[Fat Controller]

It would be too simple for a production run to be organised to change the printed number every 200 wagons and create an instant limited edition!

 

Mark Saunders

It would be simply, but would actually increase the unit price I fear, as it would involve stopping the production line, relabelling the boxes etc.

[Guest 40-something]

Simplest and quickest way to build up a rake is to buy mulitples of the wagon and apply new transfers!

[No Decorum]

Clock,

 

That’s a very good point. For me, one of the joys of modern modelling is that, with care, trains can be put together with identical wagons having different running numbers.

To some extent it does happen; for example, Dapol produced six differently-numbered HIAs and is following up with another half-dozen. Kernow has commissioned wagons in fours. Hornby has produced repeated singles and triple packs of 21-ton hoppers to enable a decent rake to be made up (if you’re not too fussy about livery variations) and the same can be said of Hornby’s fish vans, for all their shortcomings.

Bachmann does it differently. If a wagon sells well, it’s quite likely that it will be repeated with a different running number and an A added to the reference number. One problem with this is that by the time you realise that a rake is possible, the earlier variants have sold out. This year, 37-327D is promised (JGA bogie hopper with Buxton lettering). Suddenly I had a fancy for a rake of, I assume, five, but I can’t find any second hand. The other problem is that, if you assume that more of a particular wagon will emerge, it may not. I am a trifle peeved that Bachmann didn’t produce four Railtrack non-generator JJA autoballasters as the normal rake is four with a generator wagon.

With 16-ton mineral wagons, you would be fairly safe adding to your train each year. All you need is to be patient. Other than that, as has been suggested already, you can make a dog’s dinner of renumbering with transfers. Of course, I am referring to my own cack-handedness, not the skills of the previous posters.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Or you buy a few each of the first and all subsequent A, B, C, etc suffixed versions of the types of interest. That quickly works well for 'steam era' as there were not the 'monoculture' block trains, so mixing up - as an example- a selection of the common 16T designs with a seasoning of unusual 16T variations, 13T wooden and 20/21T types to create the usual assortment works well. Anyone spotting a number repeat after a dozen or more wagons has far too much time on their hands.

[SRman]

Or you buy a few each of the first and all subsequent A, B, C, etc suffixed versions of the types of interest. That quickly works well for 'steam era' as there were not the 'monoculture' block trains, so mixing up - as an example- a selection of the common 16T designs with a seasoning of unusual 16T variations, 13T wooden and 20/21T types to create the usual assortment works well. Anyone spotting a number repeat after a dozen or more wagons has far too much time on their hands.

 

... and excellent eyesight! 

[Loconuts]

Clock,

 

That’s a very good point. For me, one of the joys of modern modelling is that, with care, trains can be put together with identical wagons having different running numbers.

To some extent it does happen; for example, Dapol produced six differently-numbered HIAs and is following up with another half-dozen. Kernow has commissioned wagons in fours. Hornby has produced repeated singles and triple packs of 21-ton hoppers to enable a decent rake to be made up (if you’re not too fussy about livery variations) and the same can be said of Hornby’s fish vans, for all their shortcomings.

Bachmann does it differently. If a wagon sells well, it’s quite likely that it will be repeated with a different running number and an A added to the reference number. One problem with this is that by the time you realise that a rake is possible, the earlier variants have sold out. This year, 37-327D is promised (JGA bogie hopper with Buxton lettering). Suddenly I had a fancy for a rake of, I assume, five, but I can’t find any second hand. The other problem is that, if you assume that more of a particular wagon will emerge, it may not. I am a trifle peeved that Bachmann didn’t produce four Railtrack non-generator JJA autoballasters as the normal rake is four with a generator wagon.

With 16-ton mineral wagons, you would be fairly safe adding to your train each year. All you need is to be patient. Other than that, as has been suggested already, you can make a dog’s dinner of renumbering with transfers. Of course, I am referring to my own cack-handedness, not the skills of the previous posters.

 

Should you be in this hobby if you cannot apply a string of numbers to a wagon side, straight or vertical. There is enough information out there on how to do it and a bit of practice.

 

Loconuts

[Jenny Emily]

There are plenty of different RTR running numbers of Bachmann 16 ton mineral wagons. At last count I had around 50+ all with different running numbers, and only a few of them were special commissions. If I wanted to, there must be quite a few more different ones I could get, but I started drawing the line at only getting those in later TOPS coded liveries. It just takes a little patience to build them up or a lot of trawling shops and Ebay.

[SRman]

Before I gained sufficient skills to renumber things effectively, I used to add a little weathering to the wagons and ensure that the weathering "accidentally" obscured one or two numbers on each side, just to disguise the fact that several of the wagons were numbered the same.

[Coach bogie]

Clock,

 

Other than that, as has been suggested already, you can make a dog’s dinner of renumbering with transfers. Of course, I am referring to my own cack-handedness, not the skills of the previous posters.

 Practice! 

 

Most shows have junk wagons, old Lima with pizza slice wheels etc.

 

My 13 year renumbers stock. He has just lettered two old Jouef mkIII coaches to Wrexham and Shropshire, but first he practiced and learnt how to get the transfer away from the film by messing around with various broken wagons a trader gave him when he bought the coaches. When he thought he was ready he put the transfers on an Airfix Spitfire and Angel interceptor before finally having a go. He did  not get it right first time, ( it does not always go right for those of us who have done this for years) but removed the offending decal before it dried and started again as most sheets have multiples and we all end up with half used sheets.

 

As said elsewhere, weathering covers up a multitude of sins!

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Wheatley]

Should you be in this hobby if you cannot apply a string of numbers to a wagon side, straight or vertical. There is enough information out there on how to do it and a bit of practice.

 

Loconuts

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/112791-mrj-248/?view=findpost&p=2381200

 

 

Railway Modeling is a broad church and what ever makes you happy and satisfied it is up to the individual.

COTN - is your friend modelling US outline by any chance ? That's a much much bigger market with far more scope for this sort of thing.

[No Decorum]

Should you be in this hobby if you cannot apply a string of numbers to a wagon side, straight or vertical. There is enough information out there on how to do it and a bit of practice.

 

Loconuts

Perhaps not but it’s too late to stop now.

[Clock O' The North]

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/112791-mrj-248/?view=findpost&p=2381200

 

 

 

COTN - is your friend modelling US outline by any chance ? That's a much much bigger market with far more scope for this sort of thing.

He is actually modelling in American. I just thought that with something as common as 16t mineral wagons, tankers and vans that you could do multiple in a run, all with different numbers.

[Pint of Adnams]

To expand on the OP, Bachmann do offer triple-packs of wagons of a type, with different running numbers, but typically with at least one from a different era (usually the next in chronological sequence). Fine if you are modelling the later era but absolutely useless if you are modelling the earlier one. The same happens with packs of certain spares, such as the BR containers.

 

It takes a certain perverse mentality to 'invent' the era classifications for cataloguing purposes and then ignore them when selling in multiple packs.

[Pint of Adnams]

On the question of applying new numbers, don't do what according to urban legend happened at Temple Mills wagon works and that is start at one end of the line of new wagons applying numbers in sequence and, on reaching the end, go around to the other side of the last wagon numbered and then apply the same range of numbers starting with the lowest...

[Fat Controller]

On the question of applying new numbers, don't do what according to urban legend happened at Temple Mills wagon works and that is start at one end of the line of new wagons applying numbers in sequence and, on reaching the end, go around to the other side of the last wagon numbered and then apply the same range of numbers starting with the lowest...

I'd heard it was Shildon..

When checking wagon numbers at British Steel, I soon discovered there was often a discrepancy between the number on the solebar plate and that painted on the wagon. The oddest I saw was an otherwise unremarkable 16 tonner, bearing a painted number in the DMxxxxxxM style, suggested it had originally been passenger-rated stock.

There is the case of a clerical error that found itself painted on the sides of a large number of VDA vans. When the first numbers were issued, they ran in an unbroken series from 200650 until 201099. Then an extra lot was ordered, which should have started with 201100. However, the numbers were issued as 210100 onwards, giving the impression there were 900 more wagons built than had actually been.

As an aside, I wish there was a way that transfer manufacturers could make it easier to see different elements of a sheet of white transfers against the background. Perhaps either a contrasting substrate or a printed black-on-white sheet shewing the location of different items?