Fixed loads on wagons.

[crazynitwit]

How do i cover up the fact that my wagon has a fixed load.

[Vespa]

How do i cover up the fact that my wagon has a fixed load.

I am not quite sure what you mean but am guessing that you mean a fixed coal load as per Dapol wagons?? Some of these can be removed and others are so well glued in that the only way to get them out is to cut them out very carefully with whatever meanns you have. Refitting a new load will cover remains of the old one. Or you can add extra loose load onto the top of the fixed one and secure with PVA.

[crazynitwit]

I am not quite sure what you mean but am guessing that you mean a fixed coal load as per Dapol wagons?? Some of these can be removed and others are so well glued in that the only way to get them out is to cut them out very carefully with whatever meanns you have. Refitting a new load will cover remains of the old one. Or you can add extra loose load onto the top of the fixed one and secure with PVA.

I've added a load to one of my wagons. But it comes in loaded and leaves loaded. The only way I can think to get around this is by using a tarpaulin.

[Graham456]

Hum ! I take it you regret sticking it and now wish to unglue it, the answer to that depends on the glue used.....

OR cover it up as loads do go in as well as out. Hopefully the currant load doesn't stick up to far you could place something on top?

Now a tarpaulin would imply it was still loaded but with something different going out and what ever you have stuck going in.

A "smiths" tarpaulin folded or tucked around the edges/corners (corners stuck to its self like a lid) will do this but would be extreamly fragile off the wagon, or what about a snug fitting top half of a packing box made to fit on top of the currant load?

[BG John]

I think this is a problem that needs solving at the layout design stage. Design it with facilities for vans, and make sure the unloading platforms are at the back of the layout, so no one sees that no loading/unloading actually happens. For open wagons, shunt them into hidden areas, where you can add or remove the load, or swap otherwise identical loaded and unloaded wagons. Loads could be swapped by hand, or by clever moving devices.

 

I've thought of trying automated loads (in O gauge where there's more space). A coal load, for example, could very slowly sink in the wagon, at a speed where viewers don't notice it, and when it reaches the bottom of the wagon, the interior of the sides drop down to cover the coal with a floor. All controlled by an Arduino and some servos or stepper motors. Back in the fiddle yard, the load quickly springs back into place ready for the next trip. It could be triggered at both ends by magnets, infrared sensors, RFID tags, radio, or numerous other ways.

 

Some people have working hoppers that load or unload wagons with loose loads.

 

Or you could add some curtains to the layout, that you close to represent time passing. While they're closed you can manually swap loads, or loaded and empty wagons, around.

 

Asking the question once you've built the layout, probably condemns you to having to use your imagination to pretend something has happened .

[The Johnster]

All good suggestions.  I picked up a Dapol steel open cheap a few months back with an inappropriate coal load in it, which was removable with some difficulty and left screw holes visible on the wagon floor, which was of course plain and carries no planking detail.  I put a Smith's tarp on it.  

 

Open wagons with and without loads need some consideration if they are visiting a goods yard or private siding.  Some come in loaded to be unloaded and sent back empty, some will be empty to be sent back loaded, and some will arrive loaded and be found return loads and return loaded as well.  This applies to the vans as well of course, but not visibly.  Tarpaulins raise the issue that a wagon that arrives and departs with a permanently fitted tarpaulin like my Dapol open must have return traffic, and not just that but return traffic that requires protection with the tarp; this is very unlikely at my small BLT.

 

I get around this problem with an imaginary private siding off scene which is serviced by the pickup goods and generates inbound and outbound traffic of this sort.  I have yet to decide what it is, and as it does not physically exist, there is no great rush to make such a decision!  This also gives an excuse for empty wagons to arrive and depart with the pickup.  I have another open with a pair of cable drums permanently fixed inside it; this is en route to a cabling jog somewhere, perhaps in the colliery but again offscene so that it also arrives with the pickup only to be taken away again without being shunted into any siding at the terminus.

 

You can use the offscene imagined siding as an excuse for occasional freights worked by locos awaiting orders between other duties as required by Control, which is a method of bringing in one of the shunting locos from the main junction (Tondu in my case), and almost any loco might be employed on such a working.  The special arrives, runs around and runs it's brake van around, and departs, causing an interesting nuisance to the passenger traffic...

[The Johnster]

I think this is a problem that needs solving at the layout design stage. Design it with facilities for vans, and make sure the unloading platforms are at the back of the layout, so no one sees that no loading/unloading actually happens. For open wagons, shunt them into hidden areas, where you can add or remove the load, or swap otherwise identical loaded and unloaded wagons. Loads could be swapped by hand, or by clever moving devices.

 

I've thought of trying automated loads (in O gauge where there's more space). A coal load, for example, could very slowly sink in the wagon, at a speed where viewers don't notice it, and when it reaches the bottom of the wagon, the interior of the sides drop down to cover the coal with a floor. All controlled by an Arduino and some servos or stepper motors. Back in the fiddle yard, the load quickly springs back into place ready for the next trip. It could be triggered at both ends by magnets, infrared sensors, RFID tags, radio, or numerous other ways.

 

Some people have working hoppers that load or unload wagons with loose loads.

 

Or you could add some curtains to the layout, that you close to represent time passing. While they're closed you can manually swap loads, or loaded and empty wagons, around.

 

Asking the question once you've built the layout, probably condemns you to having to use your imagination to pretend something has happened .

I like the slowly sinking coal load and magic floor idea!  Unfortunately, coal is not unloaded like this from wagons; the unloader digs a space for himself in the coal immediately available by the door and works towards the corners, so that a half unloaded wagon has a space by the door and coal piled up towards the ends, a much more difficult thing to replicate.  I have an old Airfix kit coal wagon posed like this with a door open and the load piled up towards the ends at the end of a siding; it is supposed to be in the process of unloading to feed a factory heating system boiler.

[BG John]

I like the slowly sinking coal load and magic floor idea!  Unfortunately, coal is not unloaded like this from wagons; the unloader digs a space for himself in the coal immediately available by the door and works towards the corners, so that a half unloaded wagon has a space by the door and coal piled up towards the ends, a much more difficult thing to replicate.  I have an old Airfix kit coal wagon posed like this with a door open and the load piled up towards the ends at the end of a siding; it is supposed to be in the process of unloading to feed a factory heating system boiler.

I know, but I'd need to approach this a step at a time. A flexible membrane covered in coal may be practical, with cams revolving to gradually reshape the load. It may even turn out to be easier than slowly dropping the whole load. I need to do a lot of playing around with suitable devices to see what's possible. One day!

[crazynitwit]

Okay, I may have to look into getting a Bachmann cea wagon or swap it for a box van.

[BG John]

Okay, I may have to look into getting a Bachmann cea wagon or swap it for a box van.

That's cheating . I don't model any period where I could run something like that .