SE&CR 5 and 7 plank open wagons.

[JSpencer]

Now I also brought a pair in BR colours. Here they are with my O1:

 

 

[Merchant Navy]

Two BR grey 7-plankers, two BR grey 5-plankers, a BR brown (SR lettering) 7 plank wagon, and a 5 plank wagon in BR departmental black.

They're all great, well-built and free-rolling, but the Hybars - a separate piece - don't fit quite as well as I hoped (slightly bent on the end pieces). I'm happy overall though.

[JSpencer]

A few more pics, still behind a grey C class. I've added a Rails 1424 van at the end of the rake to masquerade as brake van !!!

 

Now:

First 2 wagons are Cambrian kits. Really amazed that these kits and Rapidos versions match in colour. The Rapido models are of course better/more refined than the kits BUT on the layout they are perfectly compatible together.

Next 6 wagons are Rapido

Wagons 9 &10 are Bachmann's collectors club. These are noticeably darker. I think if the their colour was correct, they could pass for SECR in a moving rake but here they clearly stick out. 

Wagon 11 is a Dapol 5 plank limited edition of 100 for the Bluebell. Grey is far too light.... well, this one along with the Bachmann ones will now be placed in reserve!

And finally the Rails/Dapol 1424. An accurate wagon except the grey, again too light.

 

 By the end of the year, we will have accurate in RTR Birdcages, accurate SECR wagons and generic 4-6 wheelers....

The wagons all rolled freely, indeed, it was hard to get the loco to slow down!

 

 

 

[TrevorP1]

My Hybar arrived yesterday and I'm well pleased. I have to say that before ordering I had concerns about the price but now that it's here and also bearing in mind the way other 'inferior' brands are going, I'm much more comfortable. To quote Aldo Gucci, "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten". 

 

I had a little finger trouble fitting the sheet bar but all is well now. I found that easing the holes in the end brackets with a 0.9mm drill helped matters considerably. Shorter couplings have also been fitted. It will have to be weathered eventually but for now I'm admiring it in all it's pristine glory. Roll on the Toads, Minks and 4-planks!

 

Now, while I have the ear of a premium manufacturer I will say just three more words... 'MILK TANKS PLEASE'!

[JSpencer]

Alright some more photos (to bore everyone with), so lets first do some simple comparisons, followed by BR version fitted (loosely with the bar) and then later in the post, we'll see the SECR rake behind a nice grey D class ! (makes a change from the C in earlier post right!).

 

Now for some odd reason despite righting them on my PC, the first 3 pics still like to sit on their sides!

 

So the row on the left, top to bottom are Dapol then Bachmann and Bachmann again.

The row on the right are all Rapido.

Well in a nutshell, the Bachmann and Dapol ones look like SECR wagons and the problem is compounded the colours being off.

 

 

 

Here on the left are Cambrian kits vs Rapido on the right. They are pretty similar in terms of detail and even the colours are closely matched between them.

 

That is of course until you look underneath!

Right - Cambrian kits. As they are kits, you can obviously fit whatever couplings you like however tension locks cannot wiggle side to side. 

Middle - Rapido versions. And it is here they are light years ahead of Cambrian with all the underframe detail.

Right - top Dapol, bottom Bachmann - again behind both above

 

 

Now to the BR ones, with the Bar in place (though not glued). If I have a nit here, it is that, once glued, you cannot put the wagon back in it's box. Now Bachmann have Tarpulin wagons and the bar can be pushed to one side (it pivots on its fixing). So would have preferred that system. Anyway... still glad to see them in RTR.

The pair of Rapido wagons have replaced the remaining two very old Airfix wagons that were still active in my fleet. I now have only Bachmann wagons from the 90s still using plastic wheels and mainline big tension locks. But they are very few now...

 

 

 

And finally, a grey SECR D class:

 

[JSpencer]

By this time, some people are probably getting fed up of grey SECR locos pulling late SECR wagons even if it was historically accurate.

 

So this batch shows a P class in full Wainwright livery with one late SECR wagon, and yes this is historically accurate as both are preserved on the Bluebell railway. (I could have used a C or H class, but they are a bit big for just one wagon!).

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

My 2 cents worth.

As an EM modeller, not impressed with the wheels, axles and Mickey mouse bearing cups, can't find any 28mm (at a rough guesstimation)  pin point axles to do a straight swap.

As a Yorkshireman, not impressed with the price considering the poor quality of the level of underframe detailing, although the body moulding is very fine and I presume accurate.

Somewhat of a curate's egg, hoping for better things from the gunpowder van.

 

Mike.

[stephennicholson]

Gave my C Class an outing with my new set of SECR  wagons plus other assorted stock on our club layout this morning. Very satisfied.

 

 

[Dunsignalling]

10 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

My 2 cents worth.

As an EM modeller, not impressed with the wheels, axles and Mickey mouse bearing cups, can't find any 28mm (at a rough guesstimation)  pin point axles to do a straight swap.

As a Yorkshireman, not impressed with the price considering the poor quality of the level of underframe detailing, although the body moulding is very fine and I presume accurate.

Somewhat of a curate's egg, hoping for better things from the gunpowder van.

 

Mike.

My 7-plank is very happily running around on Gibson OO wheelsets which were a straight swap for the standard ones. Have you removed the bearings?

 

I have an aversion both to "chromed" wheels and NEM coupler mounts, both of which are now absent from this wagon. The coupler mount screws double up to fix the body in place.

 

Having  countersunk the holes provided in the underframe from above, into which I superglued screws to mount my preferred #146 Kadee couplers. That made it necessary to shorten the nibs that accommodated the original screws and align the ballast weight.

 

I reattached the body using solvent after I was certain I'd done everything I wanted. Nuts on the underside secure the lids of the Kadees, the draft boxes being attached to the underframe using solvent.

 

Incidentally, I note that the Gunpowder vans don't have bearings, presumably having been tooled before the SECR wagons.

 

John

Edited April 3, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, Dunsignalling said:

My 7-plank is very happily running around on Gibson OO wheelsets which were a straight swap for the standard ones. Have you removed the bearings?

 

Whilst I wasn't doubting that the wagon wouldn't run perfectly happily with drop in AG's, after all it's how the standard unrewheeled (sic) wagon would be anyway, I wasn't overly convinced that the, to me, excessive degree of slop, and the fact that the bearings aren't seured, wouldn't detract from it's running qualities, and yes, I left the pyramids of doom in, although on the first wagon, not realising they were there I had an exciting game of hunt the pinged thingummyjig on the floor!

The original bearings are now removed and replaced with brass bearings fitted into re-drilled holes on the inside of the axlebox at a normal width apart.

 

Mike.

[GreenGiraffe22]

Here's a video I made the other day (more videos in the replies)

Unsurprisingly, I have late SR versions of all the wagons. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dunsignalling]

44 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Whilst I wasn't doubting that the wagon wouldn't run perfectly happily with drop in AG's, after all it's how the standard unrewheeled (sic) wagon would be anyway, I wasn't overly convinced that the, to me, excessive degree of slop, and the fact that the bearings aren't seured, wouldn't detract from it's running qualities, and yes, I left the pyramids of doom in, although on the first wagon, not realising they were there I had an exciting game of hunt the pinged thingummyjig on the floor!

The original bearings are now removed and replaced with brass bearings fitted into re-drilled holes on the inside of the axlebox at a normal width apart.

 

Mike.

Interesting. I hadn't realised the bearings are loose in the axleboxes. Maybe mine aren't (?) or I was just lucky that none fell out!

 

I should have no need to molest this wagon further and will take special care when I get round to the 5-plank. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

 

Sideplay with the Gibson wheelsets fitted is no more than 0.25mm which is how I like it.

 

John

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Just for completeness here's what I did.

 

Mike.

[Wickham Green too]

17 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

.... As an EM modeller, not impressed with the wheels, axles and Mickey mouse bearing cups, can't find any 28mm (at a rough guesstimation)  pin point axles to do a straight swap.  ....

As an EM gauge modeller, too, I only 'lost' one of the bearing cups when re-gauging my first four wagons and fitting bog-standard Gibsons - it didn't go far and was easily glued back in ...... I've not checked how secure the other ones are but I hope Rapido can make them available as spares because they're somewhat different from anything I've seen elsewhere.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Well, I'm at a loss to understand why I have issues with the axle width, maybe I've got a duff couple of wagons.

 

Mike.

[Captain Kernow]

I might go and get one of these and see how easy it is to convert to P4.

 

[McW]

5 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

I might go and get one of these and see how easy it is to convert to P4

Very easy, literally a straight swop. I used Exactoscale wheels/axles and only work was to gently scape the brakes for free running. (actually with the bearings the wagons are very free running!) The brakes lined up a treat. As mentioned the couplings and pockets are easily removed. The model does seem reasonably weighty but I will add some more as well as some better coupling hooks and some 3 links before weathering. See piccy a few posts above.

 

Regards Paul

[Enterprisingwestern]

14 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

As an EM gauge modeller, too, I only 'lost' one of the bearing cups when re-gauging my first four wagons and fitting bog-standard Gibsons - it didn't go far and was easily glued back in ...... I've not checked how secure the other ones are but I hope Rapido can make them available as spares because they're somewhat different from anything I've seen elsewhere.

 

I've got 8 if all else fails!

 

Mike.

[phil gollin]

.

 

As a novice at SECR liveries, can anyone tell me when the first wagons were repainted from black to grey, and when were the last ones completed - there were so many that I imagine it was several years.

 

Likewise, how long did the change to SECR grey locos take ?

 

Thanks.

 

.

[JSpencer]

2 minutes ago, phil gollin said:

.

 

As a novice at SECR liveries, can anyone tell me when the first wagons were repainted from black to grey, and when were the last ones completed - there were so many that I imagine it was several years.

 

Likewise, how long did the change to SECR grey locos take ?

 

Thanks.

 

.

 

For wagons, they were always grey, just the shade became darker from say 1917 and the discreet SECR lettering on the bottom right hand corner gave way to bigger lettering going across the upper wagon side.

The types Rapido are doing, were generally noticeably bigger and better than the types produced before. They appeared right at the end of the SECR and carried only the later SECR grey and lettering.

They were - in many ways - the forerunners to future SR designs which were generally the same size but visibly very different (take Rapidos SECR van and compare to Bachmann's SR van, same size but the latter has 2 vents on the end vs 1 for the SECR design). 

 

For locos, you could take WWI as a rough ball park period when locos switched from various greens (full Wainwright that would have been disappearing since 1910, simplified Wainwright, Maunsell green which was short lived and only a couple of hundred locos may have carried it) to grey though some might have crept on until later. 

Some info exists in the SECR society as to when certain locos got repaints but this covers a very short period and merely hints the paint scheme such locos may have received.

 

It seems that, in general, a repaint would occur each time it passed through a workshop for maintenance or repair.

[phil gollin]

9 minutes ago, JSpencer said:

 

For wagons, they were always grey, just the shade became darker from say 1917 and the discreet SECR lettering on the bottom right hand corner gave way to bigger lettering going across the upper wagon side.

The types Rapido are doing, were generally noticeably bigger and better than the types produced before. They appeared right at the end of the SECR and carried only the later SECR grey and lettering.

They were - in many ways - the forerunners to future SR designs which were generally the same size but visibly very different (take Rapidos SECR van and compare to Bachmann's SR van, same size but the latter has 2 vents on the end vs 1 for the SECR design). 

 

For locos, you could take WWI as a rough ball park period when locos switched from various greens (full Wainwright that would have been disappearing since 1910, simplified Wainwright, Maunsell green which was short lived and only a couple of hundred locos may have carried it) to grey though some might have crept on until later. 

Some info exists in the SECR society as to when certain locos got repaints but this covers a very short period and merely hints the paint scheme such locos may have received.

 

It seems that, in general, a repaint would occur each time it passed through a workshop for maintenance or repair.

.

 

Excellent, thanks.

 

.

[Bishdurham]

Looking forward to seeing some with 3-link fitted, pity at the price that they were not included in the pack.

[Graham_Muz]

My thoughts here https://southern-railway.com/2022/04/07/rapido-trains-uk-secr-5-and-7-plank-wagons-in-00-arrive/

 

[Corbs]

1 hour ago, col.stephens said:

From what I can make out in all of the above photos of the wagons, there is no representation of the interior bolt heads.  Considering all of the exterior nuts are represented the interiors look rather plain to me.  Is there a manufacturing reason for this?  

 

Terry

 

As I understand it, if you had a large milled block to be the 'negative' of the inside of the wagon in the mould, you wouldn't be able to remove it if it had to fit around sticky-out bits like bolt heads.

The planks are an illusion - each one is wider than the last.

A kit that has each side moulded individually should be able to have inside and outside detail represented (in theory).

 

[Pre Grouping fan]

To have full internal detail you would need a collapsible core mould. When the mould opens the core that makes up the inside of the body essentially collapses in on itself allowing it to release the moulded component. From my brief injection moulding experience they are quite costly so might not be viable for a wagon.