Shonky Wagon Works

[Nick Lawson]

This started as a  displacement activity when I couldn't make up my mind about the next step of my loco build.

 

I aspire to build up rakes of finescale wagons, but unfortunately I also desire one day to be able, every now and then, to marshall all roads of a fiddle yard into a really good long mineral train beyond economic reality; and run it around. So, while I have various promising materials in the stash,  I also found myself wondering about how I could assimilate other, abused 50 year olds relicts which I can't bring myself to bin; to make a 'B team' of don't-look-too-closely, shonky stock.  None of this should require expenditure on detailing frets etc.

 

Shonk The First

 

I had accumulated three examples of the venerable Triang “NER coke wagon” which famously looks almost exactly completely unlike any real NER prototype. As a diversion from sorting out coupling rods I looked to see which prototype these models look least unlike.

The answer seemed to be the diagram R5/R6 coke wagons – apart from being 1mm under length; 2mm over height; 4mm short on the wheelbase and with wheels 1mm diameter too big.

 

However the most obvious feature of the model is that it attempted to represent the distinctive NER end brake gear. Sadly  the limitations of the moulding mean that this appears as a Rear Parcel Shelf; Marble Run and Ferret Ladder. (pic1). Oh, and you might not have guessed that this lot was  meant to be brake gear at all, as the model also has the normal side brake handles.

 

But this end brake gear was only characteristic of the (ex Stockton & Darlington) Central Division of the NER, including coke wagons to diagram R5. The Southern and Northern Divisions had "normal" gear - including their equivalent coke wagons to diagram R6. So a proprietor of this Triang stock  can legitimately trim these "monstrous carbuncles" off the ends.

 

This was just a pleasing fancy but then The Pugbash appeared before me and said "Pick up your scalpel and follow Me." So what else could I do? Pic 2 shows the general effect, although with the fine scraping still to complete.

 

 

[Nick Lawson]

The next easiest improvement to these wagons is to reduce the height. There is a diagram by Peter Tatlow in his LNER wagons vol2. Comparing the model with it, the main body planking is slightly over height, but I'm not fiddling with that. However, the coke raves are too far apart, raising the height considerably. I always wondered whether these wagons carried huge lumps of coke. We had a coke-fired boiler at my parents' house (guess who fetched it in) and the fuel was – from memory – about 1-1.5” diameter. That would have shaken out all over the track.

 

Anyway it is a simple job with a piercing saw to remove the top rave, cutting immediately above the lower one; then remove the lower one similarly. Clean up the top main plank and top of the lower rave; then evenly shorten the stubs of strapping until you like the gap of the lower rave and mek it back in place. Repeat process for upper rave. You may need to apply some fine filler, depending on how enthusiastically you have wielded your file.

 

Doing this easily lowers the height by well over 2mm.

[Nick Lawson]

The last thing to say about the body is that these are supposed to be hopper wagons, so make with the plastikard. (pic1) The angle of this picture hides the fact that the floor looks manky, quite apart from my failure to model the bottom doors at all. Also that the central divider isn't level.  I am quite pleased with my scored planks in the hopper ends though.

 

Btw, I also discovered that my dad's old mortice gauge is quite useful for scoring straight planking lines into wagon sides.

 

I missed a trick with the first of these bodies: There is useful space underneath the hopper ends to add some weight to these wagons. Shonk 2 has added lead.

 

The hopper dimensions were roughly estimated from the Tatlow diagram. the result was painted with a notionally wood colour which makes me think of canine ordure; but I had bought a pack of weathering powders to experiment with, so slapped on  some black. I had also sprayed the outside with pale grey rattle can primer, which I then daubed with more black.

 

Properly there are other things I should have done first, such as giving this wagon an identity, but, for a five minute job, I'm quite pleased with the effect and it's given me something else to think about.

 

You will see from pic2 that the wagon also has an improved wheelbase. More of that anon.

[Nick Lawson]

Hmm, I never did finish off the story above. Maybe one day. In the meantime here's my

 

Triang R10/13 upgrade.

 

This started life as a green Triang R10/13 wagon with a BR(W) number. (I have no idea what the real prototype was, if any). I was given this when I was around 9, by another lad I was friendly with at the time. He didn't want it as he had lost interest in his trainset and this thing (typical Triang) didn't roll well. Even then, I instinctively wanted to salvage it (and it was free!). Fifty six years later, I have finally done so. ("You SHALL come out of the loft"). This was a lot of work, but a great exercise in wagon-bashing, inspired by seeing that others on RMWeb had trodden this path before me.

 

This version of the wagon has a cast steel one-piece chassis. The original plastic tubular axles ran on pins pressed through from one side. These were easy to push out, but the rigid frames meant that replacement axles with pinpoint bearings couldn't be eased in without dremeling & hand-filing  slots in the insides of the axles boxes. Eventually I got there and eased in EM gauge wheelsets, running in brass bearings glued into the slots. I set the first axle by eye to be parallel with the bottom of the frames. Inevitably the second axle didn't sit parallel with the first, so I had to hold one end in position while the glue dried. Pleasingly it does sit squarely on all 4 wheels as a result!

 

I cut away the Triang couplings and their mountings; drilled through the headstock and inserted some old 3-link couplings salvaged from something else. This wagon is only going to run occasionally as part of a long train and won't be shunted individually.

 

I ballasted the wagon underneath with lead shot to about 50g all-in.

 

This is a 16' wagon. To give it an older kind of look (admittedly still undermined by the massive buffers and axle boxes):

- I cut away the brake gear on one side The wagon had no brakehandle, so a spare plastic one has been added on the other side. (MR short pattern).

I bodged filler into the metal solebars to make them look more like wood. This is really rough and does not bear close examination.

I had a go at a generic private owner paintjob (an ancient tin of Humbrol R143). You can see my hand isn't steady enough for picking out the ironwork. Hopefully some heavy weathering will disguise this; and One Day I may add some lettering if I can choose a PO that looks about right.

Merry Christmas or Other_Holiday_Of_Your_Preference!

 

[Trestrol]

Sorry to bump an old post but you can also back convert it to a P4 hopper. The body is based on that wagon.

Edited March 9 by Trestrol
Added photo