Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench

[Mark Forrest]

A nice conversion of an interesting looking wagon. Apologies if i've missed it early, but what were they used for; were these also for lime?

[Rob Pulham]

Have you thought of making some WD transfers, Rob? Be something different.

 

Hi Jonathan, It would and you have given me food for thought - sadly my Midland wagon book is up north and my printer at home so I if I go down that route it will delay finishing it for a while but it might be worth it for something as you say a little different.

[Rob Pulham]

A nice conversion of an interesting looking wagon. Apologies if i've missed it early, but what were they used for; were these also for lime?

 

Hi Mark,

 

To be honest I haven't been able to confirm what they were used for post war with a few things being suggested but no real proof so far. The NBR has some similar wagons that were used for offal and Lime.

[wagonbasher]

Have you thought of making some WD transfers, Rob? Be something different.

You can buy a small range of W^D transfers @ W^D Models.

 

Do you know what the purpose of the wagon was or where and why it ran?

 

I like what you have done, very tidy.

 

Andy

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Andy,

 

Sadly I am no nearer to being sure what they might have been used for post war.

[Mallard60022]

That SR meat van weathered looks superb. Pity it isn't 4mm................................I'd have offered you several pennies for that one, if it had been.

Phil

[Rob Pulham]

That SR meat van weathered looks superb. Pity it isn't 4mm................................I'd have offered you several pennies for that one, if it had been.

Phil

It's already gone Phil - the NBR 4 plank was part of the proceeds

[jwealleans]

Given that this wagon has a lid, Rob, you could stick WD markings on it anyway and if anyone asks you what it's for, tell them it's classified.

[Rob Pulham]

Given that this wagon has a lid, Rob, you could stick WD markings on it anyway and if anyone asks you what it's for, tell them it's classified.

Great idea - along the lines of "if I told you I would have to Kill you!"

[Rob Pulham]

Well, my thoughts on MR or LMS transfers were sidetracked by not really getting to the bottom of what these wagons might have been used for post war. That and as per the previous couple of posts Jonathan coming up with the suggestion of finishing it in W^D livery with secret contents. Anyone who knows me well will understand how much this appealed to my sense of humour so here we are.

 

 

 

Once again the transfers are home made and printed on white decal paper.

[Rob Pulham]

After a heavy week last week supporting the election in Wakefield I had a steady weekend on the modelling front.

 

A plea on the guild want adds had supplied me with some spare transfers for the Tar Tank and by golly I needed them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I need to decide how to weather it - the sides of the tank are still glossy from the transfer coat.

[Rob Pulham]

Despite using the NBR 4 plank to "show off" the packing case that I built from coffee stirrers it was never it's intended load. 

 

While browsing the NBR section of LNER wagons volume 3 (as I was detailing the 4 plank and making up the body for the drop side version) I noted that when carrying barrels the NBR had made use of what I can only liken to the  plaited rope fenders that ships and barges etc. use to protect the sides of the vessel whilst docking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using an idea given to me by Bob Alderman,  I used short strands of sisal string for the straw and Chris kindly plaited some longer lengths of string that had been separated into individual strands and I then coiled them up and glued them into a flat cushion. After colouring them with dilute paint and trying them in the wagon with the barrels I found that two together created a better effect.

[Rob Pulham]

While reading up on the WD wagon in Essery I also noted a few pictures of a Midland Railway shunters truck similar to the ones that the GWR had. I wondered if the LNER or it's constituents had anything similar. 

 

An enquiry on the LNER forum revealed that the GCR has a couple and the NER had built one. No photos or drawings have emerged for the GCR examples but by fortunate coincidence I had (unbeknown to me at the time) I had a copy of the drawing for the NER example which is included in the Railway Snowploughs in the North East book by David and Claire Williamson. 

I had to use a bit of modellers license in this one because although the NER built it in 1902, in 1907 it was rebuilt into a double ended snowplough (hence it's inclusion in the book).

 

This is a true multimedia build:

The floor and step boards are coffee stirrers

The rest of the timber work is styrene strip

The handrail stanchions are brass split pins with piano wire rails

Brass handrail  knobs and nickel wire make up the lower handrails.

The hand brake column is a Slaters casting

The W Irons and V hangers are Slaters from the spares box as are the axle boxes but I did modify them with styrene.

The springs and hangers are scratch built from styrene strip and angle

Buffers are Haywood Railway and the couplings are Parkside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

While I was off for the last week I also did more work on the NBR 4 plank Dropside wagon. It's a good job that I did because since returning to Wakefield with big plans to crack on with the G5 my mojo seems to have taken a holiday too and no modelling has been done for the last couple of days.

 

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos the white styrene is quite difficult to photograph and I am not yet at the stage where I can give it a coat of primer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door bangers had me scratching my head - the Evergreen strip kept snapping as I bent it to shape (despite using a coat of solvent to soften it). My solution was to use the broken ends of styrene as the outer strap and cutting about 2/3rds of the circle from a small length of styrene tube to use for the main protruding part of the door banger.

[N15class]

 

While I was off for the last week I also did more work on the NBR 4 plank Dropside wagon. It's a good job that I did because since returning to Wakefield with big plans to crack on with the G5 my mojo seems to have taken a holiday too and no modelling has been done for the last couple of days.

 

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos the white styrene is quite difficult to photograph and I am not yet at the stage where I can give it a coat of primer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door bangers had me scratching my head - the Evergreen strip kept snapping as I bent it to shape (despite using a coat of solvent to soften it). My solution was to use the broken ends of styrene as the outer strap and cutting about 2/3rds of the circle from a small length of styrene tube to use for the main protruding part of the door banger.

 

Looking very good.

 

What did you you use for the bolts and washers on the headstocks etc they look very smart.

[Rob Pulham]

Looking very good.

 

What did you you use for the bolts and washers on the headstocks etc they look very smart.

Thanks Peter,

 

The washers are cut with a rotating leather punch on it's smallest setting (just the right size for this sort of thing) and the bolts themselves are just stubbs of styrene rod. I used 0.5mm, 0.65mm and 0.8mm on various parts. I have just found out that Plastruct do plastic hex rod that goes down to 0.8mm so I intend to get some.

[ozzyo]

Rob, IIRC most of the nuts on wooden wagons were square, with a coach bolt being used in the wood, these tended to have a dome shaped head.

 

OzzyO.

 

EDIT. I've just had a look at one of my LMS wagon books and it look like they used hex. nuts. !

Edited May 24, 2015 by ozzyo

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Paul,

 

You may have noted that I have put square heads on the shunters truck? This is because the photo that I used of the wagon that was rebuilt into the shunters truck had square heads. I haven't found a photo of the shunters truck itself and since it was only in existence for around 5 years it may not have been photographed at all.

 

The NBR wagons that I have looked at so far, all seem to have hex heads. I have also noted that the LNER seem to have used square heads on a lot of stock so I will need to take note as I build going forward and add the appropriate heads.

 

Thanks for the input.

[Rob Pulham]

Before the mojo deserted me and in between building the G5 (pretty much in the thinking time when I needed to work out the next step) this just about fell together - It's a GER Wool Wagon from Andy Beaton's Ragstone range that I picked up at Telford last year during what seemed like a GER frenzy (I ended up with 3 GER wagons, one D&S, this one and a Powsides GER 5 plank open).

 

I have a couple more of Andy's kit's in the stash and if they go together like this one I will be very pleased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the strapping and brake gear are lovely brass castings and a dream to fit.

It will be finished in very faded and worn GER livery as part of my engineers fleet.

[Rob Pulham]

I had last week off but it was a bit of a working holiday.

 

Turning this: 

 

 

or rather that's the neighbours back garden, because I forgot to take a before shot of ours which is a bit wider.

into this:

 

 

 

The top section of decking is 5m x 2.4m and the lower one 3.4 x 2.4 (but we didn't actually plan on the second section it just developed from the first as they do

 

Before my energy deserted me completely, I did manage to complete the NBR 4 plank dropside ready for painting. - While the paint dries I will solder the links on the couplings and do something about all the turning marks on the buffer heads.

 

 

 

[david.hill64]

Is that the base for the outdoor railway?

[0_gauge_novice]

Hi Rob,

 

I saw that you have built the Slaters MR Long cattle wagons. Can you say to me how long is the wheelbase and how long is the body?

 

Cheers

Andreas

[Rob Pulham]

Is that the base for the outdoor railway?

Hi David,

 

Sadly not although I did quip about it when we had finished - this is the base for the outdoor railway

 

 

But I am somewhat ashamed to say it's been like that for almost two years - I do plan to get the track laid this summer but as you can see other events have overtaken me.

Hi Rob,

 

I saw that you have built the Slaters MR Long cattle wagons. Can you say to me how long is the wheelbase and how long is the body?

 

Cheers

Andreas

 

Hi Andreas, 

 

I will dig them out and measure them for you.

[Rob Pulham]

Modelling has taken a bit of a back seat to gardening and work the last few weeks so it was good to do a bit over the weekend.

 

I started by re-roping the NBR open - the sisal string that I used originally just didn't look right. Chris found me something better and I also took Bob Alderman's advice and ran it through block of beeswax which makes it much easier to use and smooths off the "hairiness" of the cord.

 

 

 

I took the opportunity of shredding a bit more sisal string and colouring it to add to the 'straw' packing. It all looks big in this close up but it's quite fine cord at normal viewing distances.

 

Although they haven't been in front of the camera yet I have painted and added transfers to the NBR dropside and another Slaters Salt wagon. Plus I have weathered the wood insides of both the dropside and the NBR Floor Cloth wagon that I built many moons ago. Once I have weathered the outsides I will take photos.

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Rob,

 

I saw that you have built the Slaters MR Long cattle wagons. Can you say to me how long is the wheelbase and how long is the body?

 

Cheers

Andreas

 

Hi Andreas,

 

Sorry this had slipped my mind - do you want the Slaters kit measurements or the prototype measurements?