Dragon Steels, South Wales metals traffic 1990-1992

[br2975]

( I )

As far as Short Billet wagons are concerned I think a couple of HEA type ones will do for now. While on the subject of internal users, I realise there were wagons for scrap/reject wire coils but were there any for scrap billets?

 

(II)

Ooh yes please pics, fleet numbers etc will be most useful, I'll PM/Email you about that and some info on 08's will be required at some point as well if it's no trouble.

 

 

(I)

A number of 'Warflat' wagons (some ex-BR) were purchased and converted to scrap carriers and numbered in the 'BF' (Birds Fragmentisers) number series. Towards the end of Allied Steel & Wire they had their box bodies removed and replaced with bolsters ('I' section bolsters) and were renumbered into the 'CB' series (Condemned Billet). So, save your pennies for the forthcoming Bachmann 'Warflat' (Ref 38-727).

 

(II)

From when 'Transrail' took over the ASW shunting contract circa 1996, then when EWS took the contract over  I kept records of Cl.08/09 shunters allocated to the ASW hire pool, and those sighted in and around the works (some working there were short term cover and not re-allocated into the 'pool'- others were allocated to the WSAW pool but remained at Canton as 'Christmas trees' ) up until GBRf won the contract. I recorded some 60+ Cl.08/09 shunters working in/around the ASW complex.

I have a folder outlining each loco, with photos and detail differences, livery details and the dates they were working at Tidal / ASW. I'll bring it along to the Cardiff Show in October (I'll be operating my brother's layout) for you to peruse.

 

Brian R

[br2975]

With Wayne's permission (after all, it's his thread) I've put the following link in:-

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=24398&sid=a813d49ff23acaae5e88ab6985423fb0

 

This takes you to my original thread about Allied Steel & Wire.

 

Brian R

[Wayne 37901]

With Wayne's permission (after all, it's his thread) I've put the following link in:-

 

 

Thanks Brian,

 

As ever, any information you think might be relevant is gratefully received.

 

Thanks for posting the link, saves having to search for it again.

 

Cheers

[Guest Dave.C]

It is good to see this moving forward Wayne

[Wayne 37901]

It is good to see this moving forward Wayne

 

Thanks Dave,

 

I have to say it does feel good to see it coming together as well, it really has taken me too long to get this one finished. I think the burst of motivation has come about by thinking of the next couple of schemes and also a couple of field trips down to Celsa. Now that the new buildings are painted ad weathered, it's starting to look how I first imagined it.

 

Cheers

Edited September 5, 2013 by Wayne 37901

[Wayne 37901]

Good evening,

 

Well another week is almost over and yet more progress has been made. This week has seen me get some work at the bridge end of the layout completed and also some building detailing and weathering undertaken, oh and I also picked up a little something at a bargain price for my next project which is in the research/planning stage.

 

One problem with steelworks buildings is that they tend to be slab sided structures with not much detail on some, except for some pipework maybe so I'm looking at what detailing I can do. 

 

 

If I can manage to get a picture uploaded to this old thing (the other half's laptop) then I'll see if I can get one up sometime next week.

 

 

Cheers,

[Wayne 37901]

Good evening,

 

As promised here's a  pic showing where I'm at. Apologies for the quality, it was only taken on a little pocket camera.

 

Still a bit of detailing to be done but that will be added over time.

 

37904 has arrived with a service which has had traffic for Dragon Steels detached from the rear (off scene). It will now run round before continuing it's journey.

 

The hole in the foreground is where a Kadee magnet will be housed, although it has yet to arrive.

 

Comments and questions welcome as usual.

 

More soon.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Wayne 37901

[pompeydave]

Hi Wayne

 

Really nice layout.Impressive background buildings.Hopefully some more pics soon.........?

[d winpenny]

Looking good looking forward to more updates

 

David

[mason]

Looks fantastic great work

[JeffP]

It's nowhere near dirty enough.......throw a few BAGS of iron oxide powder over it, you'd be getting there.

[marc smith]

Coming along nicely Wayne
It's looking great
Re the buildings, I'd suggest adding lots of pipework
Use Plastruct, or anything tubular of the right size, that you can get your hands on
Have a chat with Paul R - I seem to recall him using all sorts of odds & ends
when he built his circular layout "Castle Works"

 

Also maybe add some vents and square section ducting
and maybe another raised walkway?
 

They are huge buildings, I know

and you need to be careful not to overdo this
It's a fine balance.....
 

Keep up the good work sir
I want to see this one completed
 

Marc


 

[br2975]

Impressive Wayne - keep us updated with progress.

.

Brian R

.

PS

I've printed off a few things for you, including an illustrated list of ASW internal wagons from my sightings, and a booklet produced by ASW for staff and customers regarding their various wagons (both internal and network registerd). I'll have them at the Cardiff Show.

[Pannier Tank]

The hole in the foreground is where a Kadee magnet will be housed, although it has yet to arrive.

 that's some magnet 

[Wayne 37901]

It's nowhere near dirty enough.......throw a few BAGS of iron oxide powder over it, you'd be getting there.

 

Hi JeffP,

 

The fact that it isn't covered in muck was meant to be intentional as this section only represents the run round, headshunt into the coil handling warehouse and exchange yard (fiddle yard) to the left. The trackwork and surrounding areas will be weathered further in due course however.

 

Coming along nicely Wayne

It's looking great

Re the buildings, I'd suggest adding lots of pipework

Use Plastruct, or anything tubular of the right size, that you can get your hands on

Have a chat with Paul R - I seem to recall him using all sorts of odds & ends

when he built his circular layout "Castle Works"

 

Also maybe add some vents and square section ducting

and maybe another raised walkway?

 

They are huge buildings, I know

and you need to be careful not to overdo this

It's a fine balance.....

 

Keep up the good work sir

I want to see this one completed

 

Marc

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind works Marc,

 

Yes, having been down to Celsa a few times this year on field trips I was quite impressed at just how much pipework the buildings have around them. I've been having a little think about this and I have some Plastruct tubing to start with, but it's deciding where they go etc.

 

Yes I need to add some vents. IIRC the Peco engine shed came with some and there should be bits of one in the loft somewhere in it's box. There's also at least two more sections of walkway to put up, just need to finish and paint them up. I'll also need a caged ladder but haven't looked around for that yet.

 

It is a fine balance indeed. That's one of the many reasons it's been taking me this long.

 

Yes, I want to see it completed as well. It really has taken me far tooooo long. Plus I want to start the new project soon to keep me busy over the winter so I'm determined to get this one finished.

 

 

 

Impressive Wayne - keep us updated with progress.

.

Brian R

.

PS

I've printed off a few things for you, including an illustrated list of ASW internal wagons from my sightings, and a booklet produced by ASW for staff and customers regarding their various wagons (both internal and network registerd). I'll have them at the Cardiff Show.

 

Thanks Brian,

 

Were it not for your information on all things steelworks related, I probably wouldn't have got to where I am now.

 

What a nice surprise, thanks very much. Not sure what I'm up to work wise yet but I'll let you know near the time.

 

 that's some magnet 

 

Hi Pannier Tank,

 

Yes, it's one of their 'under the track' magnets. It comes with a steel backing plate to intensify the magnet when hidden under ballast etc. There is already one installed between 37904 and the BBA in the pic I posted.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Knowing that people appreciate what I'm doing is one of the things that keeps me motivated, so I hope you'll come back again.

 

Cheers

[JeffP]

I live less than three miles from Britain's biggest steelworks, and believe you me, it's ALL dirty, all of it. Even the finishing/handling areas. They try to keep it clean, but to no avail. Dust can be up to two feet thick in some areas. I've seen sand-fleas living in it .

 

I would agree with the need for pipework, don't forget the bends put in to allow for expansion. Pipes run on gantries, and go everywhere. Conveyors are a nice touch too.

 

Will your outside balcony area have a stair leading down?

[Wayne 37901]

I live less than three miles from Britain's biggest steelworks, and believe you me, it's ALL dirty, all of it. Even the finishing/handling areas. They try to keep it clean, but to no avail. Dust can be up to two feet thick in some areas. I've seen sand-fleas living in it .

 

I would agree with the need for pipework, don't forget the bends put in to allow for expansion. Pipes run on gantries, and go everywhere. Conveyors are a nice touch too.

 

Will your outside balcony area have a stair leading down?

 

Hi JeffP,

 

I think the tricky thing would be how to get that look without overdoing it on the model which is quite easy to do. What I'm going for is the less is more approach but I'll have a think about further weathering later on. For the moment I'm concentrating on landscape and building details.

 

Not quite, the outside balcony you can see in the picture will continue on to the centre section and have a caged ladder leading to the roof.

 

Cheers

[Wayne 37901]

While I'm browsing, here's another pic I didn't manage to upload last night...

 

 

One of the resident pilots 08664 is seen resting on the headshunt while it's crew take a break. You can just make out the area above in the background which is still a bit of a building site as I may be modifying the bridge. To my eye, something doesn't look right about it.

 

 

Cheers

Edited September 26, 2013 by Wayne 37901

[Wayne 37901]

Good evening,

 

I've been thinking about building detail such as pipework etc and one thing that puzzled me was how to attach the pipework to the buildings. I suppose I should make up some form of support but without a picture to work to it's tricky. For the walkway I added sections of I beam, but I'm sure the pipework wouldn't be held on with that... Or would it?

 

I've also dug out some vents from a Peco sprue and some other bits and bobs for thinner section pipework so over the next few days I should get the buildings detailed up.

 

 

Cheers

[Arthur]

Pipes are usually supported on a saddle, a bit of plate with a cut out to match the pipe diameter. This supports the pipe and itself will be mounted on a gantry or a steel support cantilevered off the building side. Other pipes can be suspended from a gantry or bracket via a steel bar and clamp encircling the pipe.

 

This photo, taken whilst I was building the module for the RMWeb day in Taunton, should give some ideas.

 

[Wayne 37901]

Hi Arthur,

 

Thanks that's very helpful. I'm really impressed with what you have done on Staplegrove Works. I'll have to see what I can knock up. Is it tricky to get the profile of the saddle to match the pipe or is it just a matter of constant test fitting?

 

 

Cheers

[br2975]

Wayne

.

In the case of my abandoned project, in order to get the saddles to be a snug fit beneath the pipe I cut the out the curve (to accomodate the pipe) roughly, then wrapped sand paper around the pipe and sanded the saddle until it was the size I wanted.

.

I generally used a large section Plastruct or Evergreen 'I' beam then used some thin styrene sheet to line the saddle.

.

My original pictures are rather poor, but hopefully may help.

.

Brian

 

[Arthur]

Wayne, I'd recommend Brian's method of using sandpaper around the pipe to get the final fit, it's a generally useful technique for mating anything to a round object.

 

It's not actually the method I used on those saddles. For what it's worth, I've got two jewellers disc punches (intended for punching out discs in thin metals) both of which can punch out a several diameters of discs/holes. I can always match a hole to any plastic pipe I'm using. These punches are not cheap and unless, like me, you are intending to do an awful lot of this kind of modelling, the cost isn't really justifiable. They just make the process very much quicker, from a single hole punched in plasticard, I can make 4 or 6 saddles.

[Wayne 37901]

Hi Brian,

 

I see, so it seems I can use I beam to support the pipes. That's good because I have a few sizes in stock. The photo's look good enough to me, I think I remember seeing of them on your thread.

 

Thanks for the tip about the sandpaper as well, I'll give it a go and see if I can get something knocked up. I must say I do like that pipe 'bridge' but I don't think I'll have anywhere to put one of those on Dragon Steels.

[Wayne 37901]

Morning,

 

As the building details are coming along thanks to some excellent input on here, I thought I would move on to an area that's proving a bit tricky and that is the corner between the large building and the backboard. At the moment I've got two storage tanks on a concrete base planned but I was also thinking of an Oxygen tank surrounded by a Palisade fence. The idea being to hide the join between the building and the board a bit better.

 

The end wall will also have some raised walkway, vents etc added to take away the blank look.

 

The following pic will show the area in question.

 

Comments/thoughts welcome.

 

 

Cheers