Dock Green

[DLT]

Wagons and Vans on Dock Green 13

 

Time for another brake van I think. 

 

There is something very appealing about brake vans......

 

Quite right Chaz, you can never have too many!

Cheers, Dave.

[gismorail]

I'd totally agree about you thoughts on the featured brake van it does have character no doubt about it. Your wonderful collection of wagons has made me start to realise the real charm of 7mm modelling and the fact that although the layout is not large in size it more than makes up for it in scope and interest. The fact that you can go into in depth research when producing a model like this gives each item of stock something of a background / history and extra detail which is probably lost in 4mm scale due to the need for greater numbers of stock and the gauge involved. 

Keep up the wonderful work 

[chaz]

I'd totally agree about you thoughts on the featured brake van it does have character no doubt about it. Your wonderful collection of wagons has made me start to realise the real charm of 7mm modelling and the fact that although the layout is not large in size it more than makes up for it in scope and interest. The fact that you can go into in depth research when producing a model like this gives each item of stock something of a background / history and extra detail which is probably lost in 4mm scale due to the need for greater numbers of stock and the gauge involved. 

Keep up the wonderful work 

 

 

Thanks for those very encouraging comments.

 

It is possible to get character into 4mm wagon models but it's not that easy with RTR. Look at Geoff Kent's excellent Wild Swan series "The 4mm Wagon" which I bought for the numerous prototypical notes and photos and you will see that it can be done but the skill level required is very high. I have just looked at the section on the BR 20T brake van (in part 3) and the modelling of that van is on a par with anything I have seen in 7mm - but if you had the model in front of you it would undeniably lack presence when compared with an O gauge one.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

Wagons and Vans on Dock Green 14

 

 

 

W2492 is a GW Fruit C of 1911/21 vintage. There might well have been a few of these vans still in use in the late fifties but they certainly didn’t last as late as the more modern Fruit Ds.

 

 

Like the Fruit D it is coupled to in the above picture W2492 was built from an excellent WEP Models kit. It is mostly etched brass but the timber frames and details of the doors are white metal castings. I always solder white metal parts like this rather than use glue. So much quicker to do and, I would argue, cleaner and more permanent. Tin the brass first. Use plenty of liquid flux, apply the iron to the brass not the casting, watch the 70 degree solder flow into the joint and remove the iron as soon as the flux stops hissing.

 

 

A couple of photos which feature the Fruit C as a background detail…

 

 

You will guess that I haven’t had much luck finding close views of W2492!

 

 

However here’s a close up of one end of the Fruit C showing how nice the detail work on those white-metal door frames is. It is coupled to the next van which I will feature…

 

Just found this one which I think is worth adding.

 

 

Chaz

Edited September 19, 2017 by chaz

[Western Star]

Whilst not knowing how many chapters there are in the wagon saga...  have you thought about the impact upon your readers of coming to the end of the series?  What shall we do without your brilliant photos and very readable captions?

 

Answers on the back of a packing card.

[chaz]

Whilst not knowing how many chapters there are in the wagon saga...  have you thought about the impact upon your readers of coming to the end of the series?  What shall we do without your brilliant photos and very readable captions?

 

Answers on the back of a packing card.

 

 

Cripes! I hadn't thought that you might be on the edge of your seat waiting for the next instalment.   Well, here's a thought, you could always turn off the computer and go make a model or two....hang on, that's what I'm abou...

Edited September 19, 2017 by chaz

[Tove]

 

Answers on the back of a packing card.

 

 

[chaz]

vintage-postcard-662113.jpg

 

 

Wot - no stamp?

[Western Star]

Wot - no stamp?

Not needed, the other side of the card has a Freepost address.

[Hal Nail]

have you thought about the impact upon your readers of coming to the end of the series?  What shall we do without your brilliant photos and very readable captions?

 

With a bit of luck RMWeb will start charging for photos, someone will find a new workaround and Chaz can do them all a third time for box set season three!

 

Chaz: I can't remember if you mentioned a date for the layout? Having spent years absorbing photos from the late 50s / early 60s for inspiration, it was only when I actually started to try and pin a date down I found a huge number of things i had planned to model didn't actually overlap (just shows how fast it all changed round then). In the end I decided not to worry about it within a few years' tolerance!

 

Edit - forgot to add how much I've been enjoying all these photos as well!

Edited September 19, 2017 by Hal Nail

[chaz]

With a bit of luck RMWeb will start charging for photos, someone will find a new workaround and Chaz can do them all a third time for box set season three!

 

Chaz: I can't remember if you mentioned a date for the layout? Having spent years absorbing photos from the late 50s / early 60s for inspiration, it was only when I actually started to try and pin a date down I found a huge number of things i had planned to model didn't actually overlap (just shows how fast it all changed round then). In the end I decided not to worry about it within a few years' tolerance!

 

Edit - forgot to add how much I've been enjoying all these photos as well!

 

 

Do it all a third time - I don't think so.

 

Well now, the original intention was to go for 1959, when the ECML was still largely steam, with a few diesels starting to appear. However I was forced, much like it sounds as if you are, to accept a slightly elastic time period. So I now have stock which had no overlap. 

To give one example my saddle tank 68824 was withdrawn in May 1959 whereas my Brush type 2 D5612 was not delivered until the spring of 1960. They could never have been seen together but they frequently are on Dock Green. I just make sure that any anachronisms are not too blatant - a couple of years is neither here not there....

[chaz]

Wagons and Vans on Dock Green 15

 

 

S2065S is an SR CCT - the quaintly titled “covered carriage truck”. The prototype vans along with the similar BYs and the larger bogie vans seemed to turn up all over the system.

 

 

The CCTs were easily spotted by the doors in their ends that enabled vehicles to be loaded from an end-loading dock. Another distinguishing feature is the lack of a guard’s compartment - it would get in the way of loading a vehicle! They share that SECR roof profile with the SR 12T vans.

 

 

I made the model with the excellent Slater’s kit which has all the detail work necessary to make a very convincing model. Like I did with the brake van I replaced the plastic foot-boards with ones cut from brass sheet. I really like these vans, the chalking boards under the windows and the ventilator hoods under those are good details and the door handles are lost-wax brass castings - very nice. 

 

 

I used Slater’s own upgrade kit to add sprung axleboxes running in etched-brass W irons to compensate this long van. The two self-tap screws visible in the middle of the underside are holding a piece of sheet lead in position inside the van. Despite its size the model is very light and definitely needs some ballast. I have grown wary of glueing lead into the base of vans as a couple of mine have shaken loose and rattle around in side - self-taps screws should not come adrift!

 

 

I did consider running a parcels train consisting of three or four vans in and out of Dock Green but decided against it as such a train would almost certainly not be shunted. It would run in, be unloaded and loaded, and depart. So the NPCS vans just run in goods trains.

 

 

The CCT looked very unconvincing when I applied the green livery. Whether I have gone far enough with the weathering is debatable - these SR vans have been painted red, green and blue in BR days but it was often impossible to tell what colour lurked under the dirt.

 

Chaz

[chaz]

Wagons and Vans on Dock Green 16

 

 

W32708, a GW Bogie Bolster C, was made from a Connoisseur kit. This was to the usual high standard from Jim McGeown although folding up the sides and the solebars can be a challenge. Long folding bars and a decent sized bench vice make it fairly straightforward.

 

 

Before I let this wagon loose on Dock Green it had to have a load. Some plastic angle was glued into a stack and painted with Humbrol Metalcote steel with some touches of rust. 

 

 

I used some fine brass chain, 4mm screw couplings (non-working unfortunately) and some links from 3-link couplings to join it all together. I prepared it all by blackening it with Brass Black (toxic - read the label!).

 

 

Like some of my other loaded wagons I can’t think of a way that I can easily unload it, so it’s always seen carrying the steel girders.

 

 

68824 is doing duty as the yard pilot. It’s propelling the bogie bolster and the Weltrol off the headshunt and on to the next goods to go out. A headshunt and an ever-present pilot engine avoid the need for a run-round loop and save quite a bit of space.

 

 

On a different day Hornsey has sent 68891 (one of the original 1913 batch of GNR J23 tanks - classified J50/1 by the LNER) to take the yard pilot role.

 

Chaz

Edited September 21, 2017 by chaz

[81A Oldoak]

Wagons and Vans on Dock Green 16

 

P1030534-2-1.jpg

 

W32708, a GW Bogie Bolster C, was made from a Connoisseur kit. This was to the usual high standard from Jim McGeown although folding up the sides and the solebars can be a challenge. Long folding bars and a decent sized bench vice make it fairly straightforward.

 

P1060764-1.jpg

 

Before I let this wagon loose on Dock Green it had to have a load. Some plastic angle was glued into a stack and painted with Humbrol Metalcote steel with some touches of rust. 

 

P1030525-2-1.jpg

 

I used some fine brass chain, 4mm screw couplings (non-working unfortunately) and some links from 3-link couplings to join it all together. I prepared it all by blackening it with Brass Black (toxic - read the label!).

 

P1060004-2-1.jpg

 

Like some of my other loaded wagons I can’t think of a way that I can easily unload it, so it’s always seen carrying the steel girders.

 

P1050388-1.jpg

 

68824 is doing duty as the yard pilot. It’s propelling the bogie bolster and the Weltrol off the headshunt and on to the next goods to go out. A headshunt and an ever-present pilot engine avoid the need for a run-round loop and save quite a bit of space.

 

P1050991-1.jpg

 

On a different day Hornsey has sent 68891 (one of the original 1913 batch of GNR J23 tanks - classified J50/1 by the LNER) to take the yard pilot role.

 

Chaz

At least the metal blackener is actually a toxic substance. I'm always amused by the usually very long lists of dire side-effects, sometimes including death, that adorn the labels of pharmaceutical products in the USA; it's a wonder anyone actually buys them.

[chaz]

At least the metal blackener is actually a toxic substance. I'm always amused by the usually very long lists of dire side-effects, sometimes including death, that adorn the labels of pharmaceutical products in the USA; it's a wonder anyone actually buys them.

 

 

Well there has been some debate here on the forum about just how toxic it really is, with the suggestion that I might be over-reacting by taking the label warnings seriously. Personally I'd rather not find out the hard way! So I work on a small tray in the sink with disposable gloves and cotton buds to apply the stuff. The gloves and the buds go in a bag and then into the bin and the tray and the work and the outside of the firmly stoppered bottle get washed with lots of rinse water - but without full-force from the tap - no splashing! I'd rather be thought paranoid than be poisoned.

 

Chaz

 

Chaz

[Barnaby]

Still adding detail, still improving the Dock Green ambience, still finding all manner of areas to further nourish with detail............. does anyone every complete a layout.

 

Love the fat round tar wagons known in the yard as TWEEDLE, DUM & DEE.

 

 

Excellent work Chaz

 

Best

Edited September 21, 2017 by Barnaby

[Tove]

At least the metal blackener is actually a toxic substance. I'm always amused by the usually very long lists of dire side-effects, sometimes including death, that adorn the labels of pharmaceutical products in the USA; it's a wonder anyone actually buys them.

Well on the complete polar opposite to your post Chris.I brought some 'multi purpose' (brass-solder -etc) blackening from Hobby Holidays at Telford this year,

and all you get is 'Caution irritant,was off with water'.......

 

Mind you, after seeing how quick it worked on some brass buffer shank`s,i`m not going to drink it anytime soon!!.

 

Brian.

[bbishop]

Selenium dioxide, I believe.  With a chemistry degree, I treat most warnings with contempt; but not this stuff. It is nasty. Disposable gloves - and I decant a minimum into a small screw topped bottle then give it a good shake.

 

Bill

[chaz]

Well on the complete polar opposite to your post Chris.I brought some 'multi purpose' (brass-solder -etc) blackening from Hobby Holidays at Telford this year,

and all you get is 'Caution irritant,was off with water'.......

 

Mind you, after seeing how quick it worked on some brass buffer shank`s,i`m not going to drink it anytime soon!!.

 

Brian.

 

 

Very wise. You probably have a variety of nasty liquids lurking under your sink which you would certainly treat with the same respect. 

 

The Casey's jollop works pretty rapidly and does solder too so it might well be much the same as your multi-purpose brew. It's certainly much better than the Carr's product which is very slow and has a tendency to flake.

 

Chaz

[Simond]

Googling "LD50 Selenium" yields quite a bit of information about toxicity, however, this does seem to depend on the type of compound.

 

You'd need around 7g of metallic selenium per kilo of body weight to kill you (let's not be too strict about the definition of LD50 here). That's quite a lot, and of course, it depends how fast it's going. But some of the salts seem far more toxic, at least 3 time more than alcohol. There is evidence of skin contact with selenium dioxide causing severe pain in certain circumstances, and as little as 30ml at 2% solution can be fatal to human adults.

 

You would certainly want to be careful with it.

 

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+677

 

Best

Simon

[HeatherKay]

Inching, ever so slowly, towards the Paint Shop.

 

 

The chassis has had a nice long running-in session after initial trials revealed a tight spot on one of the eccentric straps. I don't think there are any major details left to fit, so I can't really put off cleaning it all up and getting the primer sorted out.

[3 link]

Inching, ever so slowly, towards the Paint Shop.

IMG_4945.JPG

The chassis has had a nice long running-in session after initial trials revealed a tight spot on one of the eccentric straps. I don't think there are any major details left to fit, so I can't really put off cleaning it all up and getting the primer sorted out.

Looks great Heather,

 

I had to look twice as for a second I thought you had finished the 2251, I was all of a quiver for a second there.....

 

Martyn.

[81A Oldoak]

Looks great Heather,

 

I had to look twice as for a second I thought you had finished the 2251, I was all of a quiver for a second there.....

 

Martyn.

Steady The Buffs.

[HeatherKay]

Looks great Heather,

I had to look twice as for a second I thought you had finished the 2251, I was all of a quiver for a second there.....

Martyn.

The 2251 is currently away having some important electronics fitted. I aim to complete that build in the new year. =o)

[3 link]

The 2251 is currently away having some important electronics fitted. I aim to complete that build in the new year. =o)

Morning Heather,

 

Ah it's good to hear it has not been put back on the " to do shelf ". I have one of the JLTRT kits that has been in the cupboard for quite a while now, so I'm just hovering around in the back ground pick up any tips along the way.

 

What are the odds that once I start my build, one of the rtr companies will bring one out. I wonder if the wheelbase of the loco is the same as a pannier, Mr Minerva. : )

 

I would think they would be a good seller.

 

Martyn.