Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Steadfast]

Ah rightio, I'll try it on my next FUD order. Thanks!

 

Jo

[Nile]

With all this interest I'd better get on with it. As the model was a bit light I added some lead to the underside. There's isn't room for much, but it's better than nothing.

 

 

The model as it comes is basically complete apart from one important detail, the screw handle thingies at one end that secure the load. After a bit of experimenting I worked out a way to make these from bits of plastic rod. A cross was made up of three pieces of 20thou micro-rod, onto this was glued some 1mm rod.

 

 

After this had dried it was trimmed to size.

 

 

It fits neatly into a hole on the end of wagon.

 

 

Repeat three times and there are enough to finish the model.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

To combat the translucent nature of the material I painted the whole of the body dark grey.

 

 

The ends of the screw handles painted black before gluing them onto the body.

 

 

Painting of the body in its final colours has started.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nile

[jwealleans]

Are you planning on running this loaded, Neil? ISTR there are either beams or blocks on the inside of those screw clamps to allow them to press against the load and stop it moving.

[Nile]

Ultimately I'd like to be able to do both. But as I haven't got a load yet it will have to stay empty.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Nile

[Nile]

Painting finished, based on my best guess as to what it should look like.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nile

[LNERGE]

Ho Hum puts my efforts to shame..

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32297024@N08/albums/72157697018622204

[Nile]

I think they look rather good. It goes to show the efforts needed to make one of these. A RTR model is bound to be announced this week.

[Fat Controller]

Painting finished, based on my best guess as to what it should look like.

13.JPG

Very nicely done; looking at photos of the wagons, they seemed to return to the brickworks with empty pallets, strapping and dunnage thrown haphazardly on board.

[macgeordie]

Painting finished, based on my best guess as to what it should look like.

13.JPG

Nice work Nile, looking at the photos earlier in the thread, the body looks amazingly like one designed by a friend of mine who had them printed by Scaleways last year, I wonder if they just offer other peoples work for sale after they have printed them for the customer.

 

By co-incidence I've been working on an etched kit for one of these as well. I'll start a thread on it in a couple of weeks after I do another test build. Here is a photo of a couple of the earlier test builds.

 

 

Ian

[Nile]

On 04/06/2018 at 12:45, macgeordie said:

Nice work Nile, looking at the photos earlier in the thread, the body looks amazingly like one designed by a friend of mine who had them printed by Scaleways last year, I wonder if they just offer other peoples work for sale after they have printed them for the customer.

 

Ian

 

If you meant Shapeways then yes it's probably the same design. Your friend must have made them available to others, Shapeways don't sell people's designs without permission.

 

To make it compatible with my other modern stock  I fitted Kadee no.26 couplers. These are a longer version of no.5, ideal for British stock. I'll have to replace those wheels with non-magnetic ones eventually, I hadn't noticed at the time.

 

 

Transfers are from a HMRS sheet. The 'PALBRICK' is a bit long, no room for the B on the end.

 

 

With a bit of weathering, the view from the other end.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nile

[macgeordie]

John Isherwood has produced a special sheet of transfers for this wagon to go with my kit. The sheet number is BL56d

 

Ian

[cctransuk]

John Isherwood has produced a special sheet of transfers for this wagon to go with my kit. The sheet number is BL56d

 

Ian

 

https://www.cctrans.org.uk/products.htm

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Nile]

At nearly a year with no activity in this topic I should get a move on and tackle the kit mountain.

I'm starting with these recent additions. As a bonus they came with Gibson wheels.

 

 

Assembly was straightforward and took no time at all. This kit comes with internal plank detail included (not all Slater's kit do), making life easier - no need to scribe them.

 

 

Before long I had three identical wagons.

 

Each kit comes with a transfer sheet for the numbers.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nile

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Nile said:

Before long I had three identical wagons.

 

 

But did the Ocean Colliery Co.?

 

 

 

 

 

[Nile]

You've found more photos than I did, thanks.

[Compound2632]

There are at least three Gloucester RC&W Co. officials, two, of Nos. 917 of May 1893* and 4548 of Oct 1896**, are in identical condition to the Slater's kit, with the round-bottomed axleboxes, the second, No. 4817 of July 1897*** is very similar but with the later rectangular Gloucester 4S axleboxes. One can also find online photos of a preserved wagon carrying the latter number that was at one time a museum exhibit, but that is very obviously an RCH 1923 wagon. The taller style of OCEAN lettering seen in the colliery photos is also to be seen on another 10 ton wagon from the Ince Waggon Co., No. 2292 (no date)**** and also some later 12 ton wagons including one in Hurst Nelson's lurid works photographic livery*****. But I rather like the variety seen in the first photo I posted, with a mix of dumb buffers (at one or both ends), 4, 5, or 6 planks, raised ends... The Treharris Deep Navigation Colliery was worked by the Harris Navigation Steam Coal Co. for twenty years until the Ocean Colliery Co. was formed to take it over in 1893; the investment by the new company probably explains the rapid increase in the wagon running numbers over the course of at least three orders with the Gloucester Co. in the 1890s. The other question that has been intriguing me is the sphere of operation of the company's wagons. Was it just pit-to-port over the Taff Vale or was there inland demand for Ocean coal that would justify their wagons turning up far from South Wales?

 

*HMRS ref. ACH107, also in C. Chapman, The Nelson and Ynysybwl Branches of the Taff Vale Railway (Oakwood Press, 1997).

**HMRS ref. ACH111.

***HMRS ref. ACG520, also in K. Montague, Private Owner Wagons from the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd (OPC, 1981)

****HMRS ref. ACA231.

*****HMRS ref. ABN621.

[Compound2632]

To be fair, I suspect those Gloucester orders were large - maybe several hundred wagons at a time? So there were many identical to the Slater's kit.

[wagonman]

On 25/05/2019 at 11:35, Compound2632 said:

To be fair, I suspect those Gloucester orders were large - maybe several hundred wagons at a time? So there were many identical to the Slater's kit.

 

Indeed they were: in April 1893 they ordered 300 new 10t wagons (with repair contracts as well), in March 1895 another 400 new 10t wagons, in December 1895 another 150 and again in December 1896 400 more. All new and all for cash.

 

Previously there had been numerous contracts for short term simple hire, some of which continued.

 

In December 1909 they started buying 12 ton wagons. 

 

Ocean also bought wagons from Chas Roberts, Ince, and the Western Wagon Co.

 

I've not managed to find many of the relevant registrations – assuming the wagons were usually registered by the GWR which may not have been the case – but not 2493-2525 were definitely part of the April 1893 contract.

 

 

[Compound2632]

Further delving in the HMRS Gloucester collection turns up a number of pre-1892 photos of Harris Deep Navigation wagons, similar to some of the Ocean wagons in the photos I posted - all 6-plank. I presume these wagons passed to the Ocean Colliery Co. when that firm took over the pit.

 

Dumb buffered No. 886 of Nov 1886.

Dumb buffered No. 919, also Nov 1886.

Sprung buffered No. 381, date illegible.

 

Nile, apologies for this excursion but I'm planning a number of Ocean wagons myself, inspired by these photos, having started one long before I discovered POWSides:

 

 

Edited May 26, 2019 by Compound2632

[Compound2632]

I've just spotted that the 5-plank wagon No. 452 that I posted has no side doors, only end door. I think I can spot another like it in the sepia photo - third along. Such a wagon would, I'm sure, bu used only for pit-to-port traffic, not to inland destinations.

[Nile]

A bit of paint and weathering and the're done. The only things needed to complete them were some 3 link couplings.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nile

[billbedford]

Why do people paint the insides of coal wagons anything other than coal-black?

[Guy Rixon]

18 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I've just spotted that the 5-plank wagon No. 452 that I posted has no side doors, only end door. I think I can spot another like it in the sepia photo - third along. Such a wagon would, I'm sure, bu used only for pit-to-port traffic, not to inland destinations.

Except in the special case where the customer has an end tippler, or a rotary tippler. Witness the Hull Corporation wagons with doors at both ends but not in the sides.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, billbedford said:

Why do people paint the insides of coal wagons anything other than coal-black?

 

Because they were swept clean after unloading - certainly by small-time coal merchants. (Maybe not at dockside tipplers.) Good photos of coal wagons from above in the pre-Grouping period are not common but I call as witness the photo of Gurnos, c. 1906, on pp. 140-141 of J. Miles, K. Thomas and T. Watkins , The Swansea Vale Railway (Lightmoor Press, 2017). This includes a line of Midland D299 and D351 wagons on a siding that is part of the engine shed yard; the furthest one is laden with coal; the nearer ones are empty - one can see down to the floor; there are no particles of coal to be seen. The unpainted woodwork is clearly grimy but lighter in shade than the external painted woodwork. The ironwork stands out as much darker.

 

On the other hand, the Booth & Mitchell wagons in this 1905 photo of Wisbech Sidings, Peterborough, do look quite dark on the inside, compared to the Midland D299 wagons alongside:

 

 

NRM DY 2801, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence.

 

The Midland's official photographer was out and about photographing marshalling yards in March 1905 - in the same series are photos of Washwood Heath, Cricklewood, Wigston, and Toton, along with the wagon tipplers at Kings Lynn and Swansea.