Newcastle Emlyn - Early goods rolling stock

[Andrew P]

Hi Neil, I guilty of NOT popping in very often to see how your doing. I do like the work on the Vans and Wagons, glad to see your still progressing well.

 

All the best.

[Jock67B]

Evening Neil,

The fun of building such a kit certainly beats sitting in a hotel room watching TV. Well done, it looks lovely.

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Anotheran]

Hi Neil, I guilty of NOT popping in very often to see how your doing. I do like the work on the Vans and Wagons, glad to see your still progressing well.

 

Andy,

 

Given that up until Tuesday I'd not posted anything on the thread for almost four months I think you can be forgiven for not popping in often over that time

I've really been enjoying building the kits. Though I must get back to the track and electronics soon!

 

Kind regards, Neil

[Sasquatch]

I've really been enjoying building the kits. Though I must get back to the track and electronics soon!

Yeah but once you have built a few you'll want to get the track work done to see them running! Self inspiration!!

 

Great to see some kit modeling. Parkside have two new-uns out. An LMS cattle and GWR fruit/ banana.

 

Regards Shaun

[ChrisN]

I am away from home one day a week and always take a kit with me, then bring it back untouched as I am too tired, so well done.  It looks a nice little kit too.

[Anotheran]

Yeah but once you have built a few you'll want to get the track work done to see them running! Self inspiration!!

Great to see some kit modeling. Parkside have two new-uns out. An LMS cattle and GWR fruit/ banana.

 

I saw the banana van. But I thought that while I could just about get away with the horse van (the local nob moving his prize horses around) I don't think Newcastle Emlyn would be likely to see enough banana traffic to justify one of them. Of course, I may just get one because I like the look of it and run it on Doxey End

 

As for LMS cattle wagons... I already have four RTR Bachmann ones. As they wouldn't be seen in Newcastle Emlyn (for which I have three GWR RTR ones) the only place I could run them at the moment is Doxey End which isn't really big enough to justify more than four.

 

So for now I definitely won't be going for an LMS cattle kit. I need another six or seven 16-ton minerals though!

 

Kind regards, Neil

[Fat Controller]

I don't know if you've seen an album called 'Great Western Branchlines- Volume 2, Rural Wales' published by Runpast Publishing. There's a photo of Newcastle Emlyn, taken on 18th August 1962, with the yard looking pretty full. Visible stock includes a 14t Class A tank (operator's name not visible)and a wide selection of vans. The latter, about 20 vehicles in total, include examples from all the Big 4, along with BR-built types. Most are lined up on the mileage roads, but two are on the track between the cattle dock and the main road. The cattle dock itself looks a bit careworn, with a lot of vegetation everywhere, and the loading gate at an odd angle. Was it still in use, I wonder? The only mineral wagon visible looks to be an ex-PO example, end only visible, though there are almost certainly other examples obscured by the rows of vans (the coal traffic being dealt with on the road nearest the river). The photographer was someone called John Langford.

[Anotheran]

Hi Brian,

 

Thanks for the post and the pointer at the photo. I have a copy of GW Branchlines Vol 2 and have seen the photo before, but not looked back at it for a while. It's one of the sort of photos that I want to be able to reproduce. The variety of vans is certainly something that interests me. At that point I don't know if the cattle dock was still in use. The road to it often seems to be filled with a variety of wagons that have nothing to do with livestock, presumably just for storage. While I want to be able to reproduce to some extent that look I won't be putting weeds in and out for different eras. I'll try to put something in that doesn't look out of place at any time... at least that's the current plan.

 

Coal traffic was the road nearest the river, the staithes being at the western end of the yard right up against the river boundary. In 1962 almost all would have been ex-PO types. There's a photo from 10 years later with a class 37 and a rake of 10 or 11 16-ton BR minerals. It's amazing the change over such a short period. I want to be able to model them both!

[Fat Controller]

I do wonder what those vans might have brought? The possibilities that come to mind are fertiliser, basic slag or beet nuts for winter feed; the local Farmer's Co-Op or agricultural merchant will have organised a special price for bulk quantities, to be collected within X days of a given date. There'd be far too much for the limited storage of the goods shed and provender stores, so all sorts of vehicles from tractors and trailers to the local coal merchant's lorry would be pressed into service.

Trains like this still ran in the early/mid 1970s, and had a great variety of stock until the end- I saw a (very dirty) BR Insulated Meat van in one such train heading for Carmarthen.

[Anotheran]

I do wonder what those vans might have brought?

Hi Brian,

 

You've missed rabbits

 

Thank you for that insight. I have a GWRS journal issue that has a lot of information on NE, including lists of goods. I'm not at home at the moment so can't look at it. But there is one photo showing a large number of rabbit baskets stacked up alongside the bay waiting to be loaded. When I'm next home I'll look out the article.

 

Kind regards, Neil

[Fat Controller]

Hi Brian,

 

You've missed rabbits

 

Thank you for that insight. I have a GWRS journal issue that has a lot of information on NE, including lists of goods. I'm not at home at the moment so can't look at it. But there is one photo showing a large number of rabbit baskets stacked up alongside the bay waiting to be loaded. When I'm next home I'll look out the article.

 

Kind regards, Neil

I think rabbits would go as 'passenger-rated' traffic, either in the van of the branch passenger train, or in somrthing like a Fruit D or a Siphon- certainly not in a large number of Vanfits like that.

Of course, it could be van loads of Welsh flannel..

[Anotheran]

I've been jumping around a bit of late, and I am still to finish building the horse box, so that will reappear in time. However, a couple of weeks ago I was in West London for the weekend and drove out to High Wycombe for the Wycrail show. It's a nice, medium sized, club show with a good range of layouts and traders. One of the latter I spotted was a new one Severn Models who have been going about a year after a Kickstarter campaign. He produces brass etch models. While he started with 2 mm and has more of these he also has a growing set of 4 mm and a few 7 mm.

 

Having never done anything with brass before I thought I'd give them a go so bought the smallest 4 mm kit he had... two garden sheds. This is what I found...

 

The kit and instructions are very nicely put together and packed. Opening it up I thought it looked simple enough for me to have a go. The first thing I realised was that I didn't have a suitable tool to help me bend the brass, particularly close to the edges. So having been unsuccessful at my favourite model shop I paid a visit to Hobbycraft and found a suitable pair of pliers... in the jewellery making section. So I now have a pair of flat faced jewellery pliers... with pink handles!

 

 

 

Using my rail cutters (which worked a lot cleaner than my side snips that I use on circuit boards) I detached all of the main shed elements, cleaned them up with a small file, and bent them appropriately using my new pliers and a steel rule. Then super-glued the window to the frame and the frame into the wall.

 

 

 

Then it was the turn of the door. I was already looking at those handles with trepidation! The main part of the door, with the cross bracing inside and the frame went together really nicely.

 

 

But the handles... those are centimetres on the rule, not inches! One handle managed to ping away from me as I was trying to put it into the back plate. Having looked on the table and in the carpet for ten minutes I decided that I should give up and live with the fact that I'd only have an outside handle on the door. Then the second pinged away!

 

 

Fortunately, having searched a further five minutes for the second handle, I discovered the first, attached to my jumper! The second has remained lost somewhere in the carpet. But at least the outside of the door was able to be completed.

 

 

The door frame was glued to the inside of the wall and the shed completed by closing up the walls, adding the corner pieces and the roof, to leave a very neat looking model.

 

 

Andy of Severn Models had recommended to me at the show that I paint the model before adding the glazing (acetate included in the kit) so to leave the floor unattached. So a quick undercoat of Skull While was sprayed on to both shed and floor.

 

 

And a final shot that shows the detail on the inside of the door (which is why I modelled it open, but revealing the fact that the inside handle is missing. But I'm still extremely happy with the result so far.

 

 

So now I have something else to paint! It's a great little model with some really nice detail. I now need to find somewhere to drop a shed on the layout... but that's what DE all about, enjoying the building and working out where to put things. NE is the prototype, so that won't be able to have such luxuries, so I need to be able to play about with the content of DE

 

I really need to get back to the electronics for the servos soon so that I can start putting things properly into place on the layout!

Thanks for looking in!

 

EDIT: to add the url for Severn Models... No connection of course; just extremely pleased with my first etched brass model: http://severnmodels.com/

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Anotheran
Adding back images lost by site change

[emt_911]

Neil. I looked at Severn Models kits when I was at the Taunton show. Unfortunately my wallet had already taken a bit of a hammering. Having seen how good they are and how easily you've achieved an excellent finish, the pennies will have to be saved again.

[ChrisN]

I've been jumping around a bit of late, and I am still to finish building the horse box, so that will reappear in time. However, a couple of weeks ago I was in West London for the weekend and drove out to High Wycombe for the Wycrail show. It's a nice, medium sized, club show with a good range of layouts and traders. One of the latter I spotted was a new one Severn Models who have been going about a year after a Kickstarter campaign. He produces brass etch models. While he started with 2 mm and has more of these he also has a growing set of 4 mm and a few 7 mm.

 

Having never done anything with brass before I thought I'd give them a go so bought the smallest 4 mm kit he had... two garden sheds. This is what I found...

 

The kit and instructions are very nicely put together and packed. Opening it up I thought it looked simple enough for me to have a go. The first thing I realised was that I didn't have a suitable tool to help me bend the brass, particularly close to the edges. So having been unsuccessful at my favourite model shop I paid a visit to Hobbycraft and found a suitable pair of pliers... in the jewellery making section. So I now have a pair of flat faced jewellery pliers... with pink handles!

IMG_4216.JPG

IMG_4218.JPG

 

Using my rail cutters (which worked a lot cleaner than my side snips that I use on circuit boards) I detached all of the main shed elements, cleaned them up with a small file, and bent them appropriately using my new pliers and a steel rule. Then super-glued the window to the frame and the frame into the wall.

IMG_4219.JPG

IMG_4220.JPG

 

Then it was the turn of the door. I was already looking at those handles with trepidation! The main part of the door, with the cross bracing inside and the frame went together really nicely.

IMG_4221.JPG

But the handles... those are centimetres on the rule, not inches! One handle managed to ping away from me as I was trying to put it into the back plate. Having looked on the table and in the carpet for ten minutes I decided that I should give up and live with the fact that I'd only have an outside handle on the door. Then the second pinged away!

IMG_4222.JPG

Fortunately, having searched a further five minutes for the second handle, I discovered the first, attached to my jumper! The second has remained lost somewhere in the carpet. But at least the outside of the door was able to be completed.

IMG_4223.JPG

 

The door frame was glued to the inside of the wall and the shed completed by closing up the walls, adding the corner pieces and the roof, to leave a very neat looking model.

IMG_4225.JPG

 

Andy of Severn Models had recommended to me at the show that I paint the model before adding the glazing (acetate included in the kit) so to leave the floor unattached. So a quick undercoat of Skull While was sprayed on to both shed and floor.

IMG_4228.JPG

 

And a final shot that shows the detail on the inside of the door (which is why I modelled it open, but revealing the fact that the inside handle is missing. But I'm still extremely happy with the result so far.

IMG_4229.JPG

 

So now I have something else to paint! It's a great little model with some really nice detail. I now need to find somewhere to drop a shed on the layout... but that's what DE all about, enjoying the building and working out where to put things. NE is the prototype, so that won't be able to have such luxuries, so I need to be able to play about with the content of DE

 

I really need to get back to the electronics for the servos soon so that I can start putting things properly into place on the layout!

Thanks for looking in!

 

EDIT: to add the url for Severn Models... No connection of course; just extremely pleased with my first etched brass model: http://severnmodels.com/

 

Neil,

Well done, it does look good.  Brass is very different from plastic and these seem to be a good introduction to it.  I have made some Shire Scenes coach sides which can also be glued but they get you used to bending and curving.  They are mainly GWR coaches so some may be applicable to NE at an early date; they are all 4 wheel vehicles.

 

Have you thought about getting a brass rod, bending the end, gluing it in place and then snipping it for the door handle?

[Anotheran]

Well done, it does look good.  Brass is very different from plastic and these seem to be a good introduction to it.  I have made some Shire Scenes coach sides which can also be glued but they get you used to bending and curving.  They are mainly GWR coaches so some may be applicable to NE at an early date; they are all 4 wheel vehicles.

Have you thought about getting a brass rod, bending the end, gluing it in place and then snipping it for the door handle?

 

Thanks Chris, I enjoyed that build a lot. Took a couple of hours mind! You've already directed me to Shire Scenes as I'll be using them for my earlier trains. From what I can see only one of the out of the box Ratio kits will fit my requirements. Others will need to be married with Shire Scenes sides.

 

As for brass rod... Looking at the various bits of sprue that I have from the etch I think there's some suitable bits there that I can use as a handle inside. I have to say though that when I fed back to Andy of Severn Models that a couple of extra handles wouldn't go amiss on future etches he replied very promptly that he would take that on board for the future and also that if any of the etches came back faulty he'd grab them for handles for me and pass them to me at the Stafford show!

 

That comment of yours on coaches made me think... see the next post 

 

Kind regards, Neil

[Anotheran]

So having built a shed that I'll struggle to find a suitable place for on Newcastle Emlyn (though there is one back garden on the road side of the layout that just makes it onto the layout) Chris' comment about coaches made me think about the Ratio kits I've had sat in the cupboard for a while. I decided it was time to do something that was clearly for Newcastle Emlyn, and also clearly for the earlier incarnations.

 

My favourite Newcastle Emlyn photo was taken in 1911 and shows Cader Idris heading up a 3 coach train made up of a four wheel five compartment third, then comes a four wheel full brake and finally a clerestory (which according to the schedules shouldn't have been a clerestory, but should have been a four wheel composite, but the photo doesn't lie!) The first of those is a match for Ratio kit 210 (the second will need the same kit, but replacement sides from Shire Scenes). So I thought I'd give a Ratio coach kit a try.

 

 

The chassis is pretty simple and, after a little cleaning up of the parts, went together easily. I like the Ratio idea of using the fill points from the sprues as locating pins in the build. It all went together nice and square with just a little care.

 

 

 

The only thing I'm not too happy with are the wheels. They're plastic and don't really look and feel as nice as I'd like. But they're not the same size or design as any of the metal wheel sets I have in my boxes. Does anyone know if such replacement wheels are available, or are the Ratio ones actually OK to run with?

 

 

Two ends and two sides later, plus buffers and vacuum pipes, and the kit is pretty much complete (the roof, as per what is now my standard, is not secured but will be attached with hobby tack once everything is painted.

 

 

It still needs some hooks (which aren't included for some reason) and also couplings to be attached as well as the glazing. I'll also add in some partitions between the compartments and some seats if I can find or manufacture some suitable ones. But to get to this stage, and what looks like a neat little coach to me, only took an hour. So I've decided I like Ratio coach kits as well.

 

Thanks for looking.

Kind regards, Neil

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Anotheran
Adding back images lost by site change

[Anotheran]

Although I do seem to be staring lots of kits at the moment, and getting the up to the paint stage, it's not because I don't want to finish anything off. It's because I want to have a good number ready to prime before I set up the spray booth. I'm probably close to that point now, though I think I will finish off the horse box before I do that. I also have to admit that, at the moment, I'm enthusiastic about building the kits for NE and less so about getting back to the magnets and electrics of DE... but that will come back soon too!

Edited November 15, 2015 by Anotheran

[Removed a/c]

Just had a read over this thread. Some nice models you have built. 

[BG John]

Not sure who makes suitable wheels now, as I have a pretty good stock that I bought decades ago! Mine were supplied by the EM Gauge Society (to EM gauge obviously), and it's well worth replacing the plastic ones.

[ChrisN]

Neil,

Did you put in brass pin point bearings for your wheels.  If not Dart Castings supply them.  I have used Alan Gibson Maunsell wheels, not sure what the correct size is, 14mm?

 

I have half built two of the Shire Scenes ones, will put them on my thread eventually.

[Anotheran]

Not sure who makes suitable wheels now, as I have a pretty good stock that I bought decades ago! Mine were supplied by the EM Gauge Society (to EM gauge obviously), and it's well worth replacing the plastic ones.

 

Neil,

Did you put in brass pin point bearings for your wheels.  If not Dart Castings supply them.  I have used Alan Gibson Maunsell wheels, not sure what the correct size is, 14mm?

 

I have half built two of the Shire Scenes ones, will put them on my thread eventually.

 

Thanks John and Chris for the quick response to the query. I'll take a look for Alan Gibson Maunsell wheels. I can measure the size to get that right

I have put brass pin point bearings in. All my rolling stock has them. They do run freely, I'm just not happy with plastic wheels.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your coaches on your thread Chris!

 

Kind regards, Neil

Edited November 15, 2015 by Anotheran

[Anotheran]

I felt bad about jumping to the shed and coach while the horse box was still in the state in which I left it. So as a last piece for the evening I went back to that. This is a much more detailed/fiddly kit than any of the others, but I very much like the way that it's looking. This evening was all about bits that are almost invisible. Brake blocks, gas cylinder, vacuum cylinder, brake rods, V hangers, gusset plates and finally buffers and hooks. It may not look much, but these bits of this kit took me almost as much time as I had spent on the coach earlier.

 

 

As I said, most of it won't be visible as I don't intend to have it this way up on the layout if I can help it!

The next session of this will be even more fiddly, with steps and a wealth of hand rails all of which will be visible and look as if they'll make this wagon quite special.

 

Thanks guys for looking, and also all the likes and comments even after I've been away for a time. I like the community here.

 

Kind regards, Neil

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Anotheran
Adding back images lost by site change

[ChrisN]

Thanks John and Chris for the quick response to the query. I'll take a look for Alan Gibson Maunsell wheels. I can measure the size to get that right

I have put brass pin point bearings in. All my rolling stock has them. They do run freely, I'm just not happy with plastic wheels.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your coaches on your thread Chris!

 

Kind regards, Neil

 

Neil,

If you have the bearings it will be fairly easy to 'pop' the wheels out and 'pop' the new ones in.  In fact I built my chassis without the wheels and put them in afterwards.

 

Do not hold your breath for the coaches on my thread, there is the shelter to build, and a little matter of actually getting the trains running, then there is the platform, the station building, finishing the wagons............. 

[Anotheran]

Before going to grab something to eat I took another look at the instructions and have realised that I'm not able to leave the roof removable on the horse box. Two of those nice handrails that make it so attractive curve round the upper edge of the grooms end, and attach to the roof. So while I remembered to do it I've drilled a number of small holes into each internal compartment so that when I do fix the roof on I don't end up with a sealed compartment. I guess standards are there to be broken!

[Anotheran]

Finally for tonight a bit of fun for post 300... Cader Idris at Newcastle Emlyn in 1911...

 

 

Lots of mods to do on that L&Y tank and I need to sort out my angles and lighting, not to mention the station in the background and the other coaches that I've cropped out of the picture! We're not quite there yet, but it's a start... 

 

Goodnight all!

Regards, Neil

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Anotheran
Adding back images lost by site change