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The Railway had a a wide variety of goods wagons. There where multiple 4 wheeled Dropside open wagons with curved ends, Two 4 wheel goods vans, and an endless supply of 6 wheel cleminson wagons. Ive started building up kits of the 4 wheel open wagons that I have acquired from the nine lines range. The 6 wheel cleminson wagons are resin cast from Golden Arrow, and the 6 wheel coaches are Brass etches that arr from Worsley Works. The wheels are Parkside Dundas 00n3.

Just kidding! I've had this "Monopoly" hotel kicking around for ages in my box of scraps - I think I picked it up off the pavement years ago... Today I set about converting it into something useful for the layout - a newsagent kiosk. Step one was to drill a hole in the side of the hotel and then square the circle using a file. Next, I sanded down the surface of the building - prior to gluing on corrugated styrene sheet, to represent wood panelling, and a door from spares. I left the hotel roof as it was, and then primed the whole thing with grey aerosol spray. Once dry - I painted the sides green and dry-brushed the roof black. This was followed by white dry-brushing over the whole model. A counter for the service hatch was made from card, some guttering from styrene rod, and I printed off some signage and newspaper headlines - these were mounted on thin card and fixed to the building.

I’m still working on the goods items for my goods depot. Here’s a selection of various items I've been working on recently. Apologies for getting a bit long-winded with this, but I enjoy learning a bit about goods items as I go along – it’s all part of the scene, after all. H0 and 0 casks from Frenchman River Works. Great texture and six hoops, which is rare on model casks despite being very common in reality. The FRW barrels again, now painted. At first I thought they were too rickety for an Edwardian goods depot, but then realized that they represent “dry slack” casks with wooden hoops as used for fruit, tobacco, nails etc - as opposed to “dry tight” casks for eg flour and salted products, and “wet tight” casks for beer, wine etc. Slack casks were typically of inferior materials and workmanship, and were often only used once. An interesting topic in itself, see eg this website. White metal beer casks from Dart castings. They are reasonable mouldings, but do require some work on the mould lines and flash. This particular type represents Firkins. The whole topic of unit sizes is fascinating but bewildering. For example, a wine and beer Hogshead were not quite the same, and a particular cask unit could be either fat or tall. The Dart casks after painting. Pins on the extreme left, the rest are Firkins. The light ones are work in progress. There’s a slight “Warhammer” look to these casks, but then these close-ups are very cruel. Prost! Large beer casks from German Kotol. I’m a bit ambivalent about turned wood barrels: The wood grain is often too large for 4mm. Translated to 4mm I would say these are roughly equal to a Butt (a word of advice: don’t try to Google butt and beer in the same sentence!). These lightly modified casks from Bachmann have a nice feel to them, and unlike many other model casks they actually have a bung hole (don’t Google that either). (update Feb 2021: Latest versions don't have the bung hole). I’m thinking they are Hogsheads. Hoops can be hard to paint neatly, so I painted some masking tape in a rust colour, and wrapped it around the existing moulded hoops. Oxidization of the hoops seemed to happen very quickly on new barrels. The Bachmann casks in place. Most 4mm casks only have four hoops, and at first I thought this was wrong for the larger types of casks. But photos from GWR goods sheds reveal several examples of casks with just four hoops, apparently irrespective of size and date. See GWR Goods Services Part 2A pages 6, 55, 59, 63, 92, 102, 163. On the other hand, there were clearly also many six-hooped barrels in Edwardian days, see eg the wonderful photo on p. 68 of the same volume. So both types would be appropriate, it seems. On to baskets. These wicker baskets are also from Hornby, now sadly discontinued. There are long debates about Hornby on here, but some of their goods items are fairly good - design clever, in fact! Gem whitemetal pigeon baskets (ebay seller’s image). At first I thought they were missing the external louvres for light and air that are evident on latter-day types. However, a bit of research suggested that some early types were in fact quite similar to the Gem offerings. See for example this drawing. It seems this type of pigeon basket was closed with straps, so out came the masking tape again, painted and folded to look like straps. Incidentally, for 7mm modellers Skytrex have some pigeon baskets in their large range of goods items. Hen’s teeth. After much searching I managed to track down this discontinued Preiser H0 “kit” for produce baskets. Painted hen's teeth. Photos from the 1900s show baskets of various sizes in goods sheds – both full and empty, and not just in large quantities but also individually or two or three together. The cabbages are a loose fit so far, would they have been covered with something during transport? Unsung hero. The humble goods sack, illustrated by a rather good whitemetal example from Dart Castings. More white-metal sacks from Dart Castings, now painted. I might make some more of the flat, stacked ones to my own design. When I was boy playing with toy soldiers, I made sandbags from clay and loo paper. I wanted some wool bales and decided to make them myself. I began with this type. Finding the right fabric is tricky. Hessian and similar materials looks overscale in 4mm. I ended up with a thin, soft and fairly tightly woven material for making sheets. It was wrapped around a length of plastic rod (several rods laminated to get the right shape), and fixed in place using Loctite Powerflex. The ends are individual cut-outs of fabric, soaked in glue and smoothed tightly to the rest of the bale, giving the impression of a seam. The rope was simulated by sewing thread. The thread was sewn to the bottom of the bale, wrapped around, sewn again to the bottom, etc. My wife watched with a strained smile, I suppose she would have preferred me to take up sky-diving. Despite pulling the thread tight, I wasn’t too successful in achieving the bulge between the “roping”. Experiments with a soft “core” of cotton wool didn’t seem to help. This is the best I could do for now. Next up was a different type of bale, the pressed ones illustrated here.I used the same fabric, but dyed it using an age-old technique: Dunk it in Carr’s sleeper stain and weather with baby powder. Apparently, manual bale presses were in use well before the turn of the century. To get that bulging look, I wrapped the fabric around H section plastic rod and stuffed it with cotton wool. More manly pursuits! The bales in place on the mezzanine floor. I'm not entirely satisfied. Even this fabric looks overscale in the texture. But I'm tired of fiddling with them, so apart from a bit of weathering this will have to do. Inspired by Nick’s cider boxes and Job’s whisky crates (many thanks gents!), I’ve experimented with making small crates from folded paper. I found some photos of this attractive Coleman’s crate on the web, allegedly correct for the period. The photos were scaled down, edited, and printed. As this is supposed to be a wooden crate, I glued the prints to sections of plastic rod in order to avoid the folds and sagging that would haved suggested a cardboard box. As far as I understand, cardboard boxes where only just coming into use as transport containers around this time, and I can’t recall seeing any in photos of 1900s goods sheds (but please do correct me if I’m mistaken). The Coleman’s crates came out OK, but most small crates of the period had an unpainted natural wood look which I find difficult to create in paper. So I’ve now ordered some paper-thin wood veneer that can be used in inkjet printers. Should make for an interesting little experiment. Edited Feb 2021: The barrels that I originally referred to as Hornby seem to have actually been from Bachmann. Note that I have since purchased some more of these, and the bung hole is no longer modelled. Oh, the woes of this world.

Firstly, I have some replacement W-irons (Achshälter) from Epoche3D in Germany [one is on the right hand end of this E-wagen]. They travelled (adventurously but very slowly, once they reached the UK) through the semi-blockade. These are 3D printed replacements for the rather wibbly units used quite widely on Klein Modellbahn H0 wagons. The photo isn't great but you can see that they correct two faults in the original versions. Firstly the shape of the 'irons' is too narrow at the top. Secondly the axleboxes (Achslager) are very shallow mouldings, 2.3mm from the outer face to the inner face instead of 3.9mm on the replacements. The 3D mouldings are in a resin that can be gently bent. They need a little bit of cleaning up to remove a few artifacts of printing. They accept 2mm diameter plain brass bearings; when fully pushed home these allow the same length of axle as the original. I've replaced the axles with RP25 ones. Once I have worked out how everything will be held together (not by the coupling mounting, the original design) I will get the other axle sorted and see about some painting. Incidentally the bearings depicted (sorry, not brilliantly well) are the SKF roller bearing pattern used in France, Belgium, the Netherlands etc. Alternatives include the DB roller bearing pattern, which also inspired the Klein one on the left, and the DR oil box which has a distinctive circular cover with four fastening bolts. If you are interested in European wagons, I recommend a look at Epoche3D's web site. The owner specialises in private-owner wagons and there are some interesting models to look at -- prints can be ordered on request. I mention this as a satisfied customer, nothing more :-) Secondly I have an LS Models/Modern Gala SNCF K van. This is an interesting model that is built very much like a plastic kit with many parts of the underframe glued into place. It originally had absolutely dreadful pizza-cutter wheels that totally let it down. The W-irons on this model are the right shape but they bowed outwards so the axles were loose. I tried replacing the wheels but everything was sloppy and horrible and there was something wrong about the way the new wheels looked. Then I realised that they were too small. The UIC standard wagons have wheels 1,000mm in diameter, and it looks as though many earlier wagons in Germany also had wheels of this size (perhaps being nice and straightforward rational number). The French wagons preceeding the adoption of UIC designs have bigger wheels. By roughly 10%, which is most convenient as that's the magic ratio between 1:87 and 1:76, allowing me to use Alan Gibson wheels that in 1:76 scale represent the 1,000mm wheel or rather its imperial equivalent. Converting that into the model's dimensions that is the replacement of a standard H0 11mm wheel with an 00/EM 12mm solid disc carriage wheel. I still need to sort out the W-irons. I have discovered that the axleboxes and springs are glued in parts and these seem to have contributed to the distortion. I've prised them off and I am gently 'persuading' the W-irons to return to a sensible shape. The Gibson wheels are great but being for 00/EM models they are much too long and so I am, with a bit of consultancy from a club member who is well qualified to advice, shortening the axles and cutting new pinpoints. But trial and error is needed to work out the best length to cut the axle back to, because of the pre-existing distortion. Hopefully it all goes back together again, looks better and runs well. The brake blocks might be thought to need taking back, but if so it will only be a touch. No, the original wheels were not the correct diameter as far as I know. I banished them because they were bad and before taking any measurements!

My build of the Moebius Models 1/350th Scale USS Franklin NX-326 from Star Trek Beyond. Aftermarket: Aztec Dummy Masking Set Paints & Primers: Mr Surfacing Primer, Vallejo Model Air & Tamiya Acrylics, Vallejo Metal Color & MRP Have Glass Varnish. Weathering: Flory Washes (Dark Dirt & Brown) & a HB Pencil. Box and contents: The Build. Goes together quite well, just plan your build with regards to painting. Glazing is fun - not! The vinyl mask set arrives from across the pond.. A capture from the film for reference purposes.. In primer.. The base Adding some colour and more masking. Decalling up and final assembly Weathering Final Reveal Overall it was a straight forward build and I 'm pleased with the results - it was my first Starship in over 25 years. Till next time James

Whilst the railway is currently Southern 1960s, the village isn't sure when it is, but now boasts road markings, street lights and gulls! Telegraph poles and chimney pots soon.

It's about time that I introduced my next locomotive project, which has actually been going on since before I started the Scrap Tank. It's a Barney 0-6-0. It started with the Worsley Works etch, but has morphed into a project using my own etches for the chassis and body, as well as for a 6-wheel tender (the Worsley etch provides the 8-wheel type). The main reason for not sticking with the Worsley etch was the fact that I wanted to do my own tender including axleboxes. I reasoned that I might as well make etches for the loco as well, to make construction easier and facilitate a built-in gearbox as well as including additional details. As with the Scrap Tank, I started with an AutoCAD drawing based on that in Peter Tatlow's book on Highland locomotives. The drive will be conventional with a motor in the tender and universal coupling to a simple gear train driving the rear axle of the loco. This arrangement allows the gears to be hidden in the firebox, whose location makes driving the middle axle more awkward. The plan is for the tender body to be pivoted on an additional axle muff at the rear, so that it transmits its weight to the rear of the loco via the drawbar. To give them a bit of rigidity and (hopefully) avoid the need for extra bearings, I opted to etch the loco and tender frames from 0.4mm phosphor-bronze rather than nickel-silver. A little bit thicker would be ideal, but 0.4mm is available from PPD. With this thickness I am using the 6.4mm PCB spacers from the Association shop to give me a width over frames of 7.2mm. As well as the chassis etch I've produced more conventional 0.25mm nickel silver etches for the loco and tender. Again, I drew the artwork in AutoCAD but followed my usual procedure of doing the "hatching" afterwards in Adobe Illustrator, which works much better for this. The images below from the etch artwork give you an impression of the format of the etches. The numbers are a new innovation (for me!) of creating an "instruction sheet" at the time of drawing the artwork, so that I know what they all are when I come to build the thing later! The tender etch is actually the larger one because much of the bulk of the loco comes from the boiler/firebox, which I'm making from brass tube rather than etching. Cyan and red things on the drawings relate to half-etched areas on the rear or front. Below is a photo of the real loco etch in nickel silver. The quality of etching from PPD is fantastic. Something else I now do is to always make at least two copies of any etch, even a "test etch" like this. The second one is much cheaper and provides spares of everything so as to allow for unanticipated learning experiences that often occur during construction. Otherwise I end up wasting time trying to fabricate replacements for some of the parts. (Of course, that may be necessary anyway if the ones on the etch aren't the right size!) The artwork for the phosphor-bronze chassis etch is generally simpler. The next photo shows the tender frames. I included temporary "extensions" with cross pieces to hold the frames. These are a loose fit. The modus operandi is to first hold the frames together using the Association frame spacing jigs, as in the following photo. The p/b cross pieces are then soldered in place. This then allows me to remove the Association spacing jigs as necessary to solder the PCB spacers where required, knowing that things are still positioned accurately. The various small holes in the frames are for Simpson springs and to hold the brakes in place. (Yes - this time I plan to include brakes...) Finally, here are the loco frames. The design is similar except that I tried to match the shape of the real frames and springs, and included an integral gearbox to hold the worm. I've soldered it up already here. This design doesn't allow for easy adjustment of the worm mesh (except by enlarging the wormshaft holes and fitting bearings), but in theory it should be correct to begin with. I'll find out later!

It's high time I posted an update on the scrap tank, which is approaching completion. Painting started with a coat of grey Halfords primer from a rattle can. I then used the airbrush to spray the basic green colour all over. I find that Tamiya acrylics spray quite nicely, so I used a mixture of olive green and white, thinned about 50:50 with Tamiya's own thinner. This works for me spraying at about 15 psi (although I don't really trust the gauge on my cheap and cheerful compressor). After painting the basic green colour I used a brush to paint the black smokebox, cream cab interior, and various other details. I used enamels for the metallic colours. I carefully scraped the paint of the handrails to leave the bare steel colour. Here are a couple of views of the body shell after both painting and decals. The latter are the waterslide transfers printed by Railtec from my design and now available from the 2mm Association. Before applying them, I (brush) painted the body with gloss Humbrol Clear, which I am told is similar to the old Johnsons Klear. After a couple of coats I thought I had ruined it with some ugly streaks etc. But I persevered and applied the transfers. I sealed them on with more Clear and finally a spray coat of matt varnish (aerosol of "anti-shine" from the Army Painter range). At this point, the ugly streaks miraculously disappeared, along with any visible transfer carrier film. So I was quite chuffed. Next I turned to the chassis. The cylinder block was sprayed at the same time as the body, and below you can see it temporarily attached to the chassis for testing. Something you can see at the rear (to the right in the photo below) are the extra pick-up "skids", which I don't think I mentioned before. The design of the chassis didn't allow for the fitting of "Simpson springs", and I found that the current collection was dubious. Thus I fitted some phosphor-bronze wires with flattened ends that rest on the rail. I tried to disguise them to look like sandpipes from normal viewing distance. (Not as well disguised as the invisible brakes, however!) The skids substantially improved the current collection, and the loco now creeps along quite reliably on my test track. Time will tell how it performs "in the wild". Once satisfied that all was running (i.e. after interminable fettling of slide bars, realising that one of the wheels was wonky in its muff so fitting a new muff, etc.), I soldered on the crank pin washers (from the 2mm Association etch) and cut off the excess length of the crankpins with the piercing saw. To solder on the washers, I used layers of Rizla paper soaked in oil underneath them to avoid gumming up the motion. Two or three layers seemed about right. It's important on this loco that the coupling rods don't have too much sideplay, as there is no washer on the leading crankpin and hence it would be liable to come loose otherwise. With hindsight I cut these front crankpins down a bit too much. You can see the different in the following (poor) view. Here's a rear view. The cab windows (front and rear) were glazed with Micro Kristal Klear, a small bottle of which I have had for years. It's actually similar to PVA glue. What you can't see in the photo is that the loco is still missing any coal in the bunker, in which you can see the motor from above. You can also see the motor through the side of the cab, so I will probably cover it with black paper and fit a crew to further mask it. And I haven't yet fitted any couplings (functional or cosmetic!). The coupling hooks themselves were spare ones from a previous etch. I'll try to take some better photos at some point...