airnimal

Well I have had a go at the small letters ( about 15 attempts ) if the truth be told. I don't think I am going to get it any better. I think l will have accept this and give a good dose of weathering to hide my sins.

Thanks Ian, I may try and turn a old pair of wheels down at some time. I have a small Perris lathe with a face plate that I have only used a couple of times. I am sure I could rig something up and have a go. In the mean time I have had my sheet of Methfix tranfers out to letter this N.S.R wagon. Unfortunately I have only enough to letter one side so I will have to get the brushes out for the letters on the other side. I will have to do the small letters with the brush on this side also. I have put a white mark down where the small letters will be with a pencil that can be used on glass. The second photo is of a 3 plank wagon that didn't make the grade. This was scraped and the buffers used on this latest wagon. It does look nearly finished but there is still a good few hours left in this yet.

This book on The New Radnor Branch by Nicholas de Courtais has more information about the Old Radnor Lime Co. It doesn't give a date for the accident but suggest that the steel framed wagons were obtained in 1910. There is another view of the accident in the book along with a drawing of the steel frame wagon with different lettering styles.

Thank you Ian, there doesn't look like there is a lot to play with. I think I will just trim the excess plastic where I can, I don't want to risk any breakthrough. I have had the rattle cans out this morning and given a quick coat of red oxide and black. Still have to paint the brake block a wood colour.

Got it. No 245 and 253.

Barry Norman did an article in M.R.J not long ago doing this very build. I am not sure of the issue.

One little improvement I always do is run a scalpel around the inside of the wheels before I blacken them and remove a small amount of plastic. This makes the wheels appear a little slimmer. The wagon photo I am working from has the wheels with tyres so worm that they look almost as they are about to wear through. I would like to be able to turn the tyres down but I am unsure how far I could do this safely without breaking through the rim. I wonder if anybody has tried to do this and what was the outcome ? The wheel on the right has been treated with the scalpel. You can see the black plastic is reduced near the rim.

I decided that the brake pivot bracket was a little on the small side. So I have made a new one from the same piece of brass T section but only bigger that looks more like the photo. I blacken it before fitting .

I have cut a bracket from a length of T section brass that holds the brake handle where it pivots on the solebar and this was filed to shape using the photo as a guide. The handle was cut from brass sheet and a Ambis brake rack completes the assembly which is unusual because the handle sits inside the bracket rather than outside. Just another little item that makes it a little different to most wagons.

CKPR, I am not on my own then with mis-reading drawings. But you would think after so many years I would know better. Edward Beal's "Modelling the old time railway" was my essential reading when I was a teenager and I forever had it on loan from my local library. Last night I cut out the brake block from a large brass washer that was in my metal stock. It was one of those thinks that i never throw away, I knew it would come in useful one day. I solderd a bit of scrap etch for a hanger with a couple of lace pins for the rivets. I bent this to shape and solderd it to the w-iron. I was able to get it very close to the wheel without it touching it, one of the benefits of S7.

It may only be a simple wagon but there is still a lot of nuts and bolts to put on. From the photo I am using there appears to no square nuts on this wagon only hexagonal ones so I am using my stock of MasterClub .8mm on the solebars and .7mm on the body. I have chamfered the bottom of the body and put 3 tie down on the solebars made from brass pins filed down in the mini drill. The buffers were rescued from a old scrap wagon I built years ago. They were modified white metal one with a flat filed in the top to act as a step. The photo I am working from show 5 link couplings rather than the usual 3. I will have to see if I have any smaller links in stock or see if I can make some. Smaller details like that justs give the wagon an individual look to them. The brake gear will have to be scratch built bar the Ambis brake rack.

The surgery was successful and the patient is recovering well without any long lasting problems.

I have cut out the end plank and headstocks and replaced with new plasticard. I clamped the new ends in and flooded it with mek. I will leave it all to dry and go and have some dinner and come back to it latter and file it all to shape when it has hardened. I am pleased to say it now measures 14' 6" inside exactly.

Gordon Bennett ********* I have do it again ! Having finished the Buxton wagon I thought I would make a quick build of a small N.S.R one plank open. Simple, straightforward and nothing taxing. Or so I thought ! I had a frame already made for a 15' wheelbase wagon in a pile of rejects, so it was easy to reduce it to 14' 6"" as the drawing. This I did but I decided it wasn't right so I scraped it and started again using the drawing from the N.S.R. wagon book. I am working from a photograph that wasn't in the book but it looks identical with detail differences. I was pleased with my progress last night and sat watching the box with a glass of beer and the wagon and book in front of me. I looked to check the drawing to see what differences were between my model and the photograph in the book. So I placed the model over the drawing and ******** I hadn't noticed the dimension on the drawing said 14' 6" inside ! Of course I have done it 14' 6" outside ! Is this one of the signs of old age. Am I loosing it ! My old boss always said its only a problem when you drop a clanger when you can't fix it. So if I cut off the end plank and headstocks and make new ones I think I might be able to rescue it. Or I might take up stamp collecting.

Tricky, only a part of a photographer of the wagon but in a later livery. I am using other wagons with the lime weathering to go on and most show them to be about how I have done mine. You can still see the wording reasonably well on most of them.

My patience has run out. They is only so much I can do before I give in and accept that I am not going to get the wagon 100 % perfect. So I have given it a slightly worn look with lime stains to hide my poor lettering. I need to get on and build things which is where my real interests lie. My better half is off work work next week and if I can persuade her to go and look for another house then I may be able to plan a layout. She keeps telling me that people don't put house's on the market untill spring but I think we should be looking now because these take a long time to happen.

Taken side on there has been a slight improvement but I will have do more work on the letters in Buxton before I'm satisfied.

I take my hat off to professional painters because I still find painting my least favourite part of our hobby. I have started again on the lettering with a long way to go just building up the shape and thickness of the letters. The second attempt at Buxton is particularly bad. I started on the ironwork as well painting it a grey / black, but there will have to be a lot weathering to hide my sins.

The Buxton lettering has been removed because it wasn't central as has the Co Ltd. I will do them again with a bit more care. There is still a lot of painting to do with all the iron work both inside still to do. I find it very hard sometimes to see what I'm actually painting until I take a photograph and see the error of my ways. They say that the camera never likes. Plus I have the axleboxes to fit and paint.

I have decided to go with the original lettering. The first go at setting out the words looks about in the right place, so the first coat of paint has been applied. it will require the paint building up and corrections to the sharpness of the letters, and then the shading in black once I'm satisfied with my humble efforts.

The weather was kind enough today to paint the Buxton Lime Firms wagon. I have given it a coat of grey primer and painted the brake gear the usual black. I can't decide whether to attempt to paint the body a bare wood colour with just a trace of the old paint showing through or paint the full lettering from the original first style. I think it will be best to paint the interior wood first and make the decision latter depending on this success or not.

I have made a brake handle from scrap with a Ambis brake rack and put some coach bolts on but this wagon is taking forever to finish because of all these nuts and coach bolts. I have had a couple of hours at it this morning but I think I will have a break and go to the station and see if there is any cheap tickets to Doncaster on Saturday. The sun is shining so a walk will act as a pick me up and a trip to a good exhibition will be even better.

I cut and made up the brake gear to fit the wheelbase but I realised it wasn't 10' but was in fact 11'. I did this because I didn't have any 9' wheelbase etches left. I saw the gentleman from Haywood Railway last week at Bristol and ordered some more but I haven't heard back from him yet. I find the design very useful for modifying to other types and lengths.

Back to the Buxton Lime Firms wagon after the Richard Evans one was finished. I have found some v-irons in my spares box along with a fold up etch for some 10' brake gear. I will cut and match this to the 8' wheelbase. This fold up brake gear is from Haywood Railway.

This thread reminded me of going off to London for the M.R.J. show and the wait to get in. I think I waited over 2 hours or more and when I got in couldn't see much anyway. The idea was a sound one but the location was totally unsuitable. I remembered that I had put my tickets in the back of an old book and they were still there when I went to look. Does that make me sad or what ?