airnimal

Does anyone recognise these coupling hooks ? I have had a stock of these for over 20 years but now I am down to the last couple. I think I had them with someone in a swap for something else. It could have been with the late Owen Lancaster from the North East whom swapped some parts with me many years ago. Any information as were these are from and if they are still available would be helpful. The letters on the etch reads NC7951

Graham, the pins you refer to are in fact coach bolts which holds the metal strip on the roof. This strip allows the roof door to slide back and forth. I used brass pins turned down to hold this strip in place. I don't think the Masterclub rivets will be strong enough, so yes I will use brass pins again if I was going to make any more. I am not going to make anymore Dia 33 vans but I have not completely ruled out the Dia 32 yet. As for my comment Grrr.... it was meant to mean that I had dropped a clanger for not putting the bolts on the inside and not being mad at anyone for pointing out my omission. Perhaps I should just post photographs without words which may benefit all of us.

Graham, I took the comments in good faith but as I said to you that I am only human. We all miss things along the way and sometimes I rush to complete a wagon and not notice these little bits and bob's until someone points out the error of my ways. No harm done, water of a duck's back spring to mind.

Thank you to everyone who have been kind with positive comments. I think it is nearly finished with just a coat of matt varnish to seal in the powders and 3 link couplings to go on. I went to the Bristol show on Sunday and ran my coal tank and 8 wagons on the S7 test track. I was pleased everything went well without derailments or faults. Several people recognised my work from this thread and were equally kind although one friend mentioned that I had miss the fixing bolts on the inside of this wagon where the number plates attach. Grrrrrrr....... I was pleased to show it to Chris Brown who did an amazing job on the etched plates. I think the plates make the wagon.

I had a friend many years ago whom washing was not at the forefront of his life. My girlfriend at the time use to say he was wearing his best storm troopers aftershave again.

Jim and Ian, thanks for both your suggestions. I have tried both methods in the past without much success. Perhaps I should have tried again but there is still so much to do including the axleboxes and springs and all the ironwork painting. I think that alone will take me a couple of hours because even with magnification, I don't find it as easy as I use to. I have given it a quick coat of matt varnish to tone everything down but it will be next week before I will be able to do any more work on it. It doesn't look a lot different to the last photography but I have touch up the paint above the plates where I caught the paintwork.

I have put the plates in some gun blue and then polished them with a Garryflex block. I did try to rub them on a white printing pad to make them look like the raised letters were painted white. Unfortunately because the depth of the letters is so small this was not successful. I have managed to lose a bit of the paint above a couple of plates which I will have to touch up. I think with a bit of a tone down and some matt varnish all over it will lose the shine on the plates. I am not sure if I can do any better. I did think I could spray the plates with a white paint and leave this to dry before attempting to fill in all around the letters with black paint. But there is only so many times I can keep going trying to make everything perfect if I am ever to build a layout. I still have to paint all the ironwork black inside and out.

Oh dear ! My poor education is getting me in trouble again. Perhaps I should have said more clearly that I believe that the plates were probably cast iron and then painted. Going back to my source photography it looks like they were painted a dark background colour with faded white letters. A benefit of this discussion has been going back and having another close look is that I have noticed there isn't a tare weight visible but there is a number painted between the V-irons. I only started posting 3 years ago to hopefully help others learn a few things from my experience and not to cause controversy. That is the reason I have done demo stands at a few exhibitions. The pleasure I have had when people sit down and talk for 10 minutes and go away saying I never thought of that is enormous. And yes I would not have been able to post most of this without the help of the computer spell checker.

Having been scratch building for 40 years or more I still look forward to learning something new. I have built from kits but I tend to make more mistakes than when I scratch build. I don't get everything right now but the cost of scrapping a few bits of plastic are a lot less than an expensive kit. Another huge advantage of scratch building has got to be that there are some prototypes that never get modelled and will never attract the manufacturer's eye. Yet another advantage is it keeps the old grey matter working which is important when you get to my age.

Regularity, I think I will try to blacken them first and then try to paint them with the gun metal as you suggest. I have cut them out very carefully holding them in a small vice brought from Eileen's to file the edge of the plate smooth. I have placed them on the wagon to get a feel of what it will be like when finished.

I have had a stroke of luck this morning. My better half has taken our grandchildren out to visit a ex work college so leaving me to do a bit of modelling. So I have assembled the wheels and brake gear and given the interior a coat of paint. I still have the axleboxes and springs to paint and fit. I now have to cut out the etch plates and paint them to look like cast iron. I am not sure how I am going to achieve that.

I was going to own up and say I don't know why I have so many ballast wagon plates but Chris has come along to my rescue. I was going to put it down old age and forgetfulness. I am just grateful Chris offered to draw these plates for me and a wonderful job he has made of them. I am not sure if a will be able to finish this wagon in time for the Bristol exhibition on Sunday. We have grandchildren tomorrow, that just leaves Thursday because I will be travelling to Swindon on Friday to stay with my eldest daughter for the weekend.

Nick, how above running a flat bottom diamond burr down the body of the casting to clear any powder or other bits that may be left over from the casting process. Lidl have these set on sale this week at £2 .49 a set. The smallest is just over 1mm and the largest is just over 3.3mm. I use them by hand in a pin chuck and I find they work for all sorts of things. Mike

Jamie, I am not sure but I think the wagon kit you have made is not by A.B.S but by Model and Leisure from Birmingham. The A.B.S kit is a resin one piece body with white metal castings. The axleboxes look a little bit heavy on the kit you have made for them to be A.B.S. I have a similar set of axleboxes if you need another four. I also have other axleboxes that I am not going to use if they are of any use to you. I don't know what they are or where they came from. I think one set may be tender axleboxes. I don't want anything for these if you could use any. Mike

I haven't finished the Buxton Lime Firms wagon but when the postman called today and he brought me a very fine set of etchings. When Narrow Planet couldn't / wouldn't except my commission for a selection of plates for a large number of wagons, Chris Brown very kindly offered to put them on a sheet he was doing with Graham ( Dog Star ). So with the weather been bright and sunny I took the opportunity to paint one of the wagons outside and take it inside and dry with the hair dryer. With any luck I will be able to put it all together tomorrow and fix the plates. The Haydock Collieries plates are excellent with an unusual font which will make the wagon stand out. I hope my efforts will do the plates justice.

I have never seen a solution to fitting wheel sets like that before. Splitting the chassis in half is new to me but I will keep It in the bank for future reference. They is more than one way to skin a cat as the old saying goes. It is good to learn new ways even after scratch building for over 40 years. Many thanks. Mike

Fame at last ! Does this mean that I have made it as a railway modeller ? The inside shows the coach bolts coming through before they are cut back and replaced with other strapping and square nuts. You can also see the wrong way round of the strapping that most wagons have. There is is still a fair bit to do.

Sir Douglas, I make my own crown plates by using a simple paper punch to punch a hole in some coloured plastkard. I then use a small home made jig turned from hard plastic obtained when I was last working, placed in the hole and cut around to make plastic washers. I clean them up and thin them to about 10 thou thickness with files / wet and dry paper before cutting them in half. To cut them so they are both even, I place the washers on a small cutting mat which has a square grid on it which makes it easy to see where to cut.

I ordered some parts yesterday from Historex on the net and they arrived this morning. Magnificent service from this company. So I was able to continue with the detail adding more rivets. They really are coach bolts so I should call them that but they are described as rivets. On the photo of the wagon there is a mixture on the corner plates of bolts on the inside and outside where I presume the wagon has been repaired at some time. I drill the holes with an 18 thou drill but because these coach bolts ( rivets ) are slightly tapered so i use a fine broach to just take out the last couple of thou's which makes it easy to push them in tight without breaking them because they are quite soft. You can see I have still to put a few in on the left hand side. After I have put the coach bolts through the body I cut them off flush and then add square nuts. It is a lot of faffing about but I can't think of any other way. Also I have added a diamond plate that was fitted to wagons after they were converted from dumb buffers. There is a lot of work in building wagons like this and at times I wonder if I would be better to go R.T.R and buy things of the self.

This is one of those wagon with the nuts on the insides and rivets on the outside. Also one side door has a odd clasps on the door opening presumably through repairs. I have started to drill the holes for the rivets but found out I have only got a few rivets left of the size I require. A quick order to Historex has been done this morning for more. I have always had good service from them so with luck they will not be to long.

A small amount of progress with the end stanchions glued on with Limonene. I find if I use Mek-pak on these it tends to bow the ends of the wagon in. I also use a block of wood to hold the ends while the glue is drying. The photo I am working from does not show the brake gear so I am going to make a quess at other wagons from the same area / company.

When I fitted the buffers one was catching the solebar on the inside. On inspection it had the hole drilled off centre. I should have sent it back, but a better solution was to fill the hole down the middle with off cut of white metal and drill it out again. Going to my box of old white metal castings ( ice cream tub ) I found a couple of round bits which I superglued into the body. I should have soldered them in but superglue work just as well. I then put it in the lathe and drilled it out using Methylated Spirits to stop the drill snagging. A start has been made on detaining the body with the first pair of corner plates put on from 10 thou.

Not wanting to waste the wagon frame I decided to do what was done in real life. I converted the dumb buffers to sprung buffers and build a new body. There is a photo in Bill Hudson's Private Owners Wagons by Oakwood Press showing a Buxton Lime Firms which had had just that operation done to it. I had a set of buffers that looked very similar so it was better than scrapping the complete wagon. Bill quotes dimensions in the text so it was easy to make a accurate enough body.

Having made multiple attempts at this latest wagon a decision has been made for the sake of my sanity to send it to the breakers yard for recycling. There comes a time when no matter what one does this is never going to be a good model. I will retain the wheels and sprung w-irons for another day. Some you win .......

Graham, you are correct of course but in mitigation I have my youngest daughter here with our 2 young grandchildren both of which are not happy bunnies. I am also trying to get her car ready for its M.O.T tomorrow and trying to keep them entertained. You try drawing with a lively 2 year old sat on your knee helping grandad. A quick dab dab of correction fluid on the drawing will do provided I remember when making new sides and don't make the same mistake again.