airnimal

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.

Graham, exactly what I was thinking. When looking back at the photo I estimate the body is about 3 times the size of the solebar. Clearly I got this wrong when I did the first drawing. Now I have done this second drawing it looks a lot more like the picture.

Having invested a fair amount of time already I was still not happy with this build. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong ? Because I am estimating from a photograph I took a lot of information from other drawings from the same period to make my own drawing. I should have taken more care when calculating the height of the body sides because I am sure this is to high. What at to do now ? My better half suggested I turn it into another wagon, but my inclination is to scrap the body and start again. I would have to remove the ironwork next to the crown plates because they would be at a wrong angle. I could retain the the basic frame and wheel set up and provided I successfully remove the body without damaging the frame.

I went to Oldham Library today to obtain another copy of the large photograph that I am working from only to be told that they do not have any left and will not be printing any more untill after April because they have run out of money this year. I will then have to search high and low at home for the one that I have put somewhere safe. I have started to put some detail on when I got home The corner plates have been put on made from 2 pieces, butt joined and will be trim back in the morning when they have time to harden. The crown plates have been made from 20 coloured plasticard but thinned down to just over 10 thou.

This is not one of my better builds because I have made so many mistakes through lack of attention. When scribbling the sides I went to far when marking the uprights for the door opening and had to fill the top part in with filler. I also glued the wrong end in when putting the body together. I don't like using filler. I think it is a result of poor workmanship and I try not to use it but having invested a lot of hours in this build already i felt I should use it on this occasion.

I have made a good start on this Park Lane wagon with the underframe done and both sides. I find sometimes it is better to make and fit the sides before making the ends especially when both ends are different.

Just added the lettering details.

Graham, I do not know if it is available on line, Brassey posted a thumb size print on page 5 of this thread back in July 2017. I try not to post direct copies and just use them as background to the models I make. I am unsure of copyright issues. I have a copy purchased from Oldham Library and if I find it ( just had a look but couldn't find it ) I will bring it to Bristol at the end of the month.

I have assembled the wheels sets on a sub base taking care to make sure that the wheels run sweet and true and the springs are soft under compression without any end float. I have decided to make another Wigan wagon from the photographs in Oldham Library. I have done a quick sketch taking dimensions from the Coal Trade Wagons book by Len Tavender as a guide. Intresting parts include the diamond shape crown plates and half round corner strapping over the corner plates at one end. This one is lettered for Park Lane Ince Wigan with two round circles with crosses in the middle.

Richard, i hope your mojo comes back soon. Winter is not the best time for myself because I can never get warm and that is one of the reasons I try to escape to warmer climes at this time of the year. I had been planning to go in a few weeks time but I think we need to concentrate on finding a new house. I have polished the w-irons to make sure there isn't any tight spots before I blackened them. They were then cleaned before giving them a very thin coat of Halfords Matt black.

Nicked Line, I am sorry to say that the door does not open, but I suppose with the method of the wire in the tube it would be possible to do. Finally Christmas is over and I can get back to a more normal life. Will the new year be more productive than last year ? First of all, both my better half and myself would like to move house. My good lady would like to move closer to our youngest daughter so she can help with the two small grandsons when retirement arrives at the end of the year for her. I would like to know what sort of space i will be able to have for a workshop / layout room. So untill we can find something to meet our needs i will make a few more models. I have a few ideas for some more wagons. I have decided to make up some Slaters w-irons that i had in stock. I find they work extremely well providing they are well prepared. That requires a bit work with needle files to make a good sliding fit with no rough edges. I then tin the part that slides before applying the iron over the hornblock. Once I am satisfied that it all moves freely, I apply more solder to the top and bottom to firmly secure the hornblock before cleaning everything up.

Thank you for the information regarding pens and ink. I think I have had better results with a fine pointed paint brush than anything else. I have not do a great amount over the last month. I am trying to finish wagons built awhile ago so I have added a weight box under the W.J.Turner wagon. I want to paint this one the same as the one I did a couple of years ago but I cannot remember which paint I used for the body colour. A couple of shots of the end door opening bar of another wagon. It is a 16 BA nut soldered to a bit of wire and runs in a brass tube which will be blackened and replaced after painting.