airnimal

I was convinced I had finished this wagon but something didn't look right but I couldn't put my finger on it. I had to go back to the photographs and look again. What I had done was bend the brake handle to clear the axleboxes which would have been correct for 99% of wagons, but this one was different because it had a straight handle without any bends. Because I had made so many wagons I had allowed myself to assume they were all the same and acted accordingly, so a new handle has been made and fitted. I have checked that the handle will clear the axleboxes which it does.

My mistake. Sorry I have both books and they both fabulous model makers, sadly John Hayes is no longer with us. If you can get along to a exhibition where Geoff Kent is demonstrating you will be in for a treat. You will be able to see scratch building at its best.

I don't know which of the Geoff Kent book you have ordered from the 4mm wagon series but the one I would recommend is the 4mm coal wagon. This has a step by step guide on scratch building wagons with photographs and drawings and is probably the best book on the market.

More or less finished with just the castings to go on and painting to complete. I do like early wagons, so simple yet so full of character.

Lacathedrale, you didn't mention what scale you intend to scratch build in. I only model in 7mm scale and don't have knowledge of other scales. Also what sort of tools do you have ? And are you in a position to attend model shows or local clubs ? Not very helpful but if you could provide a bit more information it would help to steer you where you wish to go. Mike

Marc, I was lucky enough to be given a lot of HMRS meth fix transfers many years ago when a friend gave up building models. Being meth fix they still work after all this time and I have enough for my needs. What I am running out of is casting for LNWR wagons but I still have lots of castings for other companies.

On the photos I am working from there appears to have 6 pegs spaced under the sides I am assuming were for anchor points for ropes to tie down loads. I marked them equally and drilled the 6 holes to accept .45mm nickel wire. I left the wire slightly long to trim them back later. I drilled a piece of 40 thou plastikard and slipped it over the holes one at a time and filed them to size. This way they are all the same length. The photos don't appear to show them as hooks just length of metal rods.

Looking at the photo above of the prototype wagon and looking at my own model, I can see I didn't get the holes in the right place. I may go back and do them again sometime. This time I have marked a circle with a pencil in the lathe on the face of the buffer heads. I then drew a cross over this circle and drilled the 4 holes necessary.

John, They are PECO GWR wagon buffers from there 7mm range. I file the bolt heads off the base plate and replace them with Masterclub .9mm hexagonal bolts. I then stick a piece of 60 thou to the buffer face and let it dry before turning it in a mini drill to the required diameter. I hope this helps. Mike

I have added the leather buffer heads from 60 thou plastikard stuck on with superglue and when set, turned in a mini drill. I have also started to apply the rivets to the corner plates from .4 mm MasterClub rivets. These are tiny and trying to them in line is a nightmare. Even though I have drawn lines to follow with a pencil I have still managed to get one out of line. And drilling with a 12 thou drill without breaking any is a heart in the mouth job. There is still lots to do but I am already thinking about some more wagons. I would like to do some more wagons from the 1860's or 1870's. I know there are kits from Parliamentary Trains but I tend to make a hash out of kit building. It must be me because other people make excellent models from them. I need to drill the holes for the fixing bolts in the buffer heads. I have done it before but I can't remember how I did to get the holes in the right place. The joys of old age.

I was not convinced I had the ends of this wagon correct, so I went back to the photos on the Warwickshire Railway web site and had another look. This is of the accident at Leek Wooton where a freight train fell through a unstable bridge. I have based this model on one of the wagons in this set of photographs. I had originally just used the side views in the recently published book on thr diary of Thomas Baron. But when I went back to the web site there was a better shot showing the ends with a clearer view.. This shows the corner plates curved around the ends rather than bent at a right angle. So I decided to take all the details off both ends and started again. I am not sure if I have got all this 100% correct nor do I believe any body will know any different.

While I decide what to do about trackwork I am going to build a few more wagons. First up is a LNWR Dia 1 ex dumb buffer wagon that has been converted to parallel sprung buffers. i struggled to set the wheels so that there wasn't any side play. After playing about for about an hour, i did what I should have done first thing and checked the axles were both the same length. Sure enough I have a rogue axle that is .5mm shorter that all the rest. It may not bit a large amount but when you try to get zero tolerance side play it was enough to make a difference. I want to build a couple more dumb buffer LNWR wagons along the same lines as this one. They may be a bit mundane for most people but I find them attractive. I went to the Keighley open day yesterday and they was a very nice little NER small layout there with some early rolling stock on it. The locos were battery operated and were very smooth runners and the layout had some beautiful early period buildings on it. Overall I was very impressed and I should have taken some photos of it but I was distracted by meeting lots of people I wanted to meet and forgot the name of the layout. Anybody who is a gauge O modeller and lives in the North, the Keighley open day is a good day out with lots of interesting things to see and the food is amazing. All home made by the local scouting group.

Thanks to all who has added information about this subject. I now realize the the second bolt was not square but hexagonal and I could use items from the MasterClub range but because the base was different I have decided this way is not going to produce track that is accurate enough. Not having a great deal of interest in track doesn't help but I don't want to produce something that is so obviously wrong. I may put this to one side for the moment until I can find a way around this.

Chrisbr, many thanks for the kind offer of help getting LNWR chairs 3D printed. I am afraid I don't know enough about 3D printing to make a judgment about the suitable of making chairs with this method. Would 3D be strong enough for track parts ? I have been going through all my books and journals to see if there is any articles about LNWR trackwork. I am very surprised about the lack of information on this subject or am I looking in the wrong place. I don't have indexes to look up where important articles are, I am not that organised. I have found one photo of a chair with not a square bolt but a large hexagonal bolt. But the shape at the base of the chair hasn't got the curved parts as on the Midland chair. For this reason I don't think method is going to be a runner.

Obviously it will only be a small bit of track. I can use the 2 bolt chairs for sidings so I only need a small amount of 4 bolt chairs elsewhere. I put this out to see if other people would come out of the woodwork with a solution. I'm going to get flack if I use the wrong chairs to model a LNWR section of track so this is an attempt to try and make it right.

Planning a small shunting plank layout with a LNWR flavour has thrown up the problem about trackwork. What do you do about the chairs ? LNWR chairs have one square bolt and one coach bolts on each side of the chair. Nothing as far as I'm aware is available on the market to model the correct type of trackwork. How do other people model the correct track for this railway. I have been playing about with modifying a standard Midland 4 bolt chair by removing the slight web and cutting off one of the coach bolts and replacing it with a 30 X 30 bit of Evergreen milled plastic. I did look to see if MasterClub did any square bolts without success. I am not sure if this is going to be a runner or not untill I make up a small length and to see what it looks like.

Argos, good to see you yesterday as always. Below is a couple of photos from this weekend at the Wigan show. One is of the part built dock tank with some of the parts laid out. The pile includes 18 cab sides which may give an indication of why I am not going to build any more locos. The other parts here are only a small part of the total I have made and discarded. The time has come when I realised that I and not going to be the next Beeson. I will stick to the things I can do to a standard that satisfies me and obtain when I can the things that I can't do. it seems a sensible thing to do in my own funny way.

Jim, I was brought up going to the Manchester show from a very early age. I marvelled at exquisite models in brass and nickel and wondered how they were made. It never left me. I later met Sid Stubbs and visited his house and was enthralled at his fantastic loco's which came apart in seconds and went back together the same way. The chopper tank when I first made it worked just as well as the loco's I had seen at Sid's house but due to using a drawing that was wrong I tried to improve it with disastrous results. A lot of my disappointments have been with other people's involvement. People turning the cast wheels wrong several times was a major set back. Etch kits with the smoke box the wrong shape, the tank top with both sides the same when one side had a dip on one end and the cab side's in one piece when they overlapped. This is just a small amount detail of this build. I could go on but I think you know that I am not prepared to accept second best. I am prepared to pop my clogs without achieving the standard I am hoping for. I don't think this is what most people want today but then I probably live in a world that no longer exists.

After much debate with myself I have decided to abandon my build of my chopper tank. I have come to realise I will never make a loco builder. Also I have made bad decisions in choosing kits that were inaccurate. So far I have gone through two complete kits and two sets of wheels to end up with a scratch built model that is 90% complete and it still doesn't satisfy me. Perhaps I should have planned the build better from the start. After nearly twenty years of messing about I don't think I have the heart to try again. I will stick to building wagons and buy in locos when I can.

I had a good day today and finished the L&Y wagon. I hope to hand it over at the Wigan show in a couple of weeks time.

I have put a bit more detail on the L&Y wagon. There is still a long way to go before its finished.

I am back home after spending 10 days helping our eldest daughter with decorating while her husband was in China. I have made start on a pattern of a L&Y Dia 15 fruit wagon. This is for resin kit for Lanky Kits. I hope to complete this over the next couple of weeks so I can hand over at the Wigan show.

I didn't think I would be able to finish the second small ballast wagon because I had left my packets of MasterClub rivets at home. But my better half posted them to me here at my daughters house. So the second ballast wagon is finished up to a point. I will paint the w-irons and blacken the wheels when I go home sometime next week. I must thank Rob Pulham for the label clips done on his fancy machine.

I am not at home at present but down in Swindon at my daughters house helping out because her husband is in China. I did bring some tools and a few wagons that still required work doing to them. I have finished a loco coal wagon, a one plank Dia 1, and one of a pair of ballast wagons. I will paint the under frames when I get home.

Wagonman, the loco is a brass model made by San Cheng and sold by Tower models. I believe it was painted by Warren Heywood for Tower models. I do try build most things myself but I do not enjoy building locos. At the price I paid for this engine I would struggle to buy a kit and have it painted to this standard for the same amount. I have been building / rebuilding my chopper tank and it is still not finished after nearly 20 years. It makes sense if I am ever going to finish a layout within the next ten years.