airnimal

I started to paint on Saturday with disastrous results because the weather was to cold to paint outside and I don't have a spray booth in my workshop. Perhaps it is something I should consider for the future but like so many things I am waiting until we move house to see what sort of workshop I am going to have. It has all gone quite on the house selling front. Anyway I removed the poor paintwork and started again today with better results. Unfortunately I am out of the paint that I usually do the interior woodwork with as well as other things like making fluid. I am going into town tomorrow to pick up my new glasses so I may be able to get some then.

I have lived in Stockport all my life and followed the railways from my childhood. This book comes highly recommended for its quality photographs from early nationalisation up to the start of the modern electric era. I particularly enjoyed the account of Ronnie's activities joining W.H.Whiteworth on his travels around with there cameras.

Ian, I agree that the buffers do look like Caledonian wagon ones because I do have a set of them. I am not sure what wagon they will be used on or when they will get used. I have more or less finished this pair of bolster wagons with used the axleboxes and springs to fit after painting. I tried allsorts of ways of connecting the safety chains that link the wagons together including looping them through the pins, but trying to assemble them was a nightmare. In the end I just soldered them to the connecting bars which is very unsightly and poor workmanship, but I was getting desperate. When mixing plastic and metal on a model I find that the plastic gets very grubby and dirty and will a good clean before I start painting.

EasternO, without tempting fate I haven't had any problems up to now. I don't have much of a test track at home ( still waiting to move house to build that layout ) but when I have taken stuff to run elsewhere they have preformed to my satisfaction. Some of my wagons have weight added but I find that the wheels are free running is very important to how they perform. I have handled some models by other people and been amazed that the wheels haven't been smooth in that department. Over the past couple of years I have run them at several S7 meetings including the AGM at Warley club rooms where I ran some on Ellerton road without any problems. I have modified the buffers to look more like the drawing and photographs by trimming back the web. I did wonder whether they were packed in the wrong packaging and they are from another railway company.

I have gone back and replaced the round rod holding the brake shaft with .9mm square brass bar to represent that fixing, I think It does look better. Something that was puzzling me was the buffers but I couldn't see was was wrong. I went back to the wagon book and went through the drawings and photographs when it dawn on me that the web down the outside was to long. I then went and looked at my other L&Y wagons and they didn't have any webbing at all which I think is correct for early wagons. I went and checked my other stock of buffers incase I had used the wrong type or mixed them up, but they are the same. Now does this mean that the buffers are incorrect or have they been labelled incorrectly ? My last L&Y bolster wagon that I made last year I now believe to have the wrong buffers. I don't think I am going to change them now and if anyone mentioned them I will say they were replaced with with the older ones when having a overhaul. I will have to shorten the web on the ones I have already fitted which is easier than the other way around.

Having the right tools for the job makes life easier. I have a metal guillotine which allows me cut the metal to size which just needs dressing with a file to smooth the edges before bending to shape. The boss on the end is round on the drawing and photographs so that was easy with a 14BA washer. The shaft is shown to be square so I am going to change it sometime soon.

I have cut the brake handles from 16 thou nickel sheet and filed them to size before adding a 14 BA washer to act as a boss. The brake rack is from Ambis and fixed with a lace pin. I have just got to sort out the axleboxes to finish this pair off after painting of course.

I have soldered the brake hanger to a off cut of etched strip with a elongated hole in it to give me a small amount of adjustment. Being able to remove a lot of the parts makes it so much easier to paint everything. I remember the hassel when I first started building wagons with the wheels trapped in white metal axleboxes and trying to poke a paint brush through the wheels and brakegear to get at hard to reach places. Never again !

I forget to post the picture of the buffers that I turned the heads down on. The one in the foreground is the one before tickling with a file in the drill to reduce the head thickness. A start has been made of the brakegear which needs to be made from scratch because I don't know of any castings available that match the profile of the brake shoes. Luckily I only need a couple because there is only one on each wagon.

I keep doing a bit at a time on this pair of wagons. I had cut the backing plates from 15 thou plasticard that go behind the buffer bodies that are missing from the castings. The buffer heads were turned down because they were very heavy which spoiled there appearance. Still to make are the horse hooks and the capping strips on the body sides. Then I can get on to the brakegear which will all have to be scratch built because i don't know of any casting that match, but they look straight forward enough. We have had one offer on our house which we have rejected as it was very low. The housing market is very slow at present but we are not in a bad position because we don't have to move.

I have managed to fit the hoops on to the bolsters after dunking them all in chemical black solution. I still have to add some more details on to the solebar's as well as doing all the brakegear.

Jim, I feel embarrassed at such praise. I suppose after over 50 years modelling one does improve because when I started my models were truly awful. Winader, thank you for that idea which I may attempt before I get to painting this pair of wagons. I managed to buy a couple of packets of handrail knobs from Norman Wisenden's emporium in Stalybridge. I used to go to the old shop in Greenfield many years ago before Norman sold in 2005. So I put a knob in the mini drill and filed the shank down before cutting it down to length. I sleeved the pre drilled hole in the bolster with brass tube and bent the .7mm nickel wire for the hoop around a suitable drill bit.

I must admit I do have some patience when it comes to this sort of detail. What I don't have is patience when trying to remove a rusty nut or something similar or replace a hard to get at component. Yes these nuts, bolts and rivets need to be applied individually in pre drilled holes which does take time and the tank wagon was an etched tank that I tried to punch out the rivets. Because I punched a couple to hard on one or two of them which was very noticeable I decided to drill through and apply the Masterclub rivets instead. All 692 of them all were dipped in superglue and dropped in with fine tweezers. Mad I know !

As I have been mentioned by Dave John for using Masterclub nuts and bolts I thought a close up of one of my wagons might be of interest. Both the rivets and bolts here are from the Masterclub range.

Nuts, bolts and rivets. I have added most of the small bits with just the horse hooks and a few small items to finish the bodywork. I am still missing the handrail knobs to complete the bolsters but I have had a kind offer from a certain S7 fellow modeller who used to fly fighter jets to have some of his. I am trying to source some locally with one person supposedly going to phone me back to see if they have any in stock. But that was several hours ago and I am still waiting. You can see how I use handrail knobs on the loops of the bolsters from my previous LYR wagon. They have to be filed to shape but I can't think of any other way of making them.

I wasn't going to do anything today because I was going out on my bike. I did venture out but i wasn't feeling very well so turned back after 5 miles. So I drilled the other pair of stanchions and fitted both pairs to the wagons. I am now stuck on the bolsters because i don't have any handrail knobs of the correct size that i usually use to make the loops over the bolster. Once upon a time i could nip out to a model shop ( remember them ) and buy some more but i am not aware of any near where i live. I keep being told that the internet is the way forward but for a Luddite like myself that's a real pain.

Graham, yes the solebar's are faced with a steel flitch plate according to the drawing that cover the whole length and doesn't stop short like some LNWR wagons. The stanchions have a small D shackle on the top with a fine chain attached. I thought that it was an interesting feature that I would attempt to reproduce if possible. The stanchions have been cut from nickel sheet 26 thou thick and the D shackle is from Exactoscale. Drilling out the hole in the top with a drill only 14 thou thick was fraught with trepidation because I only have a few drills of this size and I didn't want to break any. I have made one pair and will hopefully make the other pair in a few days time.

The brackets that I made from brass by filing a V in the material and then folding them to shape, and running solder in the joints didn't prove robust enough and the joints failed. So I have made replacements from plastic but they are over scale and I may return to metal when I can find suitable metal of the correct thickness. Perhaps when painted and with the chains attached they may not be to noticeable but I will try and find an alternative. Still there is plenty of work on the rest of this pair to keep me going for a few weeks yet. I have noticed on the photograph and the drawings that there isn't any external crown plates only bolts through the solebar's.

A first attempt at the securing chains between this pair of bolster wagons has been made but it will need modification to reduce the number of links. I still need to shorten the joining pins and tidy up the brackets but it is showing promise. It is all very fiddly trying to put it all together.

Well this pair of wagons has generated more than the usual amount of discussions about my wagons. I made up the brackets that fit under the solebar's and made new crossbars from scrap etch. The first pair I made were slightly short when I came to fit them. In the end I used the brackets as a drilling jig to determine the exact length. The pins are just lengths of .9mm nickel wire with the ends soldered in some brass tube. I will cut them down to the correct lengths later and countersink the floor to made them flush. I am not sure what to do about the saftey chains just yet or if I have any suitable. I am happy to report that this pair appears to work well pushing it through my sole example of point work without any problems. There is still a long way to go but I think I am on the right track.

The basic framework on this pair of bolster wagons is now complete, so before I go any further I need to sort out the joining arrangements. On the drawing there are a couple of cross hatch bars with pegs locating in holes in brackets underneath the the ends of both wagons. I am not sure if this is practical or feasible in model form but I will give it a try and see how I get on. I don't have any metal suitable in the correct size so I have soldered some scrap waste etch together that hopefully will be close enough. The brackets have been folded up from more scrap etch, but this first lot are not nearly thick enough. One problem I can see is the need to be able to separate the wagons to paint them and rejoin them without to much fuss.

Back in the workshop again and the start of the pair of L&Y bolster wagons. The W-irons have already been made, so a start was made on the wagon themselves. There isn't much to these wagons but it took me quite awhile to get the first one to the stage we have here. I think I need my eyes testing again plus I think old age is taking its hold of me. I don't appear to have the accuracy I once had because I am having trouble marking everything out as well as cutting and drilling in the right place. There may be a bit of movement on the house front because one person has been 3 times to view it and brought alone a builder with him to advise him on alterations that he would like. We also have several other people expressing an interest in it so with and luck there maybe light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for the information on pen touches. I spent Thursday morning walking around the shops looking for one without success. It appears that everyone now uses the internet to buy most non food items. For someone like myself who doesn't buy on the internet it can be a problem, but my eldest daughter came to the rescue and ordered one for me. So I modified one pen by heat shrinking the hook using the largest pieces of heat shrink in my toolbox.

I have packed with the wagons my coupling hook made from an old bicycle spoke. So I can see it, I have put a couple of pieces of shrink rap rubber tubing on in different colours. I know other people place torches on the end to see in difficult lighting and I may end up doing the same if I can find a small pen size torch.

Thank everyone for all the support and comments, it is much appreciated. I have completed the container wagon although it could do with the number on the end although I have seen photographs of some wagon without them. So while the good lady of the house has gone a wandering around Manchester I have been getting some of my stock out on the dinning room table to see which I will be taking to the S7 meeting next week. Obviously I can't take everything so it is a case of being selective. I also so have lots of books to dispose of along with so unused bits and pieces that I am never going to get around to using. I have been trying to prune lots of stuff collected over the years incase we do move house. We have had one gentleman who has had a second viewing who seems very interested, so we are hopeful things may be moving in the right direction. I have still got lots of railway magazines in the loft that are probably not going to be in the best condition that will need removing soon which I am not looking forward to doing.