westernviscount

Current status of 1423. The cab roof remains loose to allow the windows to be inserted. The very obvious motor intrusion into the cab will be reduced by the coal being fitted in the bunker to reduce the amount of light and also the driver and fireman will be looking out for signals. An idea of how she will look like on her new home.

Thanks Melmouth, this is useful. The chimneys came from 247 and the service was excellent (no connection). Will check out the plates.

After a week away I have made a little progress tonight. Cross pieces added to the baseboard frames. The upright supports will be affixed to these. A taster of the effect I am looking for. A 14xx plodding along to Ellesmere from Wrexham.

Thank you beast. Yes I have seen this picture and as it stands it is the sole reference for the goods shed (barring footprint measurements taken from a map and a few blurry distance shots. The structures at Bangor on Dee are still extant and althought clearly different, some parts like the doors etc might give me some idea of how it looked.

Thanks Mike. The kit has gone together nicely so far and having picked it up for £3, its a bargain.

With a renewed sense of patience 1423 will now be left to cure for a while and attention turns to 1458. This one stripped down lovely except the red bufferbeam which isnt a problem. 1458 was finished in lined green with ferret and dartboard. I have never lined a model before so we shall see what happens. 1458 also did not have top feed in any of the pictures I have, so it has been removed. Luckily, the mold is solid on top so does not need filling. The bulk was snipped away then filed then sanded. Some jobs done, all handrail detail scraped away, top feed gone, whistle and shield removed and smoke box door filed down to receive the white metal casting.

After a disasterous time with the airbrush and the use of dettol to get back to plastic, I am happy with the latest efforts... As I should have done previously, I used halfords matt black over halfords red primer. I am glad I made a mess of the first paint effort as the total strip down has benefitted the finish. Everything is crisp and fresh compared with the cracked and flakey finish I had attempting to work over the original paint. I don't know how I thought I would live with this. Much nicer now and a better surface to take transfers which will simply be the cycling lion. Plates will be ordered from modelmaster soon.

A couple of Caia Road project stock items are on or near the bench. A ratio toad brakevan I am detailing. At this stage I have scraped away the handrails and am about to extend the side stanchions to below the solebar (see the geoff Kent 4mm wagon part 3). And for my birthday, I was treated to an a44 BR converted auto trailer to go with the 14s I am working on. Here is a lovely video of the line Caia Road is part of (not in the video of course!). Featured is the a44 autocoach. https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-wrexham-central-to-ellesmere-line-1962-1962-online

A bit more progress this evening. Excepting the uprights, everything remains loose just whilst I iron out any problems and work out my next moves. I may need to cut parts of the lower plywood away depending on the height of the roads etc. Heading up towards Marchwiel. The gap nearest, under the trackbed, will be the Salop road bridge. Terraced houses will back onto the embankment from the second upright from the camera. This is mount street. On thebright will be at least part of the Anchor pub.

Hi Steve, good to hear from you. Yes it has grabbed me this project. The remains have always held intrigue and as I said above I grew up a fe hundred yards from the site, albeit virtually in the same state it is now, the line closing in '81 before I was born. I am particulary excited by creating the embankment and bridges, although having created 3 of the uprights which will hold the trackbed, I realise I have to think carefully about wiring access and point motors etc. Speak soon.

Hi Sitham, thank you for the info. This is really useful and I am more hopeful that pics and info will start to trickle in. Can I ask the title of the book? Is it one of Larkin's aquired wagons titles? Many thanks again.

A slight amount of progress with the first uprights to carry the trackbed put in place. Looking down the line towards Wrexham, stood on what will be Caia road.

A disclaimer for the above, stripping paint is a scary process and all the advice in the world, when the model is submerged it is all down to YOU!

As above, I was very disappointed with my painting of the 14. After coffee and reflection, the following course of action was taken... Somewhere in the murk is the 14xx I have been working on. I have previously used brake fluid but this is awfully...awful. I heard dettol was a good substitute so gave it a go With both the 14's and I am very pleased with the outcome... The pint is just to weigh down the paper of course. The Gnome is for moral company I suppose. This is the one which has no modifications and is what I should have done to begin with. Both were a challenge to strip as they has factory finish, then Dad's paint then in one case my primer, black enamel then glosscote. After 24 hours with occasional scrubbing the paint came off the unmodified 14 a treat, with exception of the red bufferbeam. Which was at least cleaned up. The modified one required a little longer and refresh of the dettol. Some advice based on the mistakes of others, clean away ALL paint with dettol and rinse with the dettol before going near it with water.

Whilst I reflect on a disappointing paint job on the first 14xx for Caia Road, I thought I would share some good books on the subject at hand Great photos in the Middleton book. The cover features the loco I am currently attempting to model, 1423 The Jenkins and Strange book is excellent and features the second 14xx I am modelling 1458. My Dad also has a BR book which describes the operation of the yard in terms of the rules.

Further evidence of the horrendous finish. The old impatience has taken over yet again! I clearly havent let layers cure properly hence the chipped paint already. Here, the tank side looks like the red primer is coming through! This was not noticable at all under normal viewing. So it looks like... But first...breathe.

I have decided to finish what was 1458 as 1423. My Dad pointed out that he had numbered the black 14×× as 58 but photographs suggest it was green during the period I am going to model (c1960). It was not until a few days ago that I realised I actually care about these things! :-) 1423 was painted plain black with cycling lion BR logo and had top feed as per the airfix model. So the 1458 plates will go on the second 14xx. This will be finished lined green and have the topfeed removed as per the prototype. This time I have elected to strip the paint and soaked it in dettol over night. It has shifted the majority of paint with a further soak and toothbrush encouragement to come later. 1423 was coming along nicely but I am very disappointed with my painting. I airbrushed revell black which left a very nice flat black as per the smokebox. However, things started to go wrong with the second coat which dried unevenly leaving a mixed finish. I then ploughed on with a top coat of humbrol glosscote sprayed on which has left a horrible, uneven, orange peal finish. I have for now retreated to a book and some coffee to consider my options. The dettol is on standby.

All your examples are excellent. The mark 1 does come across as particularly nice.

I think you are right to say the plastic colour is near enough when weathering is taken into account. I have been tempted to do this and I know my Dad has done so with mineral wagons. As for the headstocks, a picture I have in "working wagons" suggests they are the same colour as the body, albeit the photo is black and white! Paul Bartlett photos show bauxite headstocks also. In some cases it is hard to tell due to the weathering!

I very much enjoy building parkside kits. The fineness of the mouldings make them much more realistic than most rtr. Can I ask, did you paint the body of the palvan of leave it "nude"?

On the subject of weathering (and minerals) here is a parkside mineral wagon using a range of techniques on one wagon. At this stage I had on tackled the body. The wagon is sprayed with halford red primer to begin. Then I painted a panel at a time with matt varnish and brushed on weathering powders. This was then painted acrylic brown, left to dry and attacked with white spirit (does acrylic not like white spirit!). I masked the lower half of the body to mimic different material, probably a panel repair at the top and again brushed on varnish and used darker powders. I left it like this to suggest rust texture. The white line indicating the door end is painted as opposed to a decal then taken back with white spirit. Also of interest might be this parkside palvan. I have attempted here to mimic weathered, painted plywood.

Here is a youtube vid of pictures I wouldnt otherwise be able to post. From 5.52 start the wrexham to ellesmere pictures with 7.50 showing Caia Road goods shed itself.

Here is a view of Caia Road with the goods shed on the left (end bungalow) and the line of the railway clearly shown. The Terraced houses on the left will form the backscene to the goods yard.

Thanks Mark. Yes, I am very much into this project at the moment and looking forward to getting the track bed built then building the topography around it. Here is the most substantial bit left in the town. The protruding section is where the bridge used to cross and will give me the width of the bridges to be built on the layout.

Yes, it is superb. The 25 inch to 1 mile map is excellent. I have managed to take some footprint dimensions for the goods shed and worked out some other key measurements. I home to work out how to use Templot and use the map in conjunction.