WCML100

From one loco to another… My latest purchase was this beast… 70811 in Colas colours. I picked it up from my local model shop AGR at a great price and is sound fitted too. I decided to get one for the fleet to along side my 2 Colas 66’s for engineering workings. During our time frame, crossrail engineering upgrades along the nearby GWML was in full swing and engineering trains were mostly provided by Colas 66’s or 70’s. I had no intention of getting a 70 but after seeing several of these crossrail engineering workings actual went from Oxford / Hinksey Yard to the GWML via the Chilterns and Greenford - with a good portion powered by the 70’s, it was a no brainer and now a ‘must have’. There were also some examples of engineering work in the Greenford area which these went to and from as well. 70801 and the other lower numbers were regulars so will probably renumber to one of those (likely 801) and back date to the original colas logos at the same time. It will work either solo, or ‘top n tailed’ with 66487 (my non powered example shown not long back). It will run all types of engineering trains, including Coalfish, falcon, autoballasters and general use wagon types as well as track carrying wagons (more on them in a future post). So enjoy some pics of the latest addition, and a video to match. I have also included a couple of the workings that 70’s were powering when routed through Greenford. To watch the video including the sound see below: for the prototype inspiration of Colas 70’s on working through Greenford see the flickr and YouTube videos below: That’s all for now. Plenty of other work progressing so won’t be long until the next update! Cheers

they said they followed up with you guys a week or so ago when they received their non sound ones but haven't had a response

Top work there mate - really captured the essence of the station hall!

Pre ordered a sound 37606 from my local retailer, they have received the non sound variants but not the sound versions yet. Should I be worried if they have not got them by now?

JSA wagons i think. They could be older, I am certainly not an expert! Look the same as far as I can tell 😂

Glad its of use mate - there is a video on YouTube linked below which shows the conversion / upgrade which is very helpful showing the s-kits option. Watermills yard does some great stuff too 👍🏻 something else worth noting is that Accurascale have hinted to producing some of their bogies and accessories as spares in the future. They produced the axle motion 3’s for several of their wagons already so I wouldn’t rule that out either! Hoping they will so i can get on with a rake of HQA’s!

Looking good mate. One thing to point out is that the Dapol axle motion bogies are slightly underscore length wise but are easily obtainable. S-kits do make a kit version which are the correct length I believe. Hope that is of some help mate - keep up the good work :)

Sorry! 😆

These look really good in the flesh 😁 some comparison photos of the bardon white / blue and weathered de branded versions.

looking forward to getting some of these beauties!

Look forward to seeing how you progress with this mate! Since you mentioned these to me, I have been toying with idea of doing a pair!

Looking good mate - the real life prototype pic comparison is great too! Ive got 606 on order so excited for mine to arrive too!

Looking good! Have to say Accurascale have done a great job on applying that livery to a 37. tough job and executed brilliantly.

Thanks - I am glad it is useful! Thanks, yes I feel intermodal wagons are a good test bed, especially where they are usually several shades darker than their original body colour... Most of them are just a shade of brown / grey these days! KFA is complete all but the TOPS code so more on that soon 😄 Certainly made for good viewing, a nice satisfying test train this one 😄

Sorry to drag it back up but which are the compatible decoders for caroline? Tia

So, some actual workbench progress. If you have been following the thread, you would know I have had several projects on the go! Well this is the first of many to be completed, and ironically was one started more recently out of the bunch! Here we have a Hattons FEA-E in Freightliner Green (FEAE 641058) and for use within my Freightliner Cricklewood / Dagenham to Calvert Binliner train (& return). This is the first of the all FEA-E rake, which will total at 15 wagons long. I did want to model a rake with mixed type of intermodal wagons but there is not an offering of the FRA type. No problem as there have been full rakes of FEA-E’s, one of which I have included a Youtube video at the bottom of this post for reference. Anyways to the wagon in question FEA-E 641058. This one was a bit of a test bed as I haven’t really done any proper weathering before, it is worth mentioning it isn’t the best job in the world but will do for me. I have tried to copy images where possible of the type for reference and model it in a fairly dirty condition (as most of these wagons usually are). I will be doing various levels of ‘dirty’ throughout this FEA-E rake as they seemed to be like that during the period of modelling and on the Calvert Binliners. First i started off with the wagon in new condition, a very bright green. Where they ever this bright even when new out of the factory? Who know’s..! Firstly, using Railmatch Spray Paints, I coated the wagon in Matt Varnish. This toned the wagon immediately, although this photo wouldn’t suggest that. Followed by a coat of Frame dirt on the top, sides and ends of the wagon. Next up another coat of grime but this time the ‘weathered black’ colour. I applied this to the under side and bogies separately after removing them. You can see the difference in colour between the too quite clearly here. I gave it one more coat of frame dirt on the tops, ends and sides to ensure all the corners were covered well. While the bogies were removed I used Tamiya flat green to paint up the axle boxes as per the prototype - something which wasn’t done by Hattons. This simple addition really gave the bogies some depth. After this, it was time to take back some of the weathering to reveal the Freightliner logos, TOPS codes, and a few other small details. Again following the prototype images on flickr for reference. I then painted up the grab rails underneath each buffer in white, something else which was missed by hattons as they were in the same green as the body. I also painted the lamp irons which were also missed. Finishing touches was bringing the buffers back to black and then adding the buffer beam pipes. Bellow are some photos of the wagon completed on the layout behind @Chris37044’s Hattons 66502. And that’s that. The first proper weathering project done. Next for this wagon (and the others in the rake) once I have weathered (and sourced) them all, will be the waste containers that sit on top of them. There are x2 types and one is available as 3d print on ebay so might get some of these soon to try out. The other type isn’t currently available in any form so I hope this changes at some point in the future. I have included the real life prototype below and a video of the rake in action which regularly passed Greenford until December 2014 when the contract passed to DB. We are planning a couple of DB rakes too in due course, hopefully someone will release a FCA wagon soon! FEA-E 641058 in container traffic: A full FEA-E rake on the return journey of the Calvert Binliner passing West Ruislip before passing Greenford a little further down the line. Interestingly this one is top and tailed by 66’s… Thats it for now. More updates on the way shortly! I hope this more longer post type explaining my work and showing the real life prototypes proves a little more interesting than one image a short description! Let me know what you think! Thanks

I also have the same issue - wonder if there is a particular reason it is built in...

Livery application on this one is hard enough to get right, say on a slab sided 47 or 57... let alone the complexities of a 37. Top marks on this one lads!

looking good mate! the track 3d stuff is really good. got a few bits off them myself! The 1st roundels for the virgin fleet are great - I hope Steve releases these an a standard item as I will be needing some too for both a pendo and couple of voyagers. Can't beat Railtech quality or Steves help when making custom items! Might be worth noting the 'first class' swooshes were also updated during their lives from the white background to blue (almost reverse to what the original way round was) - I think this was done either at the same time as the roundels or even before that.

Sounds interesting - I will be following with interest :)

These photos show the ‘golden ochre’ kind of yellow these JNA’s seem to go as they weather! I also like the ‘Network Fail’ on that particular wagon! Was that on 29552?

Wow, great work as always mate! the Accura MHA’s look brilliant - you really have captured the look and weathered colour these get very well! They are on my hit list to do at some point but will probably wait until I have the full rake before i start work on mine. the JNA also hits the spot! You hwve managed to get that golden ochre colour just right that they seem to all go to some extent! Which colours / methods did you use to get this as ive got a few that need doing at some point too! 66 looks nice too and the original GBRF 66’s in the 2010’s are rarely seen modelled which is nice! Exciting to hear you are starting work on a new layout! Will you have a thread for that ? Interested to see where / what you will be modelling 😃

I think to see more like this is a given! A more unique example of the class and it benefits a good cause - what’s not to like? A win win really!

@Chris37044 has the GBRF example from accurascale on order, and I also have EWS 66171 on order too. Im sure the niggles of the very realistic hattons 66 have been ironed out by accurascale on their release of this brilliant tooling! Regarding the axle boxes, track 3d parts do make some spares which I am going to buy in due course!

Following on from this post… here is a video of 66088 powering through Greenford. Enjoy 😃