Caley Jim

This project might give you some inspiration. Jim

I'm not sure if you are aware of this, Mike, and I can't make out what you've done from the photos, but the side cupboard doors were usually double skinned, with one layer of planks vertical and the other horizontal, which layer was which depended on the builder, e.g. the CR built them with the outer layer horizontal, but private builder often had that layer vertical. Jim

Mike Williams has replied stating that he and Ed McKenna, who have been researching traders wagons, have nothing to add. In that case I would go with red oxide, black ironwork and white lettering. Whether you shade it or not is your choice. If anyone comes along and says you are wrong, the appropriate response is, as always, 'prove it'! Jim

I have a few of them! There's another five where they came from!🙂 (And a few more to build) Jim

Following some advice from @AY Mod, I've rescanned the photo as a .png and been able to upload that. Jim

That sounds like one of the early 6 or 7 ton 'bogies' with outside framing. It was probably replaced by an 8T dumb buffered wagon as a renewal, taking the same number, and this in turn was converted to spring buffered when dumb buffers were outlawed. Had another go at scanning and uploading the photo I have, but still get a 'problem up loading this file' message! ☹️ Jim

'Round of applause' doesn't cut it. We need a 'standing ovation' emoji! Jim 😃

Attention has now turned to the loco frames. The gearbox was assembled first and the meshing checked by having a long shaft on the worm which could be rotated with a pin chuck. The gears were then removed prior to soldering on the thin PCB pads which will retain it in the frames, after which the worm was refitted on its proper shaft, as it will be extremely difficult to fit when the gearbox is in the frames. the two frames are etched in one piece with a couple of cross-members below the coupled axles. These allow the frames to remain square when they are bent up and will be filed away now that the spacers and gearbox are all in. In this top view you can see all the sacrificial lugs which ensure the spacers and gearbox are accurately located. Also the two trunnions with holes at the top which, by passing the length of axle steel through them and the gearbox, ensure the bearings for the lay gear are at exactly the correct spacing from the driven axle. They too are sacrificial. In order to give the bogie wheels a bit more clearance from the frames, the latter are joggled in 10thou each side at the front, the bends being re-enforced with generous fillets of solder. Removing the sacrificial parts and then cleaning up are the next job. Jim

Seems I might be wrong on that. I posted a question on the CRA forum and the following are extracts from the only reply so far :- I have a colour photo of Arniston 515 12t taken many years ago where the livery is (well faded) red oxide, letter white shaded black. I think this wagon is at Prestongrange. ........ ..........an extract from the Pickering order book which reads:- [ARNISTON COAL Co., Ltd. Gorebridge. Brown Oxide, white lettering with black shading. And ironwork. Some wagons without shading, 1 coat of Tar inside. 1901, 1904, 1905, 1907. Will report any more responses. Jim

Given that the colliery was in NB territory, I would guess grey, but I'll try and find out definitely for you. is there no indication on the drawing you have? Jim

The last week has been something of a 2 steps forward and one, or more, back. The assembly carrying the motor etc. will be electrically ‘dead’ with current being collected via the bogie inner frames. To get the current to the motor there are a pair of thin double-sided PCB strips soldered either side of the rear bogie pivot. On these are two short transverse lengths of copper wire which both take current from the top of the bogie and will also stop the tender from rocking, while allowing the bogie to rock fore and aft. Current from the front bogie will come via the two long finger springs, allowing the weight of the front of the tender to transfer to the loco via the drag beam. To collect the current from the loco another pair of thin PCB pads are soldered either side of the front frame sections, each carrying one of the little tubes I make by wrapping fine wire round a No.80 drill and then flooding it with solder. A thin wire then runs from these pads to those on the rear bogie support. The finger springs need a bit of re-shaping at their outer end. The first iteration used decoder wire to link the pads, but when I tried the bogies on this was too thick and resulted in the wheels hitting it and pretty much stopping the bogies pivoting. It has been replaced with some very fine varnished and cotton covered multi-strand wire which has been tucked into and cyano glued in the angle of the frame and base. The leads to the motor are attached to the back of the bogie mount pads and go through two holes in the base. Another of the issues I had was eliminating shorts between the pads/wiring and the chassis. It took several unsoldering/re-soldering attempts to eliminate them! On the top side I wanted to be able to disconnect the motor and decoder without having to resort to the soldering iron. First thoughts were to use one of the small plugs and sockets I had used to connect up the wiring to the lights in my signal box, but that was going to be rather bulky. Some of the decoders came with an 8 pin plug on them. So I cut a section off the end with 2 pins on it and made a ‘socket’ again using tubes made as before using a suitable drill (took a few attempts to get the right size drill). These tubes were soldered to a suitably gapped piece of thin PCB and two wires added. This was then soldered to the inside of the side of the motor cradle and the wires led down through holes as described above. The decoder track leads have the plug attached and the motor leads have a second socket made in the same way, but this time backed by a piece of 20thou styrene with the tubes embedded in 5 minute epoxy, the leads from the motor having another plug on them. The socket with the track leads. With the decoder (CT DCX75) and the leads all plugged in. Alongside the motor is the bank of 4 220uf capacitors which have still to be wired to the decoder. This came from my 2-4-0 which has had the configuration of the decoder and capacitors rearranged to get more weight to the front of the tender. The capacitors are not connected up as I’ve still to source the components for the circuitry. This arrangement also means that if I want to run the loco on a DC layout, all I have to do is unplug the decoder from the track socket and replace it with the plug from the motor. The bogies have also been assembled. The side frames and stretcher were etched as one piece with two half etched lines along which they could be separated once soldered to the PCB spacer. LH one is right side up, the RH one upside down. The (cosmetic) outside frames will be added once everything is up and running. The whole assembly sitting on the bogies. Apologies for the long post. Hope it's understandable. Jim

The vertical washer plate on the outside , the hoop and the corresponding washer plate on the inside are all one piece, presumably forged from round bar. The heavy transverse top beam is attached to the wagon sides, reinforced by a washer plate which extend right across and wraps round the corners. This has two metal plates on top, corresponding to the position of the hoops. The door swings on these, via the hoops. The washer plate across the bottom framing extends out on either side as round 'pegs' and the door is held shut by two oval loops attached to the sides. The pegs have a hole in them into which a pin, held on a chain, is placed to keep it shut by stopping the loops coming off the pegs. The left hand half of the two end elevations on p103 of Mike's book show the inside (top drawing) and outside (bottom drawing) arrangements. The RTR wagon you refer to had the hoop disappearing into the top of the cross beam! How anyone thought that would work is a mystery to me! HTH Jim

Looking forward to seeing this one develop. Does it have the heavy-framed end door, using the top cross member as the hinge, and cupboard doors, typical of central Scottish mineral wagons? I've tried to upload a photo of an earlier 'Arniston' wagon which is a dumb-buffered outside framed 'NB-style' 'bogie', but there seems to be a problem uploading images at the moment. ☹️ Jim

I do something similar with AJ's sometimes, using a piece of wire to push one of the pair down. You have to be careful, though, and do it gently so that you don't upend the wagon in the process. Jim

With the arrival of my latest sheet of etches from PPD construction proper can start on my latest loco, a CR 900 class 4-4-0, also known as Dunalastair III. The wheels gears etc came from Jon at Shop 3 a couple of weeks ago and have been prepared. First job has been to work on the motor mount and tender chassis. The motor will be at the front of the tender with the stay-alive capacitors alongside it and the decoder and circuitry behind. The drive layout will be as in this drawing: The motor, Tramfabreik 0816, has been fitted into its mount along with the gears and the chassis 'frames' and bogie mounts fitted. The leads are just temporary to let me check the gear meshing with a 9v battery. The rear bogie mount (to the right above) has a 12BA nut soldered above it to take the length of 12 BA stud which will form the pivot. There isn't room for this above the front bogie as the drive shaft will be just above the mount, so there is an extra layer on the bottom there which has been tapped to take the pivot. Jim

PM sent. Jim

Sorry I missed you at Falkirk. I was there for a few hours either side of mid-day. As you say, some nice layouts on show. Sadly Squires had only imperial sized brass tube there, so I'll have to bite the bullet and pay the postage on the 10mm tube I need for my next loco!☹️ Jim

There was also regular fish traffic in the herring season from northern ports, Mallaig, Peterhead and Aberdeen, to name a few, to the south. Jim

Seconded! 👍 Jim

I would suggest that finishing it off would be a fitting addition to the rolling stock, but I'm wondering if that collection of castings includes other things? There would appear to be parts for a coach bogie there. I'm afraid I can't help with identification, others with more knowledge may be able to help. Jim

The scribing of the floor to represent worn timber is just superb. Jim

A classic example of this was the Royal Navy's preference for Welsh anthracite. During WWI the navy was stationed in Scapa Flow resulting in a constant procession of coal trains going north on the WCML. This not only put a severe strain on the Highland Railway, but was a contributing factor in the Quintinshill disaster as one of these trains was occupying the down loop meaning the local train had to be put 'over the road' to allow the late running overnight express to pass. Jim

The CR mineral wagons ranged from early 6T 'bogies' through 7, 8, &10T to 16T latterly, culminating in the 30T steel bogie wagons. The 4 wheelers all had end and (cupboard) side doors and many had bottom doors. Their open wagons were generally 4 planks with fixed ends and side (drop) doors, as well as drop-side wagons of similar design. The 30T bogie wagons were not a success as the company could not persuade the industrial customers, for whose traffic they were intended, to upgrade their unloading facilities to cope with them. They ended up as either loco coal wagons, sleeper wagons or, with the side doors removed, merchandise wagons used in express freight traffic. Jim

Don't kid yourself, Annie. I always watch, and enjoy, them! 😳 Jim

I always arrange that one bogie can rock transversely and the other longitudinally. The later keeps the vehicle steady while at the same time introducing an element of compensation. Jim