chriswild

Definitely interested in these, and I was wondering how long it would be after the jua/jta, announcement, you guys don't mess around! Getting closer to an accurate covered steel coil train now, IHA next?!

Good choice, for privatisation era enterprise workings and block trains alike. I'll definitely be ordering this wagon in the cargowaggon livery.

Going a bit off topic but around 04-05? there was a tunstead - Walsall loaded cement that for a time ran wcml then Rugeley TV onto the chase line to Walsall, made up of a cl. 60 and the bli jga bogie cement hoppers, ran early morning and used to wake me up as it worked the gradient through Rugeley town, and yes coal ran into Rugeley ps from both directions for many years. Chris

Have you tried trains4u http://www.trains4u.com/b/251/RevolutioN-Trains

Can you clarify which email address please? Although I have made contact a while ago about a query with my order, every message via your website has had no response, hard to know if they are being received, I do appreciate you are busy people. Thanks Chris

Definitely interested in both of these, as already stated the BBA will be a seller, and there are numerous variants which could be explored. The TEA is a variant which crops up with other tea's in good numbers, I've mainly seen it on Lindsey - Kingsbury trains where it is commonly mixed with the ews liveried tankers, and I'd say to model these trains accurately over the last few years this wagon would be very useful. Chris

Hi Not sure if you know about these, I have a recentish price list from s kits listing the schlieren bodies, are there more than 1 variant? I would be interested for the ones that are under some TEA,s, but don't know if they are the same, I did ask for an image of the bogie when I ordered a JSA kit from s kits but nothing so far, it would be useful to know to save possible duplication, as far a I can see they're a relatively new addition . Chris

Looking good there,really like the coils, and the way you've made them, they look very effective. Chris

Interesting update as ever Jim, I don't live too far from the chase line and would be interested to know what diversions may be heading that way, make a change from LM units and the odd freightliner coal into rugeley p.s. Good pics keep 'em up! Chris Edit. Must've posted at the same time, didn't mean to do a virtually identical post!

Emailed kernow about these, doesn't sound like they'll be a revised model, "they will be using the same tooling as previous ews liveried SSA models" pretty sure Bachmann have never done a ews version. As far as I'm aware these wagons were completely re bodied in about 1998. Bit of a missed opportunity I'd say, can't say I'm too keen on £20 a pop just to chop it up and start again. Chris

Looking good there, doing a step by step is one of those things i never really did but does show the process well, must admit i did two wagons worth of the end panels and gave up due to tedium, thinking one day i'll resin cast a batch, if i ever get round to doing any more of these. Looking forward to seeing progress,you've got the bogies sorted and they do look good. Chris

Some Quality pics there Ewsjo, really like the first one at hinksey, could be a DBS publicity shot or something. is 60011 the one thats had a repaint but not a refurb, as it looks a bit claggy in your second pic. good stuff. Chris

the mainline tooling became the Dapol model up until mid to late nineties, who then sold the tooling to Hornby and they produced it until they re-tooled the whole thing around 4 years ago, and i think they now only market their newer model, which is essentially new from the ground up. There are plenty of the old tooling about s/h. Thats my understanding anyway, some of the details are proably better known by others on here. chris

Hi, yeah i used the fox transfers which i think were v accurate apart from the hopper door control labels, on the whole though, they were all there and i think 1 or 2 of the real smaller details i omitted. The paints were from precision, they do all the correct NP colours, though they do need a fair bit of white adding to get the faded look. it has reminded me actually, the silver/grey paint seemed to come off the HHA's in a right old globby mess, enjoy! chris

looking really good, look forward to seeing the printed article to see how much better they are than my effort! Chris

looking really good, can't wait to see them weathered, and loaded possibly? is there a plan to create any more, would certainly look an impressive sight if you do manage to. chris

hi i like this, i was only reading this story to my two young children t'other day, though i think i was enjoying it more than them!

hi coal is loaded at avonmouth for aberthaw p.s as far as i know, also didcot has recieved coal from there for a number of years, though i think recently its imported coal has come from other sources as well. In the past there has been a variety of freight there, i think some aggregates may be loaded/unloaded there as well, but beyond that i don't know. Chris

Hi yes the grilles are the latest shawplan offerings, the cantrail grilles involve removing the lugs inside the body that fasten it to the chassis at that end which is a bit of a pain, apart from that, pretty straight-forward though tedious to fit, lots of work with a file! i will post a few more pics when the loco is finished as the grilles do look good once painted. I saw your latest blog on the LTF's, hope the 3D printing issues can be sorted as the work you've put in will produce excellent bogies, once the niggles are sorted. Chris

Well after a final push ive managed to get these wagons finished! The blog entries show that this has taken a considerable length of time, but this shouldn't be confused with this being a difficult project, more that i take an age to complete anything. Obligatory shot of them on my loft layout. This is one of the end wagons which have recieved heavier weathering, due to ( i think ) brake dust from the loco, apart from that there is not a massive amount of weathering/dirt from coal, in all pics of these from their use on the fiddlers ferry LBT coal circuit the wagons stay pretty clean, just the actual paint finish has faded quite a lot, which i acheived by painting using a faded version of the np blue colour. This is an inner wagon, the coal load was created using a mixture of crushed coal, and some charcoal dust, when adding it to the wagons they did start to resemble wagons loaded by a loading shovel, i.e loads of coal down the side! once most of this was brushed off it gave a decent weathering impression, charcoal seems a pretty good material to create a subtle effect. A shot of the loaded wagon I'm pretty pleased with how these wagons have turned out, they can now be put to use as 1 of a variety of rakes for mgr workings, i wanted to build a layout that was heavy on coal operations and as i used to see these wagons either in stafford heading for ironbridge p.s or occasionally rugeley p.s, when away from their more normal duties i thought they had to be modelled. One thing i particularly like is EWS's minimal intervention, some of the wagons still showing defunct national power logos, and generally an air of neglect. The other major appeal is that because of the nature of their merseyside operation they generally feature a tug up front, as can be seen, 60007 features in all my pics. i've got a few 60's i want to do and this is where i plan to focus now i've finished these wagons, i've managed to get half a dozen of them off ebay without paying more than £60 which, although they're a great model, seems about the right amount to pay. Being a bit haphazard i've had this 56 sitting about for a while so i intend to get this finished first. This started life as hornbys 56032 in metals sector livery, it also had a giant nameplate, which turned out to be a bit of a pain to remove, on both sides slight marks were left, not very noticeable but i didn't want to get to the transfer stage and be unhappy with it so i repainted the rail grey on the lower bodyside. I intend to model this loco 2001-2004, so i thought this could cope witha slight fading, i added a small amount of white to the mix and also a drop of british steel blue (ithink you're not actually supposed to see this, it just adds a slight different hue - saw it on someones blog and i think although subtle, is effective.) This loco will become 56054 British Steel Llanwern,just a bog standard grid, though one that managed to linger on almost to the end of the grids, iirc. This 56 has had the roof fan grilles changed - this is the biggest letdown on this model and although an easy fix is 1 reason why i'll not be paying to whack for these models. Ive also added revised cantrail grilles, as per loadhaul/ews mods. Both of these come from shawplan. I hope to get this loco finished pretty soon, just an application of weathering now really, then i've got a few 60's to work on. cheers Chris

Hi guy, glad to hear your going down the JMA route, i imagine the bogies will look exquisite as per those you'vr been working on for the JHA's. The JMA's are basically finished now, i've created a load and done the weathering, just waiting for some decent weather to apply some varnish and try take a reasonable pic or two. Chris

quite a few loading points use loading shovels, hull docks, immingham, tyne dock, various opencast sites, when you consider the drivers are expected to load 1200t or so in about two hours ( two loading shovels normally) i imagine they are giving it a bit of welly and aren't hanging about, you can normally tell trains that have been loaded this way as theres quite a bit of coal down the outside of the wagons. A good point about bits of the partition falling off, begs the question? are they necessary. Would be a good thing to model, i've thought about it, the partitions in a Bachmann HHA do come out quite easily so could easily be replaced, its one of those things that could just look like you've knackered your model if not done right! Chris

hi, looking good. don't know if you know already or if it helps but fox do the transfers for the JHA, Chris

Hi the bogies look great under those wagon bodies, bit of weathering and they'll look amazing. I'd agree from the pics that the ARC colours look a bit dark, i found the same thing with their NP paints, ended up adding a fair bit of white, although admittedly i wanted them to look faded. Look forward to seeing this progress, including the building of more wagon bodies, nice work! Chris