EWS60065

Hi, just a mini update here: Cambrian YWA Salmon A third YWA joins the fleet! A bit of an impulse purchase but I had been thinking about building another of these this year. Even when Flangeway's and Hornby's offerings are available it'll still be nice to build the odd kit to bolster the fleet numbers. It's all fully built and ready for primer. Note the replacement brass hand wheels on one end - I am basing this one off 996970 which has different types at each end. I have represented them using a pair of 51L brass wheels. Livery will be heavily weathered brown on the sides and newly repainted yellow headstocks. Along with the FDAs I now have a healthy 5 Salmons. Bachmann OCA After looking at some real engineering train formations, I decided I could do with a few more Bass wagons. I previously had 1x OAA, 6x OBAs, and 6x OCAs - whilst this was a decent amount, there was still room for more. By increasing the amount of OCAs available to use, more variety in liveries/weathering will be seen too. I managed to find a Bachmann OCA for a reasonable price which was in weathered EWS livery. I didn't want to do another EWS one so it was given a coat of faded Railfreight red straight away. The next stage was to apply a white wash to further fade the colour (in a similar fashion to my previous OCA in grey/yellow). This has been streaked downwards with a large DIY brush. The next stage requires this coat to be fully dry so this is as far as I've got for now. Look out for the finished article plastered in lots of rust and grime! One advantage of buying a factory weathered model is that it saves setting up the airbrush to tackle the underframe areas! Refurbishment project Whilst I'm very happy with some of my more recent bass wagons, the older ones could do with some work. I am gradually working through these to touch up the paintwork, match the colours a bit better, and improve the running. First off is 112397. Completed in late 2021, this was my first ever OCA. It may not be noticed but I've done quite a lot of work to the weathering to give a more refined look that will blend in with my other wagons. The rust on the interior has been toned down and the wooden floor significantly lightened in shade. The tone of Railfreight red is now better matched to my more recent efforts too. This wagon has always struggled with the wheels scraping and getting stuck on the suspension units so this was also addressed. As for some of the projects mentioned last time, I have purchased materials for the RRA runner wagons and hope to start them around November time. The MXA still awaits weathering, however I ideally want to gather some more stuff before doing an airbrushing session. I'm also toying with the idea of a larger scratchbuild - I'm particularly interested in some Balfour Beatty stuff like the FEA-B sleeper carriers. Lots of stuff to look out for over the coming months.

Amazing to see it in it's full form and filled up with some nice stock. Gives an idea as to how good it could look once fully scenic! MXAs look the part too, don't think I've really seen your ones coupled to other wagons before. Out of interest how many Salmons/Ospreys have you got and do you plan to get any of the upcoming ones?

@WCML100 Nice work, glad to see the track work progressing. I like your wiring too. You didn't happen to get any close ups of the Hornby Salmons at GETS that you mentioned - I haven't managed to find many videos that feature them?

@newbryford Thanks Mick, I had heard of that conundrum regarding the Ospreys! If I ever do any then I suppose I will have to use P4 track - glad to hear it isn't too noticeable. I'll PM you the files when I get the chance 👍

Fantastic start to the MLA, I can definitely understand how difficult it is to get even looking chamfers on the ribs! Looking foward to seeing more

@WCML100 Thanks for the kind words, let me know if you ever want the CAD file for the sleepers. Good to hear that Hornby are definitely doing the ASF variants too - I'll have to look out for some photos of the samples. I went for the Flangeway ones in the hope that they would arrive sooner, but just went for 3 of them so that there was still a chance to get some Hornby ones too. The impatient side of me has even been toying with the idea of replacing the bogies on one of the current Flangeway Salmons if I see one for the right price 😂 As you were interested, here are the current rakes being worked on: Falcons (7x JNA 1x MLA). I hope to bring this up to 11 or 12. Lobsters (3x MXA). For now these will be tagged on to other open wagons. I eventually want a longer rake of these on their own. Coalfish (29x assorted MHA, MPA, MFA, MTA). I'm at the point where this can be split in two if needed. Sea Urchins (5x ZCA). Kind of happy with this now. Salmons (2x YWA, 2x FDA + the pre orders). This is my weakest rake and I'd like to increase it using the upcoming releases. Bass will rarely run as a rake on their own, instead being added to the other rakes. Same applies for the Super Tench and Mullets when I get some! The Super Salmon set can either run on it's own or be put at the end of a rake. Sorry for the long reply!

October Update A short write up on my latest projects and what can be expected over the coming months. Not a massive amount of work recently, however I have been working on some loads for my Salmons. The first type is a stack of three new track panels. All the loads are removable hence why some visual compromises have had to be made regarding the straps. This is constructed from pieces of spare Peco code 75 concrete track. I decided to space the sleepers out and I'm glad that I did - whilst sometimes unnoticeable when ballasted and weathered on a layout, the incorrect spacing becomes very obvious when the track is loaded on a wagon! This of course took an absolute age to do but I think it's worth it. The rails were then painted in a fresh rust colour and the tensioning straps are made from masking tape. I have another stack on the go although I've now run out of spare track! The type of loads I really want the Salmons to carry are the individual bundles of sleepers. Therefore I set about designing some to 3D print as a single piece item. This seemed to be the most economical and the easiest way of creating this kind of load. Here is the final design - the sleepers are all attached as one piece with the timber dunnage linking them. Each Salmon carries two of these lengthways. I opted to send these off to be printed in PLA at 50% infill and 200µm layer height to save costs compared to resin. The idea with these loads is to give a good impression rather than a fully detailed representation purely to save cost per wagon. After a bit of cleaning up, this is the result. It isn't the smoothest but it definitely gives the right look. While the colour was already grey, it was too plasticy and dark so I gave the loads a good spray of aerosol primer, followed by a heavy drybrushing of white to give that new concrete look. A balsa wood base was then stuck to the bottom so that the sleepers weren't flat on the floor (in real life, timbers are often placed between the sleepers and the wagon). I also added some dunnage lengthways on top as seen in photographs. Dots of green and blue paint give a representation of rail clips. I now have four convincing sleeper loads for my Salmons with another stored away as spare. After the weathering process, I think the low resolution print is not too noticeable. I may look into adding tensioning straps too, however this would be quite an undertaking! In other news another Bachmann MXA has joined the fleet, soon to be weathered - pics to follow! I have also made a pre order for three Flangeway YWA Salmons with ASF bogies which I look foward to weathering when they come! This will bring the rake to seven. Another project is going to finally be executed soon too, one that's been planned for a long time - a pair of RRA-O runner wagons built from Cambrian underframes. I have a couple of OTA kits I got cheap so I will see what I can do with a bit of plastic to transform them. The idea with the runners to begin with is to add some variety to the Super Salmon consists. In the future I hope to put them to use with the Revolution Trains YLA Mullets, which I am very much looking foward too. That's all for now, thanks for reading

Great work on the bass wagons, nice to see a mesh OBA modelled. Your OCAs definitely look the part too!

Thanks for that, I'll have a look

@WCML100 Could have sworn I had replied to this! Thanks for the compliments

@WCML100 Great stuff, looking foward to seeing how the scenery progresses once track laying is complete.

@WCML100 I'm with you about waiting for RTR. The Cambrian ones are great but are of course quite time consuming - I'm just gradually building up the rake before getting maybe 4 or 5 of the Flangeway/Hornby ones when they're out.

@heavymetalwagonsThanks for the suggestion, I've had a look but the aluminium seems to only go down to 2mm (so too large for the kind seen on my FDAs). However I noticed they stock some nice looking brass mesh which could be of use for other projects...

Nice pictures, feels a bit familiar as I happen to have both of those locomotives! Can't wait to see the KFA mixed in with other Salmons too, have you got any in the works?

Fantastic work on the KFA, I'm glad it turned out well and sounds like the Hattons FEA was a good call (especially as you already get the transfers on the track panels this way!). I particularly like the weathering on the ends with the faded blue - reminds me of how the DRS IKA Megafret wagons have weathered too. Interestingly I have just designed a concrete sleeper load for Salmons and sent it off for 3D printing so hopefully you'll be able to see how that goes on my thread. It's quite simplified to save on cost but should do the job.

Looking good, I used the same buffers as they do seem to be the closest match. When it comes to the yellow MLAs with Y25s just a heads up there are two types, one without the side door (NR) and one with the side door (GBRf/Metronet). I went for the NR type to avoid making the complex door although I guess you may want that challenge?

@sb67 Thank you very much

@Bearwood West Yard Thank you, I came across it while searching for 'mesh' on Wilko to try and take advantage of their clearance! It was a pain to cut out to begin with however after coating with hairspray I was able to cut very clean lines (more so than metal). The only difficulty after that was working paint in as it was still slightly absorbent. I'm very happy with the result though.

FDA Twin Set Salmons As revealed, I have been working on a couple of Bachmann FGAs to transform them into FDA track and sleeper carriers. The FDA wagons were converted from Freightliner FGA wagons in order to carry track sections and new sleepers, becoming part of the Salmon classification. They ran until around 2016 so fit perfectly within my era. I chose to model this type of wagon to increase the Salmon rake up to 4 wagons, but also because of their intriguing appearance (being an ex container wagon). The starting point was of course Bachmann's stunning FGA wagon set released in 2018. These aren't that easy to come by but Kernow Model Rail Centre had some left for a reasonable price. The other option would be a Hornby FFA but this would require a lot more work (interestingly I chose the Hornby model as the donor for my ill-fated FJA Super Tench project). After fitting the supplied details, the mesh was fitted. Instead of the usual metal mesh I went for fabric this time. These are pieces of muslin cloth sprayed with several coats of hairspray to stiffen it up. They were then sprayed in aerosol black before being treated to a coat of hand painted brown. I'll admit I cheated a bit on the winches - these are sections of wire with blobs of glue on each end. They appear to do the job in the end though. If anyone knows of a supplier who makes these winches please let me know. The final addition was the two large beams running down the length of each wagon. These are formed from Plastruct 'T' section cut into 3 sections and butted together (see photos of the real FDAs). To represent the wooden part, I have drybrushed white along the tops of the beams. The wagons then received a spray of track dirt through an airbrush, this being the quickest way to coat the complex trusses underneath. Originally I had planned to weather over the blue, however the sun bleached red examples took my eye and I went for a full repaint instead. I used a lot of drybrushing in the weathering process to create a faded look, as well as dark washes around the details. This has been a fun little project and something I have wanted to make ever since I discovered the FDAs. As always thanks for reading!

@WCML100 Which wagons do you mean, the JTA etc. use an older type of Axle Motion I think?

Looking foward to seeing how these turn out, would you consider selling these (or just the CAD) if all goes well? For my MLA I used Dapol HIA bogies which are of Y25 design and can be bought as a spare if you didn't have enough Bachmann ones.

Lovely work on the FEA, I think the result is very convincing and sometimes a simple approach is best on container wagons (especially when you need to fo 15 of them!). Any updates on the KFA with track panels?

Would love to see it when you get round to finishing it

@newbryford Yes an FDA! Originally I wanted to use the Hornby FFA as a base but these are much, much better. Need to add a mesh floor, T sections, and winches.

Any guesses for my next project? 😉