halfwit

Be sure to start a thread on yours RJL, it might just give me the impetus to finish mine, which is sitting in a box surrounded by RT Models replacement parts. Paul.

The Pugbash does indeed look the part, a very nice model. On a loco like this coal would have been carried in the cab in bunkers either side of the firebox. On painting - a coat of varnish should help blend in the re-touching. Red paint doesn't cover well - it would have been worth painting the bufferbeams first after priming (I'd use red oxide), then masking them off before painting the rest of the loco. (See, we do read your blog). Paul.

Adam, I think that you are right. My thought was that the wagons might be secured to the track when tipping sticky loads like clay, but as the 'steps' are behind the lever gaurd and quite flimsy in relation to the rest of the wagon the brake stick theory makes far more sense. And anyway, Hudson's designed these wagons to be tipped easily one manned and I'm sure that they would have taken sticky loads into consideration. I was just going to secure the body with a dab of epoxy after painting. Or leave them loose to rattle around when being shunted! Paul.

Thanks for the comments, and indeed for the 'likes'. Knowing that these posts are well received makes the time spent updating this blog worthwhile. Paul - complex, perhaps if you're used to plastic wagon kits. Yes there's a lot of parts to be soldered together, but producing a wagon like this in any other medium just wouldn't work, there's nothing better than sheet metal and channel sections to represent sheet metal and channel sections! Difficult, no. So far everything has fitted together nicely. Mikkel - these wagons were delivered from Hudson's factory by rail, the body had to be locked in position and special permission obtained for a one-off journey. Which means that if there's a mine/colliery/foundry/quarry near Farthing and your modelers licence is up to date you could possibly get away with running one or two into the Sidings... Mark - yes I'm definetely getting my moneys worth, I'm thoroughly enjoying building these! Paul.

Both wagons now have their brakes fitted. The first job was to fold up the two cross beams, different length beams are provided for either OO or EM/P4. The instructions tell you to assemble these together with the shoes then solder the completed assembly to the chassis, I chose to solder them directly to the underside of the sole bars, lines are half-etched on the bottom of the solebars to aid placement. It took a few attempts to get them central and square, I tacked one side and kept adjusting until I was happy. Perhaps if I build some more of these I'll make up a little jig. Once I was happy with the beams the shoe assemblies, which simply fold up into a two piece lamination, could be sprung into place and soldered up; The next job was to form a bend in either end of the brakehangers. I used a 2.2mm drill to form the bend, after practicing on the unwanted OO hanger first (again alternative parts are provided for different gauges). .45mm brass wire is provided with the kit for the brake cross shaft, I replaced this with .6mm wire from Eileen's Emporium as I felt that the cross shaft needed more 'bulk'. As the cross shaft fits through both the shoe assemblies and the hanger I used it to check the fit and then hold the hanger in place whilst soldering the hanger to the chassis. In the pic. below the cross shaft has been left overlength, to be trimmed later, and the hanger for the second wagon can be seen in the foreground; The holes etched into the hanger allow the enclosed box which results from the hanger being fitted to be filled with liquid lead. The brake levers were soldered in place next after forming to shape, note that these attach on a tag above the pivot unlike conventional wagon brakes. There's nothing in the instructions about forming the levers, they just show the lever being straight, so I worked from photographs. After fitting the levers I folded up the lever guides and soldered them under the bufferbeams; Note the stepped hanger behind the guide (admittedly quite difficult to see in the above photo), I assume that this was for chaining the wagon to the track when tipping, can anyone confirm this? There's still a few more parts to be added, but they're coming along nicely and I'm really enjoying the build; Again all soldering done with a 25w Antex iron and 188 degree solder. Paul.

Thanks for the comments, and the 'likes'. Yes, that's a possibility. There's not a lot of room for a wider pick-up, I did try 2mm strip but then I had problems fitting the wire to the motor, which I've run between the pick-ups and the chassis. If it is a problem I could solder pads to the ends of the phos. bronze strips to act on the flange edge, but for now I'll wait and see how it runs. Paul.

The axles will be 1/8" diameter, therefore you'll need 1/8" steel rod not 3mm for checking alignment. Paul.

I now have a running chassis. I've put my own loco to one side for the time being to get my friends one finished. Pick-ups are 1mm x .15mm phospher bronze strip soldered to copper clad sleeper material; It took me ages to decide on the best way to arrange them, and then I tried different widths and thicknesses of phospher bronze before I was happy. The pick-up wires aren't soldered to the motor yet as this one may end up being fitted with a DCC chip. Here it is bolted together being tested; It crawls along quite nicely, but now I need to cram as much weight in as possible before finishing detailing the body. Paul.

Thanks Arthur and David. (And thanks to all those that have pressed 'like'.) This vice Arthur, which has turned out to be a very good purchase although I have had to fettle the jaws with a file. Thread here. David. I recently purchased a couple of books published by the Moseley Railway Trust, one on the history of Robert Hudson Ltd, the other purely on Hudson's n.g. 'Rugga' skip wagons. Hudson recommended that the bucket capacity of the loader to be 1/3 the capacity of the wagon, to prevent overloading, otherwise they recommended use of a filling hopper. A bit more about these books on my other blog. I have an Corgi Ruston Bucyrus face shovel which, with a bit of reworking, would sit nicely with these wagons. Paul.

I've been busy fitting the end details on these two wagons. First the angled strengthening brackets were fitted, there are four of these per end; I held the chassis lightly in the rubber jaws of my vice when soldering. There are tabs on the brackets which locate into slots on the end plates, however care is still needed to make sure everything sits square. This is where soldering comes into its own as the bracket can be tacked, checked, repositioned, checked, and so on until you're satisfied that everything is nice and square. The bracket on the left above is fully folded to shape, on the right hand bracket I've left the longest (angled) fold flat to make it easier to hold the bracket in tweezers. Only after I was finally satisfied with the position did I fold the angle over. I took several days over fitting the brackets rather than rush. The next job was to fit the centre locating pins and the end stops; All pretty easy really. To fit the end stops I tinned the top of the end plates, held the stops in place with tweezers, then applied heat from underneath, effectively sweating the joint. All soldering again done with a 25W Antex and 188 degree solder. I thought that I might have to step-solder at some stage but so far that hasn't been necessary. Still more work to do but I'm getting there; Paul.

I've not seen that one John. I do have a Ferrocrete and a GN van knocking about unbuilt. Paul.

Alan, do you mean the patches of dye seen on sheeps backs? When a ram is introduced to a flock it has a pad attached under its breast which leaves a mark on the back of the ewes that its 'serviced', this has been going on for many years. Reddle was once used, one of Thomas Hardy's books (The Return of the Native) features a 'reddle man' who travelled form town to town supplying farmers with the red ochre dye. Paul.