Paint Your Wagons!

🎶♬♬🎵♬🎶♫

Gonna paint some wagons,

Gonna paint 'em fine,

Gonna use acrylic paints,

Cause the wood's plastic, not pine!

♫🎶🎵♫🎶♫

Well, I thought it was funny anyway...

The painting process is similar to the Talyllyn coaches seen earlier in the year, the only difference here being that rather than using a leather colour to undercoat all the metal work a rust colour has been used instead. Why? Well the top coat will be a leather brown colour, using it as both a base and top coat will make it a little too bold, and I want these wagons to look like they've been working a while. Hopefully this way the rust colour should 'bleed' through the top coat in places, but not so much as to make them look like they've just been dragged from the condemned siding!

Two of the painted wagons pose on The Garden Railway as they await their loads. The wooden one of the left has had a wash of black to bring out the plank lines, whilst the steel type still awaits this, showing the difference even a slight amount of weathering gives. To add some slight differences between the planked wagons, a single plank was touched up in earth brown colours again to give the impression of a replaced plank that hadn't quite got round to being repainted yet. All the wagons will probably get a very light dry-brushing (Particularly round the frames) once all the washes have dried.

The plan here is to potentially do something Leek & Manifold style and have them all crammed with milk churns. Guess that's one of my future jobs, I'll be seeing churns in my sleep...

All Coupled Up

Modelling work has almost entirely ground to a halt as of late due to unexpected circumstances outside the world of tiny trains. Some jobs are still doable, but at the moment it's a case of tiny ones that I can have done within a few hours.

So, taking shelter from Storm Babet last Friday, I set to and added some couplings to the in progress 009 Society wagons.

Image from Hattons Model Railways

My couplings of choice are the Peco NEM pocket variety. They're nice and solid, though one criticism I do have is that the 'pin' the coupling loop hooks onto is a little wide. I keep meaning to experiment with filing on thinner and seeing how it performs.

Attaching the NEM socket to the bottom of the wagons required some slight bodging. Attached as assembled, the coupling sits far too low, fouling the track work. Instead, a mm or two is shaved off of the top of the socket, and a small notch cut into the wagons buffer beam to match. This is one of those tasks that would certainly be easier if it was done BEFORE the kit was assembled!

All three wagons sat on The Garden Railway with a small diesel in charge. Next stop (Hopefully), the paint shop. 

Light Railway Station Building

Not much time for railway modelling lately, so this week it's a throwback to the one building project that really kickstarted me back into the hobby after so long: A 'light railway style' station building kit-bash as described in Chris Ford's 'Modelling Narrow Gauge Railways in Small Spaces'.

The main body of the building utilises the Wills Corrugated Iron Chapel kit with windows replaced, extra doorways added and some additional bargeboards and finial. Deviating from the book I went and added a platform canopy from offcuts of Wills Corrugated Iron sheets, Ratio Valancing and 60thou square strip for the legs. 

And just to prove that it doesn't always go right on the first try, here is the first attempt at the canopy using parts from the spares box, in this case a Dapol/Airfix station booking hall canopy and legs from a Ratio carriage shed kit:

I do like this building, but it's certainly one that's on the 'have another go' list. Maybe someday I might finally get round to building the iron chapel as intended too!

Click HERE for a link to Chris's blog. Well worth a read!

Wirksworth Model Railway Show

An unexpected trip out on the 1st saw me going to the annual model railway show at Wirksworth. I hadn't intended to go, and in all honesty I could have sworn it was normally held mid-October, however the social media algorithms were in my favour for once and alerted me that the show was on first thing in the morning! As always, not a complete show catalogue is presented here, mainly layouts that caught my eye.

The show is rather unusual in that it is held over three different venues, each a few minutes walk apart. This year there was a vintage bus service running from the station up the short distance to the main high street. No doubt welcomed by those wishing to avoid the intermittent downpours. 

Doe Lea (N) - Derek Gelsthorpe. One I saw previously this year at Bakewell, and a nice example of what can be achieved in a small 4x1ft footprint.

Hollington Quarry (009) - Dave Jones.

Boxworks Wharf (009) - Unknown builder, the layout didn't appear in the show guide!

Knowles Hill Colliery (00) - Phil & Jack Sharpe.

Pizza Layout (00) - Again, a layout that wasn't in the show guide so another unknown builder and unknown name if any.

Knottmuch Moor (00) - Ronan's Railways.

Knottmuch Moor (009) - Ronan's Railways. I'm unsure as to whether the name duplication is deliberate or a mistake in the show guide.

Cowley Yard (O) - William Plant. Another nice micro layout example.

Lockdown Quarry (009/00) - Tim Oaks.

"N Gauge in a Suitcase" (N) - Malcom Hughes.

One thing that did become apparent walking round was that there were a few layouts advertised in the show guide that weren't there. Naturally, this does happen sometimes but it left me with the feeling that some of them might have been Saturday only exhibits. Fair play to the exhibitors though the spaces did seem to have been filled with unadvertised small layouts, the only place it really stood out was seeing a solitary 4x3ft N gauge layout on its own in a room roughly 15x10ft.

I understand the organisers were also having new fire safety rules to work with this year, necessitating some space/layout changes to the norm. Again, credit to the exhibition staff, they did hand out a comments/feedback form on entry!

Trade was also very well catered for. There were the usual off the shelf box stores but at least two sellers had large 2nd hand rummage boxes, managing to make me part with money for two lorry kits. A complete Airfix cattle wagon was also mine for the princely sum of £1.50, a steal!

Overall, a bit of a mixed experience this year, partly due to me having to leave much earlier than intended (Forgoing a ride to Duffield and back) and probably due in part to the weather. It's one that I'd definitely return to next year as I'm all for supporting local shows in my area given how few and far between they are. It just seemed to be missing something this year, and I can't quite put my finger on it...

Wagons, Wagons, Everywhere...

Apparently it is the law of the internet that if you go to a model railway exhibition and buy things you have to make a 'look what I've bought' post.

At the Statfold 009 show I finally got round to purachsing some of the 009 society's wagon kits. For the more than reasonable price of £6 (At the time of writing!) you can quite easily build up a large fleet of wagons that would look at home on almost any narrow gauge railway. A plank sided Colin Ashby coach also made it into the mix. The Eggar Bahn balcony ended coach and the Worsley Works Talyllyn Refreshment Van are projects for another day...

Opening up one of the wagon kits, in this case the steel sided wagon, the parts are very neat and crisp. Slotting together almost seamlessly when offering them up for a test fit before glueing. The kit also comes with metal wheels.

Assembly is very straightforward. Two edges and one side are joined together before being wrapped round the floor piece. It's worth mentioning that due to the nature of the sprues, each kit comes with a spare wagon floor.

Two wagon bodies assembled, the wooden bodied variant on the left. After this it is simply a case of adding the sole-bars and wheels underneath. I did open out the axleboxes slightly to allow the metal wheels to rotate more freely, though this step could easily be missed out.

All three assembled wagons pose on 'The Garden Railway', along with the Colin Ashby coach. Assembly of the coach is of an incredibly similar nature, the only major additions being the inclusion of seats and after final painting, the windows panes and roof.

Next stage, adding some Peco NEM coupling pockets and then onto the paint shop.