Kirley

UTA Spoil Wagons

Background

The building of the foreshore section of the M2 between Whitla Street, Belfast and Greencastle was a major civil engineering project. It involved reclamation of a large part of Belfast Lough and the transport of more than 4 million tons of fill, by rail, from Magheramorne near Larne. Work started in 1966 with the road opening in 1973.

The decision to use rail haulage meant that severe congestion on, and damage to, the streets were obviated. The Ministry of Development purchased 70 railway wagons of 30 ton capacity. They were of a side discharge type manually operated. This allowed for three trains of 20 wagons each with 10 spare wagons, to allow for repairs, without reducing train capacity. Each train was hauled by two steam locomotives. Railway sidings and two 500 ft long high loading platforms were constructed at the quarry at Magherarnorne to permit direct loading by the 30 ton dump trucks used at the quarry face. At the foreshore motorway site a 1½ mile long railway siding was constructed alongside the existing Northern Ireland Railways line. The side discharge wagons were emptied directly on to the foreshore and the material was spread by four D9 Caterpillar dozers. The Northern Ireland Railway Company was responsible for all rail operations.

The 70 spoil wagons were made specifically for this contract by Cravens Ltd. and initially involved the UTA and then NIR when they took over railway operations in N Ireland. This contract gave N Ireland the distinction of having the last working steam operations in the UK as the WT Class (Jeeps) were used. Later NIR kept some wagons for PW workings.

Models

The inspiration for making models of these unique wagons came from Colm Flanagan, well known for his model making who made one and put it up on the rmweb site. (See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/co...pic/39866-a-spoil-wagon/).

I used Dapol wagons and Plasticard strips for the construction.

Leslie McAllister (Provincial Wagons) has expressed an interest in doing a limited run of these wagons. He said “I’m sufficiently encouraged to get my guy to master a kit and run off a hundred or so. Maybe in time for next Bangor in April”.

I hope he does as I never want to see plasticard strips again. There was a total of 92 separate pieces of plasticard per wagon.

IE Cement Wagons

I got some of the last MIR kits back in April 01at the Bangor show but have only got around to making them.

I suppose that will be the extent of my cement train unless some other manufacturer decides to produce them.

UTA WT Class, Coaches & Buses

This is my first go at a WT Class done in UTA livery.

Unfortunately during a test run one the valve gear screw came out and mangled the rods. The chassis is back with Hornby and I’m waiting and waiting for its return.

I did five coaches, all ex LMS stock.

One of the buses is a Jim Poots model and the other a TS8 which I adapted myself.

Class 22000 3 Car Set –the final stage.

Transfer time, supplied by Studio Scale Models along with some very helpful advice from Des.

After spraying, glazing, fitting of hand rails, and window wipers it was time for the final assembly and test run.

The front valances continued to give me problems as they don’t provide a smooth unbroken line from the cab area. Also the depth of them did not look right so I cut of the bottom 2.5 mm, including the front curve, but I think it now looks more like the real thing.

It was great to see it finally on rails and with the Bachmann motor it is a very smooth runner.

The original front top light looks very pale in comparison to the new LED’s

The project started back in March although the gathering up of donors and parts needed started before that. If I was to do another one there would be many things I would do differently but it’s unlikely I’ll tackle another one. I spent a long time getting the lights to fit into the front space and ended up using light bulbs at the end of plastic tubes. Then I noticed on this site a reference to using optical fibre (I think it was George who said he was going to try them). I got some and placed them in the plastic tubes. It improved the brightness of the red lights are they are not as strong as the white ones. What a great invention, now you only need one white and one red bulb and run your optical fibre from them and they don’t have to be in the front cab area.

A brief movie clip of the 22000 in action. [First time I have tried this -hope it works]

I started this project with a photo of a Class 22000 with a Virgin Voyager in front of it. To finish I’ll show the finished Class 2200 alongside the Virgin Voyager.

It was always my ambition to build a Hunslet Rake in its introductory colours but by the time I got round to it Ian at MIR was sold out of kits. When the “old site” sponsored a re issue of Hunslets, I jumped at the chance and gathered up donor coaches and a Bachmann Class 20 chassis to go with it.

I had built a Hunslet before (my 1st kit) so it was reasonably straightforward. Coaches were a matter of re sprays but I needed a driving trailer.

A bit of extra work cutting out as well as blocking a window.

The Bill Bedford bending jig came in handy for the hand rails.

Getting ready for painting

“Sandy” testing the air conditioned streamlined model.

Fitting lights to the Hunslet went OK after some excellent advice from George.

Only noticed the red wire through the window after I took the photograph

Thanks to “Hunslet” and others on the makeup of a Hunslet Rake and its colour scheme.

Drew the line at 5 coaches, I’m running out of room!

Sandy’s ready for a test drive.

Old and new liveries

Now I’ll have to put lights on the 102.

Next project looming!

It was always my ambition to build a Hunslet Rake in its introductory colours but by the time I got round to it Ian at MIR was sold out of kits. When the “old site” sponsored a re issue of Hunslets, I jumped at the chance and gathered up donor coaches and a Bachmann Class 20 chassis to go with it.

I had built a Hunslet before (my 1st kit) so it was reasonably straightforward. Coaches were a matter of re sprays but I needed a driving trailer.

A bit of extra work cutting out as well as blocking a window.

The Bill Bedford bending jig came in handy for the hand rails.

Getting ready for painting

“Sandy” testing the air conditioned streamlined model.

Fitting lights to the Hunslet went OK after some excellent advice from George.

Only noticed the red wire through the window after I took the photograph

Thanks to “Hunslet” and others on the makeup of a Hunslet Rake and its colour scheme.

Drew the line at 5 coaches, I’m running out of room!

Sandy’s ready for a test drive.

Old and new liveries

Now I’ll have to put lights on the 102.

Next project looming!

Bogie Wagons –Container & Timber

[This entry was originally posted on the old site.]

With thanks to MV038, IE201 and others for their previous posting on the above type wagons. I decided I’ll have to have a go and based the models on what has been already been done by others with a few of my own additions.

Collecting Hornby 60’ wagons and cutting the ones down to 47’ for Container use was the first stage. I noted the difficulty in getting a good join between the sawn wagon parts and after a few goes I hit on this method which gave me a “true meet” between the 2 half’s.

I placed the 2 parts to be joined on an old steel ruler, applied Epoxy Resin (Z-Poxy 5 –minutes).

I used bulldog clips to hold the 2 parts together and other clips to hold the body to the steel ruler to keep it flat.

You should end up with a good strong join.

Once the first one was completed, it was down to assembly line practice.

Buffers were made from plasticard with a brass pipe shaft inside Evergreen Tube 3.2 mm (Code 224).

Undercoat and then test run

I also included a couple of pocket wagons I had resprayed and identified the potental problem with Dapol and old Hornby couplings.

Timber Wagons are more of a challenge. Working from what others had done, along with copies of Wagons drawings (thanks to 3wheeler) and closely examining available photograph I came up with the following construction method.

Plasticard with Evergreen Channel 3.2mm (Code 264) 0.4 x 2.0 strips (Code 114) were used.

The ends were covered with the 3.2 mm channel.

They were heated with a hair dryer to mould into the shape required.

I concluded from the drawings that 5 pallets with upright stanchions at each corner where fitted across the body of the 60’ wagons.

These were made from plasticard, channel, strips and Evergreen square tube 3.2 mm (Code 252) and then attached to the body. Small piping is placed into the square tubes to bring them up to the correct height. Brake wheels (brass etches from Hursts) were fitted to each side of the wagon.

Awaiting more parts before completing the build and moving onto the painting stage.

Wagons painted in MIR red Oxide.

Wagons loaded

Paint and transfers completed. I loaded the containers with lead airgun pellets for weight.

Timber wagons painted.

Timber loads were built around foam squares to reduce the overweight and to stop these wagons being too heavy.

Wagons loaded.

Container Wagons in action.

Timber train passing.

Close up of the pocket wagons.

The Wagon Project took a lot longer than I had anticipated and I am happy to move on to my Hunslet rake project.

I'm following the progress of this layout with interest and to learn from it's development.

The helix extention looks good, are you going to double track it?

Well done David, they look the part.

Help! this is all so new and I'll trying to find my round this new site. Is this replacing the old site or will it still be available for reference purposes? What about running topics like Members Workshops - do they start a new?