Rolling stock of Dugort Harbour

[jhb171achill]

The first lot of these are with two exceptions, all Provincial kits. Weathering by either myself, Kevin McIntosh or “Dempsey”.

The guards vans are two Provincial GSWR types, still to be seen in isolated places into the 1960s, with two of an only very slightly later design staggering on into the 1970s, at Castleisland and Loughrea.

Liveries all 1955-63-and-after, grey with snails. All wear the darker grey, which was “lightened” when the new 20T and 30T steel-sided brake vans appeared. One is very “bleached” looking - I remember seeing this effect on wagons which had long been a stranger to a paint brush.

Middle van - JM Design. 

Edited February 27, 2022 by jhb171achill

[jhb171achill]

Next, GNR vans. Provincial again. Unpainted replacement planks were a feature of wagons likely to be withdrawn soon. Wagons with GNR markings were to be seen all over CIE, even at places like West Cork, Westport and Valentia Harbour, after CIE ate part of the GNR in October 1958. The vast majority were scrapped quite soon, as frequent closures of lines, contraction of freight traffic and ferocious building output of “H” vans quickly replaced them; not, though, before some acquired “flying snails”, and even “roundels”. A very small number even survived the 1970 changeover to brown livery.

Dugort Harbour has six - two each with GNR markings, snails & roundels.

[leslie10646]

Still available as kits from You know Who!

The weathering on the two vans is very effective and I like the plain plank touch.

[jhb171achill]

Next, cattle trucks. CIE built lots of brand new ones in the 1950s, so by the time the GNR was included, most GNR ones were scrapped straight away. Numbers of cattle by rail collapsed after 1957, with only half the 1957 number by 1965, and half of even that disappearing soon after. By the early 60s, non-standard cattle trucks were nowhere to be seen.  I have one GNR one, which will have battered-looking GNR markings; I’m pretty sure none ever got CIE livery. Of the dozen or so CIE ones I have, two have “roundels” (the two on the left here) and the rest have “snails”.

Provincial Wagons kits.

[StevieB]

Very nice.

Stephen

[jhb171achill]

CIE “H” vans. I’ve a good few, some made up, others not. Again, most with snails - just a couple with roundels. Note the lighter grey livery used after approx 1960, also the tan surrounded logo. These were only used on there and the “palvans”. All other wagon types had a plain white “roundel”.

Edited February 26, 2022 by jhb171achill

[leslie10646]

JB

I don't need a website - you're doing all the work for me!

Great stuff - the 1953 vans (as I referred to them) look splendidly unloved thanks to some very effective  weathering.

Leslie

PS you need some cows for your wagons, or are they only loaded on Fair Day?

[jhb171achill]

Open wagons…. Quite a few Provincial corrugated open wagons, but as per the 1955-65 period, almost as many timber bodied ones of traditional design. These are just old Bachmann, Dapol or Hornby wagons repainted. The grey on this one is wrong - too dark, but once it gets its “snails”, and number it will look ok when severely  weathered into oblivion! This particular one will need to lose its vacuum bags too.

5 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

JB

I don't need a website - you're doing all the work for me!

Great stuff - the 1953 vans (as I referred to them) look splendidly unloved thanks to some very effective  weathering.

Leslie

PS you need some cows for your wagons, or are they only loaded on Fair Day?

I will need cows at some stage, indeed! I’m working today on the “big” station where the Dugort Harbour branch originates from - it will have Macroom-like fair days and enough cattle siding space for almost 40 cattle wagons! Track bed being prepared….

[jhb171achill]

Finally for tonight, B165 gets away with the daily goods, 1969. A string of Provincial goods vans and one Bullied corrugated open.

Heard the Beatles’ new song, by the way?

[StevieB]

Very convincing representation of days gone by.

Stephen

[jhb171achill]

At Dugort, rolling stock work continues. This ancient kit (Slaters coke wagon, I think) is a high-sided open wagon in Britain, but can readily be converted to a reasonable approximation to an old GSWR “soft-top” by the addition of an open-centre roof. The roof sections shown are just bits of paper as templates to illustrate the point. Plastic pieces will be shaped and made, and a centre tarpaulin put in place to hide the interior, and what in real life, as an open wagon, is the non-opening part above the doors! The impression needs to be given that it has full-height doors, of course. Old relics like this, and the four KMCE wagons seen in the background, could still be seen in far-flung backwaters until about 1960 - well into the A and C class (“grey’n’green”) era. It’s just about conceivable that a grey 121 might have met one, but a black diesel loco is probably pushing credibility a bit far. 

Wagons like this will be out’n’about primarily when I’m operating steam.

Painting next, followed by very heavy weathering. These wagons are intended to look as if they’re about to fall to bits.

Meanwhile, A23R is shut down for the night. Those empty cattle wagons have to go to Cork in the morning on the back of the up goods

What to make tarpaulins out of?

I’m thinking very thin paper soaked in black water colour paint, which should give a distressed look, and perhaps dipped in varnish and hardened? Any other ideas?

Edited February 28, 2022 by jhb171achill

[leslie10646]

Good morning, JB and everyone else!. An impressive solution to the "Convertible wagon. You are quite right about the source as you will see if you look here!

A Slater Midland Railway Coke Wagon (Kit No. 4026). On eBay at £15.74 post free to UK

I've toyed with doing such a kit for several years as variants ran on several different lines. I look forward to seeing the outcome!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362638072280?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=7101533165274578&mkcid=2&itemid=362638072280&targetid=4584826055637460&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=412354546&mkgroupid=1299623041023876&rlsatarget=pla-4584826055637460&abcId=9300541&merchantid=87779&msclkid=429d2e4f23961330e6b64c53afa762e3

[Mayner]

For many years Studio Scale Models have produced high quality kits of both the GSWR & MGWR Convertible wagons. SSM also produce the timber underframe version of the GSWR/GSR/GNR(I)/CIE open wagon

 

MGWR Standard Covered Wagon on left GSWR version on right.

These kits are reasonably simple to assemble using superglue or epoxy for modellers who have not mastered soldering

[Northroader]

The most recent wagon sheets I’ve done use cooking foil, which should work for the roof sheets just as well. Fold the edges over flat to get a strong neat finish, and enclose battens at each side, as well as a length of thread for tie downs. Then I paint with Humbrol no. 1 primer, and a top coat of charcoal grey. You can letter them with a springbow pen, but don’t bear down too hard, or the point will cut through the foil.

[leslie10646]

Thanks, John, for reminding me about these!

When I returned to Irish model railways (while I was still in Hong Kong, where Daniel Wu did a seriously good job building four locos from SSM kits for me), I bought quite a few of these whitemetal and brass kits.

The SSM brass kit of a GNR brake van remains a Class Act if you can build brass!

The whitemetal kits are fine if you want to run short trains (for they weight quite a lot). I ended up giving mine away - which in the case of the six plank opens might be a bit of an own-goal as no-one (me included) has done another in lighter material. Now maybe that's what I should try instead - for the GNR had four and six plank opens by the score!

PS John - the vans look very good indeed!

Edited February 28, 2022 by leslie10646

[jhb171achill]

12 hours ago, Mayner said:

For many years Studio Scale Models have produced high quality kits of both the GSWR & MGWR Convertible wagons. SSM also produce the timber underframe version of the GSWR/GSR/GNR(I)/CIE open wagon

 

MGWR Standard Covered Wagon on left GSWR version on right.

These kits are reasonably simple to assemble using superglue or epoxy for modellers who have not mastered soldering

I have a couple of these unmade - must dig ‘em out!

These little beauties from KMCE are next for painting. And running around a friend’s layout (running in!) is what will haul them.

[StevieB]

A lovely collection of wagons. We are so lucky to have such talented people producing these kits and RTR wagons.

Stephen

[jhb171achill]

2 minutes ago, StevieB said:

A lovely collection of wagons. We are so lucky to have such talented people producing these kits and RTR wagons.

Stephen

Couldn’t agree more - and also, let’s admire the financial risks they’ve been prepared to take in order to accomplish it!

[jhb171achill]

Out came the paintbrushes tonight. I lost them plus paints months ago. I knew they were somewhere about, so I couldn’t bring myself to buy new stuff. Lo and behold, they turn up this afternoon when I was looking for something else, having been hiding in plain sight…..  

So, a reasonably productive afternoon. Weathering next, and these being old wagons, it’ll be very heavily done.

The carriages will need black chassis and ends, and a new (black) roof, as they resemble WLWR prototypes, which didn’t have Triang clerestorey roofs! Got these two old Triang monsters on fleabay for £3 each…. Delivered to Daughter-in-Wales; had they been posted here, no doubt the customs, post office, VAT and Brexitstan would have resulted in an additional €397.43 in charges.

Edited May 14, 2022 by jhb171achill

[2996 Victor]

Excellent work there, if I may say so - the wagons all look resplendent in their grey as does the carriage on its green. For lettering, are you going to use transfers or hand lettering?

Cheers,

Mark

[jhb171achill]

2 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Excellent work there, if I may say so - the wagons all look resplendent in their grey as does the carriage on its green. For lettering, are you going to use transfers or hand lettering?

Cheers,

Mark

My attempts at hand lettering would be somewhat inferior to putting a spider in a pot of light green paint and having it walk across the wagon side!

I’ll use transfers….. though in the case of the wagons, as per prototype of very much older wagons in the 1955-65 period, they’ll be so worn and grubby that it would’ve been almost impossible to make out the markings!

[jhb171achill]

I spotted a Midland Railway (of England) high-sided open coke wagon as a kit, which I thought could be converted to a generic GSWR (or at a stretch, CBSCR) “soft-top”.

So, off we go.

First, cutting small curved bits of plastic to raise the (previously level-topped) ends. 

Next, the roof parts, each a curved bit of plasticard. At this stage I was going to leave the centre part open, as it would have been when carrying cattle, so I made the two end sections of roof.

However, I could have saved myself a bit of work as I then spotted a glasses cleaning cloth and decided it would make a good canvas cover!

So, a piece was cut out and glued to thin but very strong paper. Once set, it was shaped and glued in place.

Edited May 14, 2022 by jhb171achill

[jhb171achill]

If you look at the original wagon, the doors weren’t full height. Obviously, on a real van, be it a “soft-top” or not, the door would be full height, so this had to be disguised; the solution being the canvas cover just about covering the top part of the wagon side, thus making it look like a full height door.

Finally, painting. Next will be couplings, flying snails, numbers and heavy weathering.

[2996 Victor]

18 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

My attempts at hand lettering would be somewhat inferior to putting a spider in a pot of light green paint and having it walk across the wagon side!

I know what you mean! I used to be able to hand-letter quite passably but dimishing eyesight has, I suspect, put paid to that!

Excellent use of the (Derby) Midland wagon kit - Slater's, I'm guessing - it really does look the part with the tarp.

Cheers,

Mark

[Noel]

Nice work Jonathan and nice result

[jhb171achill]

5 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

I know what you mean! I used to be able to hand-letter quite passably but dimishing eyesight has, I suspect, put paid to that!

Excellent use of the (Derby) Midland wagon kit - Slater's, I'm guessing - it really does look the part with the tarp.

Cheers,

Mark

Yeah, me too - though lining and lettering were never my strong point, to be honest!

Yes, it’s an old Slaters kit. I might get another and put vertically-planked doors on it - that would better resemble what it’s meant to be an approximation of. But it’ll do for a quickie job!

[2996 Victor]

2 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

it’s an old Slaters kit. I might get another and put vertically-planked doors on it - that would better resemble what it’s meant to be an approximation of. But it’ll do for a quickie job!

I wonder if their MR box van has any milage in it for converting. Admittedly, it's an assymetrical design so you'd need two kits to splice together, but the heavy outside framing is in character.

Just a thought!

[jhb171achill]

5 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

I wonder if their MR box van has any milage in it for converting. Admittedly, it's an assymetrical design so you'd need two kits to splice together, but the heavy outside framing is in character.

Just a thought!

I had a look at that, Mark, but the off-centre nature of the doors suggests that even a generic approximation of a pre-1910 GSWR van would be easier to just scratchbuild. I think there comes a point where amending a RTR model or a kit becomes harder and more time-consuming than a scratchbuild. It might be worth it if an accurate model of a prototype was the result, but I don’t think this one suits….

[Galteemore]

I built one years ago for a UK outline layout and it does have a vaguely Irish vibe - especially at the ends.

[2996 Victor]

7 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

I wonder if their MR box van has any milage in it for converting. Admittedly, it's an assymetrical design so you'd need two kits to splice together, but the heavy outside framing is in character.

Maybe not as the door is X-braced!

Slater's kits are back in production, their website is here bizarrely about twenty minutes down the road from me!

The MR large cattle wagon might be cut-down-able, though!

Just now, Galteemore said:

I built one years ago for a UK outline layout and it does have a vaguely Irish vibe - especially at the ends.

Interestingly, one Lot had roof doors!

[jhb171achill]

Just now, Galteemore said:

I built one years ago for a UK outline layout and it does have a vaguely Irish vibe - especially at the ends.

Looks great - the off-centre door does tend to “disqualify” it, though. Having said that, lovely model and I know what you mean….

Looking at Slaters’ website now, I don’t see anything 4mm - seems all 7mm?

Plus - minimum order for Ireland seems to €140!!!!

Back to fleabay….

[Galteemore]

Yes, Slaters are pretty much a 7mm concern - although I only really use them for wheels…..they do 5’3” axles, mercifully! Very nice work on yours Jb. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

14 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Yes, Slaters are pretty much a 7mm concern - although I only really use them for wheels…..they do 5’3” axles, mercifully! Very nice work on yours Jb. 

Had a look at their 4mm stuff too. The goods van they list at the top of their list would do as an old GSWR type if it had vertically planked plain doors.

Edited May 14, 2022 by jhb171achill

[David Holman]

  Nice conversion JB and like the idea of using a glasses cleaning cloth for the canvas. Another method is to use masking tape, which simulates canvas quite well.

The only British wagon I've found that directly converts to Ireland is the Slater's standard/RCH tank wagon. It's a nice kit, though have found that building mine to 5'3 has caused the wheels to short out against the frames, so it is currently malingering as a rather expensive static model.

 However, would certainly encourage anyone to have a go at wagon scratchbuilding - even if it is just a case of making bodies to go on second hand chassis. Vans are probably easier to do than opens, especially empty ones as you need to put in all the interior detailing.

 At the end of the day, a van body is two sides, two ends and a roof, plus strapping and planking, the former only needing some microstrip. Alternatively, start off by doing a grounded van body that has been repurposed as a store. Either way an enjoyable exercise that can be done with the minimum of tools.

[Galteemore]

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

 

The only British wagon I've found that directly converts to Ireland is the Slater's standard/RCH tank wagon. It's a nice kit, though have found that building mine to 5'3 has caused the wheels to short out against the frames, so it is currently malingering as a rather expensive static model.

Sorry to hear that David. Do you think some kind of fix is possible, please, either at this stage, or as part of the initial build. I have bought one which is awaiting building

Edited May 15, 2022 by Galteemore