Nelson's Workbench

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you Kirley for your comment, the cattle wagon is near enough complete, just need to paint the roof and tidy some areas up.

[Glenderg]

Would echo kirleys comments nelson. Your work stands alone in terms of detail, so if you're unhappy with it, that's a good sign. Self critiscm is the hardest. Maturity beyond your years, even for a six planked wagon

[Weshty]

Straight up I love the wood effect. Very subtle, almost factory smooth, well done.

 

No harm in being self critical, though sometimes you have to tell that inner voice, in the immortal words of Eddie Murphy, to "have a coke and a smile, and shut the f&*% up!"

 

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you glenderg and weshty,

I was informed on another forum that the Cambrian 6 plank wagon is actually a goods wagon and not a mineral wagon so what I'm hoping to do is try and repaint the interior and try and achieve the wooden affect again.

[Hunslet 102]

Great work again Nelson,well done

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you Hunslet

[Dunluce Castle]

Hello everyone,

Here is the GNRI cattle wagon, all complete apart from the roof and small details that need touched up.

The 2 wagons have been painted and the interiors repainted, although not as good as my first attempt I think it looks okay, tomorrow will hopefully see the wagons weathered, couplings and wheels added.

Many thanks

Nelson

[popeye]

Love the wagons, what make are the open wagons & what grey paint do you use? Look forward to the finish.

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you Popeye, the LNER open wagons are Cambrian and the paint is railmatch LNER freight grey.

[Kirley]

Excellent job on the Cattle Wagons, you managed a better job with the decals than I did. Considering the cargo, the interior and part of the outside would have a very "used" look. I understand the insides were every so often 'whitewashed'. Cue Jhb for the correct information.

[leslie10646]

First the interiors of the cattle wagon. Kirley is quite right that the interior should look "used". I had mine finished "as is" so people could decide just how used they wanted them to be, hence my selling them with unstuck roofs - also useful for adding six cows?

 

As for the washing out with lime, or even whitewashing (described as useless!) - I understand that this became illegal in the UK around 1927 - see the "other" Irish chatroom for details.

 

I have a small gallery of photos which we used when making the GN cattle wagons and ALL the wagons in the pictures are clean, with no sign of limewash - so leave them "clean" grey on the outside! The Law was quite specific about the thorough cleaning of the interior of cattle wagons, so maybe it IS OK just to paint the interior grey (BEFORE sticking the aforementioned six 4mm cattle in!)

 

Nelson's other wagon made me think - the Irish railways used 4 and 6 plank wagons a lot - 5 and 7 plank, as were common in England, were uncommon in Ireland. The four plank wagons aren't a big problem, but there is no RTR British six plank to repaint and I thought Nelson had hit on the solution with this Cambrian kit. Alas, no, the axleboxes are too close together, never mind that the body length may be wrong. If you don't mind this, then this kit offers a way to vary the "look" of a train of opens on an Irish layout?

 

Leslie

[jhb171achill]

A few comments.... the lime wash used was deemed to have antiseptic properties, hence it's use. As Leslie says, it's use ceased - I'm not sure when in Ireland, but later than 1927 anyway. In latter times, wagons were hosed out. For. A modeller, a light whitish wash round the lower body sides, perhaps showing as leaking out through the doors as well, and the same whitish stuff splattered all over the chassis as well.

 

Regarding the wagon grey, the LNER shade is not unlike what the GNR used, but perhaps a little light for LMS or GSR, or early CIE. For those, LMS grey is better. Later, post-1960 CIE tended to use a much lighter shade on newer wagons like the then-production-lined "H" vans.

 

While a little off topic, recollection suggests that the cement bubbles when brand new were a shade not unlike the LNER grey above. It was certainly very slightly darker than the then current "H" vans.

 

Don't forget, in all cases, grey chassis, not "Hornby" black. Mainstream Irish standard wagons never had black chassis or body ironwork although certain specialised types had exceptions. Example - some bubbles had black chassis (while ammonia bogies had dark green, and acrylonitrile four wheelers had red!). Proprietary model manufacturers brought up three generations of us modellers on standard black chassis for all goods stock, just like passenger stock, and this seems to have become the single (and, I suppose, given circumstances) understandable error in model liveries.....

[jhb171achill]

I should have added - Nelson - that is an absolutely superb job you've done - excellent stuff, keep it coming!

[Garfield]

Don't forget, in all cases, grey chassis, not "Hornby" black. Mainstream Irish standard wagons never had black chassis or body ironwork although certain specialised types had exceptions. Example - some bubbles had black chassis (while ammonia bogies had dark green, and acrylonitrile four wheelers had red!). Proprietary model manufacturers brought up three generations of us modellers on standard black chassis for all goods stock, just like passenger stock, and this seems to have become the single (and, I suppose, given circumstances) understandable error in model liveries.....

 

But the black is, of course, correct for the LNER open wagon he has modelled.

[jhb171achill]

Of course, Garfield! I was referring to Irish stock (not narrow gauge LNER). ;-)

[leslie10646]

Gents

 

For what it's worth, PW stock is painted Halford's undercoat - you first heard it here! It's all a bit academic between the effects of smoke, diesel fumes, sunlight (moonlight(ing)) etc etc?

 

Leslie

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you for your kind words everyone who has commented, I appreciate it.

And thank you for the information provided gentlemen, all very interesting, as I say I'm still learning.

After the Bangor exhibition I am off school for 2 weeks and I'm planning to do a few NCC wagons and maybe another U2 engone, watch this space....

[Dunluce Castle]

Hello everyone,

Now that the LNER 6 plank wagon is complete I've now started a new project and this time I'm going all out giving it my best, it's going to be a model of the 10ton van that the NCC had, the unique feature about these vans is that they have outside framed W irons, which stand out so this aspect of the wagon had to be captured perfectly and I hope I've done this.

First up was removing everything from the Dapol chassis and shorting it down to the right length, then the sides came on followed by springs and W irons, the springs consist of 10tho plasticard and the rest in 20tho plasticard. So far about 4 days have went into the Underframe only because as you can hopefully see everything is cut out individually, the V hangers were also made from 20tho plasticard. Brakes and brake lever were spares that came from the Cambrian kits. And finally wire connects the 2 sides together.

Now onto some pics,

Note the brakes are only on one side.

Looks a bit messy but I've yet to tidy the underneath.

The outside W irons really makes the Underframe stand out from others.

Hopefully today the body will be cut out.

Many thanks

Nelson

[Warbonnet]

what dia wire are you using Nelson? Need to add some to my own parkside and ratio kits...

[Dunluce Castle]

Hi warbonnet,

I'd love to help, but sorry I don't have a clue what dia the wire is, I just found some in the garage and used it.

Sorry

Nelson

[Warbonnet]

Hi warbonnet,

I'd love to help, but sorry I don't have a clue what dia the wire is, I just found some in the garage and used it.

Sorry

Nelson

 

No worries, I'll have to get some and see what bits look right.

[Dunluce Castle]

As someone kindly pointed out on another forum, the brakes on my wagon won't work, I need a Morton clutch so that will need to be changed.

[Dunluce Castle]

Hello folks,

I've taken some pics of my LNER wagon, it was a very nice build and I'm quite proud of her.

You may notice that one coupling is missing, reason for this is that it came off during an exhibition but I got it fixed now.

Many thanks

Nelson

[Dunluce Castle]

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven't made an update sooner, I've been very busy with the club and it's Easter running specials, but here we are, I've cut out the 4 sides, made the corner supports out of balsa wood, these have yet to be shortened down, and others you can see in the pics below, the body fits onto the chassis perfectly, next is to do the door on the side and more supports/frames on the ends and sides.

Inside

Many thanks

Nelson

[Dunluce Castle]

Further progress today,

I'm a slow modeller...

Nelson

Edited April 23, 2014 by Dunluce Castle

[Kirley]

Coming together well Nelson.

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you Kirley

[Dunluce Castle]

Hello everyone,

Today saw the van getting its door and roof made, small details such as the door handles and straps were also put on the van.

Sorry about the poor lighting in the pics, I'll tidy the van tomorrow and get it ready for the paint shop.

Many thanks

Nelson

[cg-antrim]

Amazing. I'd like one of these!

[Glenderg]

Nelson,

 

Did you scratchbuild the outside w irons, leaf springs and axel boxes? Richie

[Dunluce Castle]

Thanks cg-Antrim

 

And yes glenderg, the axeboxe covers from 30tho sheet cut out and filed, the outside W irons from individual strips cut out from a sheet of 20tho plasticard and the springs, 4 layers of 10tho plasticard. A very timly process but I hope you can agree that they look rather good, the hard bit was the half circle on the solebars, this was carefully cut out then filed to the correct shape x4.

Nelson

[Dunluce Castle]

Complete and ready for painting, ignore the roof, it isn't stuck down yet, I'll do that after painting.

Note the handrail on the right hand side, a nice small feature.

Thanks

Nelson

[murrayec]

Hi Nelson

 

Looking very nice, I like the use of wood. Now for the other 5! eaah...

 

murrayec

[Dunluce Castle]

Thank you murrayec, I'm thinking of building a few more seeing as these were common in NCC days, I'm now not sure to weather her or not?

[murrayec]

Hi nelson

 

I reckon weather them, you did a great job on the plank wagon, go for it. If you do the same job on this it will be an amazing looking train

 

murrayec