(WH)WHR Rolling Stock

[ge_rik]

.... and I think finishing the model you've spent weeks/months on can often be a bit of an anti-climax.

I know what you mean. I think we generally only see the flaws in our creations which tend to overshadow all the good points but I'd be quite pleased if that van was mine. There's a lot to like about it..

Rik

[Andrew]

Morning!

I really shouldn't be starting anything new this close to Christmas, but...

A few months ago I was flicking through my book on the Croesor Tramway, part of which was incorporated into the Welsh Highland Railway. My eye was caught by the little iron open wagons, familiar to 16 millers due to the once-popular Coopercraft kits - I had a couple myself in the early days of my garden railway-ing, I think they were an 18th birthday present from my brother!

I decided the time had come to add some to my line, to add a little variety to slate trains and to reflect a little more of the WHR's quirky history. Unfortunately, Coopercraft stopped producing their kits some years ago due to machine problems, and several weeks of trawling through eBay proved fruitless. When a fellow member asked for some in the Wanted section of the Forum I must confess I thought he had no chance of obtaining them - and then "Steam George" came forward with some to sell! Happily, there were two left over, and they're sitting on the table in front of me as I type - isn't the Forum great?!

As it turns out, the Coopercraft kits seem to be "inspired by" the Croesor wagons rather than an exact scale model, particularly the lower parts, which are clearly based on Ffestiniog slate wagons. I can be a bit of a purist at times, but with these I decided that capturing the flavour of the originals was enough - they're intended as a quick bit of fun rather than a core part of the wagon fleet, and will portray wagons owned by the fictional Clarach quarry that just happen to look a lot like the examples that were found at Croesor...

That said, when I can replicate details from the originals I will, so the first step was to replace the wheels - of the three surviving wagons, two have straight spoked wheels and one has disc wheels, so I swapped the curly spoked examples that came with the models with appropriate Binnie alternatives. I've also added lead strip for extra weight and begun to modify the couplings so that they'll be compatible with my other wagons. Here they are so far:

Croesor 1.jpg (91.09 KiB) Viewed 7773 times

I haven't entirely decided what order I'm going to carry out the rest of the work in, but at some point I'll add the very unusual brake gear carried by one of the survivors to one of my wagons, including the additional ring that seems to be intended to allow a rope to be used to hold the brakes off:





It looks like the brakes are off in this picture, I think? Would the handle then be moved upwards to apply them - and tied into that position?? Most unusual...

On the 60s/70s photos of the survivors, the lower side of at least one wagon has rusted all the way through (possibly because they were originally preserved on the Ffestiniog, where they were used to hold loco ash), so I'm looking forward to trying to replicate that...

Cheers all,

Andrew.

[Peter Butler]

Unless you had mentioned the differences I doubt I would have looked closely enough to notice, but now I see just how many small, but significant, changes there are. Even the bolts holding the axle-boxes are in the wrong position. It will be interesting to see how you make the alterations.
The lead flashing will make a great difference to the running of such lightweight wagons. When I do something similar I always put the cut pieces between vice jaws to make them perfectly flat. This will give a better appearance and more surface area for adhesive..... Helpful tip?

[Andrew]

Unless you had mentioned the differences I doubt I would have looked closely enough to notice, but now I see just how many small, but significant, changes there are. Even the bolts holding the axle-boxes are in the wrong position. It will be interesting to see how you make the alterations.

I had the day off today, so spent a fair bit of it working on these. In the end, I've kept the alterations fairly minimal. The perpendicular strip that runs around the lower part of the body is the most noticeable departure from the real thing, but cutting it away wasn't an option because the bodywork below it isn't flush with the rest of it, so I've left it. According to Festipedia, the real things were built for horse haulage and weren't strong enough to be used in long locomotive-hauled trains, so I'm assuming those strips are something to do with strengthening them for use in longer trains...

I did rearrange the axlebox bolts a little, and have also added the distinctive and very basic brake hangers and lever on one of the pair. I'll leave adding the brake shoes and rodding until after I've done the initial painting.

The lead flashing will make a great difference to the running of such lightweight wagons. When I do something similar I always put the cut pieces between vice jaws to make them perfectly flat. This will give a better appearance and more surface area for adhesive..... Helpful tip?

Yes, very, thank you! I cut my flashing with tin snips, and the strips roll up like one of those fortune telling fish from a Christmas cracker...

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Andrew]

Here's the latest view, with the wagons primed and ready for the next stage. As you can see, the work I've undertaken was relatively minimal:

Croesor 2.jpg (82.25 KiB) Viewed 7750 times

Progress is likely to slow now, but the project feels like it's off to a good start...

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Andrew]

Hi all,

I finished the Coopercraft Croesor slate wagons just before Christmas, haven't given them a test run yet, but I did take them outside for a quick photograph.

Here's a "Before" picture:

Croesoe before.jpg (198.01 KiB) Viewed 8399 times

And here they are "after":

Croesor after 1.jpg (191.18 KiB) Viewed 8399 times

Croesor after 2.jpg (205.93 KiB) Viewed 8399 times

All good rusty fun - I was pleased with how the rather rustic brake gear turned out on the black one. The lettering is in the style of the "Parc & Croesor" wording on the originals but represents the fictional Clarach Quarry instead.

Cheers all,

Andrew.

[Peter Butler]

Now those are impressive... superb weathering.

[Andrew]

Hello!

I find myself unexpectedly working from home today, so took advantage of that by seizing the opportunity to take a quick snap of my latest project.

It's intended to become a Welsh Highland slate wagon - that's the conventional "crate" type, the WHR also used simple open wagons for slate traffic. There were a number of different designs, but only one (unusual) type has been drawn, and few photos exist. Mine will be a composite design based on those photos, with typical WHR features, most notably an iron body on a wooden chassis, and a lack of bracing on the corners - I'll dig out a photo at some point.

My idea is to build this around a cheap flat wagon kit, for speed and reliable running, and because in the absence of drawings no-one can tell me it's wrong! I opted for the Phil Sharples kit, and so far I've opened up the slots for the solebars to accommodate larger wheels, cut down the bufferbeams to made curved buffer/couplings, and hacked the original dummy solebars around and glued them on to thicken the frame. I've also stained the deck and coated everything in MDF sealer. Here's what it looks like so far:

WHR slate wagon 1.jpg (267.46 KiB) Viewed 8310 times

If the whole project works I plan to build another 4 or 5 of these, so I might see if it's possible (and cost-effective) for Phil to cut the parts to incorporate the modifications I've made, and to supply them with larger wheels - he's happily done the latter for me before.

The next step will be to tidy up the chassis and add dummy axleguards, then I'll need to tackle the ironwork, which is where the whole thing might fall apart, literally.

In other exciting wagon news, the number plates for my FR van turned up - naturally they were sitting in a drawer I'd already checked three times, but I didn't spot them until I went looking for something else. I might weather them a little to match the rest of the van, but I'm very pleased with how they finish the whole thing off, thanks Philip!

Van 101 complete.jpg (105.32 KiB) Viewed 8310 times

Cheers all,

Andrew.

[philipy]

That van looks a treat Andrew. You ought to tone the plates down a bit to match the rest of the ironwork though.

[Andrew]

Afternoon all!

A little progress to report on the prototype WHR slate wagon, which has now reached the stage of looking like rather a smart little flat wagon:

WHR slate wagon 2.jpg (178.9 KiB) Viewed 8254 times

I took it for a test run up the line this morning, and all seems well - the weight under the floor no doubt helps. These small, light, wagons are always a little track-shy, but it seemed perfectly happy being pushed through the points etc.

WHR slate wagon 3.jpg (254.59 KiB) Viewed 8254 times

I'll head off to the model shop one day this week to purchase some plastic strip for the body, but first I'll need to measure up and maybe make some drawings to determine exactly what I'll need.

Cheers,

Andrew

[philipy]

Andrew, I just scrolled back up the page and realised that somehow I missed weathering on the rusty Croesor wagons. That is superb, absolutely believable rusty metal, no way are they plastic!

[ge_rik]

Andrew, I just scrolled back up the page and realised that somehow I missed weathering on the rusty Croesor wagons. That is superb, absolutely believable rusty metal, no way are they plastic!

Me too! How did you achieve the crumbly rust effect? Is it iron filings or some other secret ingredient?

Rik

[Andrew]

Glad you like the rust effect.

Yes, it's iron filings, applied while the paint was wet then "activated" with copper sulphate solution, which appears to create a far more orange rust than using vinegar. I think I could probably vary the colour by changing the strength of the solution - some experimenting is required... The darker rust inside of the wagons is just diluted black paint sloshed over the top, to represent coal dust - it seeped through some holes I'd made in the side of the grey wagon (to represent more extreme corrosion), which wasn't really what I'd planned, but it does serve to vary the colour of the rust.

I think the best effect I've managed is where I've painted over the edges of the patches of filings before applying the copper sulphate - the rust then appears underneath the paint, looking like it's taking hold of the next bit of the iron. The streaks and other surface rust are just dilute acrylic paint brushed on - the overall effect is better than if you look too closely, I think!

Incidentally, I discovered after I started using it that copper sulphate is pretty nasty stuff and should be handled and disposed of with care - there was no warning on the packet, or on the website I purchased it from, so I assumed it was fairly harmless. Luckily, I seem to have survived...

Cheers,

Andrew

[Lonsdaler]

As a child, I remember having chemistry sets full of all sorts of now difficult to get chemicals - Copper Sulfate was one of the more interesting, especially when growing a chemical garden

[Andrew]

Afternoon all,

I'm hoping to get the WHR slate wagon finished this weekend. Here's where it was up to last night, with (plastic strip) sides and ends assembled, and the (primarily Lego) axleguards awaiting painting. The upper part of the bodywork needs a coat of black too - I did the lower bits because they'd be fiddly later, but left the rest because I knew there's be filling and sanding to do .

WHR slate wagon 4.jpg (118.43 KiB) Viewed 7868 times

It's actually progressed a little more since then, with painting complete and axleguards affixed - just weathering to go now...

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Andrew]

And the finished product:

WHR slate wagon 5.jpg (187.38 KiB) Viewed 7829 times

And again, in company of some other wagons:

WHR slate wagon 6.jpg (274.13 KiB) Viewed 7829 times

In the absence of drawings, and with only a a few photos to go on, I honestly don't know how accurate a model of a NWNGR/WHR "crate" wagon it is, but it recreates the most distinctive features of them, and captures the overall feel, I think. And, because I did things properly for once, and made myself a jig, it should be relatively simple to build some more. I think I'll make some variations, including braked examples, ones with different axleguards, and a wooden-slatted one, but that's all for another day...

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Peter Butler]

I agree with you Andrew, capturing the overall feel is sufficient to identify the item, which I think you have achieved perfectly well. The finish sits well with your other stock too, so you have every right to feel proud.

[philipy]

That is brilliant in every way, Andrew. Well done.

[ge_rik]

Nice one!

Rik

[Lonsdaler]

That there Lego is fancy stuff compared to what was available in my days. Oh to be young enough to have children again... Well, maybe not. Looks to be a very atmospheric little waggon