(WH)WHR Rolling Stock

[ge_rik]

I do like the elegant lines of the coach, especially the sweeping curves of the observation window.

PS Fans of cult TV series The Prisoner may notice that Patrick MacGoohan has seemingly escaped The Village, legged it across The Cob, and boarded the 2:15 to Dinas Junction. Can "Russell" outrun Rover??!

Maybe this coach should be followed by a balloon car ........

Rik

[BertieB]

Very neat — and the video too. The ‘cheesy’ music is cool.

“…boarded the 2:15 to Dinas Junction. Can ‘Russell’ outrun Rover?”

But, after a tense journey, fraught with suspicion of seemingly harmless other passengers, he’ll find the train will have mysteriously terminated at a previously unknown station back at the Village, where he’ll be greeted by station master, Leo Mckern…

[Andrew]

But, after a tense journey, fraught with suspicion of seemingly harmless other passengers, he’ll find the train will have mysteriously terminated at a previously unknown station back at the Village, where he’ll be greeted by station master, Leo Mckern…

That's very good, I can picture it...

If it were one of the later, more psychedelic, episodes, the train would career along ever faster, swinging round corners and clattering through points, cheered by mysterious cloaked figures - and at the end a reeling Number 6 would stagger down the platform to discover that the train was driven by... himself...

Actually, I've always rather fancied modelling the FfR's imaginary Portmeirion branch - it would suit the line's 30s "rainbow" liveries...

[Old Man Aaron]

Unique, classy, and to your usual superb build quality, love it.

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Fantastic - well worth the wait!

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Andrew,

Well, it's been a long time coming - but worth every moment of the wait! What a beautiful addition to the railway. I've always been impressed by your builds but this one takes the biscuit!

I look forward to seeing it in action.

SVLR Andrew

[Andrew]

Hi all,

I'm very glad you like the observation car - it was a fun build, even if it was a headache at times.

My next project is the complete opposite, in that it's definitely third class - even if it does afford some pretty good views... I'm restarting a project to build a Hudson toastrack carriage that I started - and put aside - way back in 2010. I'm not sure why I never finished it - I think it was partly because I wanted to prioritise more typical WHR carriages, and partly because I just lost interest. I travelled on two of these carriages (the FR's 39 and WHHR's 42) at the WHR 100 event though, and it's rekindled my interest.

So... Last weekend I crawled into the depths of the under-house storage area to see what I could find, and was pleasantly surprised! I'd got much further with it than I recalled.

Here's where it's at...

Toastrack bits 1.jpg (587.38 KiB) Viewed 6808 times

Toastrack bits 2.jpg (850.68 KiB) Viewed 6808 times

Toastrack bits 3.jpg (442.51 KiB) Viewed 6808 times

That's got to be at least half finished?

There are various bits that don't come up to my current standards, and some bits that have suffered in storage, but I think I should be able to pick it up quite successfully. The first task will be to attach the bogies and give it a test run, then I think I'll work on those side panels.

As a bonus, in amongst all the bits of toastrack I found the little Buffet Car signs I made at about that time but never got round to fitting, so finally my model of that carriage can stop being anonymous. You never know, it might attract a few more customers...

Toastrack bits 5.jpg (403.94 KiB) Viewed 6808 times

Cheers all,

Andrew.

[philipy]

Looks pretty good to me, Andrew. I do like those curved handrails, very neat and even.

[Andrew]

Looks pretty good to me, Andrew. I do like those curved handrails, very neat and even.

Thanks!

As I recall, I bent them round various carefully-chosen paint pots etc! The panels you can see with the paper drawings still stuck to them will go on the front, to hide where they're attached.

They'll go behind the uprights, whereas really they're quadrants (rather than semicircles) that should meet in front of them, but I generally think that a neat finish is more realistic than a botched attempt at accuracy. I noticed that one set of handrails (one of the end ones) are distinctly wonky and don't match the others, so I'll need to re-do those - IF I can find the right size pots etc again!

[FWLR]

Looks like another interesting build this Andrew. You do like your wood don't you..

[Andrew]

You do like your wood don't you..

I do! Ironically though, I discovered a while back that the side panels of these carriages are made of steel, not wood, so I've been sealing, filling and sanding to try to obscure the grain! I'd have gone with plastic if I'd realised earlier!

Progress has been slow but steady, and I'm nearing the stage where I can paint. I've detailed the ends and added rivets to the side panels (the frames were already done):

Toastrack awaiting paint.jpg (498.95 KiB) Viewed 6573 times

Since this photo was taken I've masked it up ready for priming, which I hope to do this week, if the weather holds.

Then it's decision time. Do I paint it green, maroon or grey? I think all would have been used during the 20s...

More soon,

Andrew.

[StuartJ]

Looking very nice.
Personally I like them in maroon, but in your period I reckon they probably would have Stephens green. Rule 1 applies though!

[Andrew]

Personally I like them in maroon, but in your period I reckon they probably would have Stephens green. Rule 1 applies though!

Me too, so I think that's what I'll go with... Sources, including photos, seem to suggest that they were delivered in grey (primer?) and maroon in 1923. My guess is that they'd have gone green at subsequent repaints...

[FWLR]

I would have kept the wood myself. Wood I think is more aesthetically pleasing and looks so much better, but it's your line Andrew and rule 1 does apply doesn't it.

I really do like this coach and I hope you can get it painted soon, you'll be priming it won't you Andrew, I prime mine in grey so if it looks right, in that colour you can always leave it or go green later, if that's the colour you want.

[Andrew]

I really do like this coach and I hope you can get it painted soon, you'll be priming it won't you Andrew?

Funny you should say that! I happened to be at home yesterday lunchtime while there was a break in the weather, so I dashed outside with the spray can - and here's the result:

Toastrack primed.jpg (791 KiB) Viewed 6532 times

I doubt I'll do much until the weekend now, but I'm pleased with how it's looking so far... I guess it could stay grey???

[FWLR]

I really do like this coach and I hope you can get it painted soon, you'll be priming it won't you Andrew?

Funny you should say that! I happened to be at home yesterday lunchtime while there was a break in the weather, so I dashed outside with the spray can - and here's the result:




Toastrack primed.jpg


I doubt I'll do much until the weekend now, but I'm pleased with how it's looking so far... I guess it could stay grey???

[FWLR]

I really do like this coach and I hope you can get it painted soon, you'll be priming it won't you Andrew?

Funny you should say that! I happened to be at home yesterday lunchtime while there was a break in the weather, so I dashed outside with the spray can - and here's the result:


Toastrack primed.jpg


I doubt I'll do much until the weekend now, but I'm pleased with how it's looking so far... I guess it could stay grey???

[Peter Butler]

That looks so good Andrew, you have made a wonderful job of the coach. Please tell.... what do you use for the vac pipes?

[Andrew]

Hi Peter!

Glad you like the carriage so far...

I've just dug out a previous reply about my vac pipe technique, see below. When I scrolled back a little further I found that the the original enquiry had come from... Peter Butler! In fairness, it was over ten years ago... Blimey, we've been here a long time!

Anyway, I hope it's useful!

OK, as promised, here's "Brake Pipes the Easy Way"...

Before I start I should acknowledge that as well as many advantages, the method does have its drawbacks - here are the pros and cons that I can think of:

Advantages:

* They're quick and easy to make, and incredibly cheap - you can equip a whole carriage fleet for the cost of a single pair of white-metal pipes.

*It's easy to recreate prototypical pipe runs.

*They're pretty strong - useful considering how vulnerable they are.

Disadvantages:

*It's an impression, rather than being 100% accurate - I wouldn't like a guard or shunter to look too closely!

* The pipes are probably a little thinner than they ought to be.

* It's hard to create dead straight pipes - but I rather like the slightly bodged and battered effect.

* The galvanised wire doesn't take paint brilliantly, which is a particular problem because they stick out and so are a bit prone to being chipped. I'm going to try etch primer on the next lot to see if that helps.

OK, on with the show:

1) Cut and straighten an appropriate length of galvanised garden wire - I get mine from Wilkinsons. About 15cm will do for a simple pipe which sits next to the buffer and disappears straight under the bufferbeam, but I've made runs that are over half a metre long too, for Welsh Highland carriages where the pipes were tacked on to the bottom of the carriage sides on conversion from air to vacuum braking.

I mostly use pliers to straighten the wire, and do it largely by eye, but I have also tried rolling wire between boards, hammering it, stretching it, and possibly other methods too...



2) Cut a length of springy net curtain wire to represent the hose - about 4.5cm seems about right. I think my net curtain wire came from Wilko too, but I could be wrong - not all varieties are wide enough to slide over the garden wire.

Strip the outer coating off the curtain wire and slide it onto the garden wire, leaving about 1cm sticking out the end:



3) Make a nice bend - using a paint tinlet seems to work well. Some pipes are offset and need bending by eye, but putting the curtain wire on first helps keep the curves nice and smooth.




4) Bend the long bit of the wire downwards, and the shorter part so that it crosses the other at about 90 degrees - this bit will secure the whole thing in place by passing through a hole drilled in the carriage end and being araldited in place inside, usually under a carriage seat.

I usually add a sort of collar to the top of the pipe (made from an old biro tube) to bulk it up a bit and give an impression of additional detail!



And that's about it. More complex shapes (which often result in more spring in the wire to overcome) can be held in place with split pins, as modelled below by my dual-braked van - again, probably not quite right, but they give the right sort of impression I think:



And that's it. It suits me, but it's not perfect - any suggestions for improvement gratefully received!

PS - you can add to the "disadvantages" the fact that it can be hard to get both ends perfectly symmetrical. Happily, you can't see both ends of a carriage at once.

And... I still think etch primer's a good idea, but I still haven't tried it. I was going to with this build, but couldn't find my can of the stuff. I went to Halfords, who were out of stock, so I just used ordinary primer. Then found my original tin of etch primer about an hour later, of course!

[Peter Butler]

Thank you Andrew, I had forgotten having asked before, although I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch!
A trip to my shed has produced some curtain wire but my galvanised garden wire is too thick, so my journey to Carmarthen (Wilkinsons) this afternoon should solve that issue. I'm impressed with the general appearance, which is usually from a distance, and will give it a shot!