Garden Railway Forum

A little while ago I was thinking the soon to be built brewery on my line (well its operating in my mind, you just can't see it! ) needed a large tanker to move its beer down the CHLR to the Southern junction - where it can be pumped across to a standard gauge tanker and then taken up the smoke to the various Ale Houses the brewery supplies - well that was the back story

So I looked around and being fairly new to 16mm, I thought I'd have a go at bashing something rather than scratch building

I'd noticed these online on the old t'ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-G-Scale-G ... 1366925074?
Well, with free P&P at that price, even if I dropped a right thingy ma-jig, I wasn't losing the crown jewels - so I paid my money and few days it turned up - it was a bit bigger than I imagined and its sold as G Scale - anyway against the Little John loco it looked quite good and those of you with Accucraft locos will find it fits alongside quite nicely.

So to work - firstly I ordered some 32mm wheels with the extra long axles to fit into the swivelling bogies

Next the buffer and coupling needed adapting to something more in line with what I use -the LGB hooks and loops were taken off and a simple hook was developed at each end so chains can be attached from the loco/next wagon etc

Then its a case of painting - the tank element is easily dismantle from the chassis and is formed of 3 parts - these were taken off, primed and then sprayed in a similar blue to the brewery logo I had developed.

The chassis was also painted and weathered (I also did the tank and all the fittings like the framing and ladder etc) - then on the computer I developed some new mini signs and notices etc more pertinant to the tanker carrying wine or beer instead of chemicals

And this is what we ended up with:- Out on line and a close up of the new chemical symbol I developed Overall i'm pleased with what was a simple conversion and it opened my eyes to the opportunities of bashing other 45mm items - you always have to check whether the chassis arrangement will allow you to fit 32 mm wheels but for most wagons its easy - I'm now looking at getting a couple of long flat bed wages for my winter kindling wood flows!

Cheers



Mark

That weathering is beautiful, love the rust on the strapping.

Nicely done!

Rik

Brilliant conversion Mark, great find. Impressive paintwork and finish too!

I can only second all of the above. Bashing can be a lot of fun.
Grant.

Pa, pale ale - love it