Garden Railway Forum

I have just taken delivery of a bunch of Slaters wagons and will be attempting to see how many different varieties of rolling stock I can build from them.

First, I will build one of each of the Dinorwic and Ffestiniog wagons, largely as supplied, and then I will try some different things out to see what works and what doesn't; I already have some idea of what I want to try. The only difference with these first ones is that the Dinorwic rubbish and slab wagons only come with double-flange wheels, and I am looking to swap them to single flange. This obviously won't be scale, but it looks fairly straightforward to change them over, will simplify running in the future (when I finally get a track set up!) and will match the slate wagon which is available with single flange wheels.

I also want to have a play with some of the rust 'paint' that is available.

So, I thought that swapping the wheels over would simply be a case of buying the different wheels but it's not quite that easy.

The top photo shows the difference between the double-flange wheels and the single-flange wheels. The double-flange ones have metal bushes and they are a slip fit over the axle, which is permanently glued into the axle boxes. The single-flange wheels are a press fit on the axles and the axle is designed to rotate.

The first suggestion from Slater's was to drill out the axle boxes so that the single-flanged wheels could be used with their own axles. However, when I received the wheels it appears that the hubs are identical, so I wondered if I could use the single-flange wheels on the double-flange axles.

This turned out to actually be a very simple job. The single-flange wheels can be removed from their axles by twisting and pulling. Whilst they are a press fit, they aren't on ridiculously tight so that was fairly easy. The axles that come with the singe-flange wheels then becomes the perfect tool for both pressing out the bushes from the double-flange wheels and re-installing them on the single flange.

I now have single-flange wheels that will fit on the double-flange axle, ready to build the kit as designed. The only additional thing I will now have to do is to add some spacing washers to set the wheel gauge, as the single-flange wheels can't be allowed to float like the double-flange ones do.

Some fine goodies there. I've always wondered if anyone had converted one of those rubbish wagons to single-flange. Looking forward to seeing what else you do with these.

Slow progress (as usual).

I've got 2 of the Dinorwic wagons to this stage. Not much to say - the kits go together really well so I''ll be moving on to painting soon.

First one (the standard build) is primed. The second one will be built as a flat wagon. This has been done before and is detailed in the link. I will be using metal rivets in the end holes, rather than cutting and re-using the rivets as shown in the link.

One set of wheels have had the rust treatment.

https://www.16mm.org.uk/2022/02/01/febr ... lab-wagon/

Yup.. those definitely look like rusty wheels!!
The rest of them are looking good as well.

Primed on the left, slightly weathered on the right.

Just finishing the axle boxes and then final assembly of the first one will begin.

Second wagon converted into a coal wagon with Plastikard. The design of the original wagon doesn't allow the inserts to be scale, so it is just a likeness. It looks better in person than it does in the photo!