The High Weald Light Railway (HWLR), ex B&MLR

[Stewart Gethin]

Nice fleet of stock there  

I'm starting the apprenticeship scheme with NR in september. O.o

Hi Stew, Thanks for the comment and Congrations on gaining a place on the course! What discipline are you doing?

Track is my discipline. Looking forward to getting away from home for a little change

Stew

[Tom]

quote]Track is my discipline. Looking forward to getting away from home for a little change [/quote]

Good on ya!! Thats the best one to do, well in my eyes anyway If you've got any questions dont hesitate to ask, but I'm sure you'll have a great time, the past 9 months just flew by.

You'll enjoy February too as you spend a week up on either the WHR of the FfR doing some hands on stuff and lots of learning on the job both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and best of all it was free

[90733]

Looks great, welcome back to the 16mm world

[Stewart Gethin]

quote]Track is my discipline. Looking forward to getting away from home for a little change

Good on ya!! Thats the best one to do, well in my eyes anyway  :lol: If you've got any questions dont hesitate to ask, but I'm sure you'll have a great time, the past 9 months just flew by.

You'll enjoy February too as you spend a week up on either the WHR of the FfR doing some hands on stuff and lots of learning on the job both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and best of all it was free  :)[/quote]


Awesome. Yeah, thanks for the offer will do if need be.

[Tom]

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments, I just thought I'd give you a quick update on how the WHR Van has worked out..... I must admit I'm pretty pleased with how they have turned out, its worked alot better than I first thought it would, the coupling block, middle support and the side all need another coat of satin black.



I have also started to make slate loads for the slate wagons - that was until I ran out!! so I have some more plasticard sheets on order

[tom_tom_go]

That is a great idea using the plasticard sheets for slate!

Cheers,

Tom

[Tom]

Hi All,

I've changed my mind yet again and have now gone for brown...

[SapperAnt]

Looks good! Must get me some of those LNWR coal wagons ;-)

[Tom]

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments!

They seem to have been finding alot of this "Albino Slate" quite recently.....

[Stewart Gethin]

What about if you paint the whole sheet of plasticard before cutting? then you'd have far less fidling about to do once you've got the sheets cut.

Wagons look lovely.

Stew

[Tom]

What about if you paint the whole sheet of plasticard before cutting? then you'd have far less fidling about to do once you've got the sheets cut.

Wagons look lovely.  

Stew

Hi Stew,

Painting the sheet wouldn't make a difference at all if I'm honest, as the sides of the slates would go white again where they are cut into individual slates if that makes sense, and each block of slates is glued together to make it solid, then the plan is to paint them afterwards as then its only the sides and top that need painting

[Narrow Minded]

That looks very effective Tom, and I bet the plasticard adds a better amount of weight to the wagon than card "slates" would!
Just a couple of thoughts, I dunno if you're buying "A grade" plasticard but you can obtain sheets of seconds (usually one side matte the other gloss) at a decent discount on evilBay.
Also, why not use black plasticard to speed up the painting? - you'd only have to dry brush it along the edges and have no worries about the faces!

[Pretoria]

Love the look of the plasticard -- they are going to look just like "real" when painted.

I found this site most useful when cutting my slates for my 5" gauge Talyllyn slate wagon --

http://www.btinternet.com/~slateman/second1.htm

I could only find one original photograph of a loaded TR wagon to show how they stacked them, but there are lots of FfR ones about.

[Tom]

That looks very effective Tom, and I bet the plasticard adds a better amount of weight to the wagon than card "slates" would!
Just a couple of thoughts, I dunno if you're buying "A grade" plasticard but you can obtain sheets of seconds (usually one side matte the other gloss) at a decent discount on evilBay.
Also, why not use black plasticard to speed up the painting? - you'd only have to dry brush it along the edges and have no worries about the faces!

Greg - Thanks, and yes the wagon goes from 50g to 200g when fully loaded, I'll bear that info in mind as I had been buying 'A grade' plasticard and each loads works out at between £1 to £1.50 which equates to 1 and a bit sheets, and yeah i didnt think about using the black stuff may order some of that in the next batch too if this lot isnt enough - good for future reference though!

Pretoria - Thanks for that it will come in handy, I've just been cutting them to random sizes to get 4-6 rows of slate in each wagon etc

[Bucket]

Tom,

They look superb, you have achieved something that I have been striving for, but so far singularly failed to achieve.

Apologies if I've missed this somewhere in the thread, but may I ask what thickness of plasticard you are using?

Thanks,

Iain

[Tom]

Tom,

They look superb, you have achieved something that I have been striving for, but so far singularly failed to achieve.

Apologies if I've missed this somewhere in the thread, but may I ask what thickness of plasticard you are using?

Thanks,

Iain

Hi Iain,

Thank you for your kind comments, I am using "0.040" or 1mm thickness plasticard.

I've done nothing technical to get the results I have got so far. Heres an example: I say right in this one I will have six rows of slates stacked up, so then I measure the wagons length in which case for the coopercraft ones is something like 94-96mm, so lets say 90mm for ease, divide this by 6 and this gives you an overall width of 15mm, then I make the slates pop out slightly over top of the wagon which normally is 30 or 35mm in height. I then cut the plasticard sheet into strips (in this case 15mm) and these get marked out to according to what height is chosen, these are then cut out - some dead on the line and others slightly off - and then glued together and stacked in the wagon, then they come out exactly like that in the pictures above, hope this helps

Tom

[Tom]

Hi All,

I've decided to put the WHR Vans to one side and hold off cutting out slates for a couple of weeks and make a start on another kit I got for my Birthday or Christmas last year.

Ive made a good amount of progress on it considering the time I've had over the last few weeks, but as its out of line with what I model, it will probably get sold on once finished, but theres still a fair bit to do yet and plenty of time to change my mind!

So thats enough from me here it is:

[Catweasel]

www.stationroadbaseboards.co.uk

I think that black plasticard is the best colour for our purpose. I get my supplies from the above address, can supply larger sheets as well. Also has second quality, which perfectly adequate for our needs. Fast delivery as well. Highly recommended. Usual disclaimers.

[Tom]

www.stationroadbaseboards.co.uk

I think that black plasticard is the best colour for our purpose. I get my supplies from the above address, can supply larger sheets as well. Also has second quality, which perfectly adequate for our needs. Fast delivery as well. Highly recommended. Usual disclaimers.

Hi Catweasel,

I also use Peter from SRB's, I got my last batch of plasticard from him and some many moons ago now, I paid for the better quality white as you could see, but this was before Greg told me about the 'seconds' and as you say I was also very happy with the quick delivery, the fast response to enquiries and the overall good service that he gives. Ive got about 4/5 more sheets of the white plasticard left, then I will order a load of black seconds for the next batch.

[Tom]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd keep you all updated on what I've been up to (or haven't been in that case) since my last update.

If I'm honest I havent done alot, due to being really busy at work for the Olympics and Paralympics, but now thats over I'm sure I'll get a bit more done

On Saturday 25th August it was the 15th Anniversary of the Longmead Branch. Yet another great day was had, even though it rained heavily for the majority of the morning (but we didnt let that dampen our spirits) (please excuse the pun), the afternoon then brigthened up for a good end to the day with a fireworks display in the evening Once again thanks to everyone that came and made it a great day, to the cooks in the Kitchen for keeping us all fed and watered and to Terry for hosting once again. so here are a handful of the days photos.












A few shots of the days derailments




I also just about managed to finish the WHR Van up to a half decent standard to be run on the day.








And the Longmead Branch's new Rail Enforcement Officer was seen at North Tonbridge


I have also purchased one of the Swift Sixteen Corrugated Iron Vans, but havent any ideas of what I'll do with it yet so it is currently in an all black livery. Also on order is 2 of ACME Engineerings 7/8th's Slate Wagons