Spike's folding table - Catching a Toad

ChrisBr said:

...looking forward to watching the output from that fantatstic space emerge......

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Peter has muttered something like - "need to mark out the parking bays (sorry, modelling spaces) for you, me and Chris so as to encourage production of GWR 16'0" wagon underframes".

What is not shown in the three recent photos are:-

1/ the phoenix has risen from the ashes in that "Lower Bank Shed" was re-erected, after almost 18 months stacked against the garden fence, by Peter and Chris Brown last weekend. The view out of the "New Top Shed" windows is much improved .

2/ The electrical installation includes a consumer unit with separate circuits for lights and power plus space for additional circuits when Lower Bank comes into use as the machine shop beside the erecting hall.

What is going to happen to 'Tales from the Folding Table' now that the workshop is pretty well complete? you may well ask... Spike's Folding Table is to be promoted to a support structure at the fixed end of the workshop where the DCC equipment shall be stored for our layouts (if you have that long a memory, then think back to the construction of the "Witchcraft Suitcase" which was based upon ideas and examples by Simon Thompson (@SimonT ).

regards, Graham

Spike said:

In between work on the 37 I have been making a pair of catfish from MMP kits. Just about finished them this evening, brake and hopper wheels remain to go, along with the pipe work on the ends.

View attachment 48326

Spike

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Good morning Spike, I have just been browsing through this enjoyable thread, one question if you can answer it please, do you know what weight are those MMP Catfish wagons when completed please ? I am tempted with a couple of those Cats and Dogs from Mr Parkins website.

Great looking shed space

Best regards
Craig.

Muddysblues said:

Good morning Spike, I have just been browsing through this enjoyable thread, one question if you can answer it please, do you know what weight are those MMP Catfish wagons when completed please ? I am tempted with a couple of those Cats and Dogs from Mr Parkins website.

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Craig,

my Catfish has 149g. I don't have a Dogfish, sorry.

empty of course

Michael

I have a dogfish but probably the wrong sort, as it's a fish..... And it's in the freezer.

Brian

michl080 said:

Craig,

my Catfish has 149g. I don't have a Dogfish, sorry.

empty of course

Michael

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Thanks Micheal, so they are a decent weight even empty, I don't want to pay the sky high prices being demanded for the Heljan models, one can hope they might do a rerun, but heavens knows when ?

Best regards
Craig.

Muddysblues said:

... do you know what weight are those MMP Catfish wagons when completed please?

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Spike (aka Peter) has got the catfish out of the cupboard and one has been weighed - 125 grams including S7 wheels.

First batch of wagons from the new shed are almost complete, back in July I decided to complete two shelf queens and a trio of PO wagon's for Scruffs Junction.

The wagons being worked on were as follows:
1. Trimsaran 3 Plank - Dragon Models
2. Leadbetter 7 Plank - This was either Dragon or Powsides can't remember was bought a long time ago
3 - 5. Norchard 7 Planks - Slaters

One of the drawbacks to the plastic wagons is the lack of detail on the inside of the body, given I am building a Forest of Dean colliery the wagons need to be both full and empty for operation purposes at different times.

Using evergreen plastic strip and some jigs made by my Dad I have added all the internal washer plates and knees. To represent the bolts plasticard dots were punched from a tool made for my dad by the late Paul Penn Sayers. The transformation is definitely worth it, though my head hurts by the end of an evening sticking dots on multiple wagon sides.


In terms of painting the wagons I am lucky enough to have a large collection of Games Workshop paints which contain all the colours I could want for weathered wood. Below are a number of pictures showing the transformation from start to end of how I built up the weathered effect using the paints and drybrushing.
Base layer - Dryad Bark


1st layer of drybrushing - the top side is just the base layer of dryad bark, the bottom side shows the effect of Drybrushing Steel Legion Drab.

After the Steel Legion Drab, I did another layer of drybrushing this time using Gorthor Brown, again the bottom side shows the effect of the drybrushing.

To give a bit of lighter colour to the wood I then Drybrushed Zandri Dust over the whole side.


The final layer of weathering used a grey paint which I can't remember the name of at the moment.


After all the weathering is complete the washer plates were painted black and given a rust effect with some silver and orange paints.



The final pictures show the 5 wagons on my display/test track on the workbench. At this point they have had exactoscale underframes and brake gear added. The last jobs to do is some touch up of the painting and adding the brake lever and brake lever guards. The Norchard wagons also need to be numbered, I am going to wait till warmer weather for this job to allow spraying of matt varnish.





Regards
Peter

You seem to be missing a ‘Parkend’ wagon in that rake.

JB.

Scale7JB said:

You seem to be missing a ‘Parkend’ wagon in that rake.

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JB (@Scale7JB ),

1/ There are three Parkend kits (black written white shaded red) here waiting on the Shelf of Queens;
2/ Four Lightmoor kits (colours as Parkend) sit alongside the Parkends;
3/ As written above, there are wagons of other colours pending construction, for example:- several Princess Royal kits (red written white shaded black) on the "start here" part of the Shelf of Queens;
4/ My understanding of the S&W Rly Train Working Instructions (circa late 1890s) is that a train clearing Parkend might not clear Norchard. No doubt Ian Pope (@Ian Pope ) could enlighten us.

Why restrict the question to wagons? Some of us would like to see coaches next (4 or more wheels) and that's before we even open the door to motive power.......

Dog Star said:

JB (@Scale7JB ),

1/ There are three Parkend kits (black written white shaded red) here waiting on the Shelf of Queens;
2/ Four Lightmoor kits (colours as Parkend) sit alongside the Parkends;
3/ As written above, there are wagons of other colours pending construction, for example:- several Princess Royal kits (red written white shaded black) on the "start here" part of the Shelf of Queens;
4/ My understanding of the S&W Rly Train Working Instructions (circa late 1890s) is that a train clearing Parkend might not clear Norchard. No doubt Ian Pope (@Ian Pope ) could enlighten us.

Ian Pope has more than 150 examples of FoD PO wagons... care to name them? Just as a hint, not all of them are in the POWSides range.

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Thanks for the info. It was a loaded question, as I have one here that I built (in Finescale - yes it was that long ago) for a previous project that is no longer of any use to me, and wondered if you would like it.

Won’t take offence if refused.

JB.

Scale7JB said:

Thanks for the info. It was a loaded question, as I have one here that I built (in Finescale - yes it was that long ago) for a previous project that is no longer of any use to me, and wondered if you would like it.

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Yes please!

Address is in the S7 Members List.

Dog Star said:

Yes please!

Address is in the S7 Members List.

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I haven’t been an S7 Group member for about 6 years..

JB.

Scale7JB said:

I haven’t been an S7 Group member for about 6 years..

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Tsk, tsk. Details via PM.

Scruft's Junction lies in a time warp - to be precise, in two time periods with selection of the time being driven by the rolling stock in view when the question is asked. Many years ago the time period was Edwardian and the stock was GWR with coaches and wagons from Swindon and Gloucester (GRC&W). Since starting the layout Peter has developed interests in Large Logo Blue on the West Highland and in late 1950s/early 1960s steam in the Forest of Dean. Scruft's is set in the FoD and the arrival of Minerva Pannier tanks in BR Black rather necessitated the introduction of appropriate wagons - enter the rust bucket courtesy of Dapol.

This 16T Mineral Wagon collection arrived recently... welded / rivetted / grey / blue-grey... all on 0-FS wheels. The first task is to re-wheel the wagons for Scruft's Jcn. is to S7 track standards. In front of the boxes are 8 wagons sets of suitable wheels, Slater's S7 wheels fitted to an axle which provides B2B setting for the wheels and with pin-points to suit the Dapol underframe (available from the S7 Stores as part number X710040S, listed under Stores Catalogue / Wheels).


After conversion from 0-FS to S7 the wagons shall be going away for a holiday when the wagons shall be re-numbered and weathered.



In the meantime, a question about livery details. Dapol offers the 16T in a variety of "colours" and alternative styles of numbering, this photo shows some of the variations within our mineral fleet.


Without getting hung up on the accuracy of the shade, for this discussion I shall refer to the wagon on the left as "grey" and the other two wagons as "blue-grey". Which came first... grey or blue grey? When, roughly, were these colours first used on the 16T minerals?

There are two numbering styles in our fleet, "small block" on the wagon to the far right and "large" block for the other two wagons. Which style came first... small block or large block? When, roughly, were these styles of black patches first used on the 16T minerals?


thank you and regards, Graham

Dog Star said:

Scruft's Junction lies in a time warp - to be precise, in two time periods with selection of the time being driven by the rolling stock in view when the question is asked. Many years ago the time period was Edwardian and the stock was GWR with coaches and wagons from Swindon and Gloucester (GRC&W). Since starting the layout Peter has developed interests in Large Logo Blue on the West Highland and in late 1950s/early 1960s steam in the Forest of Dean. Scruft's is set in the FoD and the arrival of Minerva Pannier tanks in BR Black rather necessitated the introduction of appropriate wagons - enter the rust bucket courtesy of Dapol.

This 16T Mineral Wagon collection arrived recently... welded / rivetted / grey / blue-grey... all on 0-FS wheels. The first task is to re-wheel the wagons for Scruft's Jcn. is to S7 track standards. In front of the boxes are 8 wagons sets of suitable wheels, Slater's S7 wheels fitted to an axle which provides B2B setting for the wheels and with pin-points to suit the Dapol underframe (available from the S7 Stores as part number X710040S, listed under Stores Catalogue / Wheels).
View attachment 142782

After conversion from 0-FS to S7 the wagons shall be going away for a holiday when the wagons shall be re-numbered and weathered.



In the meantime, a question about livery details. Dapol offers the 16T in a variety of "colours" and alternative styles of numbering, this photo shows some of the variations within our mineral fleet.
View attachment 142783

Without getting hung up on the accuracy of the shade, for this discussion I shall refer to the wagon on the left as "grey" and the other two wagons as "blue-grey". Which came first... grey or blue grey? When, roughly, were these colours first used on the 16T minerals?

There are two numbering styles in our fleet, "small block" on the wagon to the far right and "large" block for the other two wagons. Which style came first... small block or large block? When, roughly, were these styles of black patches first used on the 16T minerals?


thank you and regards, Graham

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To answer the easy question first, the ‘small block’ lettering was only used on newly built wagons. All repaints had the large black patch.

The Dapol greys are odd and it is probably better to respray all of them into a likely colour or two. From observation of photos, steel 16t wagons built after 1948 had thinner, poor quality paint which resulted in more widespread rust on the body. Earlier wagons had more layers of paint, especially after painting grey, so less general rust and different pattern of coating failure.

After a pause of a year the first couple of coal wagons have now been finished.

Trimsaran and Leadbeter coal wagons have been completed, when I left them I needed to complete the break gear and a bit of paint correction. The wagons needed Gloucester V hangers, brake levers and brake lever guards, and I did not have many left in my stock.

Given there would be a lot more Gloucester wagons it was decided to invest the time draw up the artwork and have etched the required components.

The Trimsaran also has door bump stops which the kit did provide but I was not happy with the shape, 3D printed replacements were produced, I could have just used plasticard but given I had other compenents being printed decided to add these on to the order.

Below are the pictures of the completed wagons.







Now on to the next batch of wagons.

Peter

Scale7JB said:

You seem to be missing a ‘Parkend’ wagon in that rake.

Click to expand...

Scale7JB said:

I have one here that I built (in Finescale - yes it was that long ago) for a previous project that is no longer of any use to me, and wondered if you would like it.

Click to expand...

Scale7JB said:

Dog Star said:

Yes please!

Address is in the S7 Members List.

Click to expand...

Dog Star said:

Tsk, tsk. Details via PM.

Click to expand...

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JB (@Scale7JB),

Did you get around to finding this model?

I shall be going to the S7 AGM so maybe you could pass the model to someone from the East Anglian area who is going to the event.

regards, Graham