The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[Richard Gawler]

When I started in 7 mm scale, a well-meaning friend explained I could buy wagons RTR for less than the cost of a kit. I bought two Dapol wagons from Hattons - a salt wagon, and this 5-plank open for Chapman and Sons of Croydon.


Photo from Hatton’s web site this morning, I forgot to photograph the model before I started.

This wagon has been on the go for most of three years. It is in the style of a RCH wagon, but I’m not sure which standard. It has a 9 ft wheelbase and timber solebars, so it will look okay on the Heybridge Railway.


I cut off the the brake gear on one side to backdate it towards the 1887 standard. The block of styrene is holding the compensation bar into place.


I took an air eraser to the body to remove the pooling symbols. Later I removed the paint from a few planks, and later still I stripped almost everything.


I repainted the model in Railmatch 'Diesel Roof Grey' to use up some paint from a former life and I worked up the underframe too, and the model stayed like this for a couple of years. By now the inside had been repainted three times. Last week I did a test patch with Vallejo 'Medium Sea Grey' but decided the difference wasn’t really worth the effort, and took this off again.


I have however repainted the inside better to try to represent the unpainted planks. This is a varying mixture of Ammo ‘Old Wood’ and ‘New Wood’. I like the variety here. I also think, repainting the interior makes the Diesel Roof Grey look better.


I have dusted some brown powder along the body too, so the model is weathered but not obviously.


I can attempt the interior ironwork one day but the model may well still be "wrong". A friend has pointed out, the 19th century builders might have used hardwood not softwood for their wagon bodies; these would be a different colour. At the moment I am happy because the interior looks more like wood than it has ever done before, and at the moment it doesn't look out of place. Of course, as time goes by I learn more; and one day I may suddenly decide I know the model is wrong and alter something again.

The back story for this will be, the railway bought the wagon as an ex-demonstrator from the manufacturer. This explains the obvious mileage on the underframe. Whether the 19th century wagon builders actually had demonstrators I don't know, but why not.

 

[simond]

Wood is a pain. At least I find it so. Some people appear to make it look easy - @NHY 581 Rob for one - and he uses weathering powders.

I shall try the Ammo paints, thanks for the suggestion.

I took some colour photos of an unladen artic flatbed truck that was parked outside our works some years back, as I reasoned that the planks would have weathered much as unpainted wooden wagon interiors would. I should dig them out again. Memory says they were a pale grey colour.

I think your modifications have made your wagon much more believable, and it’s now your model.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I shall try the Ammo paints, thanks for the suggestion.

These Ammo paints are slightly 'wetter' than the Vallejo range. So they will brush easily without letting them down first; and I was able to add droplets of one or the other into the mix as I went along.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I took some colour photos of an unladen artic flatbed truck that was parked outside our works some years back, as I reasoned that the planks would have weathered much as unpainted wooden wagon interiors would. I should dig them out again. Memory says they were a pale grey colour.

25 June 2023 at the Middy. The floor is pale grey.

(I took this because I wanted to know about the joins in the steel capping strips at the corners. They seem to be welded up in one piece, at least nowadays)

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I have filed some flats onto the tyres. This is such an obvious thing to do yet this is the first model where I have actually done this.

After filing a 'flat' on tyres I then round the edges of the 'flat' to give the impression of weight and tyre bulge. Something I did on this 1:43 Heller Mini kit. Subtle but noticeable - especially on more modern tyred vehicles.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I think your modifications have made your wagon much more believable, and it’s now your model.

Yes I am getting more settled and especially more confident in my mind towards my modelling. The modelling needs to be mine, not what I imagine people think it ought to be.

If wagons on the books of the Heybridge Railway are fictional, and foreign visitors are more typical of actual prototypes, and these co-exist happily together then I ought to be happy. After all, the Heybridge Railway never existed. It would be a bit odd if it owned a wagon which really belonged to a real railway at the time. The freelance models simply need to look the part alongside the more prototypical ones.

This is also good because I need to invent some wagons (such as a carriage truck for Bentall cars) which did not appear on the GER in the chosen period. Because (of course) the railway was never there to carry the traffic.

The project remains open-ended. The stock belonging to the railway will reach a comfortable plateau; but I can bring fresh foreign wagons into the scene as long as I can invent plausible traffic for them, and I can find them or build them.

 

[Richard Gawler]

The prototype is not well know, if it ever existed; but there is evidence of origins to those in the know. My railway layout . . . will be a might have been, and I think its service vehicles should be might have beens as well.

Suitably encouraged by the Dapol 5-plank I have returned to one of my first kit-built 7mm wagons and repainted its interior in a similar way.


This floor is a piece of embossed styrene. This time I made a paler mixture with the paints and worked over the result with some grey and brown powders.


The stationary engine is here to help to show the colouring. Brown powder on the outside is barely visible but has taken away the showroom look.

I can see a technique evolving here. The main thing seems to be to apply an undercoat of the Old Wood (the paler of the two Ammo colours) first, so the mixed colours can go on quite thinly and will tone with what is underneath them.

 

[NHY 581]

Morning, Richard

I really like the colouring you've acheived here. We all know that worn wood turns grey over time but I personally like the 'fresh' wood look. To me, it's more pleasing on the eye and offers a nice contrast to the usual body colours, certainly in the case of a grey open.

You've got a good eye. You're right in that learning your way with the colours and the effect they have on each other when applied over each other is a crucial part in the jigsaw. Obvious maybe but until you actually do it yourself, it can be tricky to understand.

Rob

 

[Richard Gawler]

Obvious maybe but until you actually do it yourself, it can be tricky to understand.

The most important things for me are to err on the side of warmer, paler colours. Working under artifical light it is ever so easy to make things too cold and too dark, and they will look dreadful in daylight. And weathering can be very gentle on a railway with low speeds and plenty of manpower to look after things.

Anyway, spurred on by the success of the last two wagon interiors I have worked up some more . . .


A GWR 5-plank from Minerva. Supposing some wagon builders used hardwoods before the First World War, I have given this one a richer mix. The same Old Wood and New Wood with a little white. The darkest patches are brown powder.


My NBR Jubilee wagon from the Peco Parkside kit. Vallejo Mid Sea Grey tones with the Ammo Old Wood. This floor is a piece of engraved plywood, this seemed like a good idea at the time but it soaks up all the paint I put on it. This took three or four attempts.


Two Dapol coal wagons ready for weathering when I decide what they should eventually look like. A coat of Vallejo primer seems really important to persuade subsequent paint to stay put on the factory paint. The one on the left might be nearly new; both look more grey / less brown in the room light.


I have repainted the insides of my tender truck (Connoisseur kit) leaving most of the outsides untouched. The idea is to portray a wagon built locally, the planks have been primed but they and the solebars are awaiting paint . . . and the wagon has been pressed into service.

It seems obvious now, but all of these wagons look so much better for making an effort on their insides.

 

[Richard Gawler]

. . .

View attachment 226314
I shortened the brake lever by a millimetre because it seemed too long, and now I wonder if it was right in the first place. The bolster is resting loose for the time being.

For this wagon I want to try adding the couplings after painting, see if this is any easier. So this is the end of my build for this GER bolster wagon

All of this painting practice has given me the confidence to finish the timber-sided bolster wagon. The GER built these wagons from 1889 to 1898 so I can try to represent a wagon which is nearly new, just a few years old. I saw what I was looking for at the Middy . . .


This is the sort of look I would like for the floor. This photo is heavily manipulated (because of the sunlight) but the floor is part way through fading from brown to grey.


I have added some Vallejo Medium Sea Grey and white to the mix of Ammo New and Old Wood.


The bolster and the two lashing loops remain posable.

The sides of the body are a bit thin. The 1923 RCH drawings show 2-3/8 inch (60 mm) thick timber for the sides of a wagon, and I expect earlier wagons were much the same maybe thicker. This scales down to 1.4 mm, so the sides really ought to have three layers of brass not two. The tender truck from Connoisseur models has the same error. I can put this right in future builds.

I lost the couplings supplied with the kit and used some from Roxey Mouldings. Apart from this I built the model entirely from parts supplied in the kit, with no alterations or substitutions except for the four body supports where I misunderstood the instructions. I am very pleased with the model.

 

[Dog Star]

Now that looks neat and tidy.

I have one of these to make so I shall act on your suggestion regarding the thickness of the body sheeting.

Rgds, Graham

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have one of these to make so I shall act on your suggestion regarding the thickness of the body sheeting.

For the bolster wagon I would add four strips of brass inside the body. This would make sure the outsides of the body still line up with the headstocks, and the solebars still reach the headstocks. The Ragstone kit goes together really well but this is not obvious until after you have started.

When the body sides are thickened up, the capping strips will have to be shortened slightly to make them fit but they won't overhang the edges.

 

[40057]

Are you sure the lashing loops on the bolster should be ‘inside’ the stanchions? I would have thought outside. The loops as positioned would make it impossible to fill the space between the stations, for instance, with sawn timber. On the contemporary models of single bolsters I have the lashing loops are outside the stanchions.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Are you sure the lashing loops on the bolster should be ‘inside’ the stanchions?

I had doubts myself and I looked at Tatlow before I fitted the loops. On pages 215, 216 and 217 there are photographs of five different bolster wagons from the GER. One wagon has its loops outside as you suggest, three have them inside, and one has a mixture. The book also has two drawings of bolster wagons. One drawing shows the loops inside, and the other shows the loops outside with inside as an alternative position.

So I reckon, the loops could be arranged as wanted to suit the load; and both arrangements are permissible.

Tatlow, P
An Illustrated History of LNER Wagons - Volume 1, Southern Area
Wild Swan Didcot 2005

 

[40057]

I had doubts myself and I looked at Tatlow before I fitted the loops. On pages 215, 216 and 217 there are photographs of five different bolster wagons from the GER. One wagon has its loops outside as you suggest, three have them inside, and one has a mixture. The book also has two drawings of bolster wagons. One drawing shows the loops inside, and the other shows the loops outside with inside as an alternative position.

So I reckon, the loops could be arranged as wanted to suit the load; and both arrangements are permissible.

Tatlow, P
An Illustrated History of LNER Wagons - Volume 1, Southern Area
Wild Swan Didcot 2005

On reflection, I guess the stanchions (on the real wagons) just lifted out of their sockets? So the loops could end up ‘either side’ depending on how they were left after their last use. Different on a model with stanchions that are not removable.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Happiness is a large roundy-roundy with good company.


At NEEGOG yesterday.

The various repainted wagon interiors look softer under this mixture of daylight and fluorescent lighting. The concensus was, the train looks united as a whole. I am on my way towards creating a coherent picture in the Heybridge Railway.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Wishing a Happy Christmas to Everyone at Western Thunder​

 

[spikey faz]

Cheers Richard.

Have a good one!

Mike

 

[Richard Gawler]

The first casualty of the project was the water column. Too flimsy, too vulnerable, too permanent. I caught the thing on something or other most every time I moved the baseboard, and the last time I straighten it up it broke off.


I have made its replacement from 5 mm round brass, this turned down along most of its length. The bottom and valve body are K&S tube, and the base is the alternative casting from the original kit by Duncan Models.


I thought Fate would take a hand when I put in the bend so I didn’t take a photo beforehand. I expected the metal to crack but I annealed it twice and then did the bend in the vise and it worked.


The original hand wheel was lost. The replacement is the steering wheel from a Matchbox car, soldered onto a new boss.





I finished the model with antiquing patination fluid instead of paint. I burnished this with a cotton bud to make the surface look more like metal and then added a coat of varnish. The hose is from the first model, thank you again to @chigley for this.

I will suppose the water column was cast in Bentall's foundry and not bought in from the GER. It's better for me to have a freelance model rather than a GER one. I think the machined brass looks so much crisper than a white metal casting. The model lifts out for transit too

 

[Richard Gawler]

View attachment 216828
I bought this wagon because it seemed so unusual.

View attachment 216829
The buffers are retained and sprung behind the headstocks. Sadly the builder recorded only what was already written on the sides, and not their name.

Please, do we know when this buffer conversion might have happened? I don't have any books on the North Staffs, so general information on build dates and scrapping would be very helpful too. The model is very heavy, I think from a white metal kit.

I bought this North Staffordshire Railway wagon because the buffers appealed and the model seemed nicely-finished. In my innocence, I bought a wagon where the load of ballast was an integral part of the model . . . I want it to be able to carry something else . . .


Eventually, the floor succumbed. The kit has been assembled using glue throughout.


Amazingly, the four sides stayed together.


I soldered in a new floor, this is 0.45 mm brass.


The primer rather highlights the lumps of glue used during initial assembly.


The paint job survived my efforts at cutting out the ballast, the heat from the soldering iron and three minutes in the ultrasonic bath - but not the “low tack” masking tape.


Wheels and compensation unit tidied up and re-installed.


Cosmetic floor from styrene sheet.

I am trying to tidy up some loose ends before the end of the year. This model has been in bits for at least three months, so it is good to see it sitting on four wheels before Christmas. I know I have said this before, but Happy Christmas