16T Mineral Wagons

No, not on a rustic part of Redhill, but posed on the Shake-the-Box layout,
construction of which was serialised in Hornby Magazine.

No layout portraying BR in the mid-70s can have too many of the humble 16T mineral wagon, there were thousands of them infesting the network. Given the limited capacity in the storage sidings I can only have two trains of them, one will be a fully fitted rake, the other unfitted with a fitted head.

When diesel locomotives were introduced BR found that they weren't as good at stopping a trainload of unfitted wagons as steam locomotives so, where possible, a number of fitted wagons would be marshalled at the head of an otherwise unfitted train to aid augment the locomotives braking power. In photos that just show the locomotive and a few wagons this looks just like a fully-fitted train giving the impression that there were far more fitted 16T minerals than unfitted. In fact for the majority of their lives the opposite was true.

Bachmann include a wide variety of 16T minerals in the range and will provide the basis for most of the wagons in my trains. The first seven have been completed and many more are underway.

The modifications include:

Instanter couplings in place of tension locks - Click here for a fitting guide
Additional weight
Renumbering/lettering
Weathering
Loads

Couplings:
Given that only the cement trains will be shunted, all the other stock will recieve suitable prototype couplings. They only need to be coupled/uncoupled when being placed on or taken off the layout so the 3-link squint should be minimised.

I did a test with some wagons on my 19.5" minimum radius and Smith’s Instanters and was pleased to find that I didn't need sprung buffers or any bodgery to get things to work.

Click here for a fitting guide

Weight:
Increasing the weight of your rolling stock gives better track holding so I have adopted a standard of around 50g per wagon (well 46g in the case of these ones). They are weighted using self-adhesive 9mm wide lead strip(used for imitation leaded windows). By taking the steel weight out of the Bachmann chassis (to make room for Instanters) and putting three layers of lead inside, plus another two layers inside the body (to be covered by a false floor) I got a 50g-ish wagon. The lead strip is easy to cut and easy to fit. If you want to order some try www.windowleading.co.uk.

Renumbering: Standardisation is wonderful - but having the same number on every wagon is taking things too far. So all but two have been renumbered using the Modelmaster decal sets for fitted diagram 1/108 wagons (set 4852) but be warned, TOPS coding, in this case MCV only started to be applied to wagons from late-1975 so there would be precious few of them about - most would still be coded COAL 16 VB - or not even coded at all. Steer clear of the MINFIT and MIN VB markings which appear to have been vanishingly rare. (My thanks to Ian Fleming and Paul Bartlett for help and information kindly offered on the always excellent RMweb). The original lettering can be removed using white spirit and a cotton bud.

Weathering: The chassis have been coated in a brown gunk coloured paint.

The bodies have recieved various thin coats, washes and splodges of orange, rust, grey and black - in some cases these were scrubbed off straight after application to just leave some remnants in corners and along edges.

Loads: A false card floor, raised up on more card is covered with Woodland Scenics coal fixed in place with Johnson‘s Klear floor polish (no, really).