14/05/08: Common As Muck

Any model railway which claims to represent part of BR in the 60s or 70s needs more 16T mineral wagons than you can shake the proverbial stick at. Of course with the rather nice offerings from Bachmann this is easier than it has ever been. Mind you, standardised though the design was, some layouts take things to an extreme by having dozens of wagons identical down to the running number - and all nice and clean too.

To get some progress on therailway front I thought I'd start by attacking a few of the 16 tonners. So three of the left-hand and seven of the right-hand wagon were extracted from the strategic reserve. First the chassis were treated to a coat of gunk coloured paint and then the running numbers were removed. New running numbers, some new diagonal white lines and r/h end data panels were applied from a Modelmaster 4852 decal pack giving ten noticeably different wagons.

The next stage is to add some extra weight to bring them up to around 50g each - this should improve their running. Self adhesive lead strip is a quick an easy way to do this (an idea cribbed shamelessly from Steve Jones's web site,

The lead strip is 9mm wide and used to make imitation leaded windows. It doesn't seem to be available in DIY stores but can be obtained on-line from Midlands Window Leading. It is easy to cut (craft knife or scissors) then just peel and stick. Three layers of lead can be fitted in place of the Bachmann steel weight, with another two in the wagon (to be hidden under a false floor). There is a bit more work to be done befor I can get around to weathering them.

The Shake-The-Box layout has now been nominally completed so attention will turn to getting part of Redhill ready for its excursion to the RMweb member's day at the Chasewater Railway on July 26th.

Oh yes, I've also been updating a few of the haunted wings of the web site and adding a litle content. No prizes for finding any of it...

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