I have not added to my fleet of freight wagons, for many years, having decided that I had all that I needed to run my railway. I had always hankered after a suitable load to be carried of my Stake Wagon No 13. The Claptowte Railway being set in a rural location, I have always fancied a farm tractor as a load and I finally acquired a suitable model (March 2022).
I decided it did not look right surrounded by vertical stakes. I had a spare LGB Toy Train stake wagon that was intended for another project, so I decided to convert it into a second Stake Wagon, but run it as a flat wagon, without the stakes. The tractor could be run as a load on this new flat wagon, to pleasing visual effect.
As with Stake Wagon No13, one of my first ever conversions, the starting point was the LGB Toy Train stake wagon.
The model was dismantled and the stakes consigned to the spares box. The floor of the wagon was sprayed with grey plastic primer prior to painting, the planks being painted in various shades of ‘wood’ colour. The side frames were painted in standard Claptowte Railway freight livery (LMS Freight Wagon Grey).
I did not bother adding tie down rings to the floor of this wagon, as I had done with No13. I added GRS etched brass lamp irons to each buffer beam. I added my own standard design of brake lever, fabricated from 4.0 x 1.5mm styrene strip. The plastic wheels were swapped out for Al Kramer bright nickel plated solid turned brass, from the US. Apart from the flanges and treads these are painted track colour. On my earlier conversions I used 8mm dry rub lettering which now appears to be unobtainable. For this model I have used 8mm self adhesive vinyl lettering. I also added the Claptowte Railway maker’s plates. Apart from a detailed repaint this completes the basic conversion.
The only addition was to add roped down stripwood timber baulks to secure the tractor load in place.
The completed wagon
The wagon with tractor load
David
I decided it did not look right surrounded by vertical stakes. I had a spare LGB Toy Train stake wagon that was intended for another project, so I decided to convert it into a second Stake Wagon, but run it as a flat wagon, without the stakes. The tractor could be run as a load on this new flat wagon, to pleasing visual effect.
As with Stake Wagon No13, one of my first ever conversions, the starting point was the LGB Toy Train stake wagon.
The model was dismantled and the stakes consigned to the spares box. The floor of the wagon was sprayed with grey plastic primer prior to painting, the planks being painted in various shades of ‘wood’ colour. The side frames were painted in standard Claptowte Railway freight livery (LMS Freight Wagon Grey).
I did not bother adding tie down rings to the floor of this wagon, as I had done with No13. I added GRS etched brass lamp irons to each buffer beam. I added my own standard design of brake lever, fabricated from 4.0 x 1.5mm styrene strip. The plastic wheels were swapped out for Al Kramer bright nickel plated solid turned brass, from the US. Apart from the flanges and treads these are painted track colour. On my earlier conversions I used 8mm dry rub lettering which now appears to be unobtainable. For this model I have used 8mm self adhesive vinyl lettering. I also added the Claptowte Railway maker’s plates. Apart from a detailed repaint this completes the basic conversion.
The only addition was to add roped down stripwood timber baulks to secure the tractor load in place.
The completed wagon
The wagon with tractor load
David
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