One thing I've found out in the last week that may be of help to others - when I built one of Fred's horseboxes (the one with the opening doors), I robbed the wheels and axle boxes off an Accucraft Lynton & Barnstable van. I managed to get replacement axle boxes from Llanfair, but couldn't find any of the smaller Accucraft wheels in 45mm gauge. However, I did buy a packet of the smaller Bachmann wheels and I have found that these are a direct replacement for the Accucraft ones. Of course, this allows the L&B wagons to run more reliably through LGB/Piko pointwork. I seem to remember trying the larger Bachmann wheels on the Welshpool & Llanfair stock, but they would need some modification to make them fit properly. So the L&B van now runs on Bachmann wheels and I've also fitted it with hook and loop couplings so that it runs nicely with my Hartland wagon conversions.
Today on the WGLR
- Thread starter yb281
- Start date
I've really got into indulging in a couple of hours shunting when the weather allows (can't touch you for it). I've got plenty of opportunities now what with the interchange goods yard, the market sidings, the RAF depot. , Wetton yard and the tramway sidings. Also, I find that I very seldom use my Accucraft or LGB goods wagons any more as I prefer using the smaller Hartland conversions, so I've decided to extend the fleet slightly. To this end I've dug out another couple of Hartland chassis to have the old coffee stirrer treatment (with plywood floors and plastic angle for the corners).
The six planker is destined to be a private owner wagon for Cockshutt Coal & Coke to match the one in previous photos. The three planker has gone straight into departmental use. Some may remember that I used the cement mixer (a Preiser kit) and tools in an LGB wagon a couple of years ago, but it hardly saw any use, so I've transferred everything into the new wagon.
It'll create another option for shunting days, maybe in preparation for a little night time engineering work?
The six planker is destined to be a private owner wagon for Cockshutt Coal & Coke to match the one in previous photos. The three planker has gone straight into departmental use. Some may remember that I used the cement mixer (a Preiser kit) and tools in an LGB wagon a couple of years ago, but it hardly saw any use, so I've transferred everything into the new wagon.
It'll create another option for shunting days, maybe in preparation for a little night time engineering work?
jameshilton
Registered
Mel they look good! Are you going to represent a drop down door on the coal wagon, or will the whole side be drop down?
Cheers chaps. The CC&CCo. 6 planker is now done (yes James, the whole sides would drop down - something I might model if I add No.3). Also, Steve sent me a set of Back2Bay6 coal scales - I knew this was a great kit because I made one for Mike a couple of years ago. So, the coal yard is pretty much complete and here's some pics.
There have been some interesting letters in Railway Modeller recently about coal staves. The ones you see on many model railways wouldn't really work - they'd either be OK for railway wagons, but wouldn't work for road vehicles, or visa versa. I've tried to incorporate some of the info (plus what I've seen in photos) into this model. You do have to imagine that the edge of the yard seen in the pics is not the actual edge of the yard - there would be room for more coal heaps "off stage".
There have been some interesting letters in Railway Modeller recently about coal staves. The ones you see on many model railways wouldn't really work - they'd either be OK for railway wagons, but wouldn't work for road vehicles, or visa versa. I've tried to incorporate some of the info (plus what I've seen in photos) into this model. You do have to imagine that the edge of the yard seen in the pics is not the actual edge of the yard - there would be room for more coal heaps "off stage".
yb281 said:
Don't know what's been said in RM but as far as I can recall the coal staithes at Windsor in the 1950s and around the Twickenham area in the 1960s were built from old sleepers or even sheets of corrugated iron and were next to the railway siding so thsat coal could be shovelled directly out of the wagons. The railway side was lower than the floor of a coal wagon (or non existant) and the sides were up to about 5 or 6ft, and probably not too upright - props holding up a leaning wall threatening to collapse. This was however in the later if not last years of domestic coal traffic.
I believe that some coal bunkers were across from the tracks but this may have been in a coal concentration yard where they had JCBs with a front bucket to shift the coal - and probably conveyors, too. My memeories are of yards where a coal shovel was probably the only lifting equipment. BTW like the coal scales in the model photos. The other equipment was a set of small wheeled steps to allow the coal-man to load his lorry
Well that was exactly the point that was made in many of the letters in RM mate - that that situation very rarely existed. Before someone states otherwise, I'm sure there may have been exceptions, but that set-up is what you see on many, many model railways, although the reality appears to have been different in MOST cases. And yes, that meant that some poor sod (or sods) had to manually unload every wagon with nothing more than a shovel. And then bag it up before loading onto a lorry (or transferring the load into narrow gauge wagons) ......... the truth is that that is exactly what happened in the vast majority of small coal yards.J2s said:Mel, as usual you have done a far better job than I or a lot of other folks on here could do. Please dont think I'm critisising your work in any way but i would have thought, in the absence of any mechanical handling equipment that the back of the stathes should be towards the track, so the wagon doors would drop on to the back of them and the coal just shovelled into the appropriate bin.
Rhinochugger
Retired Oik
yb281 said:Well that was exactly the point that was made in many of the letters in RM mate - that that situation very rarely existed. Before someone states otherwise, I'm sure there may have been exceptions, but that set-up is what you see on many, many model railways, although the reality appears to have been different in MOST cases. And yes, that meant that some poor sod (or sods) had to manually unload every wagon with nothing more than a shovel. And then bag it up before loading onto a lorry (or transferring the load into narrow gauge wagons) ......... the truth is that that is exactly what happened in the vast majority of small coal yards.J2s said:Mel, as usual you have done a far better job than I or a lot of other folks on here could do. Please dont think I'm critisising your work in any way but i would have thought, in the absence of any mechanical handling equipment that the back of the stathes should be towards the track, so the wagon doors would drop on to the back of them and the coal just shovelled into the appropriate bin.
And possibly some medium sized ones as well. As a lad, I'm sure that at Kingston coal yard the stuff was tipped straight out onto the deck. I don't think the wagons were allowed to hang around long enough for people to muck about bagging it straight out of the wagon.
trammayo
Interested in vintage commercial vehicle, trams, t
yb281 said:Well that was exactly the point that was made in many of the letters in RM mate - that that situation very rarely existed. Before someone states otherwise, I'm sure there may have been exceptions, but that set-up is what you see on many, many model railways, although the reality appears to have been different in MOST cases. [style="color: #3366ff;"] And yes, that meant that some poor sod (or sods) had to manually unload every wagon with nothing more than a shovel. And then bag it up before loading onto a lorry (or transferring the load into narrow gauge wagons) ......... the truth is that that is exactly what happened in the vast majority of small coal yards.J2s said:Mel, as usual you have done a far better job than I or a lot of other folks on here could do. Please dont think I'm critisising your work in any way but i would have thought, in the absence of any mechanical handling equipment that the back of the stathes should be towards the track, so the wagon doors would drop on to the back of them and the coal just shovelled into the appropriate bin.
Yes, that's exactly how I remember it being one of those poor sods. The wagon door was dropped onto the lorry, you shovelled from the lorry and bagged up until you could get inside the truck (I think there was around 13 ton of coal - two and-a-half lorry loads).
Most of the coal came from the Prince of Wales and Glasshoughton collieries - the boss used to send a couple of dressed chicken and a monetary gift to the weigbridge men at those collieries but every coalman got the same standard of coal
For stockpiling it was the same - shovelling on (a row of filled bags either side of the lorry to contain the loose stuff) and then shovelling off. We didn't stockpile much as the pile was a ground level (in fact we only did it if there were too many wagons in the yard and there were demurrage charges pending if we didn't get them unloaded).
Lovely job Mel, brings back memories (not all unpleasant - save for when it rained and that was a bind).
Yesterday's job was to get the remainder of the standard gauge track ballasted (plus a few patch-ups on the narrow gauge). So today it all needed testing.
The pannier tank sits in the fiddle yard with a train of wagons for the interchange platform including a parcels van.
Please forgive the shabby edge of the baseboard. A future job is to add a girder bridge here.
The pannier tank sits in the fiddle yard with a train of wagons for the interchange platform including a parcels van.
Please forgive the shabby edge of the baseboard. A future job is to add a girder bridge here.
Re: painting and weathering you could try this contact. He's based in London.
grahamweller@btinternet.com
grahamweller@btinternet.com
beavercreek
Travel, Art, Theatre, Music, Photography, Trains
Easy Mel, Your layout is as sweet as a nut and your weathering and scenic expertise is damn fine...probably just a joke.........yb281 said: