Wagon Tail Boards

[dunnyrail]

Some of you no doubt may have seen my latest Threads on Modifying Newquid and LGB Coaches. These Mods have including places to put the Tail Boards that are so typical of both the Harz and some other German Narrow Gauge and Light Railways. They are not difficult to make or created places to put them. However to be effective all of my stock need to be converted. Not a small or quick job. I have pretty well completed the majority of my Coaching Stock, this piece is about how to deal with Wagons. To see how I have converted Coaches you will need to look at these two threads.
LGB Coaches

https://www.gscalecentral.net/rolling-stock-passenger/harz-coach-mods-to-lgb-3073-35730-3171-31710-and-others-etc/?topicseen

Newquid Coach

https://www.gscalecentral.net/rolling-stock-passenger/newquida-coaches-bash-red-hot-topic/

Now how I sorted the Wagons. These can be a bit trickier than my Coaches are as being of different Heights and having End Balconies etc different methods have had to be used. I also have to be a bit methodical about this with some 30 or more Wagons to deal with Batch Production has had to be resorted to. However this can be a bit tedious, so I limit myself to batches of 5 with perhaps 2 batches a day if I feel up to it.

Firstly I am using 3mm Square Brass for the Holders and this is cut around 3 mm long and soldered to small Brass Pins. There are 3 types so far that are required.
1 Where the Square is Soldered sideways on to a pin.
2 Where the Square is soldered to a pin that has the head half filed off.
3 Where the square is soldered to a Piece of Tinplate.
These 3 methods can be seen in the next Picture, the one after that shows how I set up a batch of 20 pins in a Heat Block to have the Squares Soldered on. By doing it this way I hold the Square in place with some Fine Tweezers and Solder, when the Solder has cooled I use the Tweezers to pull the Pin Construction out of the Heat Block. This proves that the Joint is OK.





Then I Drill holes into the Wagons where the Pin Construction will be put. This  differs depending on the Vehicle. Next I paint the Pin Construction Black and spot a little Super Glue onto the Pin. Push in Place, make sure that it Hole is Vertical and then finally tidy up the Paint. As you can see they are quite unobtrusive, I suspect that if one of my Wagons were on Sale the Pin Construction would not be noticed except by the most fastidious of Collectors. Well I care not about them!

I cannot give any hard and fast rules in this just some of my examples. I suspect that as I go through my fleet different solutions will be made up.

The next batch of pics show some of my examples as completed.















JonD

 

[Nemo]

Great work Jon. Mine are a much simpler affair. Cut a piece of plaster card into a rectangle, cover with red isolation tape. Draw a sharp craft knife diagonal corner to corner and peel off the two side areas leaving tape on top and bottom. Bend a staple to form a handle, superglue onto back of plastercard and paint (on photos I have of the HSB the handles are white). Superglue to back of coach/ wagon of your choice.

 

[dunnyrail]

Wish I had thought of the Plasticard and Tape option. On my CAD I drew a 10mm Square, then filled it in Red. As I cannot do a Block Triangle with my Cheapie Cad I had to do two 10 or thereabouts squares, change the Angle To around 25degrees and put them on top of the original. What a faf. I could have painted mine all White then done the Red Tape thing. Oh well if i need more.

As for Superglue to the back of selected vehicle. Wont work for me as they must be moved around to the Rear of the Train whenever it changes direction or Wagons detached.

Yours do look better and neater than mine though.
JonD

 

[trammayo]

Hi Jon - did you print the triangles? And, if you did, what medium did you print on and was the printer injet or laser?

I do not have any CAD programmes and I just use Microsoft (drawing) for all my artwork.

 

[Nodrog1826]

Getting back to those brackets, lateral thinking, or my skewed way of looking at things, whatever it is.

Just that small cable ties, could be an alternative, head end to hold the tail board, and the tail trimmed and glued to the wagon body, to make a bracket.

 

[dunnyrail]

Hi Jon - did you print the triangles? And, if you did, what medium did you print on and was the printer injet or laser?

I do not have any CAD programmes and I just use Microsoft (drawing) for all my artwork.

Yes they were printed on a Laser using Peal Off Self Stick Paper. This means that the Print will last longer without degrading in Sunlight. I have a simple CAD Package on my Mac "called Mac Draft PE" but you could do it in Microsoft Paint I reckon. My previous Post pretty much explains how I did it in MacDraft.
JonD

 

[dunnyrail]

Getting back to those brackets, lateral thinking, or my skewed way of looking at things, whatever it is.

Just that small cable ties, could be an alternative, head end to hold the tail board, and the tail trimmed and glued to the wagon body, to make a bracket.

Yes that would work very well, however I do prefer to use Mechanical and Glue wherever possible. Mine will be having the Boards shoved in and taken out quite frequently. So you see I do want as strong a fixing as I can get. But many thanks for the idea. I may use it on Locomotives as Light Engines are very rare on my line!
JonD