My layout

[Alex Crawford]

Hi,

Some more photos of my wagons.

Two Peco kit cattle trucks converted to beer wagons. The one on the left has still to get its black wash. I usually wait until I have several to do at once.

Two parcel vans and a pallet van, all Peco kits.

My milk van is simply a Peco kit cattle wagon with the sides cut off and replaced by scratch built sides. Inside are several milk churns. This is usually seen at the end of my passenger train.

Sorry, just noticed pic 3 is not my milk van. Each plank was laid individually. I've showed this wagon before. I built it with the intention of loading it with hay bales, but couldn't firgure out how to represent N Gauge hay.

Alex

[swisstrains]

Originally Posted by Alex Crawford

..................Sorry, just noticed pic 3 is not my milk van. Each plank was laid individually. I've showed this wagon before. I built it with the intention of loading it with hay bales, but couldn't firgure out how to represent N Gauge hay.

Alex

Ahhh......now that explains why I couldn't find the milk van.
Great looking wagons Alex. Will you be lettering them for your railway?
I love the idea of the hay wagon but wouldn't it be a bit risky transporting it on an open wagon hauled by a steam loco?
I can appreciate the problems you are having trying to recreate N Gauge hay bales. I've got a similar problem trying to create bales of squashed PET plastic bottles as loads for some of my wagons.(quite a common sight in Switzerland)

[Alex Crawford]

Hi John,

I saw either a photo or a drawing of hay being transported in a 7 plank wagon with a tarpualin cover. This cover didn't come down all the way and a good quarter of the hay was exposed. I though about doing something similar with my hay wagon.

I'll letter all my wagons once I find suitable decals/transfers. I need 4-5mm sized letters, mainly E, F and R in red, yellow and white.

My milk van. Sides were made from .5mm x .5mm plastic strip. Ok, so there's no door but from a distance it looks ok.

Also a photo of the level cossing keepers house and garden. The hut and greenhouse are Kestrel items. The aviary was scratch built the same way as you would make one in real life. Build the framework (.5mm x .5mm plastic strip) first then add each plank (1mm x .5mm) one at a time. Again I don't know how to replicate wire mesh in this scale, that's why there are no birds in the aviary at the moment, they all flew the coop.

The green house has some hedges cut to size and painted with small spots of red to look like tomato plants.

I'm hoping to get some more scenery done tomorrow.

Alex

[swisstrains]

Originally Posted by Alex Crawford

Hi John,

I saw either a photo or a drawing of hay being transported in a 7 plank wagon with a tarpualin cover. This cover didn't come down all the way and a good quarter of the hay was exposed. I though about doing something similar with my hay wagon..........

What I'm thinking of doing for my "plastic bottle bales" is to create the basic shape using modelling clay such as Plastiroc, coat it with PVA glue and then cover it with a mixture of those coloured powders that they sell in the craft shops for greetings cards etc.
Could you do a similar thing for your hay bales but with suitably coloured scatter materials?

Originally Posted by Alex Crawford

I'll letter all my wagons once I find suitable decals/transfers. I need 4-5mm sized letters, mainly E, F and R in red, yellow and white................

I was a big fan of the Letraset rub-on letters for this sort of work but they seem to be very hard to obtain nowadays.

Originally Posted by Alex Crawford

Also a photo of the level cossing keepers house and garden. The hut and greenhouse are Kestrel items. The aviary was scratch built the same way as you would make one in real life. Build the framework (.5mm x .5mm plastic strip) first then add each plank (1mm x .5mm) one at a time. Again I don't know how to replicate wire mesh in this scale, that's why there are no birds in the aviary at the moment, they all flew the coop.

Can't think of any way to replicate the very fine mesh used in aviarys either other than possibly very thin perspex lightly etched in a crisscross pattern using extremely fine grade wet/dry paper.

[Alex Crawford]

Hi,

Being Fathers Day I received a surprise from my two kids. I got two Fife coal wagons from my son and my daughter gave me two Wemyss wagons. After an hour they were looking rather worse for wear.

A pic of one of my cattle trucks, complete with cattle.

Alex

[swisstrains]

Nice surprise Alex.
The wagons look great and I can almost smell that cattle truck

[John H-T]

Great weathering Alex and you obviously have very thoughtful children!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

[Alex Crawford]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your comments. I've been busy with some scenery over the past few days. Can't post any piccies yet as my picture editor doesn't seem to be working at the moment. It won't open up any of my photos, so I can't resize them.

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi Guys,

My photo editor is still not working so I've added some photos in the gallery, hope they work ok.

http://www.railwayforum.net/gallery/...00&ppuser=2801

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi Guys,

Just a short update. I have finished my Wemyss Private Railway Brake van. It's based on a photo I saw in a book.

The WPR received a couple of ex-MR brake vans. Peco do a kit of this brake, NR-47. However I bought a LMS Brake kit, KNR-48, and converted it to the WPR brake. Going by the photo the windows at the end are too long, so I fitted some inserts to make them shorter. I also drilled out the smaller middle window. Also the support struts for the foot boards were not fitted to the WPR brake so I cut those off and most of the upper foot board as well, leaving just two short steps.

Again once I get the appropriate transfers it will be lettered WPR No3.

Alex