4 wheel platform trolleys

[Bill Bedford]

The material is a photo-acrylic. There maybe a better ABS type material to come in the future, but no one at Shapeways has confirmed that yet.

The model is one-piece. Part of the reason it is so fragile was because I was trying to get the wheels to turn.

[chaz harrison]

The material is a photo-acrylic. There maybe a better ABS type material to come in the future, but no one at Shapeways has confirmed that yet.

The model is one-piece. Part of the reason it is so fragile was because I was trying to get the wheels to turn.

It is an amazing technique and not long ago would have been thought of as science fiction. Presumably a small compromise (making the wheels as separate pieces?) would have given you a more robust model? That said your barrow really is most impressive.

Chaz

[Bill Bedford]

It is an amazing technique and not long ago would have been thought of as science fiction. Presumably a small compromise (making the wheels as separate pieces?) would have given you a more robust model? That said your barrow really is most impressive.

The piece is fragile because the material it is made from is brittle, especially in small sections.

[chaz harrison]

It's a while since I first appealed for information. I have been very busy on my exhibition layout, Dock Green but have just finished a test build of the first of the barrows from Peter Harvey's excellent brass etches, and here it is....



As usual the camera shows up every little defect; and I do mean "little" - even in 7mm this is tiny, the deck being just 41mm long. I usually use a Lumix compact to take forum photos but I had to get out my "serious" camera for this one.

I have another eight of these to build and I hope to iron out the defects with the stuff I've learnt from this build. This one can be kept at the back of the group. Trickiest part of the build is putting the rims on the wheels - I wonder whether anealing these parts before I roll them will make it easier to get a good fit?

Chaz

[chaz harrison]

I have a question - How should I paint these barrows?

What colour(s) were used on them, and how much, if any, was left unpainted? I'm modelling late fifties. I may be able to find the odd colour pic' in the albums, particularly of The Cross that will help but any knowledge you have that you can pass on will be gratefully received. I know about the red ones that the Royal Mail would have used, but what about the railway owned ones?

Chaz

[chaz harrison]

It's quite a while since I first posted my appeal for info' but here they all are, (almost) ready for the Warley Show at the NEC this weekend. It just remains for me to give them a dirty wash to highlight the planks that are etched into the top surface.



Cameras are quite merciless at highlighting the smallest defect - the barrows are only 41mm long.

Chaz

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Lovely............now can you make me half a dozen in 4mm

manna

[65447]

I have a question - How should I paint these barrows?

What colour(s) were used on them, and how much, if any, was left unpainted? I'm modelling late fifties. I may be able to find the odd colour pic' in the albums, particularly of The Cross that will help but any knowledge you have that you can pass on will be gratefully received. I know about the red ones that the Royal Mail would have used, but what about the railway owned ones?

Chaz

They seem to have received the same paint scheme as was contemporary for buildings and structures at the time, so LNER to 1937 the brown, then the green that lasted into the British Railways period on the Eastern region, fading to a bluish tint, but who knows what colour on the North Eastern & Scottish regions, and then to rail blue under British Rail.

Even if there happens to be a barrow of any sort in colour photographs unless it's in the foreground then it's impossible to tell the colour. The platform was generally unpainted (and rapidly wore off if it was) and the rest seem to lose the paint through wear and tear and knocks quite quickly.

I have, courtesy of Geoff Kent, copies of slides taken during the research for 'Dunwich'. The only barrows are so worn, with the slide colour tending to blue, that it's not possible to be sure of the original paint job but this extract of one taken at Saxmundham (on the East Suffolk Line) might help:

(c) Geoff Kent

Yours in the image above look very good, although I would suggest a slightly darker greyish-brown for the platform, and a few knocks on the corners and ends. This one taken at Ely - it was green, it's just the colour cast on the slide:

(c) Geoff Kent

[UpDistant]

The ones I sat on at my local station on the North Eastern region were also ex-LNER green - they were certainly that into the mid to late 1970s and I don't remember any being painted Rail Blue.

John