West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

That little foray into the North Eastern over, it's time to finish off these meat containers. LNER4479 resolutely refers to the train we run on Grantham as 'meat empties' even though Mr King and I have bullied him into accepting that in fact it's almost all fish vans. These may start to restore the balance a little.

Graeme cast me up 6 of these and only one was completed for the Grantham show. Now I know what do do, though, the rest should follow on a little more swiftly.

The remaining containers with flash removed, washed and then primed ready for the extra detail required:



Two of the D 60 flats mobile and now with brake gear started (from the Mainly Trains LNER brake gear etch).



The remaining three flats, on one of which you can see the brass angle glued underneath to ensure rigidity. In front are the Comet W-iron units I've made up for them. They're a bit of a mixture, these as I've been using up what I had in the drawer - I generally use MJT rocking units, but the Comet ones came to me in a bundle of bits and bobs. One of the two running ones has a Comet C27 9' wagon chassis but I was not completely convinced by that. Bill's springing units would be just as good and will probably appear on future container flats which I have planned.



Adding brake gear to these will not be the most exciting process to photograph, so I shall probably not be updating for a few days.

[jwealleans]

It was dull, but it's all done now. I've started adding buffers (Lanarkshire Models) and axlebox/spring units (unmarked packet, may be ABS). Although I remember ordering enough buffers specially for these, I was short - must have pinched them for something else.



More brake gear and buffers when they arrive.

[jwealleans]

Buffers from LMS were on the doormat within 48 hours - Dave Franks provides an excellent service for those who haven't yet tried his products. More bits of wire and the Mainly Trains etch followed and here we are with the first of the conflats pretty well complete.



For those who like to look behind the scenes:

[Atlantic 3279]

Exquisite spindly bits.

[manna]

G'day Gents

I'll second that.

manna

[LNER4479]

Cor! Like your fiddly bits

[IAK]

Very tasty beastie mon
I've some catching up to do on here...

[jwealleans]

Good to have you catching up, Mr K.

Bit of a spot the difference for you first - here's (I think) the same conflat as above, but the container has now been detailed:



Corner eyes are from Roxey Mouldings, everything else from different gauges of wire.

... and here with a bit of paint applied.



To keep myself amused in between these, here's a long GC open which came off Ebay - it had a very poor paint job and a daft looking plastic load stuck into it, which I think must have put people off.



Still needs door springs adding.

Sunday evening I was waiting for some paint to dry and fancied something different. We'd been talking about a GNSR brake van which some one had etched up earlier in the year and it just came to the top of my mind....



Two hours later I had a rolling chassis and a body perched on top. This evening I've added pretty much the rest of the etch and made up handrails.







Other than cleaning up and straightening that ducket, this will now have to wait until I see Andrew Hartshorne at Spalding to pick up castings.

[JASd17]

JW,

Did the GNSR brake van have a hound box or boxes, something like it looks visible on the etch?

Thoughtful and characterful modelling and prototypes as always.

Cheers,

John

[jwealleans]

Morning John,

Yes, just confirmed in PT Vol. 3, there was a dog box in these vans.

[Dave]

Cor you don't half work fast, meat vans are looking good.

[jwealleans]

Cheers, Dave. They had a trip out yesterday as I joined some other members of Ely MRC at Tony Wright's Little Bytham layout. I'm pleased to report that they ran very well, just one wobbly wheelset to correct. Hopefully they'll be moved on further by the end of today.

Here the prototype wagon passes under the M&GN hauled by Keith Barker's J69.



I also took an almost completed LSWR bogie bolster and Smallbrook Studios brake van to complete the short train.



As part of the visit I took with me a NuCast Y5 which I've been finishing off for Keith. I hadn't posted it up anywhere in case he saw it in advance, but here it is as completed.









I'm hoping Tony will post some better pictures in due course, but here it is on Little Bytham, where after some minor attention it ran very well.





My thanks to Tony and Mo for their warm welcome and hospitality.

[52D]

Hmmm referring to your container and conflate posts they put my Parkside Dundas efforts to shame, I must see if Atlantic can do me a few. What extra detail did you put on the containers apart from the eyes?

[jwealleans]

The lifting loops on top of the container, the locking bars down each door and on some of them the little door retaining hooks, but then I stopped when I realised they were a bit too small to see.

If you do get some let me know, I can email you a pdf for the transfers.

[Dave]

I do like that little Y5.

Keep up the good work.