Adam

Thank you Arthur. The AEC Mercury is based on Road Transport Images cab, wheels and chassis with my own scratchbuilt bodywork. I know that Base Toys do a Mercury, but like most of their lorry cabs (and all of their lorry wheels), it is not all that convincing. Adam PS, thanks again to Andrew (Ullypug) and, should you fancy repainting your own lorry to something appropriate for ECC, transfers for their haulage subsidiaries, Heavy Transport Ltd and Western Express can also be had from RTI: http://www.roadtransportimages.com/transfers/heavy-transport/western-express-haulage-st.-austell-cornwall/flypage-ask.tpl.html

Thanks both (and all those clicking the buttons on the bottom right). Here are a couple of pictures of the catwalks: These are quite simple and copy the real thing to some extent. They consist of etched mesh (Scalelink SLF108) and some bits of 0.8mm milled angle. Rather than attempting to make up the framework separately, I drew up a simple template on some scrap A4, tinned a bit of the mesh and gently scribed the lines from the template onto the mesh before sweating the angle into place. A few strategic solder fillets here and there and job done. The complete assembly was trimmed out of the sheet with an ageing scalpel blade and filed up. This was easier than I thought and definitely easier than the other way about. The legs you can see will be anchored in holes in the tank while the remainder (not yet added) will be cosmetic. Hope that helps. Adam

A couple of pictures of my models posed on Ullypug's P4 layout Wheal Elizabeth (thank you Andrew) at last weekend's Southampton show. The AEC is not quite appropriate to Cornwall; it's a Somerset owned and registered lorry! The clayliner tank is, however, albeit unfinished. Still, I have now made the catwalk for the barrel top and have devised a way of fixing it on more permanently than the blu-tak doing the job currently. The brief exibition appearance also spurred me into finishing the AEC. The small matters of licence discs, wipers and cab back quarterlights have been tackled and it has even been very gently weathered (Bird brothers seem to have kept their vehicles clean). Yes, the lettering was done by hand and one bonus of this is that the red lettering above the screens has worn away slightly in what I think is quite a realistic fashion; I would never have dared doing this deliberately! Even on my laptop, this picture is about 1.5 times actual size so I don't think that the camera is too unkind. Still lots to do to the clayliner tank but the scale of the jobs are minor compared to the work that has already been completed. I've just spotted that I've missed the solebar label clip for example. Hmm. Adam

Thanks. It reminds me that an update on the progress of my 200hp version based on the CSP kit is about due. EDIT: here it is - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67087-a-post-war-200hp-steam-sentinel-in-em-raising-the-roof/?p=1317381 With a week off coming up, I may even get the thing finished... A small hang up with mine about the paint job though; those self-contained buffers didn't have the chromed stocks to the buffer heads so should not be shiny - as the Airfix/Kitmaster instructions used to suggest - but a browny, grungy sort of a colour. OLEOs and some of the other hydraulic types did but these were not fitted by Sentinel so far as I am aware. A really nice paint finish otherwise. Adam

A nice little model that Arthur. The lettering is presumably from your own transfers? Adam

They do. The Hornby version is the more accurate in that it has both the tiebar and correct brake levers. It has the 'lightweight' W irons which are right for the 1/004 (as you say Brian, the Parkside chassis is right for the 1/007) The tiebar is easy to add to the Bachmann version, the levers are a bit of a fiddle; been there, done that. Adam

What a lovely model and what an attractive prototype. Is it too late to suggest that you replace the bought in (Markits? Romford?) vac' pipes? The quality of the model is such that making some from scratch (0.7mm wire with very fine filament to represent the hose and shim to represent the fixings) would really set it off. The ones you have look 'ok', but the rest of the model is 'wow'. I'm not too well up on Irish railways, but I presume that the plates on top of the leading splashers will accommodate nameplates? Adam

Is that the one from SR Wagons vol. 4 Ian? I suppose that Mike King must have made one as well. To be honest, one of these vans is an extravagance (there were three, and one of those had a 9' wheelbase and was withdrawn before 1961), two might be too many, interesting though they are. I know I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to building rarities and one offs - see the Coil H earlier in the thread, even the Minfit is a bit of a luxury - but it is something to be careful about unless a layout is to be a wagon zoo. Adam

That's not strictly true Colin! The vac' pipe should go the length of the vehicle, for example, and there a few other bits that are a bit representative but there's precious little missing otherwise and the crowd of detail suggests that what is missing is actually present and I am quite pleased with it. Justin's etches make this very much easier. Adam

The weather today is absolutely hideous, but the light is just about good enough to take a work-in-progress shot of my Rumney/Parkside Minfit which is looking really rather tidy. Painting follows my usual approach for fitted wagons. The livery colour is Halfords red oxide primer, glossed with five or six coats of Johnson's Klear in preparation for transfers. The underframe has been hand painted with Humbrol matt chocolate (#86). The lettering is by Railtec who do a nice set of transfers for 16 tonners of various sorts (item ref: 4mm - 6116). I haven't used these before and I have to say that they are extremely good though the range of numbers provided for fitted minerals could be slightly greater to reflect the higher numbered batches. Unlike - for example - the HMRS sheets and some of Modelmasters, the designer has actually looked at how wagons were lettered and copied that. The end door stripe was taken from an ancient SMS waterslide sheet and all sealed with another coat of Klear prior to a waft of Dullcote. The Strip Coil has stalled at the livery/underframe coat stage for lack of transfers. I can probably get the Strip Coil branding from the HMRS sheet and with it some of the general lettering, but the return to brandings do not seem to be available from anywhere at the moment and will have to wait. It could be at this stage for some time yet. The Sentinel, meanwhile, is now self-propelled: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67087-a-post-war-200hp-steam-sentinel-in-em/?p=1284896 Adam

Barring a bit of paint on underframes and several coats of Klear on the exterior in preparation for transfers both the Strip Coil and Minfit have seen little demonstrable progress of late. What has, however, is an industrial locomotive project, a post-war 200hp Sentinel steamer. Current progress on its own thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67087-a-post-war-sentinel-in-em/?p=1281994 Here's a taster: Now fully motorised, and following a successful bench test, it needs some pick-ups... Happy new year. Adam

I have a set of vernier calipers, I can't see why not. Adam

Quite possible, but the w irons, axleboxes and springs would still not be right. Adam

The underframe moulding shown there comes from a Coopercraft GW cattle truck which is wrong in just about every respect in this application. According to Bartlett, Larkin, Mann, Silsbury and Ward's An Illustrated History of BR Wagons, Palbrick As (there's a picture at the bottom of p. 68) had 10' wheelbase and 'RCH' brakes - vac' fitted Morton 4 shoe brakes. The Red Panda chassis, with its 8 shoe clasp brakes are suitable for some Bs and Cs but these had slightly longer bodies. Adam

Ah, one of the many liveries inflicted on the 'Felix Pole' body! I may get as far as a white undercoat for the barrel. The Bowaters logo will go on a white oval so it's probably easiest to paint the whole thing whit and to mask accordingly. What's the P4 back to back again?

I like that very much Andrew, but isn't that 16 tonner just a smidge out of period? I have a prior engagement on the 12th so won't be at Weston but wish you luck and will see you at Southampton at the end of the month. I'll look forward to seeing Clevedon in the flesh (and infiltrating some wildly inappropriate stock) at a later date. Adam PS - Unless the weather improves drastically the clayliner tank won't be ready but it will be complete and in primer so I will bring it along in any event

Further to the video Mike linked to above, I've now relocated this set of pictures by Martin Pritchard taken during construction of the plant at Trawsfynydd. Well worth a look: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63164772@N05/sets/72157629381905748/ Thanks for posting these pictures PGH, really interesting. Adam

Thank you Paul, as ever, your photos are an invaluable reference and I'm very grateful. I had, I am ashamed to admit, forgotten about the slab coil drawing; I must take another look; Justin, that is one heck of a spot to see those loaded wagons on the background. The reason for the drilling was a departure from replicating the prototype as Justin says. Had I not had exactly the right sizes of Evergreen section in stock I would probably have done as Justin suggests in the instructions (pp. 23-5).On the real thing, the internal restraint strips seem to have been made from a drilled strip welded to two bits of angle (or perhaps U channel welded upside down to the floor and then drilled). Now it would be quite possible to replicate this exactly in model form; you could half etch a false floor with location guides and acquire several feet of milled L section and do a very fiddly soldering job before putting the floor in but this would be quite expensive and modelling the little triangular reinforcements would be even more irritating than it was in plastic. Adam

I doubt that I'll ever be brave enough to consider doing one from scratch though, given a proper jig it should be doable, but the amount of milled angle and section you would need hardly bears thinking about; getting it wrong would be expensive. All that assumes finding sufficient information to create a decent drawing of course. Still, on the basis of the Strip Coil, I'm looking forward to the Coil V when you get around to it, and the Shochood B, even if the latter runs the risk of putting my humble effort firmly in the shade. Adam

Thank you Colin, I'm pleased with that one too even if it does mean I should swear off anything other than the most mundane of van prototypes for the next twenty years. Not transfers, though I know they can be had, but china-graph pencil; much cheaper, easier to apply and moreover, you can choose the destinations you want! Adam

That would make sense and, of I recall, the differences in the cradle dimensions was really quite small. It's interesting that you point to Mike's (Stationmaster's) thread. Just above that shot, in the background of another at Port Talbot on the same post, showing D1051, appears to be at least two bogie slab coils carrying coil. I don't recall ever seeing another picture of those loaded with anything though clearly that was what they were designed for. Very curious wagons in both appearance and use. Adam

Thanks for that Justin; my impression that many of these 'return to' brandings were honoured more in the breach than the observance; the only 'traffic' picture (that I've seen) of the Coil H I built earlier was taken at Severn Tunnel Junction, for example and that was branded to work to Trostre and Velindre when new. I imagine the question was; 'We need coil wagons, what've we got?' and 'Where are these supposed to go?' was wholly secondary. The coil fleet was a right old hotchpotch, after all, and my collection reflects this small though it is. I have enjoyed the process (even the drilling) and I'm looking forward to whatever's next. All good fun. Adam

Thanks Brian, there's still time for it to go horribly wrong! Seriously, I'm quite pleased with it, it's a nice kit, if a bit of a fiddle in places (all those overlays soak up a lot of heat - not a problem, but something to be aware of). Where they worked to is an interesting question. When new, they were branded to work to Abbey Works Port Talbot (that's the bit of the lettering proving particularly difficult to get hold of): http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brstripcoil/h2c58454f#h294aa921 Obviously, that's a fair way east of Llanelli! I'm a little vague on the nature of the traffic between works; if there was a connection, what was it? In the meantime, on this foul day, here's a picture of an earlier project, now completed. My interpretation of the Southern's pent-roofed van: Adam

A quick couple of views of the wagon under primer. I've since had a first pass at the interior with a mix of Humbrol metalcote gunmetal and matt chocolate, thinned and applied with a brush. It will need another go, but the effect is worth it; it highlights all those holes very nicely. Adam

Hi Colin Thanks, with any luck, a good dose of weathering on the inside will complete the job. In the meantime, I have to work out what to use to letter the thing. Numbers and basic lettering are ok and in stock, but the more detailed return brandings and dimensions... Still, it's primed now and the bogies are fully painted. Looks good. Adam