1 Plank Wagon - Part 3 Fin

Well, I came up with some numbering and have applied it to the sides of the wagons in the manner postulated in Part 2.

The tarpaulin covered load has come out very well. The load is sculptured FIMO clay shaped as in the prototype photograph. The weave of a tarpaulin cloth was created by lightly pressing a very fine plastic mesh onto the clay. The idea being that when the actual tarpaulin cover is pressed onto it the weave would make an impression in the cover. However, this was not very successful.

The tarpaulin cover is the clever bit. What we need is something that represents canvas with its folds as it is draped over the load. What I discovered, whilst taking a break, is the silver foil packaging from a Kit-Kat bar. This is remarkably thin, almost like gold leaf. I thinly covered the clay with epoxy resin glue, laid the foil on the top of the clay (dull side up) and dabbed it into place around the load with a large, round, artist paint brush. The foil formed its own (N gauge) folds, as you can see from the photo. The trick is to use a very thin foil.

It was then painted grey and dry brushed with white pastel scrapes (when the paint was very slightly tacky) to highlight the folds and dull the paint.

There is no visible strapping over the load as these tarpaulins had eyelets near the canvas edge where rope tied it down to the solebars of the wagon (not modelled). SR lettering on the tarpaulin has also been omitted, let's say it has faded/rubbed away over time.

Here are the two wagons in the yard at Thornycroft. I thought that one more wagon making three in all would be enough for a train but I think now that I should go for the five originally proposed, which is still a short train compared to that in the prototype photo. Don't know what the load is but it surely is not vehicles, probably spare parts.

 David

To Part 1

1 Plank Wagon - Part 2

The wagon body height and style was scaled from a 00 gauge LSWR wagon in my possession.

The floor of the body is printed planks (left over from the Wood Store build) stuck to card and weathered with dry brushed black pastel scrapes. Such a small body does not allow for fitting of the metal weight supplied with the chassis kit but, since it will carry a load then the load can be weighted appropriately.

Body sides are card, as are the end struts. Corner and side strapping are cut from a sticky label sheet and the lot painted brown.

Lettering and numbers should be applied but two problems arose. Firstly, what were the markings? I have only found one example of SR marking and that is on a vintage 1 plank wagon toy which, being a toy brings into question its authenticity. Secondly, I'll need a transfer sheet of N Gauge SR markings, which I do not have. I could have created an artwork of the body sides with markings on the computer, printed on sticky label and applied to the card. This can still be done once the markings are identified.

David

To Part 3


To Part 1

1 Plank Wagon - Part 1

There is one goods yard left on the layout that needs materials laid about but available photos just do not show clearly what they were. So I'm stuck for the moment. More vehicles and people are also needed but I'm taking a diversion from all that to make some 1 plank wagons.

There is a photo in our reference book* of a Southern G6 locomotive pulling a train of mainly one plank wagons with tarpaulin covered loads from the Thornycroft factory towards Basingstoke and it is this I would like to recreate.

I'm sure I saw a proprietary kit somewhere on the web for a 1 plank N gauge wagon (it is a rare beast, not available as a r-t-r item and kits seem sparse.) Anyway, I decided to use the Peco NR-119 9' chassis kit with scratch built body and load. Only two chassis kits were available from traders at a show we visited back in the summer. We will eventually need 3-5 for a reasonable length train.

The chassis kit has few parts and should be simple to assemble. However, it was not clear to me from the instructions if the buffer beams fit inside or outside the sole bars. Yes, I got it wrong and had to disassemble the glued parts! They fit outside the sole bars so that their ends are flush with the sole bar sides.

* The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway by Dean et al.

David

To Part 2