From Train to Plane part 1 - Wagons Roll

[Paul821]

Having asked for permission for this build to be included and permission granted as it slightly bends the rules.

 

The first official history of the railways during WW2 was published in 1945 and that stated "The four weeks following 6th June were the busiest in the history of the railways, During that period 17,500 special troop and stores trains were run. 4,500 more than in the four weeks preceding D-Day. ".

 

My build is in tribute to the efforts of those railwaymen and women,

 

 

Two kits of wooden bodied wagons that would have been pressed into service, in those weeks, to carry the bombs and shells used by the equipment that many others are building in this GB.

[Robert Stuart]

Good to see this is happening Paul

 

[Valkyrie]

Glad you have went live with the idea. A fact not many would think of either. They said the desert war in Africa was a logistics war, and the largest invasion would have needed a lot of gear shifting. Will be a great addition and looking forward to see what you do

[trickyrich]

now this is something quite different....and really nice to see!

 

Something nice and different to follow.....well done on the choice.

[Paul821]

At last I have opened the bags for the sprue shots

 

 

 

The main build should be quick, but I intend adding detail to this both painted and items such as bombs, tarpaulins;s and proper couplings. This will take but will be documented and explained here.

[Robert Stuart]

Hey! good to see the plastic out of the bag

[Paul821]

At last some progress:

 

 

 

The plastic used in these kits is ABS so a different solvent is needed. The Delxe Materials guide says that "Plastic Magic\3 should work so I will see when I remove the rubber bands from the wagons.

 

Another task is

 

 

fit these small brass cups into the axle boxes, so that the wagon is free running on the track. Although these will be in a static diorama I still carried out this task.

[Robert Stuart]

Good to see these are now being glued - hope it work too.

[Paul821]

Although a simple kit, because of the ABS plastic I tend to leave the joints to cure for a reasonable time.

 

But today the wagons at least moved to their natural environment

 

 

still some way to go though..

 

[Robert Stuart]

Good to see these on the rails - I'll be interrested to see what colours they'll be?

[Paul821]

On 6/18/2019 at 9:31 PM, Robert Stuart said:

I'll be interrested to see what colours they'll be?

Robert - unfortunately the choice of colours is slighting restricted as will be seen from the latest build picture

 

 

The difference between the wagons is that the one of the left is fitted with "continuous brakes" that is the brakes are held off through the presence of a vacuum in the braking system. The vacuum is created by the engine and piped through the train. If air is let into the system then the brakes will come on. The wagon on the right does not have any such system and the only brakes are applied manually (in theory when the wagon is at a halt. The moving wagon can only be brought to a halt by brakes being applied elsewhere on the train - the engine or brake van.

 

The reason that this dictates colour is that the LNER adopted colour coding for its wagons: vacuum brakes ones were painted Brown red oxide / Bauxite, while unfitted were Grey. This coding was adopted by the nationalised railways and could be seen until all trains became air braked - that is a different story. The alternative would be to have  painted one of them as a Private Owner wagon, but war time photos of such wagons are rare and I known bauxite and grey are the correct colours.

[Paul821]

The title of the build has now changed to reflect the fact that this should now be the first in a set of three called "From Train to Plane"

 

Part two will be this - a purchase through e-bay

 

 

 

[Paul821]

Having at long last visited a LMS that specialises in Railways, I purchased the correct paints and decals for these two.

 

 

these alone nearly cost as much as to two kits!

 

The paints are enamels and this will be the first time for many years I have applied anything but acrylic's. The application will be by brush as one reason for switching to acrylics was the ease of cleaning an airbrush.

[Robert Stuart]

1 hour ago, Paul821 said:

a LMS that specialises in Railways

First read that as London Midland Scottish, then realised it was another TLA more usually  found on BM.

 

Good to see progress here, if more materials

[Paul821]

For a simple pair of models progress is slow:

 

 

Just some painting, decal application and weathering. Plus the question of the couplings.

[Paul821]

Those of you who may have youngsters who have Brio type trains will be aware tht thee trains are held together by magnets. Obviously thee would not work in real life, or indeed on model, rather than toy, railways.

 

The UK solution to this has been this:

 

unsightly hooks. The van on the left is an earlier type while most current models use the smaller type on the right. This allows for reliable running an automatic coupling and uncoupling

 

In real life train do use hooks but they are differed

 

 

This shows the two common types of wagon coupling that used to be employed.

The coupling hanging don is a three-link coupling and would be hooked to the other wagon. The problem with this was that it allowed a lost of slack in the train.Up to six inches between each wagon. Therefore a thirty wagon train going up hill could be 15ft longer than the same train coming down hill as the wagons bunched. This bunching a stretching was not very comfortable for the guard in the van at the back! One solution a the instanter coupling - shown above linking the hooks, this could act as both a three link coupling or, using the shorter side - allow for more close coupling.

 

Stock, such as passenger coaches, where loose coupling would not be suitable used the screw coupling

 

 

 

where the screw between the coupling loops could be tightened to remove the slack completely.

 

The next stage on this build is to fit scale three link couplings to the wagons.

[Paul821]

It's been over a month since the last post here - but work has been concentrated on other GB efforts. As I want to get the rio ofbuilds in the Gallery by the deadline, I have returned to the wagons. One will have sheeting over it but the other will be open showing the bomb load. Despite looking at practically all te books published about WW2 trains this is the only picture I have found - so this will act as my inspiration.

 

My understanding is that the picture is no longer subject to copyright.

 

 

[dogsbody]

As your picture is quite small, I've enlarged it a bit.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Lawzer]

Is it just me or does it look like there's a distinct lack of 'ealth and safety?  😉

[Paul821]

Although the wagons themselves are complete, apart from decals and weathering a key element of my tree builds are the dioramas for them to sit on.

 

This is the mock up of the wagon...

 

If the diorama is not finished by the deadline the wagons will still get into the gallery.

 

[Paul821]

The GMC truck is now part of this diorama which has progressed to

 

 

[Lawzer]

Nice! 👍

[Paul821]

Due to an unplanned, but required, break, I have missed the deadline for this group build. However work will continue on my return and I will at least post the final result for this and the B-26 in part three.

[Robert Stuart]

I hope all is well?

This is an interesting and different project, and one I'd like to see when complete.