RCH 7 Plank Wagon (Pt.4)

I have been undecided whether to have Morton Brake Gear on both sides or just one side on this wagon. The old packet of 9ft Brake Gear produced by Kenline contains two identical castings. I was sure that, while this might be OK for independent brake gear fitted to wagons with bottom doors, for this wagon it would not be correct. In my earlier modelling days I would have just added the brake gear as supplied. I wouldn't have batted an eye lid to any possible inaccuracy, hiding behind the thought that you only see one side of the wagon at a time, but today I feel different.

So what would the other side of the wagon look like? Are the brake handles identical? Should there be double V hangers on the side with no brake gear? I remember comments about rackets, reversing clutches, dog clutchs, cams and other technical terms concerning Morton Brake gear. What do they all mean? How and where were they all used? To those that are in the know about these things please remember that I am on a big learning curve with the whole of this project. The problem I've had is finding a wagon with Morton Brake Gear that has been photographed from both sides and/or ideally from underneath. While it might be possible to deduce from a single photograph whether a wagon has brake gear on both sides or not, it's difficult for a novice like myself to understand what the other side should look like.

Eventually, after rummaging through all my wagon books, I found a couple of pictures showing both sides of the same wagon. They're of a badly loaded NE 6 plank open wagon in J.H. Russell's book 'Freight Wagons and Loads in service with the GWR and BRWR' (figure 14 and 15). These photographs clearly show that the arrangment on the V hangers on each side was different. On the none brake gear side, there was a reversing clutch on the V hanger at the end of the brake handle. I've also seen photographs with a reversing clutch on the brake gear side of a wagon fitted with brake gear on only one side. But until I saw these two photographs of the NE wagon, I was a little unsure of the complete arrangement. But I now take it that the reversing clutch could be on either side of a wagon fitted with brake gear to one side.

So......my current understanding is that, Morton Brake Gear, on wagons with no bottom doors, has to have a reversing clutch on one side of the wagon to change the direction of rotation of the connecting bar between the V hangers on each side of the wagon, so that the brakes can be applied from either side of the wagon. Makes sense..........if I'm right that is.......?


Now to the model..............To try and show the reversing clutch, I carefully cut a piece plasticard to shape and then slightly modified the Kenline brake handle. While not 100% accurate, hopefully I have been able to capture the essence of a reversing clutch on the wagon.





OK.......by blowing up photographs this size does show up some issues, but overall I'm pleased with my effort so far. Door stops have been fitted since photographs were taken. Just drawbar hooks to be added. I was going to use Smith's 3 Link couplings until I realised that they are larger than the ones I'd used on my old EM gauge wagons. It had already been mentioned to me that Smith's couplings are a little over scale but until I saw the difference, I didn't realise by how much. I'm now waiting until I receive some couplings from Exactoscale before progressing this wagon any further. Once the drawbar hooks are fitted I can start painting.............

RCH 7 Plank Open Wagon (Pt.3)

Modelling time during the last couple of weeks has been minimal as I've been busy putting a lot of redundant railway and wargaming stuff on ebay. This is to declutter and help to raise a little cash for this project.

This evening, however, I earmarked a little time to progress the RCH wagon and had a go at adding the axle boxes, springs and brakes. I started by looking over a lovely model of a MINK D built for me as a birthday present many years ago by my good friend Nick.


The compensation units that he used are very similar the the current MJT units and the wagon has been easily converted from EM to P4. The springs on this MINK are J-hangers and Nick had cut the spring away from the hangers on the rocking unit allowing a good 1.5mm of movement.






I thought I'd try and follow his example but after adding the springs on the rocking unit the movement has been restricted to 0.5mm which is most disappointing. The buffer beam height looks OK when compared to the 57xx so I'm not sure how I can achieve more movement?


I cut the springs away from the shoes thinking this would be the least obvious place rather than having a gap between the spring and axlebox. Perhaps I should rethink the way I'm doing this as I would have thought a 1.0mm movement would have been preferable? Also I'm not sure of the look of the gap in the springs?

While at the Leatherhead show I purchased one of the 'more modern' sprung subframe compensation units from Masokits. Looks like I'll have to learn how to use a soldering iron again! Perhaps give this unit a try on one of the many minerals wagons I have to build?

What is a Cornish Hedge

This is all a little advanced to where I am with this project but as you may have noticed my mind does race ahead of me at times. Anyway I do feel I need to plan ahead a little before I embark on any baseboard construction. I've been considering some of my planned scenic items and how they might affect the baseboards, thoughts have wandered to the lane at the right on the Tredethy Wharf layout.

Last time I was at Hellandbridge I remember the approach down Tredethy Road from Helland being a narrow Cornish lane. Each side of the lane being bordered by typical Cornish hedges and, in places, trees hanging over the road giving a secluded valley feel. But three questions come to mind;
What is a Cornish Hedge?
How is it constructed?
Are the lanes slightly below the surrounding landscape or are they just high hedges?
Hopefully know the answers to the above will help me model one.

While driving along these lanes I've never been that observant, I've probably just been concentrating on not hitting them while avoiding any oncoming traffic. A little research found a couple of interesting web sites that I hope will help me. Nothing will replace good photos (dear partner this is a gentle hint, can we get down there this year?) but these do give details on how the hedges are constructed.

Cornish Hedges Library

Practical Conservation Online

After looking at the above sites I think I can say that, in brief, a typical Cornish hedge is a hybrid between a stone wall and an earth bank. The hedge sides are typically built tapered with an inward curve from the base to half-way up. The top of the hedge is normally about half the width of the bottom. The base is created by placing large stone blocks into the earth and packing them in with sub-soil. The sides are then built using smaller rocks that interlock randomly. When the hedge reachs the required height, the random laying of stones turns into neat rows of square stones called "edgers". To finish, grass is sliced from the ground and stuck on top of the structure with sticks. The internal core of the hedge is earth.

There is a good cross sectional diagram of a Cornish hedge here.

What we see, as we travel along Cornwall's lanes, as a green hedge is the result of years of vegetation growing on/over the base structure.

Well you learn something everyday.........This is what I like about this hobby, it's not just about the railway with its track, locos and rolling stock, it gets you looking at and understanding your surroundings.........

RCH 7 Plank Open Wagon (Pt.2)

Unfortunately, due to problems at work, I was not able to get to this month's Scalefour Area Group meeting (Sorry guys). When I eventually arrived home I thought I'd to try and make the best of a bad day.

The RCH open wagon was still out on my bench so I drilled out the buffers and glued then in place. While the glue was setting on the buffers I fixed the solebars in place (these had been prepared a previous evening). Finally, with a little filing off the ends of the floor and solebars, I glued the sides onto the wagon floor. I felt I made a bit of a meal putting the sides together as I was dry run testing different methods to get the sides true. Eventually I think they look OK.



I then started to prepare the axleboxes and springs for fitting onto the W irons but realised the ones I was using had 5 leaf springs and pressed shoes. The plastic moulding supplied with the kit are only 4 leaf springs with shoes that possibly represent cast shoes. Hmmm.......is the kit correct? Out came my wagon reference books only to realise I don't have a reference photo of a fixed end RCH wagon!!! D'oh....That should have been my first thought when starting this kit.........have I any references that I can base this kit on?

It was getting late so I stopped at that point. Only a small amount of progress but it was a bit of good therapy at the end of a bad day.

RCH 7 Plank open wagon (PC73)

To start the year off I've opened a wagon kit, dug out some old D&S compensation units along with Kean Maygib sprung buffers and made a start. This is a Parkside PC73 RCH 7 plank wagon with fixed ends. I'm sure one of these would have turned up at some point on the Wenford branch.

The mouldings are very crisp and the kit is supplied with w-irons and springs separate to the solebars which is a nice touch. I've soldered up the D&S W-iron compensation units, soldered the wheel bearings into the w-irons and popped in some Alan Gibson P4 8 spoke wagon wheels. I've also cut out and filed down some of the webbing from the underneath of the wagon floor. The aim is to have this as an empty wagon so I need to try to keep the internal planking detail. Then using the excellent Brassmasters Axle Spacing gauge, which I picked up at Scalefour North last year, I fixed the w-irons onto the wagon and ......... hey-presto ......... one nicely running wagon, well ...... a nicely running wagon floor.

This is the first wagon I've built for nearly 20 years so I'm taking it steady but I've started to prepare the sides and solebars. Hopefully another evening will see these in place along with the buffers.

I'm just trying to decide whether to use plastic axleboxes and springs or use some MJT castings ....... May well use the MJT castings as they should add a little more weight to the wagon and could be less hassle to fit.......Hmmmm...........?

Walls and Hedges

I'm having to spend some time this Christmas on a wargaming project. Painting some walls and making some hedges. Realising that this is all good practice for the forthcoming layout I thought I could justify posting my efforts.

My wargaming partner painstakingly carved a number of masters out of wax for these walls and from these we created moulds. The walls are then cast using plaster and painted with a number of acrylic colours before the bases are flocked. I'm practicing taking photographs with my girlfriend's camera as my camera has finally given up. The photo above is a little bleached in colour, the walls are a little warmer, but gives a reasonable impression of the finish.

The hedges are simply made from kitchen scouring pads and flocked and stuck on card bases. Wargaming structures do have to be more robust than those seen on a railway layout as they are constantly handled. Which does make me think that this is not the total method I will be using for hedges on the layout but I may use something like this as a base for hedging.

More can be seen at http://miterritorials.co.uk/

Groundwork

Just been thinking through how I'm going to construct the baseboards. Last time I built a baseboard for a layout it was in the days of 2" x 1" timber frame topped with chipboard. I keep reading about how important well laid track is for smooth running (which does make sense). So I figure that a flat, rigid baseboard that (hopefully) will not twist or warp has to be a basic requirement.

The above diagram is my first thought, nothing new as it's all been done before.

Cross beams constructed from plywood and softwood creating a sandwich. The track bed will be supported by risers and also fixed to the 'Back facia contour board' to create an 'L girder'. The 'Front scenic support board' will be fixed straight onto the cross beams and also to the 'Front facia contour board' again forming an 'L girder'. I am hoping that the combination of the cross beams and 'L girders' front and back with give stiffness. I may cut some circular holes in the 'Scenic support board' and cross beams to reduce a little of the weight. Polystyrene packing will be used on top of the 'Scenic support board' and 'Track support board' to form the base for scenic material.

I would like to have the Backscreen curved around the corners from the back onto the ends. At the moment I have a bit of a blank in how to do this. Using hardboard for the backscreen is a thought and curving this between the plywood 'Backscreen support board' and the 'End board'. Problem is it will be a very tight curve and until I get some hardboard I won't know if that will work. May just use some stiff card pasted onto the 'Backscreen support board' and 'End board' with a plywood former at the top to help create the curve.

If anyone has any suggestions or can see pitfalls please comment.