Ruabon Brook: prototypical wagons...

I've been working on rolling stock this weekend for the Ruabon Brook Tramway project, determined to build some suitable representative vehicles for use on the forthcoming micro project and that can be used on the longer term Bala Branch plans. I was inspired by reading an old Iain Rice article in a 1987(!!) issue of MRJ about how 16t minerals basically massively outnumbered everything else, and building representive rather than exotic wagons was a discipline worth pursuing. To that end I've focused on the mundane, and inspired by an old photo have built another three opens and a van...

These four kits are from both Parkside and Cambrian, and have all been built largely as intended with some choice modifications and finessing that I've been applying to all my other stock for the same project. This largely means replacing the buffers with the Accurascale sprung plastic ones, and fitting suitable 'scale' couplings.

First wagon in the photo is a welded 16t mineral, built pretty much out of the box from a Parkside kit. A lovely wagon to put together, the construction is a lot easier than the standard 16t mineral, as the buffer beams are part of the ends, and the floor rests on these so you can't get it out of kilter. This wagon will be filled with a scrap load as per the photo once I've finished it.

The second wagon in the train is an ex-LNER van, which appears in the photo to be a standard van, without ventilated roof, but it seems to have the ventilated ends!? Anyhow, I'd bought a standard LNER van from Parkside but then noticed the ends were totally wrong. These were modified with styrene to replace the small hatch with planking, and the lower half with ventilation. I've modelled this using Slaters corrugated material with the squarer edged side facing out. The under frame has also been modified, as the prototype doesn't seem to be wooden framed unlike the kit, so I used some spare Parkside mouldings from another project, and replaced the brake gear with the LNER style. Final touch was the door handles, although I probably also need to add lamp irons to the ends.

The second mineral wagon in the prototype train doesn't have a top-door, and as this is quite an early photo it's unlikely to be a re-bodied example, rather an ex LMS diagram, so I used the Cambrian model and finessed it gently with tips from the Geoff Kent book, including thinking down parts of the under frame brake assemblies and adding the T sections in white styrene under the side bracing. This was fitted with welded rather than pressed doors, and retains independent brakes fitted to wagons originally fitted with bottom doors.

Finally, for now, another Parkside standard 16t. I found the flash on this to be a lot worse than the first I assembled a while ago, and it needed careful filing and filling. I fitted the side frames a touch further apart than Parkside suggested, as this means the buffers work better and the axle boxes remain vertical once wheels are fitted. This has one set of brakes, with two levers, to add a little variation although this isn't visible on the prototype so I can't tell which brakes it should have.

All these will be painted and weathered in the coming weeks, and I need to get another storage box now as I'm getting quite a lot of stock - I really must turn the sketches and ideas for the Cameo style layout into reality. More soon...